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Sectional finals on tap for WNC teams
Third-year coach Joey Bryson remembers the not-so-good times for North Buncombe boys basketball.
Sectional finals on tap for WNC teams Third-year coach Joey Bryson remembers the not-so-good times for North Buncombe boys basketball. Check out this story on citizen-times.com: http://avlne.ws/1fuVhdC
Andrew Pearson, apearson@citizen-times.com Published 9:55 p.m. ET Feb. 27, 2014
Brennan Hockaday (35) and the North Buncombe boys basketball team will play for a 3-A sectional championship on Friday.(Photo: PHOTOS BY John Coutlakis, jcoutlakis@citizen-times.com)
WEAVERVILLE – Third-year coach Joey Bryson remembers the not-so-good times for North Buncombe boys basketball.
Bryson had to replace all five starters when he became coach in 2011.
The result was a seven-win season, and the Black Hawks were only victorious in only nine games a year ago.
Times have changed for the better.
The Black Hawks (20-4) are the only boys team in their conference (the Mountain Athletic 3-A/4-A) or county (Buncombe) involved in Friday's sectional-championship round of the NCHSAA playoffs.
North Buncombe is a No. 11 seed in 3-A and plays at third-seeded Morganton Freedom (27-1) at 8.
This is believed to be the best postseason run by a Black Hawks boys team in five years.
"These kids have earned every bit of this success," Bryson said.
"This group took their fair share of beatings, especially when they were younger. But they're winners and a real joy to coach."
Daniel Burchette poured in a team-high 21 points, Josh Chandler added 15 and Andrew Garrett had 11 for North Buncombe in Wednesday night's 54-47 win at No. 6 North Iredell.
Chandler is one of five seniors for the Black Hawks.
"I'm pretty pumped-up," he said.
"It means so much, especially to me as a senior. This team is a brotherhood. We go hard every day in practice."
Mustangs close a chapter tonight
First and foremost, the Smoky Mountain boys have a basketball game they'd like to win Friday night.
But secondly, it would be nice for the WNC Athletic Conference champions to go out as winners in their final game inside a 54-year-old gym.
The top-seeded Mustangs (26-0) are home for a 2-A sectional championship game against No. 25 Lake Norman Charter (15-12).
Tip-off is set for 6:30 p.m.
The current gym used by Smoky Mountain was formerly home to teams from Sylva-Webster High before consolidation by Jackson County Schools absorbed that institution and Cullowhee High into one school.
"It's a place that has some history and it's a great environment for basketball," said Mustangs coach Jimmy Cleaveland, who is a Sylva-Webster alum.
"Having the chance to play a game of this caliber in that gym is special for our kids. It's a big game and hopefully we'll have a great atmosphere. Hopefully, we'll end it the right way."
Smoky Mountain is the only undefeated boys basketball team left in the mountains and will move into a new 1,500-seat gym for the 2014-15 season. The gym is part of an $11.4 million facility that also includes space for the fine arts.
The Mustangs fought past West Caldwell, 86-75, in Wednesday's second round of the 2-A state playoffs.
Cleaveland was still building up his scouting report for Lake Norman Charter on Thursday, but is impressed by what he's seen and heard so far.
The Knights beat Owen, 87-69, in Monday's first round of the 2-A playoffs.
"They're the real deal," Cleaveland said.
"We'll have to play well. Every game is going to be tough from here on out."
Pisgah set for sectional doubleheader
Pisgah basketball will be seeing double in Friday's 3-A sectional-championship round.
The second-seeded girls team is 26-1 and plays No. 10 Southwestern Randolph at 6:30 in Canton, followed by a boys game between the No. 4 Black Bears (23-4) and No.5 Concord at 8.
Jesse Anderson poured in a game-high 25 points for the Pisgah boys in Wednesday's 83-63 home win over Statesville. Peyton Truesdale (14 points), Josiah Ledford (13) and Cole Anderson (12) were the other top scorers.
"We wanted to play (Friday) at Pisgah in front of our fans who are the best in the world," Black Bears coach Casey Kruk said.
"It's going to be packed. Concord is a very talented team and we're really going to have to pay attention to our assignments. This group of kids I have are amazing. They have amazed me all year long. They look after each other and just like to get after people. They enjoy playing the game and it's a lot of fun to watch."


As our ascended Lord, Christ blesses us by what he: 1. Sends to us, 2. Does for us, 3. Works in us.
God restores the relationship with us by punishing Jesus Christ. 1. The reason for Christ's punishment, 2. The benefits of Christ's punishment.
In love God gives his Son, our Saviour. 1. This love is special. 2. This love is sacrificial. 3. This love is sufficient.
As our Lord, Christ has the power to rescue us. 1. Why we need our Lord's help, 2. What help our Lord gives us.
The office bearers of the new earth. 1. The Christ. 2. The Christian.
Jesus is our only hope. We will see: 1. Why we need a Saviour, 2. What our Saviour does for us.
Keep watch since you don't know when Christ will return. 1. You don't know when Christ will return, 2. How to get ready for Christ's return.


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Home Covers The Disinformation Nation: Trolls, conspiracy theorists, hoaxers and Trump have twisted Facebook,...
The Disinformation Nation: Trolls, conspiracy theorists, hoaxers and Trump have twisted Facebook, YouTube and the news to toxic levels — and it's only getting worse
By Daniel Walters
A version of this article first appeared in the Inlander, a weekly based in Spokane, Washington.
It may be getting harder and harder to figure out the truth, but at least this much is clear: It's a good time to be a liar.
We've spent three years arguing if fake news swung the 2016 election — debating whether the hordes of Russian bots, hoax Facebook pages and inflammatory, dishonest tweets tipped the democratic balance to elect Donald Trump as president.
Yet in those same years, we've learned that the stakes in the fight against truth, in a muddy world of social media platforms, go beyond politics.
In Brazil, public health workers were attacked after far-right activists lied on YouTube that they were spreading the Zika virus. In Myanmar, government soldiers used fake Facebook accounts to drive an ethnic cleansing, full of incendiary claims and false stories about Muslim minorities raping Buddhist women. Gunmen radicalized by false white-supremacist conspiracies on internet forums like 4chan and 8chan shot up a synagogue in California, a Walmart in Texas and mosques in New Zealand.
Elections have consequences. So do algorithms.
So now, heading into the 2020 election, experts are warning that trolls, hoaxers and dishonest politicians are arming themselves with a whole new arsenal of weapons of mass deception. New technology is making it easier to hoax audio and video, while advances in artificial intelligence are making it all the more difficult to weed out computer-automated "bot" accounts.
And there's a deeper risk, beyond figuring out the inaccuracy of any one article.
The deluge of misinformation — full of Trump tweets, deepfakes, InfoWars videos, Russian bots, 4chan trolls, that Washington Post correction, those out-of-context memes and your great aunt's latest questionable Facebook post — has become so overwhelming that some of us may simply give up trying to make sense of it all.
A lie doesn't need to be believed. It just needs to create enough doubt that the truth becomes polluted. With enough pollution, it's impossible to see what's right in front of you.
"When you're flooded with so much bullshit," New York Times media columnist Charlie Warzel says, separating fact from fiction becomes so difficult that "the task of trying to do it becomes, you know, tiresome, so you just stop."
It's the sort of thing your college philosophy professor might call an "epistemic crisis." We don't know what to believe. Truth is hazy. Reality itself becomes irrelevant. It's a phenomenon that has already happened in places like Russia and the Philippines — and experts say that in the past few years, the United States has suddenly found itself on the same path.
"And that, to me, is one of the scariest things to think about," Warzel says. "It feels like we've come incredibly far since 2015."
THE WEB OF CONSPIRACY
History has a pattern.
An advancement in communications technology hands liars the means to lie louder and spread those lies further. Look at the 1830s, when the invention of the steam printing press and other paper-making technologies produced the rise of the "penny press." Newspapers became cheaper, more independent, more widespread, more competitive, and eager publishers found the power of the 19th Century version of clickbait. The New York-based Sun put out a series of entirely fictional stories that purported that "man-bats" and other exotic creatures were scurrying around on the moon.
Soviet-born British TV producer Peter Pomerantsev, author of This is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality, argues that when tech rips open the floodgates of communication, the bad guys always find a way to exploit it. Dictators quickly harnessed the power of radio. Joseph McCarthy, as a US senator in the '50s, used television to spread his anti-Communist conspiracy theories.
Yet for decades, the internet was heralded as a new frontier that allowed "citizen journalists" to take on the stodgy media elite. In 1998, the Drudge Report, a right-wing news-aggregating website, broke the Monica Lewinsky scandal when Newsweek got cold feet. In 2004, when Dan Rather and 60 Minutes put out a 1973 memo purporting to show that President George W. Bush had received special treatment while in the Texas Air National Guard, Drudge elevated the conservative bloggers who persuasively argued the memo was a fake written in Microsoft Word.
An "Army of Davids" — as some bloggers dubbed themselves — swarmed to debunk flawed media accounts, trying to counter bias wherever they saw it. The gatekeepers were being overthrown, the drawbridge had been flung open and the villagers could storm the castle.
But the villagers had their own standards for newsworthiness. Drudge also sent his readers to darker corners, where sketchy websites claimed Barack Obama wasn't an American citizen and Bill Clinton had a secret love child. Drudge even provided fuel for "Pizzagate," the conspiracy that drove a North Carolina man in 2016 to fire an AR-15 inside a pizzeria, because the internet told him that they were harboring child sex slaves.
Conspiracy theorists used to spread their gospel through books, newsletters, public-access television shows, and by standing on streetcorners handing out fliers. But the web gave every community a niche — no matter how fringe — and allowed them to spread their message in only a few keystrokes. On the internet, the corkboard is infinite and the spool of yarn used to connect pictures of shadowy figures never runs out.
The internet, Warzel says, handed fringe figures like Alex Jones of InfoWars a powerful new megaphone.
"He was one of the early pioneers of internet radio and video," Warzel says. "It was a way to get around the notion that it was hard to sell advertising around some of his kooky ideas."
An audience of millions repeatedly tuned into Jones' red-faced rants about 9/11 being an inside job, Obama chemtrails turning frogs gay and the Sandy Hook shootings being faked. Drudge repeatedly linked to him.
Social media sites only accelerated the spread of misinformation. It's easier than ever for a single comment, particular an untrue one, to go viral. In ancient times, the opinions of quacks were largely quarantined to a newspaper's page of letters to the editor.
New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman and racist Twitter randos with names like "@WhiteGenocideTM" are all simmering in the same stew together. Both, after all, get retweeted by the president.
A Massachusetts Institute of Technology study published last year took a look at over a decade of Twitter posts and found that tweets about false news went viral six times faster than tweets about true news.
In the end, lies are often more sensational, tapping into human emotions of shock, fear and disgust.
It wasn't just that humans were more likely to share these kinds of stories. It was that Facebook, Twitter and YouTube developed algorithms to elevate certain types of content into your social media feed. It usually didn't matter if they were true — social media sites didn't want to become the truth police. It mattered that the stories drew people in.
"The way they keep people clicking and sharing and commenting is prioritizing things that get your heart pumping," says Andrew Marantz, author of Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation. "It's like stocking a huge grocery store, but all of the visible aisles are Oreos and rat poison."
Hell, YouTube actually started rewarding conspiracy theories above popular content. YouTube used to have what they internally called the "Gangnam Style" problem, where YouTube's autoplaying recommendation engine would eventually send every viewer to the 2012 South Korean pop hit. In response, YouTube changed their algorithm in 2015, turning down the recommendation dial for merely popular videos and cranking up the preference for videos that led people down rabbit holes. Conspiracy-theory videos flourished.
Simultaneously, the internet had handed brand-new weapons to pranksters, vandals and assholes — "trolls" who could use misinformation and harassment to make life hellish for chosen targets. Image boards like 4chan combined anonymity and a near-total absence of moderation to become a frothing hive of racists, trolls and trolls pretending to be racists.
The boards delighted in pulling hoaxes — creating fake Jewish Twitter accounts to sow discord in the Jewish community, publishing coupons claiming black people were getting free coffee at Starbucks, and attempting to trick journalists into identifying mass shooters as the wrong person.
Sometimes the hoaxes became reality. A 4chan scheme to trick mainstream media outlets into reporting that the "OK" hand gesture was a white-supremacist sign resulted in white supremacists actually adopting the signal.
One particularly pernicious trolling tactic was to call 911 from a spoofed number and report a horrific crime, in hopes an armed SWAT team would descend on that location.
Marantz says he spent three years embedded in this world.
"There are people who just want to watch the world burn," Marantz says. "And that's a phrase I returned to again and again."
The motivations vary. In Macedonia, Warzel says, there are clickfarms filled with teenagers pumping out hoax news stories for fake publications, buying Facebook likes, all as a way to make money.
"It's essentially just like a lemonade stand for them," he says. But there are also foreign governments trying to influence global trends, politicians trying to game power, and true believers who spread falsehoods because they think it's the truth.
"To some degree, it doesn't matter as long as there's power to be gained and money to be made," Warzel says.
And you don't get much more powerful than the leader of the free world.
ART OF THE LIE
Politicians are known to lie. It's what they do. Presidents lie, whether about WMD or keeping your healthcare or not having sexual relations with this or that woman. But there used to be limits.
"There were unwritten rules or norms about spin," Jeb Bush's former campaign spokesman, Tim Miller, tells the Inlander. "You exaggerated for your candidate. You used hyperbole. You tried to muddy the waters."
But there were unspoken, unwritten lines, implicit walls that mainstream candidates didn't try to breach. But then came Trump.
"Trump has been the Kool-Aid Man who bashed through the wall," Miller says. And the GOP drank the Kool-Aid.
Misinformation comes in a hundred ways from a hundred different sources. And yet Trump is somehow all of them.
Trump is America's top troll. Other primary contenders nitpicked Sen. Ted Cruz's policy record — Trump called him "Lyin' Ted," insulted his wife's appearance and suggested Cruz's dad helped assassinate JFK.
Trump is America's chief conspiracy theorist, building his political brand on the lie that Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States.
Everyone expected Trump to claim the election was rigged if he lost — but Trump one-upped the cynics. He claimed the election was rigged when he won, falsely charging that thousands of illegal votes had been cast in the election.
Trump is America's preeminent liar. At the Toronto Star, fact-checker Daniel Dale has tallied over 5,200 false statements from the president since his inauguration, dealing with everything from tariff policy to payoffs to a porn star.
"I was flabbergasted by the frequency and the triviality of many of them," Dale told the Los Angeles Times. "Trump was simply making things up about everything, for no apparent reason, about the smallest things."
And now, as House Democrats pursue an impeachment inquiry into whether Trump inappropriately pressured Ukraine to investigate his political rival Joe Biden, America gets to watch, once again, how powerful Trump's misinformation machine is.
A September Monmouth University poll shows that only 40 percent of Republicans believe that Trump mentioned an investigation into Joe Biden during his call with Ukrainian president, ignoring both the rough transcript of the call and Trump's own words. Indeed, in March, a Quinnipiac University poll found that two-thirds of Republicans believe Trump is honest.
Some of that's simple partisan psychology. Whether you voted for Trump because of immigration, judges, abortion or tax rates, your mind needs to continually justify your vote. You wouldn't vote for a liar. You voted for Trump, so Trump must not be a liar. Besides, have you seen those wild claims the Democrats are making?
"At this stage it's less about defending Trump," writes columnist Peter Wehner in the New York Times, quoting a conservative psychologist friend. "They are defending their own defense of Trump."
It's the same principle that drove feminists to attempt to justify President Bill Clinton's sexual escapades.
Trump has a legion of staffers and supporters willing to lie for him. He ordered his press secretary to lie about his inauguration crowd size. He pressed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to defend his inaccurate statements about Hurricane Dorian.
"I have no obligation to be honest to the media," former Trump aide Corey Lewandowski told Congress in September, speaking under oath. "Because they're just as dishonest as anybody else."
And today, Trump has a loyal media apparatus willing to run interference for his falsehoods. The moment a negative story about Trump goes up, Fox News, the Federalist and a horde of Trump Twitter acolytes fire back with a mix of spin, falsehoods and irrelevancies.
The speed of that response, Miller says, makes it impossible for the truth to get a foothold.
"It prevents the ability for the facts to make it out at all," Miller says. "People are hearing the alternate story at the same time they are hearing the story."
So on the right, Trump's Ukrainian scandal quickly became a story about the motivations of the anonymous whistleblower, the dishonesty of House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff and the purported corruption of Biden and his son.
The Robert Mueller-led special counsel's investigation into whether Trump's team colluded with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election turned into a story about the malfeasance of the "deep state," about Trump-hating FBI agents concocting a scheme to undo the American's actual election.
And for those seeking clarity, the firehose of factually shaky information on Twitter from all sides didn't help matters. It wasn't just from Trump fans.
Self-proclaimed members of the anti-Trump #Resistance rack up hundreds of thousands of followers hawking anti-Trump conspiracies and assurances that Trump's downfall was always imminent.
It's made social media stars of guys like Ed and Brian Krassenstein — who put out a children's book featuring a muscled, shirtless Mueller — and former British member of Parliament Louise Mensch.
"My sources say the death penalty, for espionage, being considered for [former Trump campaign manager] @StevenKBannon," Mensch tweeted in 2017, just a few months after she'd written an op-ed about Russian hacking for the New York Times. "I am pro-life and take no pleasure in reporting this."
In the meantime, the media outlets charged with sorting out the messy truth were being hammered from all sides. Republicans charged that journalists were clearly biased against Trump — just look at all the negative stories they wrote about him! — while Democrats slammed journalists for "false balance" for failing to call Trump's falsehoods outright lies.
Millions of eyes watched every Trump story, ready to send a barrage of tweets attacking every misstep.
"You could get away with a lot more in the old days," Miller says. "If you had an error on A17 on the LA Times, people weren't going to see it."
The vast majority of media reporting on the Russia scandal was proved to be accurate by the Mueller report. But some bombshells — like reports about former Trump attorney Michael Cohen visiting Prague, a Trump computer server communicating with a Russian bank or WikiLeaks' Julian Assange meeting repeatedly with former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort — turned out to be irrelevant or entirely bogus.
Each big mistake plays into Trump's hands. And since most national media outlets rely on anonymous sources, it's relatively easy for Trump aides to intentionally trick reporters into making a mistake.
"In some cases, they're actually trying to put out disinformation this way," Miller says. "The media reports it, the White House dunks on them for being incorrect."
In this environment, where liars are everywhere and the truth is almost too strange to be believed, journalists are constantly second-guessing themselves.
"It leads to exhaustion. It leads to burning out," Warzel says. "And then those mistakes are a breeding ground for more potential misinformation."
In 2016, BuzzFeed reported that in the last three months before the election, 20 fake news stories from hoax sites — Clinton sold weapons to ISIS! The Pope endorsed Trump! — received more engagement on Facebook than the top 20 stories on actual news sites.
But Trump hijacked the phrase — "FAKE NEWS!" — and twisted it into his own catchphrase, a way to disparage any story he didn't like. It was a joke, but the sort of joke that everyone repeats until it burrows into the national psyche.
If all news is fake news, anything can be true. Everything is a lie and nothing is. In the fight over truth, the fog of war is thick. It's the perfect environment for an enemy to attack.
"As the credibility of the mainstream media continues to deteriorate, it's only going to embolden bad faith actors," Miller says.
DEEPFAKE IMPACT
In the video footage back in May, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi sounded drunk. Her words seemed artificially slow, like a drawling slur.
"What is wrong with Nancy Pelosi?" Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani tweeted. "Her speech pattern is bizarre."
In reality, the video itself had been doctored, slowed down to make Pelosi sound like she was slurring. Giuliani later deleted the tweet but refused to apologize.
"How could I have figured out that it was inaccurate?" he told the New York Times.
If an altered video that simple could get shared millions of times, experts worried, what could a more sophisticated hoax look like?
In 2017, a Reddit user named "deepfakes," using Google's open-source artificial intelligence software, developed a technique to take footage of one face and overlay it onto video footage of someone else. As is typical with new technologies, the internet immediately harnessed it for both pornography and Nicolas Cage memes. The faces of pop stars were imposed on the bodies of porn stars, while the face of the Face/Off actor was swapped onto footage of Gollum and Yoda.
At the same time, another piece of a deceptive puzzle is clicking into place. Audio-editing products like Adobe Max give editors the option to go beyond cutting and splicing sentences, to editing individual sound fragments to make it appear like a speaker said things they never said. Mix and match the sounds, and with a large enough audio library of a politician, you could make them say anything. Combine it with video? It doesn't take a Black Mirror scriptwriter to predict how the technologies can undermine confidence in the truth.
Just imagine that a week before the 2020 election, a video is leaked. It appears to be Trump, engaged in criminal and/or sexually explicit acts. Trump denies it. Maybe the video is a deepfake hoax. Or maybe it's real, and Trump is just using the existence of deepfakes to deny it. Now imagine experts are divided on which is which. When you can't believe your lying eyes or your lying ears, you're left to trust your lying gut.
Now, at least, government officials and technology companies are aware of the chaos that these hoaxes could cause. The House Intelligence Committee has already held hearings on the issue.
"The tech companies aren't ready," Adam Schiff, the House Intelligence Committee chair, said on a Vox podcast in June. "The government isn't ready. We don't have the technologies yet to be able to detect more sophisticated fakes. And the public is not ready."
In August, the Pentagon started talking to partners for their new Semantic Forensics program, intending to develop technologies "to help to identify, understand and deter adversary disinformation campaigns."
The private sector's pushing for similar measures.
Last month, Facebook, Microsoft and a slew of research institutions announced they were joining forces for the "Deepfake Detection Challenge," a contest to better understand the little clues that give even sophisticated deepfakes away. Deepfakes rarely blink in the right way. The heads might have a strange tic. The eye color might be off.
Facebook chipped in $10 million to the effort. But those trying to create hoaxes are innovating, too, trying to think of ways to outthink the detection system.
"Networks of bots are behaving more and more like you and me," Warzel says.
Ultimately, he says, it may come down to two different artificial-intelligence systems trying to outthink each other.
"You basically have two sets of computers playing war games with each other," Warzel says.
The fight isn't just about technology. It's about corporate policies. In the last two years, tech companies have tried to change their policies, ditching their laissez-faire libertarian approach to try their hand at benevolent censorship.
White supremacists and conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones got banned from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. YouTube shifted viewers away from straight-up conspiracy theory videos in its recommendation stream — although liberals may be unhappy to learn they often landed at Fox News instead. Twitter banned the #Resistance-tweeting Krassenstein brothers in June, citing rules that prohibit "operating multiple fake accounts and purchasing account interactions."
Right now, both major political parties are calling for regulation, including raising the prospect of forcing Facebook to shrink in size. But Republicans and Democrats want different things. While liberals complain about lax regulation allowing "Nazis" to run wild on the site, conservatives fret about overregulation, worried that conservatives could be censored for their political opinions.
But the lack of censorship is dangerous, too, argue some experts. Whitney Phillips, author of the forthcoming book You Are Here: A Field Guide for Navigating Network Pollution, points to YouTube and Facebook's recent announcement that since political statements were newsworthy, the sites would rarely take down posts from politicians, even if the posts broke the rules.
"At every turn, at every conceivable opportunity, despite how loud the chorus might get, these technology companies made a choice to protect their bottom line over protecting the democratic process," Phillips says.
Facebook's motto for its developers was "move fast and break things." Phillips thinks they were successful.
"Yeah, they've broken democracy," Phillips says. "There's no more simple way to describe it."
Phillips wants to make it clear that it's not just Facebook or Twitter's fault. It's not just the fault of Alex Jones or Donald Trump or 4chan. It's your fault, too.
"A lot of the misinformation being spread is not the result of bad actors," Phillips says. "It's everyday people doing everyday things."
She thinks of it in terms of an ecological metaphor, where pollution is the accumulation of a billion little actions from individuals. All of the tweeting, retweeting and Facebook posting adds up.
"We're sort of at the whims of everyday folks, disinformation agents, algorithms, white supremacists, all jockeying to win the attention economy," Phillips says. "The result is an air that is so clogged that we can barely breathe."
In that environment, with so many different competing and contradictory claims, people "don't even necessarily trust there is such a thing as truth."
But Phillips doesn't necessarily agree that more information is the answer. Journalists like to say that sunlight is the best disinfectant. But Phillips argues that sometimes the sunlight simply heats up the petri dish and spreads the disease — especially when people are liable to believe a hoax is true because a journalist says it isn't.
"The truth can contribute to pollution as much as falsehood can," Phillips says. "It is easy to feel like you are pushing back against a story when you are saying, 'This story's terrible.' But the algorithm doesn't care about your righteous indignation. The algorithm cares that you're engaging with content."
She urges journalists and everyday people to shift the lens, focusing less on the liars and more on how lies and ideologies have impacted communities.
Warzel, meanwhile, also urges social media users to slow down. Be wary about clicking that retweet button. If a story seems too perfect, doubt it. If a crazy news story doesn't come from an established media outlet, wait until at least one outlet covers it — ideally two.
Marantz, the expert on online trolls, says the long-term solution to the disinformation crisis is a deep and philosophical one that he'd explain at length with phrases like "reaffirming our commitment to epistemic depth." But for now, the simpler way to react to disinformation is to rely a little bit more on the old gatekeepers.
"If you read the New York Times or the BBC or the alt-weekly in your town or the New Yorker, you're going to be better informed than if you read Facebook," Marantz says.
Not because they're perfect — there's a billion reasons to complain about mainstream journalists, he says — but because, for all their flaws, right now they're the best we've got.
"It's the best short-term solution," he says, "as opposed to just living a world where no one knows anything."
How to Avoid Spreading Misinformation
Wait before reposting. You won't need to apologize for forwarding untrue information if you never share it to begin with.
Don't share something just because it comes from a friend. Double-check the source to make sure the reporting is from a respectable publication and that they're not just summarizing the reaction on social media. Better yet, wait until a second publication independently confirms the reports.
Read the actual story first. Follow links to make sure the links actually back up the news stories. Biased news sources are infamous for making sensational claims in their headlines that the underlying material doesn't support.
Be cautious about sharing bogus stories just to point how stupid or wrong they are. That's an easy way to inadvertently spread a falsehood.
Mute #Resistance Twitter stars like Seth Abramson and Eric Garland and ignore far-right websites like Gateway Pundit, Breitbart and (increasingly) the Federalist. Just because they tell you what you want to hear doesn't mean they're giving you a straight story.
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We knew this would come. The NBA announced officially last week that it would relocate the 2017 All-Star Game, leaving Charlotte and North Carolina behind....

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Reminder: TransLink's 4 new RapidBus routes launch on Monday
Kenneth Chan
Jan 5 2020, 10:22 am
TransLink RapidBus. (TransLink)
Metro Vancouver residents looking for a speedier, frequent alternative to regular bus routes will benefit from the launch of the region's first RapidBus services, starting on Monday, January 6.
TransLink's four RapidBus routes are limited-stop services, optimized with the use of new bus-only lanes, queue jumpers, turning lanes, and uniquely branded blue-and-green coloured hybrid articulated buses with all-door boarding.
TransLink rolling out new RapidBus signs to display bus arrival times
TransLink to spend $7 million on new bus stop tactile strips and braille signs
New Scott Road RapidBus and bus-only lanes on King George Boulevard proposed
Traffic signal priority envisioned for RapidBus in the future, says TransLink CEO
All RapidBus stops have been outfitted with special tall, blue-and-green coloured posts that provide enhanced visibility, as well as useful route wayfinding information, audio voice announcements with the push of a button, and real-time next bus countdown digital signs.
RapidBus bus stop sign. (TransLink)
RapidBus bus stop sign audio announcement capability. (TransLink)
Two of the RapidBus routes are completely new:
R4 41st Avenue: From UBC to the Expo Line's Joyce-Collingwood Station via Wesbrook Mall, 16th Avenue, 41st Avenue, and Joyce Street
R3 Lougheed Highway: From the Millennium Line's Coquitlam Central Station to Haney Place in Maple Ridge via Lougheed Highway
Two of the RapidBus routes are upgrades of existing B-Line routes:
R5 Hastings Street (formerly 95 B-Line): From the Expo Line's Burrard Station to SFU via Hastings Street
R1 King George Boulevard (formerly 96 B-Line): From Guildford Exchange to Newton Exchange via 104 Avenue and King George Boulevard
The public transit authority has indicated the new services will add 65,000 annual bus service hours, providing a capacity increase of 20,000 people each weekday.
Along with the launch of RapidBus, there will be a number of major permanent changes to existing bus routes on Monday:
No. 41 Joyce-Collingwood Station/Crown: With the new R4, the No. 41's new western terminus will be located at Crown Street — it will no longer reach UBC. The service will use a trolley bus and run every 15 minutes everyday during all operating hours.
No. 43 Joyce-Collingwood Station/UBC: This route is cancelled, replaced by the R4.
No. 49 Metrotown Station/UBC: The No. 49 will reroute through UBC Wesbrook Village as the No. 41 no longer serves this area.
No. 480 UBC/Bridgeport: It will only run during peak hours. For faster service between Bridgeport and UBC, riders are advised to take the Canada Line at Bridgeport Station and transfer to the R4 at Oakridge-41st Avenue Station.
No. 595 Maple Meadows Station/Langley Centre: Service will be extended during the weekday rush hours to connect to the R3. The additional hours will run from 5 to 8 am and 3:30 to 6:30 pm on weekdays.
No. 555 Carvolth Exchange/Lougheed Town Centre Station: After the region's double-decker buses first went into operation in Fall 2019, they are now also being introduced on the No. 555.
No. 14 Hastings/UBC and N17 Downtown/UBC: 24-hour service with the combined No. 14 and N17 between downtown and UBC, with the No. 14 running from 3:30 am all day until 1:30 am, and the N17 from 1:30 am to 3:30 am.
Here is a complete rundown of the RapidBus routes:
R4 41st Avenue
Operating hours: 6 am to 1 am daily
Weekdays: 3 to 6 minutes for morning peak; 4 to 6 minutes for afternoon peak; 8 minutes for midday and evening; 15 minutes for late night
Weekends: 8 minutes for peak hours, midday, and evening; 15 minutes late night
Travel times: 45 to 60 minutes during peak periods
The R4 running between the UBC main bus loop and the Expo Line's Joyce-Collingwood Station via Wesbrook Mall, 41st Avenue, and Joyce Street, as well as a connection to the Canada Line's Oakridge-41st Avenue Station, is expected to be the busiest of the RapidBus routes.
For this reason, it will have the highest frequencies and capacities of the new services, capable of transporting 4,400 passengers per hour during peak periods — approaching the capacity of the 99 B-Line.
Overall, the 41st Avenue corridor will see a 30% increase in transit capacity as a result of the R4. Extensive bus-only lanes, along with queue jumpers and new turning lanes, have already been implemented along much of the route. Further street improvements will be made to the congested Kerrisdale area portion of West 41st Avenue later this year.
R4 41st Avenue. (TransLink)
R3 Lougheed Highway
Operating hours: 5 am to midnight daily
Weekdays: 10 minutes for peak hours; 15 minutes for midday, evenings, and late night
Weekends: 15 minutes throughout the day
Travel times: 30 to 37 minutes
The R3 will run between the Millennium Line and West Coast Express' Coquitlam Central Station and Haney Place in Maple Ridge via Lougheed Highway.
Extensive stretches of the route have received bus-only/HOV lanes to help speed up the buses. As the route largely runs on a highway, it will have the best competitive travel times.
R3 Lougheed Highway. (TransLink)
R5 Hastings Street (formerly 95 B-Line)
The R5 is an upgrade of the existing 95 B-Line, complete with new passenger amenities including the new buses and the installation of the new bus stop signs with real-time digital displays.
The 95 B-Line currently sees an average of 22,100 boardings per weekday, making it the region's 10th busiest bus route.
R1 King George Boulevard (formerly 96 B-Line)
The R1 replaces the existing 96 B-Line, which currently sees an average of 17,500 boardings per weekday — up from 10,300 per weekday in 2014. It is the region's 15th busiest bus route.
The R1 also features new buses and bus stop signs with real-time digital displays.
New investments have been made to the 96 B-Line, now that the initial plan to cancel the bus service and replace it with street-level LRT has been axed.
In 2018, funds that were previously dedicated towards a Fraser Highway RapidBus were redirected towards improving the 96 B-Line to a RapidBus standard, as a decision had been made to expedite the Expo Line SkyTrain extension project to at least Fleetwood.
Instead of a RapidBus service, the Fraser Highway corridor's bus services saw improvements in 2019 with the upgrade of the No. 503 between Langley Centre and the Expo Line's Surrey Central Station as a frequent, limited-stop express service.
R2 Marine Drive and 99 B-Line
As for the R2 Marine Drive — running between Park Royal in West Vancouver and Phibbs Exchange in North Vancouver District via mainly Marine Drive, with a connection to Lonsdale SeaBus terminal and bus exchange — the launch of the service has been delayed to sometime between February and April in 2020.
This is due to the extra time needed to complete road construction works, including new bus-only lanes, queue jumpers, turning lanes, and new bus stop signs with real-time digital displays.
R2 Marine Drive. (TransLink)
Additionally, TransLink has made a decision to not elevate the existing 99 B-Line to the RapidBus standard, given the construction impacts that can be expected soon from the Millennium Line Broadway Extension project. But a rebrand of the 99 B-Line can be expected in 2025, when the subway opens and the bus route is truncated to terminate at the new bus exchange at Arbutus Station.
There are also plans to launch at least two new RapidBus routes in 2021, with one route running between the Expo Line's Scott Road Station and Newton Exchange via Scott Road and 72 Avenue, and another route between the Canada Line's Richmond-Brighouse Station and an Expo Line station in Vancouver or Burnaby.


Well…this is an important step forward for landlords and direct owners in Spain.
The Spanish rental market is getting closer to what everybody needs: a more reliable market with a framework that makes renting safer for landlords in terms of payments from tenants.
From Monday 31st October, tenants who do not pay the rent and economic duties with the landlord have 10 days in which to reply to the landlord requirement to pay their debt.
Once the landlord notifies the Court of any debt from the tenants, the tenants will face eviction much quicker than they have done up to now. In this new legal framework, it is expected that any eviction will be effective within 2 or 3 months maximum, rather that the average 10 to 12 months that currently landlords are experiencing.
This is a measure in order to protect landlords and make the rental market a strong option in this current economic environment.
According to the October report of the organisation "Ficheros de Inquilinos Morosos" (FIM), the number of tenants who do not pay their rent has increased by 15.4%.


Drake may be taking the high road in his beef with fellow rapper, Pusha T, but Drake's dad is doing no such thing. TMZ caught up with Dennis Graham in West Hollywood recently and pops had some major shade to throw. He took Mariah's route and completely denied even knowing who Push was. Classy, Dennis. Classy.


Scrap Car Surlingham will collect your car for free in Surlingham, Norfolk. A lot of car owners are unaware that if they have a scrap car it will still need to be taxed even if the vehicle is not in use. Don't pay to have your old vehicle collected We will collect your old scrap car at no cost to you in Surlingham!
As well as offering a completely free collection, we are also currently able to offer cash for scrap cars in Surlingham depending upon the weight of the vehicle!
We are proud of our portfolio of happy clients in and around Surlingham as we have traded there for many years. We are a local company and will be with you at the specified time, we don't do late! We set a time slot and we will not be late we have a reputation that is great for service and customer satisfaction. We are open 24/7 and are available to you 365 days a year, and we will work around you commitments.
We always ensure that you car is disposed of the correct way. Dishonest scrap car collection companies may sell on your car as opposed to scrapping it, most of the time not even informing the DVLA of any change of ownership. This will result in you being fined as legally you are left very vulnerable. When we collect your old scrap car we always ensure that the DVLA are aware that the vehicle is in fact being scrapped, there's one less thing for you to worry about. Here at Scrap Car Surlingham we make sure that we recycle everything, so as you can tell we always do our bit for the environment.
car scrappage schemes may at first seem like a great idea. However, you will be limited to what you can buy. It is not possible to go out and buy any car you wish. This can prove to be very frustrating as you have to choose a car that is currently in the scrappage scheme.
You won't believe how easy it is to scrap your old car in Surlingham. Pick up the phone, dial our number and learn the process today. If you would like to get some information prior to your call, please take a look at our helpful guide scrapping a car.


text:
EZ LUBE TO PAY $5 MILLION IN PENALTIES FOR DEFRAUDING CUSTOMERS BY CHARGING FOR UNNEEDED PARTS AND UNPERFORMED SERVICES
Case # 30-2007-00100842
January 2, 2008 Contact:
Susan Kang Schroeder
SANTA ANA – Orange County based automotive repair chain EZ Lube, Inc. (EZ Lube), has been ordered to pay $5 million in a civil settlement today for unfair business practices. EZ Lube's employees were bilking customers by selling unnecessary parts and services and charging for services that were never performed. The settlement, signed on December 31, 2007 by Superior Court Judge David McEachen and the Orange County District Attorney (OCDA), outlines more than 30 injunctive terms and orders the defendant to pay $4 million to the County and $1 million to cover the cost of investigation and prosecution, and an unlimited amount of further restitution to repay defrauded customers who come forward at a later date.
Consumer complaints and further investigation uncovered a pattern of unfair and deceptive business practices at several EZ Lube locations where consumers were being sold unneeded parts and services. EZ Lube's customers were misled during the invoicing and estimate procedures and were charged for services that were never preformed.
The injunctive terms prevent EZ Lube from: selling or invoicing unperformed or unnecessary services or parts and imposing quotas on employees to sell a minimum amount of service.
The terms further require EZ Lube to: giving proper paperwork documents and posting a sign informing the customer's right to see the removed parts; giving written estimate of job and recording all work performed; providing the manufacturer's recommendation based on the customer's car model and odometer reading; installing a video camera to allow customers to monitor the work being done and saving the video for 90 days; performing only oil changes for five days and posting a sign about the restriction in 30 stores where they had actual violation; and paying restitution to anyone with a legitimate claim over the past five years.
EZ Lube will be on probation for the next five years and the injunctive terms will be permanent. EZ Lube has admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement agreement.
"Anyone who has been defrauded should report their experience to law enforcement. We cannot stop the fraud unless people are willing to come forward and report the violation," stated District Attorney Tony Rackauckas. "As consumers, we should be proactive in protecting ourselves. Watch the monitor to see work being performed, insist on asking for all estimates in writing, ask for the manufacturer's recommendations, and insist on seeing and keeping the parts after the work is finished."
"This settlement should serve as a warning to all those in the automotive repair industry to deal with consumers in an honest manner," stated District Attorney Tony Rackauckas.
If you believe you have been sold services by EZ Lube that were not provided or were unnecessary, you may contact the OCDA at (714) 648-3637. A copy of the Final Judgment of the case is available upon request.
ADDITIONAL FORMER INMATE CHARGED WITH MURDER FOR BEATING FELLOW INMATE TO DEATH


At Metropolitan Dental Associates our team is enthusiastic about providing nothing short of the best dental care for you and your entire family. We have been specially trained to treat patients of all ages. Why not save yourself the time and energy from running between dentists' offices and have your whole family treated in one friendly and easy to get to practice in Fort Lee, NJ? Metropolitan Dental Associates is not just a dental practice that has been taking care of patients from Fort Lee, Palisades Park, New York, Leonia, Edgewater, and surrounding areas for 24 years; it is a family. Each of our patients is thought of as an extension of our family and treated with compassion and genuine care.
When you are looking for an outstanding dentist in the Fort Lee area, give us a call at (201) 224-0310 to make an appointment. We will make sure that you are comfortable and well informed during all procedures. Welcome to Metropolitan Dental Associates!


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Dubai, UAE, October 4, 2017: Skyline University College (SUC) takes pride in joining hands with Toastmasters International (TM) to develop the soft skills of the students in professional grooming. The Toastmasters Club Freshmen Orientation was conducted on October 1, 2017, at SUC Multi-Purpose Hall mainly to introduce the club and its importance in developing the skills and potentials of SUC students. SUC Toastmasters Club has invited DTM Balaji Nagabhushan and his team for this collaboration to demonstrate the procedures and to emphasize the core values of the club which are integrity, respect, service, and excellence.
The collaboration falls under PSDP (Professional Skills Development Program) which is SUC's unique initiative to develop students' professional skills in a methodical way. Toastmasters International is a renowned non-profit, global organization, known for transforming its members' personality through sharpening their communication and presentation skills.


Snooty the manatee has died while in captivity at the South Florida Museum.
I used to go see Snooty as a kid. I always felt sad that he was all alone in his tank at the museum. I used to daydream that I would sneak in afterhours and somehow manage to set him free. It seemed like a stark place to live, and the sounds were disorientating even to my human ears.
As an adult (90s/early 2000s), trying to be more active in animal rights causes, I had mixed feelings about visiting the museum. I had fond memories of the South Florida Museum, but I found it hard to go see Snooty in his lonely little tank.
Around 2012/2013 or so, someone I knew could get me into the museum for free, so I went. I was amazed to see that Snooty was still at the museum. But, this time, he had company. There were two other manatees (they were being rehabilitated, I believe) in the tank with him, so I felt a little better that he wasn't all by himself.
Then I saw a post on someone's Facebook page announcing that he had died. I figured old age, not being too knowledgeable on how long manatees lived in captivity.
But then I read the article(s). I'll let you choose to read them for yourself, just in case you are as sensitive to animals as I am, and maybe have to steel yourself before hearing the news. Or want to avoid it altogether.
I have been in mourning for gentle Snooty over the past week few days that have felt like a week.
And been thinking a lot.
About the fact that there is less and less room for animals, plants, trees, insects, fish, or any of the other non-human lifeforms that are on this planet as well. Because we humans are taking up so much room. And that, by the time there is no more room for humans on a planet that will become uninhabitable sooner or later, there probably won't be any non-human lifeforms left.
I read something about micro-living via the National Trust for Historic Preservation. But is it enough? Is anything enough to stop humanity's destructive drive to fully dominate the planet?
I don't know. I'm still trying to do everything I can to be more environmentally respectful, as futile as it feels.
I know that I miss Snooty, one of my few (make-believe?) childhood friends. If there is such a thing as reincarnation, I hope he gets to live in a better world, surrounded by freedom and clean ocean water and other manatee friends and family. And I wish the same thing for animals and plants and trees and insects that have to live on the planet with us humans. May better karma be with you in your next life.


The proliferation of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides in the 1950s has made France the single largest consumer of phyto-chemicals in Europe today. The subsequent degradation of the soil has ensued, killing off the necessary microbiotic life forms that support healthy soils. Lutte raisonnée, literally "reasoned fight" (in French), or "supervised control" (in English), is a reaction to the use of such chemicals, regarded as a pragmatic approach to farming, where chemical treatments are used only when absolutely necessary. Biodiversity in the vineyards is encouraged through the planting of cover crops, rigorous plowing of the soils, and the use of manures and natural composts to fertilize the vines. Some growers use this as a first step towards full organic farming. Others find it a happy medium between conventional methods and the stricter demands dictated by organic certifying agencies. There is a wide berth of interpretation concerning these methods. Some farmers work through certifying agencies such as Terra Vitis, following a specific set of specifications and requirements. Others farm independently, following organic methodologies, and reserving treatments only when conditions are optimal (for example, when there is no wind). Zoologists have introduced more environmentally-friendly concepts such as integrated pest management, or hormone confusion, which prevents the reproduction of certain pests that may threaten the vines. The reduction of sprays not only contributes to the health of the vines and the greater ecosystem, but also to the health of the winegrowers (who account for the largest percentage of cancer cases among farmers).


text:
A custom Xbox add-on turns your power wheelchair into a controller
We all win when more people have the opportunity to play games.
By Adam Rosenberg on February 1, 2020
> Entertainment > Games
It's time to re-purpose Nintendo's old "Now you're playing with power!" tagline.
There's a new custom-made add-on for the Xbox Adaptive Controller that allows people to use their power wheelchair controls to play games. This so-called "Freedom Wing Adapter" came out of a partnership between the AbleGamers(Opens in a new window) charity organization and ATMakers(Opens in a new window).
That latter group, founded by a man named Bill Binko, describes itself as "an experiment in solving problems in Assistive Technology using the skills and tools of the Maker community." AbleGamers, meanwhile, has been working since 2004 to make games more accessible for people with disabilities.
In fact, AbleGamers was one of the groups that worked with Microsoft on ensuring that the Xbox Adaptive Controller, released in Sept. 2018, would actually be helpful. So this Freedom Wing Adapter is familiar territory.
It's not just for the Xbox Adaptive Controller, however. While the one featured in the video below does sport a 9-pin connector so it can plug into the power wheelchair of AbleGamers COO Steve Spohn(Opens in a new window), Binko explains that the design is simple and (no pun intended) adaptable enough to play nice with other hardware as well, including those that depend on Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.
AbleGamers noted on Twitter that some number of Freedom Wing Adapters have already been produced and distribution is underway. The tweet also notes that the organization is working with ATMakers to get assembly instructions released for any DIYers in the audience.
Binko runs also through the basic building process in the video, for the really inventive folks who just can't wait. It's not a step-by-step guide, but there's enough information, as well as a rough cost of materials (less than $50 all in), for the tech-savvy among you to start playing around if building a Freedom Wing Adapter is in your plans.
More in Gaming, Social Good, Innovations
Adam Rosenberg
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.


A flag is a piece of fabric with a distinctive design and colors. It is used as a symbol, a signaling device, or for decoration. National flags are patriotic symbols with widely varied interpretations that often include strong military associations because of their original and ongoing use for that purpose.
Where is the US Flag on 1826-1855 Washington DC Capitol Building?


Learn Vyvanse vs Adderall vs Concerta dosage, side effects and usage of ADHD treatment medications for children and adults. Check out Vyvanse vs.Adderall dosage details for the patient who have just got switched from Adderall to Vyvanse for better ADHD symptom control.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is considered to be a neurobiological condition characterized by symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. Symptoms of ADHD in Children begins by age six to twelve and persist for more than six months for a diagnosis to be made.
ADHD in Adults present for assessment and treatment, typically have the same symptoms as children but express their symptoms in different ways. For example, hyperactivity in adults is expressed as chronic restlessness and fidgeting and impulsiveness is exhibited as impatience.
ADHD Management includes number of activities like patient counselling, lifestyle modifications physical and mental exercises and medications. However, medications should be reserved for those who are not responding to above activities or they have severe kind of mental illness.
Treatment with stimulants is effective in for 2 weeks therapy but their effectiveness in long term cases is unclear.Most commonly used stimulants are methylphenidate, adderall and Vyvanse (Lisdexamfetamine).
Vyvanse has become most prescribed stimulant in the United States. It was approved by FDA for pediatric ADHD in 2007. Later, it was approved for both adults and adolescents aged 13 to 17.
Vyvanse, Adderall and Concerta belong to a class of drug called as central nervous stimulants.These drugs are used to treat ADHD depending upon the prescriber choice and patient condition but each has different mechanism, doasge, side effects and indications or ueses.
Does Vyvanse work better than Adderall?
Yes, Vyvanse work better than Adderall. It is much smoother, easily tolerable and last all day. Vyvanse drug delivery system is far more gentle and subtle than Adderall.
Vyvanse, being a prodrug of dextroamphetamine, in which the dextroamphetamine is bonded to lysine and broken down into its component parts (lysine and dextroamphetamine) by enzymatic reactions in the gut, is a little odd when it comes to dosages. On the other hand, Adderall being 75% dextro- and 25% levo-amphetamine and, thus, producing slightly different mental and physical effects than pure dextroamphetamine.
Thus, Vyvanse 50mg is equivalent to 20mg of Adderall XR or half that IR. Vyvanse 70mg will be equivalent to Adderall 30mg. Some patient are prescribed even Vyvanse 140mg dosage by their doctors, based on their age, metabolism and other factors.
Vyvanse contains lisdexamfetamine as an active ingredient.Its chemical structure is based on combination of methamphetamine and amino acid L-lysine. Lisdexamfetamine is sometimes prescribed by medical practitioner for the treatment of ADHD in children aged 6 and up as well as adults.It was approved by FDA for the treatment of binge eating disorder in january 2015.
Recommended starting Vyvanse dosage for the treatment of 30mg in morning with or without food. Take it once a day because it may cause insomnia. The dose may be increase gradually depending upon the response. Maximum dose the can be administered in one day is 70mg. Vyvanse is available in the form of capsule with potency of 10mg, 20mg, 30mg, 40mg, 60mg and 70mg.
Major side effects vyvanse includes insomnia in case of over dose, tachycardia, reduced seizure threshold or increase vulnerability to seizures. Other side effects that are less common include irritability, changes in libido, behavioral changes and smooth muscle motility disorder. If you are suspecting any of these Vyvanse Side Effects, you can learn further on how long does vyvanse stay in your system.
Adderall is a kind of psychostimulant drug that belongs to phenethylamine class. It may also be used in the treatment of ADHD and sometimes in the treatment of narcolepsy. Adderall has some other uses like cognitive enhancer, euphoriant and recreationally as aphrodisiac. Aderall increases the concentration of neurotransmitters like norepinephrine and dopamine.
Adderall is not suitable drug for children under 3 years of age. That's why, it is not prescribed in children under 3 years for the treatment of ADHD. In children age 3 to 5 years, Adderall dosage start with 2. 5 mg daily. Dosage may be increased gradually of 2. 5 mg at weekly intervals until optimal response is obtained.
Major side effects of Adderall includes dryness of mouth, excessive grinding of teeth, cardiovascular problems like tachycardia. Other side effects that are less commonly reported are stimulation of medullary respiratory centers, bed wetting and loss of bladder control.
Concerta contains mehyphenidate as an active ingredient which widely used for the treatment of ADHD. It was first approved by US Food drug and Administration in 1995 for hyperactivity treatment. Like other psychostimulant drugs , it also increases the concentration of neurotransmitters like dopamine and norepinephrine.
The recommended starting Concerta dosage is 18mg /day for children and 36mg/day for adults if they are not previously taking methylphenidate or other psychostimulants.
Major side effects of Concentra includes irritability in case of overdose, insomnia, withdrawal effects, appetite loss, dizziness, euphoria, nausea and palpitations. Other side effects that are less commonly reported are suicidal tendencies, mania, seizures, rigidity, stunted growth and hair loss.


Norihiro Nagai, Misa Suzuki, Toshihide Kurihara, Mamoru Kamoshita, Hideki Sonobe, Sakiko Minami, Hajime Shinoda, Kazuo Tsubota, Yoko Ozawa; Reflectivity of the retinal cystoid space and visual outcome after intravitreal ranibizmab injection in diabetic macular edema. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 2017;58(8):1902.
Purpose : To determine the association between reflectivity of the retinal cystoid space evaluated by optical coherence tomography (OCT) and visual outcome after intravitreal ranibizmab (IVR) monotherapy in diabetic macular edema (DME).
Methods : We reviewed clinical records of 24 eyes in 24 DME patients who received a single IVR and thereafter pro re nata (PRN) injections for 11 months. The reflectivity score of the retinal cystoid space in the horizontal OCT image including fovea was evaluated using ImageJ software comparing the reflectivity levels of vitreous (set as 0) and the nerve fiver layer (set as 100) at baseline. Transverse lengths of disrupted ellipsoid zone (EZ) in the OCT images were analyzed at baseline and 1 year after IVR treatment. Correlations between the baseline reflectivity, and the improvement in best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) or the disrupted EZ, at year 1 were statistically analyzed using multiple regression models.
Results : Baseline reflectivity of the retinal cystoid space was 0.03-43.6 (average16.9+13.2), and had a significant negative correlations with improvement in BCVA (P=0.04, 95% CI -0.02 to -0.0002) and improvement of EZ (P=0.04, -43.8 to -0.51).
Conclusions : Reflectivity of the retinal cystoid space at baseline may be a possible predictive factor for treatment outcome after IVR treatment in DME.


text:
Suspicious circumstance
Posted: March 1, 2017 - 12:00 am
Officers are asking for the public's assistance in identifying two men after they approached girls this afternoon in Halifax.
At about 12:30 p.m., three girls – two aged 12 and one aged 13 – were walking westbound in the 6300 block of Chebucto Road. A white pickup truck with two male occupants was travelling westbound along Chebucto Road and slowed down next to the girls very near the intersection of Chebucto Road and Harvard Street. One of the male occupants of the truck said something to the girls that they couldn't make out. The passenger of the truck then told the girls to "Get in the truck" in a gruff, aggressive way. The girls walked away quickly onto Oxford School property on North Street.
The truck then continued on Chebucto, turning onto Oxford Street and then circled the block, and then turned into the cul de sac at the entrance to Oxford School. The truck then drove slowly around the cul de sac before driving back down Willow Street, turning left on Dublin and left on North in the direction of Oxford Street.
The truck is described as an older model white Chevrolet compact with Chevrolet lettering in silver on the tailgate, silver trim along its bottom edge, and had a black toolbox across the truck bed. The windows were manual.
The driver is described as a white man in his 50s, heavy set, wearing a beanie or ball cap and a dark gray or navy plaid coat. The passenger is described as a white man in his 30s, average build, dark hair, full beard, wearing a green plaid coat. He spoke with a deep voice.
Police are looking into whether this incident is connected to an incident, previously released, that occurred on February 22 in the area of Greenpark Close, Halifax.
Investigators are asking anyone who has any information on either of these incidents to contact police by calling 902-490-5020. Anonymous tips can be sent to Crime Stoppers by calling toll-free 1-800-222-TIPS (8477), submitting a secure web tip at www.crimestoppers.ns.ca or texting a tip - Tip 202 + your message to 274637.
© 2021 Halifax Regional Municipality. Content last modified March 1 2017.


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category Markets/Exchanges , LGEIY , NTDOY , and 34 more.
category JP:7974 , JP:8802 , MTSFF , and 36 more.
category Manufacturing , Markets/Exchanges , LGEIY , and 38 more.
category MTSFY , Computer Software , Analyst , and 39 more.
category HMC , CN:601899 , DJIA , and 40 more.
category JP:NI225 , JP:8815 , JP:8830 , and 17 more.
category Software , PTR , BOALY , and 56 more.
category Market News , SANYY , Equipment , and 41 more.
category JP:8306 , Banks , ANZFY , and 56 more.
category HIT , WBK , JP:7751 , and 36 more.


text:
require 'formula'

class Libmaxminddb < Formula
  homepage 'https://github.com/maxmind/libmaxminddb'
  url 'https://github.com/maxmind/libmaxminddb/releases/download/0.5.3/libmaxminddb-0.5.3.tar.gz'
  sha1 'ce6dd4fecb1a4c97cfede70e6fc6af863ffeddab'

  bottle do
    cellar :any
    revision 1
    sha1 "9ef726ff11d9933e9aa1df2ce8adc21493714259" => :yosemite
    sha1 "0e3a37a3ad55d27220ec49ee653016ecc649d952" => :mavericks
    sha1 "3888352b39e903d2f30d6947db0c041ecaa3540a" => :mountain_lion
  end

  head do
    url 'https://github.com/maxmind/libmaxminddb.git'

    depends_on 'autoconf' => :build
    depends_on 'automake' => :build
    depends_on 'libtool' => :build
  end

  depends_on 'geoipupdate' => :optional

  option :universal

  def install
    ENV.universal_binary if build.universal?

    system "./bootstrap" if build.head?

    system "./configure", "--disable-debug",
                          "--disable-dependency-tracking",
                          "--disable-silent-rules",
                          "--prefix=#{prefix}"
    system "make", "check"
    system "make", "install"
  end

  test do
    system "curl", "-O", "http://geolite.maxmind.com/download/geoip/database/GeoLite2-Country.mmdb.gz"
    system "gunzip", "GeoLite2-Country.mmdb.gz"
    system "#{bin}/mmdblookup", "-f", "GeoLite2-Country.mmdb",
                                "-i", "8.8.8.8"
  end
end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: Edit VersionInfo of a file using powershell I would like to use empty fields in a files VersionInfo to store meta data for search purposes. I would like to know if it's possible to edit the VersionInfo fields using a powershell cmdlet or script.
The VersionInfo can be viewed using the following command:
get-itemproperty -path .\amazon_cel_v2l.dvf | Format-List -Property VersionInfo

output:
VersionInfo : File:             C:\extended_attributes\amazon_cel_v2l.dvf
              InternalName:
              OriginalFilename:
              FileVersion:
              FileDescription:
              Product:
              ProductVersion:
              Debug:            False
              Patched:          False
              PreRelease:       False
              PrivateBuild:     False
              SpecialBuild:     False
              Language:

As you can see there are several different empty fields that could be populated with metadata. Does anyone know if/how these fields can be written to? In particular I would like to use the four fields listed below:
              InternalName:
              OriginalFilename:
              FileVersion:
              FileDescription:

A: As per the comments in my question, I am going to try to come up with a different way to add custom meta data to my files. Alternate Data Streams are good but are lost if a file is transferred to a non-ntfs file system.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange