Yahoo teamed up with Pizza Hut to launch Squares Pick'em, a new digital game on Yahoo Sports just in time for Super Bowl LI.
Sports fans can sign up through the Yahoo Fantasy app and desktop and mobile experience by filling out their Pizza Hut-themed grids and inviting friends to play. Each square equals a possible score at the end of every quarter of the game. Players win by matching the square picked with the score at the end of the quarter. A minimum of 10 players can join per game.
"This gives me a chance to play the game with my friends and family on the East Coast," said David Daniels, VP of advertising and media at Pizza Hut.
A banner ad running at the top of the page enables those playing the game to click through to Pizza Hut's Web site to order their favorite game-day pizza.
On Super Bowl Sunday, Pizza Hut sells more than 2 million pizzas and 16 million wings supported by about 150,000 employees. About 70% of online orders are through mobile devices.
Fast favorites -- items ordered frequently by the same consumer -- allows them to click a button to reorder without having to build the pie. The online app also leads with most popular pizzas.
Yahoo set up the Squares game with a chat feature supporting each game, so it gives friends a chance to interact with each other. Each game is assigned a commissioner who monitors the game and decides whether it will have a prize for the winning square.
"The beauty for us is consumers are online and engage with the brand — and there's an opportunity to click right through and order a pizza for game day," Daniels said.
Pizza Hut is promoting the game on its site, social media and direct mail. In collaboration with Yahoo, consumers will see ads for the game running on banners across the portal's sports sites.


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Protecting the Intellectual Property of your Medical Device Technology
This is a podcast episode titled, Protecting the Intellectual Property of your Medical Device Technology. The summary for this episode is: Are you considering patent protection for your software as a medical device? Should you keep your secret sauce via the trade secret route? Perform due diligence to stay ahead of the competition. In this episode of the Global Medical Device Podcast, Jon Speer talks to Kevin Buckley and Neil Thompson from Torrey Pines Law Group. Their biotech-focused legal firm specializes in artificial intelligence (AI) applied to medical devices. Together, they discuss intellectual property (IP) with software as a medical device (SaMD) and AI and machine learning (ML) powered technologies. Some highlights of this episode include: • Patent or not? From a patent perspective, it's easier to understand protecting software from an IP perspective by considering the problem to be solved. • Perform a patent search using third-party vendors to determine if competitors have claimed inventions and infringement information. • Due diligence of competitive intelligence should address licensing, acquisition, investments, and freedom to operate that enhances research and development. • Interest in adapting AI, machine learning (ML), and SaMD is increasing as clients develop technologies from scratch (De Novo) for better ways to help people. • When deciding whether to seek patent protection on technology, consider international patent laws and follow the Alice: Two-step Rule for patent eligibility. • The pros and cons of choosing the patent protection over trade secret route include whether clients need limited or unlimited duration to enforce patent rights. • AI-enabled inventions, such as X-ray imaging, is software that utilizes and combines new/existing devices as systems using ML, algorithms, and datasets. • Regulatory pathways for medical devices include 510(k) and De Novo. Predicate devices may be required and potential improvements may be patentable.
Are you considering patent protection for your software as a medical device? Should you keep your secret sauce via the trade secret route? Perform due diligence to stay ahead of the competition.
In this episode of the Global Medical Device Podcast, Jon Speer talks to Kevin Buckley and Neil Thompson from Torrey Pines Law Group, a biotech-focused legal firm specializing in artificial intelligence (AI) applied to medical devices. Together, they discuss intellectual property (IP) with software as a medical device (SaMD) and AI and machine learning (ML) powered technologies.
Patent or not? From a patent perspective, it's easier to understand protecting software from an IP perspective by considering the problem to be solved.
Perform a patent search using third-party vendors to determine if competitors have claimed inventions and infringement information.
Due diligence of competitive intelligence should address licensing, acquisition, investments, and freedom to operate that enhances research and development.
Interest in adapting AI, machine learning (ML), and SaMD is increasing as clients develop technologies from scratch (De Novo) for better ways to help people.
When deciding whether to seek patent protection on technology, consider international patent laws and follow the Alice: Two-step Rule for patent eligibility.
The pros and cons of choosing the patent protection over trade secret route include whether clients need limited or unlimited duration to enforce patent rights.
AI-enabled inventions, such as X-ray imaging, is software that utilizes and combines new/existing devices as systems using ML, algorithms, and datasets.
Regulatory pathways for medical devices include 510(k) and De Novo. Predicate devices may be required and potential improvements may be patentable.
Memorable quotes from this episode:
"If you look at it in a way that solves that problem first—do you want to patent or not—then it becomes less tricky." Kevin Buckley
"With coronavirus out there, a lot of our clients are trying to come up with new ways to...help people with the disease by utilizing technologies that are novel and unobvious." Kevin Buckley
"The secret sauce, which is your trade secret, if that is generating something that is detectable, typically, our advice is to get a patent on it. Don't keep it a trade secret." Kevin Buckley
"Don't get caught with your 'patents' down." Kevin Buckley
Announcer: Welcome to the Global Medical Device Podcast, where today's brightest minds in the medical device industry go to get their most useful and actionable insider knowledge, direct from some of the world's leading medical device experts and companies.
Jon Speer: We've talked, in previous episodes, on the Global Medical Device Podcast, about artificial intelligence, AI, machine learning, talked about software as a med device, we talked about regulatory- related items on those topics, but we never have talked about the intellectual property or the IP side of things on AI and software as a med device. And we're going to change that. So starting with this episode. So enjoy this episode of the Global Medical Device Podcast. I talked to Kevin Buckley, the founder, and Neil Thompson, a patent agent, with Torrey Pines Law Group. And we talk about IP, with respect to AI and software, and a few other tips and pointers for a med device in general, so enjoy. Hello and welcome to the Global Medical Device Podcast. This is your host and founder at Greenlight Guru, Jon Speer. And one of the things that is kind of a hot topic in, well, everywhere these days it seems, is AI, artificial intelligence, machine learning, specifically in the med device industry and other hot topics that sort of piggybacks on the AI side of things. Not always, but sometimes, is software as a med device or SAMD, there's lots of twists and turns, and nuances, certainly from a regulatory perspective. And if you've been a listener of the Global Medical Device Podcast in the past, then you probably have heard some of the regulatory- related conversations that we've had on these topics. But I thought we would take kind of a little bit of a twist today, and I don't think we've done anything on IP or intellectual property, ever, on the Global Medical Device Podcast, and we certainly haven't done IP related to AI and software as a med device, so I thought this would be great topic to dive into. So joining me today are two gentlemen who are from the Torrey Pines Law Group, Kevin Buckley, he's the founder, and Neil Thompson is a patent agent. So Kevin, Neil, welcome to the Global Medical Device Podcast.
Kevin Buckley: Thanks, Jon.
Neil Thompson: Thank you.
Jon Speer: Absolutely. So typically, when we get into these episodes, kind of a first place to start is you maybe give people kind of a high level overview of who Torrey Pines Law Group is and maybe some of your areas of specialty. And then we'll dive into this topic of IP with software as a med device and AI.
Kevin Buckley: All right, well, the history of Torrey Pines is mostly focusing on healthcare, life sciences, which includes medical devices. So the firm has represented medical device clients for seven years, and in that seven years, we've formed a really nice specialty which focuses on artificial intelligence as it's applied to medical devices. So we represent a lot of clients that are working on software implementation of medical devices. Pure software, as well as hard medical devices combined with software, a lot of SaaS clients, and we are really moving in a direction toward machine learning, deep learning, and a lot of different nuances related to this type of software.
Jon Speer: I mean, I know, and in Greenlight's world, I mean, Greenlight is a SaaS platform, obviously, that works with medical device companies and it's tricky from an IP perspective, right? I mean, because... I mean, I'm probably over simplifying this and maybe misstating this, but it seems like, from a patent perspective, it's easier to kind of wrap your head around something that is more of a tangible good. And it seems to be a little bit more tricky to protect your software from an intellectual property perspective. Is that something that... I don't know if you would agree or disagree with that or have some other thoughts or ideas that may counter what I'm suggesting.
Kevin Buckley: Yeah, I think... So, I mean, really, the answer to your question is it is tricky. But if you look at the problem to be solved, and that usually is first determining whether you want to protect your technology as a trade secret. Do you want to protect it under copyright and just the code? Do you want to patent it? So if you look at it in a way that solves that problem first, do you want to patent or not, then it becomes less tricky. For example, if you wanted to patent a technology, there are a lot of things that you need to determine first. And the first step, usually, is doing a patent search. This is pretty good advice for anybody, for a couple of reasons. If you do a patent search and we use professional third party vendors all the time to do these kinds of searches, if you're finding that your competitors are out there and they have claimed some invention that you might be infringing upon or you could work around, well, that's just good information to have. It doesn't matter if you're trying to patent anything or not, doing these types of searches are really informative.
Jon Speer: It makes a lot of sense. I mean, I just chime in there because... See if I can connect some dots that you're proposing. So I guess one way to think about this is if I'm trying to figure out, do I patent this, do I protect this as a trade secret, what have you, regardless of the situation, it's good to know sort of the prior art, if you will, that's out there. So I can say," What are other people thinking about this?" It's good from a competitive landscape. Am I connecting the right dots?
Kevin Buckley: You are. Yeah, competitive intelligence is one of the key areas in which we focus. And you can imagine that if you are thinking about licensing this technology, if you're thinking about getting acquired as a company, if you're thinking about getting an investment to enhance your R& D, this kind of question will pop up in due diligence. If somebody's looking at working with you, you really need to know where you stand with respect to your competition. If there is a freedom to operate problem, in other words, if somebody has a claimed invention which you might be stepping on and you might not know it, well, that's going to be a problem if, for example, an investor finds it before you do. Another situation is if you are looking at these technologies for potential patenting and you find a blocker, you want to know how to work around it. And this is something that Neil and I do all the time. We look at these professional searches, we see if there're any blockers, we see if there's any whitespace between two claimed inventions, where our clients might have some wiggle room to claim their invention. So it's just really good business sense to get these types of searches completed.
Jon Speer: I kind of introduced this as we're going to talk a little bit about AI and software as a med device, and how to navigate from an IP perspective, are you finding a lot of interest in this particular topic?
Kevin Buckley: Yeah. So, again, we're focused on life sciences, healthcare, and we have numerous clients that are developing these technologies from scratch, De Novo. We also have a lot of clients who are adapting artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, etc., to more conventional technologies. Our clients are looking for better ways to skin the cat. And a lot of times, that is done with machine learning, with the deep learning, and what we're finding now, especially with Coronavirus out there, a lot of our clients are trying to come up with new ways to, number one, help people with the disease, but utilizing technologies which are novel and unobvious. And it is such a hot area right now, Jon, and Neil, and I have been working seven days a week for the past 13, 14 years.
Jon Speer: Oh my goodness.
Kevin Buckley: Yeah, it's been crazy.
Jon Speer: Wow. I realized that I'm asking probably a proprietary question here, but any, I guess, stories that you can share that the listening audience might be able to relate to?
Kevin Buckley: Huh. Well, that's interesting because, yeah, I can imagine that your audience is representative of so many different technologies, but if we're going to talk about a little bit about software, a little bit about the AI, I think that, again, first question is, do you want to patent it or not, or do you want to keep it a trade secret. A lot of that would be determined based on a search. If somebody's competing with you and they are blocking you somehow, and you can work around that, well, then maybe you want to keep your technology a trade secret. So that's just kind of general good advice. Yeah. There are a couple of other things though, Jon. I mean, when you're getting into a deep dive into how to really flesh out your technology so that it can be patented, for example, there's just a lot of different things that need to be considered. And they all relate to the law, the patent laws, and these are all international laws by the way, so Neil and I are handling these things not only in the US, but Europe, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, etc., etc. All over the world. So yeah, there's just a lot of advice that we can give. I don't know how long we have Jon.
Jon Speer: Well, why don't we maybe start into the practical tips and pointers, and maybe here's a good place to start. So what advice would you give engineers and researchers, and inventors and scientists, etc.? What advice would you give them when deciding to seek patent protection on a technology.
Kevin Buckley: Yeah, you want to tackle this Neil?
Neil Thompson: Sure. So when it comes down to this, the idea of what to patent, it's really important, especially when you're dealing with software and AI- type inventions, that you have to follow what's called the Alice two- step process. And it stemmed from a Supreme Court case which essentially made it a little bit more difficult to claim these types of inventions. You have to go through this process to determine whether your invention's even patent- eligible. And so, for instance, if you have an invention that's claiming a law of nature, a natural phenomenon or an abstract idea, and if that's the case, then, essentially, the invention that you have has to build, I guess, has to have significantly more than just those three things to be considered patent- eligible. And that's where a lot of people get tripped up on the definition of what significantly more means. In Europe, they've done a bit of a better job in defining this than in the US, in that they deem the answer to this to be a technical solution to a technical problem. And so if you're able to determine... Or your invention actually has a more detectable solution, as opposed to just a lot of code or something that's not even associated with any type of hardware, that type of thing, than it's going to be a lot more difficult to patent that than if it were to be, as I said, associated with some sort of hardware.
Jon Speer: So that's called the... You said Alice two- step framework.
Neil Thompson: Yeah.
Jon Speer: All right, maybe we'll go over that here in a few moments because that raises some questions. It sounds like a new dance step or something, I'm not really sure, but any other thoughts that you had? I mean, I know, Kevin, you mentioned maybe a couple of times and, so far, that we have a choice. Should I seek patent protection or should I go the trade secret route? Assuming that some folks may not understand the pros and cons of each, can you maybe elaborate on the pros and cons of IP versus trade secret?
Kevin Buckley: So this is an interesting problem because, usually, the real quick response is just keep it a trade secret because it'll never publish and it's unlimited duration. You can have a trade secret forever. Well, it may be in a perfect world. But the difference, the real key difference is a patent you get for 20 years from the date of your first non- provisional file. It's limited duration. After 20 years, it's essentially given to the public. You're no longer able to enforce your patent rights. The real problem that we see, especially in quick moving technology areas like a medical device, and it's an iterative process, software is always changing and AI is happening and changing so rapidly that the big problem is, even if you're keeping something trade secret, somebody can develop it independently of you. So a lot of our clients, they think about this in a really nuanced way. If they've got something, a software, for example, that provides an output, and it's a unique output, a certain type of score, or some type of visualization on a picture, or something that you can detect as its output from an algorithm, for example. If it's detectable, our clients are usually opting for patent protection, especially if it's something truly unique. One of our clients, they developed a score for certain parts of X- rays, and those scores relate to detecting cancer. So patenting a score or a system to generate a score was really important for that client. The alternative would have been to keep it trade secret, but then, a competitor could've independently developed another way to generate a score on a X- ray and the client would've been stuck, and they would not have been able to keep that competitor away from their technology. So, Jon, it's a really nuanced question. It's a real gut check. And if you think that you can keep certain things trade secret, even though they're being displayed, so that the trade secret itself isn't being displayed, but the secret sauce which is your trade secret, if that is generating something that is detectable, typically, our advice is you get a patent on it. Don't keep it a trade secret. Somebody's going to work around you.
Jon Speer: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Any other tips or pointers that you can think of that engineers and vendors, researchers, etc., should be doing to, I guess, prepare their case, if you will, for patentability?
Kevin Buckley: Because of Alice, and it's funny, Jon, it's a funny nickname but there's a Supreme Court case from 2014, that's where the name Alice comes from. Our Alice was one of the parties in that Supreme Court case and that's where that framework came from. But, because of that case, what we're seeing is there's a lot of homework, and vendors need to do, in helping patent attorneys and law firms, just like Neil and me, get these applications fleshed out in such a way that you can beat Alice. So to overcome Alice rejections, what we're seeing is when our clients can describe a number of working examples, some of them can be things that you've already done in the lab or at the bench, but others can be what we call prophetic. If you can describe a way that your medical device or software, anything AI- enabled can work and alternative embodiments to things working, that's how you're going to do two things. You're going to enable your invention. That's one of the things that is required. And, as well, to keep your patent in force after it issues, you can expect challenges. And one of the challenges that's commonly used is you're not enabled. So by putting these working examples in, even if you're making it up kind of, it just needs to teach, one, a skill in the art, how to make and use the invention without undue experimentation. So in other words, flesh it out with working examples. So Neil and I are getting a lot of really good input from our inventors before we even start drafting the application, and that really helps us get these things, number one, drafted, but number two, issued. And then the second thing, really, with, especially software, if you're going to be claiming not only a system, so if it SaaS, if it's something on a server, if it's cloud- based, what have you, there's probably a method of using your medical device, using your software that you're going to be claiming. So a lot of the homework which our inventors do, again, before we even start drafting the application, is getting flowcharts ready. So a flowchart images on how the process is utilized, how the system is utilized, the type of input, the type of output, the different routines, subroutines. It's really easy to describe things pretty generically in flow charts, so that when you claim your invention, you're getting some additional breadth there, which you might not necessarily get if you're not providing the flowcharts, not providing the drawings, and other images of how the software works. So those are two really good steps for any patent attorney to take, a medical device software especially, to take it and draft a really killer patent application.
Jon Speer: Yeah, I like that a lot. And, in my world, those steps are part and parcel with just good development practices anyway. So this does seem to be, I guess, in a good way, overlapping or dovetailing very nicely with what a medical device company is expected to be doing on the regular anyway, to support their claims from a regulatory perspective. And I want to talk about that in a moment too because I know your firm does a little bit of work in that space too. So I just want to remind folks, I'm talking to Kevin Buckley and Neil Thompson. Kevin and Neil are with the Torrey Pines Law Group. You can find out a whole bunch more about their firm and their service areas by visiting torreypineslaw. com, and it's T- O- R- R- E- Y- P- I- N- E- S- L- A- W. com, all one word, no hyphens, no spaces, none of that. And again, you're listening to the Global Medical Device Podcast hosted by Greenlight Guru, as you probably know. And if you don't, I would encourage you to check out what we do at Greenlight Guru. Greenlight Guru is a SaaS platform, we are the only medical device quality management system on the market today. We were designed specifically and exclusively for the medical device industry, and that the platform's actually been designed by actual medical device professionals who have our fingers on the pulse of what's happening in the EU and FDA, and so on and so forth. So check it out, go to www. greenlight. guru to learn more. And if you're interested, reach out to us and we'd be happy to connect with you and share more about how we might be able to help you with your quality system, and your go- to- market strategies and things of that nature as well. All right, so getting back into Neil and Kevin, let's talk a little bit more about AI- enabled inventions. And I think this is a true statement, but, pretty much, when we talk about AI, we are probably talking about software. I know it's a hot topic. Every time it seems you're reading something in the news or every commercial these days... I think my water bottle that I bought the other day has AI- enabled in some way, shape or form. So it is a buzz- worthy topic and there are some really cool things that software companies are doing to enable AI. You mentioned that the X- ray imaging and being able to take that and develop some sort of score for cancer detection. So that's really cool, right? But what are some other tips that you might provide, and to those listening, for what they should be doing for their invention that has AI?
Kevin Buckley: Yeah, so... And it is. It's all software there, of course. I keep on saying the word nuance, Jon, but it's true, there are so many nuances to AI and actually getting a device, an existing device or a brand new device, working with machine learning, deep learning, the algorithms, all of the neural networks, etc. So the first thing that we look at as patent practitioners is how are we going to get something issued as a patent? And we mentioned Alice. The real kind of big picture idea with describing and claiming these types of technologies for patent purposes is to think of it as a system. And when you're thinking of AI implementation of devices as a system, you're not talking about something super abstract, you're not talking about just a mathematical formula. What you're doing is putting some really good physical parameters on what AI is doing in conjunction with the device or even separately from the device, or within a system. I guess that's another way to say it. So when you're describing the invention, I guess the recommendation would be do it as a system, not as an AI software routine. AI software routines are... It's looking a bit too much like exclusive software. And your audience probably has heard that getting software patents is more challenging now than it probably ever has been. They're still allowable, people are still getting issued patents, but it's harder now. When you couch the entire invention, as a system, you're just going to get a lot more attraction. You're going to get a broader claim as well. AI, you can imagine, it's based on training models and models require a lot of data. So machine learning, that requires a lot of data which has been a marked up by human beings. So, for example, if, I don't know, you're looking at a bunch of images on Google and you're trying to determine which one is a cat. And, believe me, this is not as hypothetical an example is as you think it is. These are the subjects of contests. How accurate can someone look in a random sample of images on Google and how accurately can you find a cat? That's a really tough problem. So, you can imagine, the data sets. You have to train a model to recognize a cat in this hypothetical. So that could require millions of images of cats in all shapes and forms, in all positions, all colors, and in all states of what cats do. So that is a huge challenge right there. Machine learning, if you have humans marking up those datasets, that's one thing. Deep learning, on the other hand, requires huge amounts of data because a human isn't marking up the data. It's a computer learning on its own and telling the user what a cat is. So all of that, it's a long way of saying that data is going to be very important to every medical device company which is implementing AI. Whether it's, again, an old technology which is newly implementing AI, or it's some new AI technology itself, that's going to be a huge thing for any of your audience members to look at. And that is going to be very important for we patent professionals to really understand. That the next thing is, once you've got all the data set out and you're you're adequately able to describe it to people like Neil and me, there are a lot of algorithms out there. I mean, you can't count them on five hands. The algorithms are being developed so rapidly right now and improve so rapidly that I think a lot of the members of your audience, they'd really get a lot of value out of looking at what those algorithms are, what the neural nets are out there, how they're implemented, how they could be combined to more effectively operate with the existing software or hard device. There are a lot of ways to optimize software- optimized devices using artificial intelligence. That is what is patentable. It's the optimization of how the system works. It's the optimization of the output, what a user sees, how a user can interpret that optimized output. That is all going to be critical, not only for your audience members to implement AI into device, but also to get a patent.
Jon Speer: Yeah, a lot of great stuff there. I was looking at the Torrey Pines Law Group website and I know you do a lot of work in the IP space, but I also see that it looks like you do a lot of work in the regulatory space. And you mentioned De Novo earlier too, and this conversation's kind of got the gears turning. And I think the challenge, sometimes, or the perception anyway, is like IP and... It's almost like IP and regulatory pathways, they're almost can be diametrically opposing of one another. And I guess let me elaborate a little bit further. So a lot of people seem to gravitate toward, in the US, the FDA 510( k) pathway because it's the most clear pathway and the most predictable, etc., etc. However, more or less, a 510( k) is more or less saying," Hey, I got a me- too product." Because I'm comparing my thing to something that's already been cleared. From an IP perspective, that seems to be a challenge. Can you speak a little bit to some of your experiences with that?
Kevin Buckley: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And we have this conversation. You know what? I have this conversation at least once a day with our clients. And so the predicate device is a... It's a challenge. First of all, you have to find a predicate to show some kind of an improvement. And that's a that is a very patenty word, improvement, because improvements are patentable. But here's the challenge, and this is why we work so closely with our clients in the med device space. Let's say you choose a predicate which has a pending patent claiming the predicate. So the question is, are you infringing that patent on the predicate device, to go 510( k)? Let's just say that if you are cleared through 510( k), the moment that you hit the market with your device, whether it be a heart device software or what have you, are you infringing somebody's patent? Well, in my recommendation would be take a close look, here's where patent searching comes in, by the way, take a close look at your competitors, see if they have any patents pending or even patent applications submitted, and maybe they'll get a patent on that device that they're applying for in the future. Really important that Neil and I work very closely with our clients, and figuring out kind of the kind of the dance that we do. Looking at not only the regulatory pathway, but the IP pathway as well. So you can imagine working with our clients. Let's just say that, I mean, everybody wants to avoid PMA. It's expensive and it's uncertain. But if they want to go 510( k), the one good way to look at that is," Okay, you are me- too, you are an improvement, but maybe our improvement is a work- around to what other competitors are doing." So it's different enough so that you potentially avoid the IP problems. So you get your clearance, but there is a way to do things which avoid blockers, which are pending patents, which claim the predicate device. It's always a question that we look at. The second thing that we do is," Okay, well, if you can work around that, you can claim something potentially in your own patent application, which avoids your competitor." That is something that we try to patent. It's what I mentioned before is the whitespace between patent claims and in this kind of a patent landscaping that we do. So you can also imagine that things change, Jon, as you know. So as you're developing a device, you're going 510( k) for sure, you will almost certainly, somewhere along the process of developing that device, there are going to be changes even.
Jon Speer: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Kevin Buckley: I mean, so let's just say, even if you patent version 1. 0, version 2. 0 is probably something that you didn't include in the patent application itself. So the question is, how do you keep your IP strategy going in the right direction through version 1. 0, 2.0, 3. 0, etc., while you're getting regulatory approval? So that is something that we, again, we work very closely with our inventors in the space, so that if they do choose the patent route, we are always refreshing things based on the changes that are inevitably going to happen, not only in the clearance process, but in the technology development process.
Jon Speer: Yeah, that's really good insights. Really good insights because I know this is always something that folks challenge. And I know some things, I've got a couple of folks that I've talked to quite a bit about this in the past, that are more regulatory- oriented, but some of the recent, and when I'm saying recent, I'm talking within the past five years or so, updates with FDA, the De Novo path is becoming more and more attractive to companies I'm guessing. And that allows me to claim more novelty than if I'm going to go that 510( k) path.
Kevin Buckley: Yeah. Yeah. Well, the company I mentioned earlier, I was fortunate to be on a team which got 510( k) De Novo clearance for that cancer detection system. And I believe it was the first device cleared for.... At least for breast cancer detection and mammograms, and I think it went further. I can't remember the exact label. Yeah, I think a lot more people are using that, and like you said, Jon, it allows more wiggle room, more space to get a cleared product, and again, potentially keep your competition at bay using that De Novo process. But again, going back to the IP part of it, when you're going De Novo, there is usually something that is protectable by way of patent, by way of trade secret protection. We haven't talked about know- how yet, but there are any number of ways to think about how to work with patent counsel on protecting something that is going through that De Novo process.
Jon Speer: Absolutely. So I guess as we're wrapping up today, Neil, Kevin, any final thoughts that you think are important to share with the listening audience?
Kevin Buckley: What do you think Neil?
Neil Thompson: Yeah, well, it was mentioned earlier on, but it really is important for inventors to take into account, I guess, the path, going forward, when it comes to patenting software and AI- affiliated innovations. Making sure that there's a... I mentioned earlier that there's a technical solution to the technical problem. And, specifically, when dealing with AI inventions, that you're obviously dealing with an input and making sure that the training of the input is mentioned in the specification or mentioned in the patent application. In fact, what exactly that training is and how it relates to the output that the invention eventually spits out, and just being mindful of all of these things and just know that you know of what's to come ahead during the whole process.
Kevin Buckley: And, Jon, I just kind of got to reiterate what I was talking about before, with respect to due diligence. I think the most salient point we can provide your audience is don't get caught with your pants down. Even if you choose not to patent whatever you're doing, somebody eventually is going to ask you," Well, who's got a patent on it?" You need to nail that. If you're talking with licensors, licensees, collaborators, acquirers, investors, any sophisticated third party is going to want to know what your challenges are with respect to IP. So I guess the most salient point, the best recommendation is see what your competitors are doing. Doing patent searches is relatively cheap, it's something like 600 bucks. That money is very well spent if you can explain to investors, for example, how you don't infringe somebody's patent, how you've avoided it, you have looked at it, and you're not blindsided by these types of due diligence questions. Again, don't get caught with your pants down.
Jon Speer: I wrote down a few points that I wanted to wrap up with and you hit point number one much better than I was going to focus the other points that I picked up from the conversation with Kevin and Neil is there is this... There are tradeoffs, there are pros and cons with respect to considering whether or not to go the trade secret route or the patent route. So something that you want to be very conscious about making that decision. The novelty piece that's really important. And I think it's really important to realize that your product strategy or your IP strategy, or however you refer to this, it's got to dovetail really well with your regulatory and your go- to- market strategy. So you want to make sure that all of these things are flowing and connected to one another because they all sort of feed off of one another or feed into one another in some way, shape or another. So Kevin, Neil, thank you so much. I appreciate you taking time to talk a little bit about the importance of IP, with respect to AI, and software as a med device, as well as some of the other key tips and pointers. What are the best ways for those listening to get ahold of you? Is it just simply go to the torreypineslaw. com website and fill out a contact us page or do you have some other preferred way for people to reach out to you?
Kevin Buckley: Yeah. Through the website, it's easy. Our number, if anybody wants to call, 858- 869- 1250. And we really enjoy talking, fleshing things out with potential clients, so please don't hesitate to call. We have free consultations, so it won't cost you anything. And you know what, Jon? The thanks actually do belong to you, this is such a cool platform that you're providing and we're just really lucky to have met you and talked to your audience.
Jon Speer: Oh my pleasure. And you should also thank Neil because I know he was like,"I think we've got a good message to share." And once we finally connected, I'm like," Absolutely. We've never covered this topic." So how about this, how about we make a point to follow up with maybe some other IP- related topics on a future episode?
Kevin Buckley: Yeah, sounds cool.
Jon Speer: All right. Well, folks, again, check out torreypineslaw. com. Reach out to Kevin, reach out to Neil, they're happy to help you. You heard it here, they're willing to get on the phone and give you a free consultation, just to give you some tips and pointers, and some things that you should be considering with respect to your novel product and your AI- enabled software. So check it out. Again, Greenlight Guru, we're here to help too. So if there's something that you need a little bit of help with, figuring out your quality management system, that go- to- market strategy, the things that you need to be doing to meet the FDA criteria, 1345, we're here to help. www. greenlight. guru to learn more. And, as always, thank you for being listeners of the Global Medical Device Podcast, the number one podcast in the medical device industry. And as always, this is your host and founder at Greenlight Guru, Jon Speer.
Kevin Buckley LinkedIn
Neil Thompson LinkedIn
Torrey Pines Law Group
Greenlight Guru Medical Device QMS (MDQMS) Software
Medical Device Resources from Greenlight Guru
The Greenlight Guru True Quality Virtual Summit
Greenlight Guru YouTube Channel
MedTech True Quality Stories Podcast
Jon Speer LinkedIn

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
user_handler
============

.. automodule:: rest.database.user_handler
    :members:
    :undoc-members:
    :show-inheritance:

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


When it comes to body-weight exercises, the chin-up is the gold standard. That's because it's one of the best moves for working both your back and your biceps. In fact, when West Point researchers measured muscle activity during the exercise, they found the move targets your biceps as much as your lats. What's more, because this exercise works so many muscles, it'll also help you burn tons of calories.
Trouble is, most people can't complete more than two or three good reps of the chin-up, and many can't manage a single one. Which means they typically skip this exercise altogether and head to the lat pulldown machine instead. But here's a better solution, pulled straight from The Women's Health Big Book of Exercises: It's called the band-assisted chin-up. This version of the exercise will allow you to do full chin-ups, and it more accurately mimics the movement than lat pulldowns or the assisted chin-up machine that you find in commercial gyms. All you need is a chin-up bar and a large exercise band, such as a Superband. Have the gear? Then follow the instructions below and you can finally master the chin-up.
Grab the bar with a shoulder-width, underhand grip, and place your knees in the loop of the band.
Hang at arm's length. You should return to this position—known as a "dead hang"—each time you lower your body back down.
B: Perform a chin-up by pulling your collarbone to the bar.
As you pull your body up, stick your chest out, squeeze your shoulder blades down and back, and focus on pulling your upper arms down forcefully.
Once the top of your chest touches the bar, pause, then slowly lower your body back to a dead hang.


text:
Haumea – Dwarf Planet
Haumea is the third closest dwarf planet to the Sun with a distance of 43 astronomical units. It was originally designated as 2003 EL61. On September 17th, 2008, it was classified as a dwarf planet by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). It takes 285 Earth years to make one trip around the Sun.
The rotation of this dwarf planet is so fast and because of this it has turned into an ellipsoid. It spins on its axis once every 3.9 hours. It is one of the fastest rotating large objects in our solar system.
Quick Facts: –
Haumea has been named after a Hawaiian goddess. In Hawaiian mythology, Haumea is the goddess of fertility and childbirth.
It resides in the Kuiper belt and is roughly the same size as Pluto.
It is the farthest known object in the solar system to possess a ring system.
It originated from a collision which makes it one of the densest dwarf planets discovered to date.
It is believed to have been created about 4.5 billion years ago, approximately the same time as the Sun.
It has a very elongated shape and its diameter measures 1,960 kilometers at its longest.
It is the third brightest object in the Kuiper Belt after Pluto and Makemake.
It was the first dwarf planet to be discovered because at that time, Pluto was still classified as a planet.
It has two small moons orbiting it. They are named as Hi'iaka and Namaka.
It has been concluded by scientists that most of Haumea's interior is rocky and it is covered by a thin icy shell.
You may cut-and-paste the below MLA and APA citation examples:
MLA Style Citation
Declan, Tobin. " Fun Haumea Facts for Kids ." Easy Science for Kids, Jan 2021. Web. 16 Jan 2021. < https://easyscienceforkids.com/haumea-facts/ >.
APA Style Citation
Tobin, Declan. (2021). Fun Haumea Facts for Kids. Easy Science for Kids. Retrieved from https://easyscienceforkids.com/haumea-facts/
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Fonts are the most important part that we often use on smartphones. Every time we type or read of course will be facing different font characters. So here are some Best font changer apps for android with root and without root support.
Smartphones Android circulating in the market until now has a feature of a different font, that can be directly changed or there is also a need for root access to change it. Fonts changing app in Android is generally a standard, no unique characteristics. This is what makes the user feel bored and we really want to change it to look not bored.
The default fonts on the Android smartphone, like Samsung, Lenovo, Asus, Xiomi, Smartfreen, LG, HTC, or others have different shapes or styles, but usually, the fonts follow from the version of the Android OS itself.
On this occasion, I will review Best Font Changer Apps On Android Without Root And With Root. There are many font applications that you can use for free. Take a quick look at the font changing app below.
The first font changer application for android is iFont made by developers diyun. This application has a very interesting advantage and different from other font applications. Because you don't need root to install this font app. Simply Download from the Google Play Store and Install. Then you can change all the system fonts as your wish, even you can also shrink or enlarge the font.
The iFont application is compatible with Samsung brand smartphones like Galaxy S3, or Galaxy S4. But for other smartphones be like Xiomi, HTC, Sony, or others also supported mostly. If any problem occurs while using the iFont App without root, then it would be better if you Root first, because the Root Application will be more optimal. Interested in trying, a free download through the Google Play Store.
Hifont is a free and best font changer application for android smartphone and tablet. With the Hifont app, you can easily change the font shape as you like. There are hundreds of free, coolest, and stylish fonts that you can apply to your android phone so that your phone looks more unique and stylish.
Uniquely, you can change the font color that is usually a white color you can change into colorful as you wish. Hifont application is very supportive on Samsung phones, especially on Galaxy version S3, S4, S5, Note, Note ll, Note lll, and so on (No Root). For other android phones brands such as HTC, Motorola, Lenovo, Huawei, and Nokia X require Root access to use Hifont applications. Download the free Hifont app through the Google Play Store.
Stylish Fonts is the best Android font changer application you can use for free. This app provides hundreds of free fonts with a wide selection of cool, unique, and beautiful fonts. This App is NOT sponsored, endorsed, or affiliated with Monotype Imaging, Inc, the owner of the FlipFont trademark and technology.
Font Player has full support on Samsung phones including Galaxy S3, S4, Note 2, Note 3, and others (without Root). For other android phones such as HTC, Motorola, Lenovo, Huawei and other mobile phones require Root access to install this application.
The next font changer apps are called FlipFont. There are 6 packs of pencil fonts that you can use for free. This app is specifically designed for Samsung Galaxy users on all OS types and versions. The user interface of this app is very interesting, you can personalize on all the fonts you want to try.
Relax, this app works without Root access. So you do not have to bother doing root on your android phone. Download the free FlipFont app through the Google Play Store.
The next font changer app is called Fonts for FlipFont Romance. To change fonts on your Samsung Galaxy device, navigate to the display settings in your device's system settings. In the display settings, you can change the font style to any of these 50 new fonts for Android. This font pack should work on all Galaxy brand phones and will provide fonts for Samsung Galaxy S3, fonts for Samsung Galaxy S4, and fonts for Galaxy Note 3.
This app will not work on developer devices, such as the Galaxy Nexus or AOSP Galaxy S4 Google Edition, because it does not have the FlipFont program. Please verify that your phone can change its font. Look for the font style option in the display or screen display section of your device settings. This app is not designed as fonts for android with root and does not require root permission to change your font, nor will it require you to restart your phone.* Also, you will be able to enjoy your fonts for texting and messaging, however, the typeface used on your device will not be sent to people that you send a text message to.
As the name suggests, Font Changer apps are used to replace existing fonts on smartphones and tablets android. This app provides more than 60+ unique and cool fonts that you can use for free. Quiet course, this application can run on android smartphone with Root or without root. You can also check how to use creehack to download more modded aplications.
In addition to changing the font android, you can also Convert text from Indonesia to a more unique and funny form. No more small talk, download free Font Changer app through the Google Play Store.
The last application I can recommend is from JRummy Apps Inc. named FontFIx. This application has a very extraordinary advantage that is different from other font changer apps. FontFix application provides over 4,300 fonts that you can all use for free to beautify and enhance your android look.
Take it easy, this app can run on android phone with root or without root. But it would be better to get optimal performance, do root first. Unfortunately, with unique and cool features, this app can not run on Samsung Galaxy S7.
That's a brief review of Some of The Best And Free Font changer apps for Android Without Root, hopefully, it can be helpful and useful. All the above applications you can download directly through the Google Play Store. If anyone wants to ask or want to add something, write it through the comment field below.


French boring? Not any more!
Many homeschoolers have told us at conventions that they started using a French home school program which went very well at first. However, they found their children became bored or "bogged down" after a short while. Le Français Facile! makes French fun and easy, with interesting, funny stories your children will love! No more boring children with twaddle, to quote Charlotte Mason.
Want a complete French curriculum?
Way more than a computer game that simply teaches words, Le Français Facile! has everything you need to succeed at teaching French! If you want to go beyond "getting by on a tourist trip to France," then you need to understand the French people, their culture, and their expressions. Every lesson includes French cultural notes and trivia. French idioms (an English idiom would be "Six of one, half a dozen of another) are used in the stories, explained, and kept in your students notebook. You even get some fabulous French recipes (Marie's recipe for Ratatouille is worth the cost of the program alone)! The aim of Le Français Facile! is to turn you into a truly bilingual person, able to go into business with, or present the Gospel to, the French speaking world.
Program author Marie Filion possesses a Master of Science in Psychology, has taught French As A Second Language in the public system, private school and online, and has spent years as a Literacy Specialist and Tutor. Drawing on all of this knowledge and experience she has compiled a program that utilizes Gouin Series (as recommended by Charlotte Mason), follows Bloom's Taxonomy and higher order thinking theories by Dr. Jeanne Chall, and even uses the discoveries of Dr. Alfred Tomatis (The Tomatis Method) to retrain the ear and brain to accept French Frequency Bands!
Did you notice that French and English don't overlap? As a result, what happens when the Anglophone hears French being spoken is that the brain rejects the sounds as background noise! This is because our ears and brains specialize to help filter the huge amount of input that bombards us on a daily basis. Even worse for those with ambitions of achieving French fluency, Dr. Tomatis discovered that you cannot speak any sound which the ear cannot hear (have you noticed that hearing impaired people usually don't have clear speech?). Fortunately, Le Français Facile! utilizes special techniques with the 2 digitally mastered CD's, and the construction of the storylines, which can actually retrain the ear and brain to accept these lower frequencies as language! For more information, read the following article.
Have a full quiver? Tired of paying for consumable workbooks?
As a homeschooling family of 6, so are we! Le Français Facile! is nearly 400 pages of non-consumable textbook plus 2 audio CD's. CD #1 is also an enhanced audio CD-ROM. Place it in your computer and you can print (for FREE) over 200 activity sheets, which you then keep in a 3 ring binder as your students consumable workbook. This is great for families with multiple children - simply print as many copies as you require! As an added bonus, because the program is non-consumable, you can send it to our friends at Wycliffe Bible Translators (see page 1 in the curriculum for details) when you are finished with it to receive a credit towards the purchase of the next level, saving you even more money!
Don't speak any French, or haven't for years?
Not to worry - everything is recorded on the CD's for you. All 36 lessons (stories and vocabulary), the French phonograms, Everyday Vocabulary lists, French songs, French scripture memory verses, even The Lords Prayer in French are all there. Before releasing Level I we tested it out with 40 different families from all over North America, in places like Oklahoma, California, Quebec, New Brunswick; people with no French, some French, and plenty of French! Everyone had great success (not to mention lots of fun!) with Le Français Facile! But don't take our word for it! Read some of the comments our testing families had.
So are we! Le Français Facile! includes 3 different tracks that your students can take. The younger student track takes 3 years to complete, the Independent Learner track takes 2 years, and the Teenager/Adult track is 1 year. Every lesson includes an Independent Learner section (used by Teenager/Adults also) with specific instructions to allow them to complete the program with minimum assistance from the parent. In our family, our 3 year old colors printouts of the characters while our 5 and 7 year old do the lesson with Mom and our 12 year old works on it independently.
Read reviews of Le Français Facile!
If you've been searching for an easy to use French curriculum that anyone can use, whether they have any French background or not, then your search is over!


text:
Park and Manchester United Agree to 4-Year Deal
Park and Manchester United Agree to 4-Year Deal. June. 21, 2005 07:43. by Jae-Yun	Jung jaeyuna@donga.com.
"Mickey Mouse" Park Ji-sung, a 24-year-old soccer star of PSV Eindhoven, agreed to sign with Manchester United of the English Premiere League, Dutch press reported.
The Dutch daily newspaper De Telegraaf reported on June 20 that Park reached a 4-year deal with the prestigious English club. Some analysts expect that the contract could amount to as high as 16 billion won. The club has already guaranteed him a minimum of three million euro (about 3.7 billion won), not including bonuses, which could push the total annual salary over four billion won.
Manchester United and PSV Eindhoven are still under discussion regarding the transfer fee, the newspaper reported, with the Dutch club rejecting a five million euro (6.2 billion won) offer from Manchester United.
The Times, an English newspaper, also reported that Eindhoven has already appeared to be letting Park go, and that the two clubs unofficially reached terms on a 4-year contract.
The Daily Mirror, another English daily newspaper, also reported that the two clubs could agree to a 4.5 million (8.3 billion won) transfer fee this week.
Park`s agent, FS Corporation`s manager Kim Jeong-il confirmed the unofficial agreement between the two football clubs. However, Kim said that the negotiation over the player`s salary normally begins only after the negotiation over the trade conditions between the clubs concludes, and expects that an official announcement will soon be given.
Jae-Yun	Jung jaeyuna@donga.com


text: View [license information](http://golang.org/LICENSE) for the software contained in this image.


Subjects Estuaries--Mathematical models. ; Sediment transport--Mathematical models.
"August 1971." Technical report HYD 12-7104. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 73-75). U.S. Office of Water Resources Research.


text:
October 18, 2018|
Filed under: Featured, Lore
The Birth and History of the Lich King (Arthas-Part 2 of 3)
Before the Lich King was affiliated with the notorious Arthas Menethil, he was the orcish shaman Ner'zhul. The Lich King we know today is a spectral being with immense power, including the power to control the Scourge (undead of Azeroth). For such a powerful being, the Lich King is actually rather young in terms of demonic and evil power. But before we dive too far into the Lich King's story, let me get this out of the way for those that are new to the lore articles.
This is a large topic I have split into 3 parts. This, being the second part, is about the Lich King up until the point of Arthas donning the infamous helm. We're going to do down one story that has multiple tangents. I may touch on some of the applicable tangents, but that is not the intent of the article. If you'd like to dive deeper into any of these other stories, just let me know on any platform you may find me in.
Lastly, it's extremely important to recognize that this Warcraft universe is massive and old. Continuity is my number one priority when conveying these stories. That being said, there are quite a few unanswered questions within this world and what I present will be a culmination of cross referenced sources such as books, articles, videos, and the games themselves. So let's get into it!
NER'ZHUL, THE REVERED
Ner'zhul
Our story begins with Ner'zhul on the world of Draenor. He was chieftain and elder shaman of the Shadowmoon clan, yet every orc, regardless of clan or affiliation, looked to him due to his strong connection with the spirits. He was the closest thing to a leader that the orcish clans recognized before the formation of the Horde. Such strength and respect caught the attention of Gul'dan, who was instructed by the demon Kil'jaeden to find a suitable leader for the orcish invasion of Azeroth. Gul'dan approached Ner'zhul, claiming his village was attacked by ogres, prompting the chieftain's hospitality, taking him in as an apprentice.
Before arriving in the Shadowmoon village, Gul'dan had gone to the Throne of the Elements to confront the elemental spirits. He was successful in throwing the elements out of sync with each other, creating a rift where the shamans could no longer communicate with the elements.
Demonic Persuasions
Ner'zhul didn't cope well when it came down to the lack of communication from the elements. One of the consequences of that being out of order, was that he could no longer speak with his deceased wife, Rulkan. The strong shaman began slipping into grief and despair.
In his grief, he found his wife's spirit once again. As he dreamed, his wife would talk to him and give him advice. Among this advice and information, she mentioned that the draenei were the reason for the elemental issues. She divulged their plans to destroy the entire orcish race and also mentioned that the only way for the orcs to survive was to unite under one banner and destroy the draenei. The only problem with her insight was the fact it wasn't actually Rulkan. It was Kil'jaeden invading the dreams of Ner'zhul, disguised as his wife, in order to gather the orcs together as one.
Demon lord Kil'jaeden
Ner'zhul was skeptical at first. Not easily deceived by the demonic lord. However, Gul'dan also knew Ner'zhul would be hesitant to make such a bold move. So Gul'dan went to the Bladewind clan as a messenger of the Shadowmoon clan, prompting them to attack the draenei that they'd been fighting for years. The Bladewinds did indeed attack the draenei, only to be destroyed when the draenei launched an offensive campaign against them.
Seeing what the draenei had done to the Bladewinds (and not knowing of Gul'dan's involvement), Ner'zhul was furious and now wholeheartedly trusted in his visions. From the ashes of the Bladewind clan, Ner'zhul birthed the Orcish Horde, designed to destroy the draenei.
As Ner'zhul watched and participated in the attacks against the draenei, he became worried that he was indeed being deceived. These people weren't warmongerers. They were a relatively peaceful race until acted upon and forced to fight. Sensing his doubts, Kil'jaeden took a different approach to communicating with Ner'zhul. He appeared to him as a bright elemental entity. Stricken at first by the vision, Ner'zhul's astonishment gave way to his growing doubts, and he journeyed to Oshu'gun, a mountain where spirits reside.
When he arrived at Oshu'gun, he was appalled that the real spirit of his wife wasn't the one communicating with him all this time. Sickened by his acts, under the influence of the imposter, Ner'zhul returned to Shadowmoon valley to make things right. However, he found that Gul'dan had been at work while he was away, and had formed the Shadow Council and seized control of his people. Many members of the Shadow Council wanted to kill Ner'zhul, but Kil'jaeden needed him alive, so Gul'dan enjoyed torturing the once powerful shaman. Ner'zhul was left 'in power' simply as a symbol rather than the acting leader of the Orcish Horde.
Ner'zhul being tortured by the Shadow Council
Ner'zhul was no longer a threat to the Shadow Council, so he was ignored during their meetings. He became privy to the information that the demon Mannoroth was summoned into the world and the the orcs would be told to drink of his blood. Knowing of the honor of the Frostwolf clan, Ner'zhul sent a message to Durotan advising him to not partake of the blood in order to remain free of any demonic influence. Durotan received this message and heeded the advice to not drink the blood.
Horde-ish Efforts
With the orcs united under one banner, Gul'dan led them through the Dark Portal onto Azeroth. More information around the Horde found here, so I won't spend much time on it. While the Horde was gone to the wars, Ner'zhul was haunted by his feeling of betrayal and self loathing for his actions. He felt responsible for the scourging of Draenor and the potential downfall of the orcish race. After the Second War on Azeroth, Gul'dan was killed and the Dark Portal was destroyed, halting any further assaults on Azeroth from Draenor.
Ner'zhul lay low in Shadowmoon valley with his people for two years while he recovered from an injury he received from the Dark Portal's destruction. He was then approached by Teron Gorefiend, a previous disciple.
Gorefiend wanted to open new portals to explore other worlds as opportunities to give orcs a second chance at life. With Draenor dying, it was the best way for Ner'zhul to make amends for the problems he had caused the race. He agreed and set out to lead his people to a new age for orcs.
No Rest for the Wrongdoers
In order to open new portals, Ner'zhul had to find particular artifacts, among them was the skull of Gul'dan. He found each artifact and began searching for a new world to inhabit. He then noticed that the skull of Gul'dan began speaking to him. The apprentice continued whispering lies into his master's ear even after death. The subtle whisperings turned Ner'zhul's attention away from the Horde and more toward his own gain. He had fallen once again to the enticing voices of demonic powers.
Ner'zhul with the skull of Gul'dani
Casting a spell to create portals for his followers, Ner'zhul refined his focus from the Orcish Horde, down to his own desires and newfound power. Putting aside his desire to lead the Horde, he commanded his followers to enter the portals. One protested and was cast aside, followed by Ner'zhul going into one of the portals.
With Ner'zhul's power came a great cost to the world of Draenor. When he entered that portal, his spell split the world apart, thus creating the realm of Outland.
Ner'zhul and his followers were immediately captured by Kil'jaeden himself after entering the portals. Kil'jaeden had a new plan for the shaman, and tore his spirit from his body. Agreeing to serve the demon once again, Ner'zhul's spirit was merged with the Helm of Domination and encased in a throne of ice.
Helm of Domination
With the binding of Ner'zhul to the helm, his power grew exponentially and he became a spectral being of uncanny power. Kil'jaeden then sent the throne and helm to Azeroth where it landed in Northrend.
And that my friends, is how the Lich King was birthed and came to Azeroth.
Travisty090,
Tagged with: arthas, Azeroth, horde, orcs, warcraft, World of Warcraft
Prince Arthas of Lordaeron (Lich King-Part 1 of 3)
By Travisty090 // 1 year ago
The Struggle of the Horde (Part 2/2)
Astral Chain Review
Borderlands 3: Bringing that smile back to your face!
Daemon X Machina Review
Meet the Streamer: A one on one with LuluLuvely
Meet the Streamer: A one on one with PippenPrime – Segment 2
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The machinery industry is evolving rapidly, and adopting tools and methods to improve its products and processes. Best in class companies are evolving from the traditional engineering "build and break" process to virtual prototypes, and business survival is at stake.
MSC.Software is helping hundreds of machinery manufacturers to make the transition with CAE tools and supporting services that ensure quick deployment and rapid return on investment.


text:
The news, views and numbers you need to know about this month
News in numbers
$13bn
US Air Force estimate for the cost of setting up the US Space Force
$5bn
Value of the deal between India and Russia for the S-400 air defence system
$8.2bn
Budget for the Swiss 'Air 2030' plan to upgrade air defences
Value of Boeing's contract for the T-X training aircraft for the US Air Force
Value of US Navy contract for ten Arleigh Burke-class destroyers awarded to General Dynamics
New, lower price per unit for the F-35A in low-rate initial production lot 11, down 5.4% from the lot 10 cost
Budget set aside for aircraft procurement in the US FY19 defense appropriations bill
Quotes from the industry
"NATO Allies stand in solidarity with the decision by the Dutch and British governments to call out Russia on its blatant attempts to undermine international law and institutions. Russia must stop its reckless pattern of behaviour, including the use of force against its neighbours, attempted interference in election processes, and widespread disinformation campaigns."
Statement by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on a Russian cyber operation targeting the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague
"All facets of the manufacturing and defense industrial base are currently under threat."
Finding of a White House report on the state of the US military-industrial base
"Our objectives following [the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks] were to destroy al-Qaida, kill Osama bin Laden, and prevent a recurrence of an ungoverned space in Afghanistan that allowed for terrorists to plot and plan attacks on Americans and our allies. We accomplished all of those objectives years ago."
US Representative and Marine Coprs veteran Ruben Gallego argues for an end to the conflict in Afghanistan
"We will bring every tool to bear against them in every corner of cyberspace."
Howard Marshall of the FBI's cyber division on a joint US and UK response to alleged Russian cyber attacks.
Around the w orld
The US Army has launched the design competition for its Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft. The request for submissions follows a draft solicitation released in June outlining plans two have two different helicopter prototypes by 2023. Potential contenders planning to submit their designs include Sikorsky and Bell.
Source: DefenseNews
The UK military is increasing its presence in the Arctic to counter Russian threats in the region. Royal Marines will join Norway's Arctic training programme. The Royal Air Force will patrol over Iceland with Typhoons and the P-8 Poseidon will be deployed in the region from 2020 to monitor submarine threats.
The US National Nuclear Security Administration has completed the final design review of the B61-12 life extension programme. The nuclear gravity bomb is intended to replace the military's existing stock of B61 bombs starting in 2020. Aircraft cleared for its use include the F/A-18, F-15E, F16, B-2 and B52, and the British, German and Italian Tornado aircraft among others.
Source: US Department of Energy
The US is expected to announce in the coming days that it will offer cyber defence capabilities to NATO allies if required, a senior Pentagon official has said. The move comes in response to growing concerns about Russia's cyber operations.
Making the announcement, Katie Wheelbarger, the principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, said the move would make clear that NATO is capable of countering Russian cyber efforts and would help in creating a more coherent cyber policy across the alliance.
Source: Atlantic Council
NATO members including European nations and Canada have pushed back against accusations from US President Trump that they don't spend enough on defence. Sharing the burden of defence costs is expected to be a key topic at the NATO summit this week.
The US Marine Corps F-35B has flown its first combat mission over Afghanistan. The strikes were carried out by F-35Bs assigned to the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit against a fixed target "in support of ground clearance operations," and were deemed a success by the ground force commander, according to a statement put out by US Naval Forces Central Command.
Source: Military Times


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Transporting a rooftop unit on top of a commercial building with a gantry crane. Note the plywood to protect the roof surface.
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When Integrity Air replaced the ductless outdoor unit in the foreground we used a bracket to secure it to an exterior wall in the event of a hurricane. This also made future rooftop repair easier. Prior units (as in the background) were merely set on lumber on a flat roof.
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I hadn't been to Forest Farm for a while but, when I heard some rather nice fungi had been found, I was there like a shot (more on that tomorrow). And, of course, whilst there I had to spend some quality time with the lovely birds that can be seen in this beautiful nature reserve at any time of the year. Now, in early autumn, there are a lot of young birds, and they're always fun, and hungry, and often quite confiding.


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Cheltenham Racecourse
Meet the man who discovered a love for exercise after being diagnosed with cancer
Tony Hollister is tacking four events at racecourses including Cheltenham
Melissa JonesSenior Digital Reporter
16:13, 13 FEB 2019
A cancer survivor and retired bookmaker is taking part in several special running events across UK racecourses, including one which takes in the stunning scenery of Cheltenham.
Tony Hollister has signed up to the Classic Run Series, which is being run by Hollicom Events, The Jockey Club and Reach.
It features 10k races at Prestbury Park (September 1), Aintree (September 8), Newmarket (October 20) and Ayr (October 6).
Tony was diagnosed with prostate cancer in the summer of 2014 and after treatment, he discovered a new love for exercise.
It led to him losing nearly four stone for charity and raising money for charity.
Tony and Liz in action
When he comes under starter's orders at Cheltenham Racecourse, he will be doing more good work.
"As someone who had spent 45 years in the betting industry, and who had a real love of horse racing, the chance to migrate my newfound enjoyment of running onto the racecourse was too much to resist," he said.
"I now saw an opportunity to combine my running with visiting four lovely racecourses, two of which, Cheltenham and Newmarket, that I have already been to and also to raise money for a cause close to my heart, namely Prostate Cancer UK."
Tony's journey began five years ago when he visited his GP because he was concerned about the number of times he was using the toilet in the night.
Actor Simon Callow starring in a 2001 advert to explicitly warn men of the early symptoms of prostate cancer
A biopsy followed an examination and prostate cancer was confirmed in all 12 cores that were taken.
Aged 64 at the time, he faced scans to see if it had spread elsewhere, but fortunately it had not.
Nurse 'let down by NHS' uses final heartbreaking message to push for an independent cervical cancer review
Tony started hormone therapy, to reduce the testosterone the cancer feeds on.
"I started my radiotherapy in January 2015 and the 37 sessions were completed in the March," he said.
"A PSA test returned a level of 0.1 (almost undetectable) and the consultant oncologist told me that I would remain on the hormone treatment for a further three years, with a PSA test and review every six months."
In September 2015 he joined the Southport and West Lancashire Prostate Cancer Support Group.
He met guest speaker Lucy Holmes at one of their meetings, who ran an exercise and healthy diet programme funded by Macmillan Cancer Support.
Valentine's Day weather and when to see the romantic Gloucestershire sunset
"Her enthusiasm for the programme was infectious and, as I was carrying rather a lot of excess baggage, I decided that the New Year would see a new me," Tony said.
"In January 2017 I got a referral to the programme and had an assessment before being given access to the gym at Dunes Leisure Centre, with a programme of exercises, together with access to an hourly circuit class once a week."
He plucked up enough courage to enter the Mad Dog 10k Run with his partner Liz and they raised more than £800.
"The atmosphere was brilliant with entertainment every kilometre to spur the runners on," said Tony.
Cheltenham Festival 2019
Day three weather forecast
TV and live stream info
Cheltenham Races dress code
Royal Family announcement on visit
Gold Cup Day live updates
What tickets are still available?
Tips for value bets
Gold Cup runners and odds
"Liz and I enjoyed our running experience so much that a month later we started doing the local ParkRun on a Saturday morning, including volunteering as marshals whenever we couldn't run."
Now he is counting down the days to the first event of the series in Cheltenham.
Find out more at theclassicrunseries.co.uk.
Special Valentine's Day offer
Enter one of the races before midnight on Valentine's Day and you could be in with a chance of winning a 'romantic night for two.'
The prize for the winners is £100 towards a meal in a local restaurant. They will be selected at random and announced on February 18.
GloucesterInside the damp, mouldy Gloucester house where just one radiator works - and it's been like this for a yearShe claims that it has led to her son becoming unwell with chest infections.
GloucesterDisturbing video shows Gloucester burglary in progress before masked intruders spot cameraThree people caught on security footage during Hempsted break in
WeatherHow long Met Office and Weather Channel say fog will linger across GloucestershireIt's going to hang around for a while and return on Thursday
BBCThis Country series three will be the last, BBC revealsBBC Three's mockumentary due to be available from Monday, February 17, 2020... but there's a sting in the tail


Electric Tiger by IGT is a medium to high variance slot having 5 reels and 15 paylines in total. The theme on which this slot is based is quite interesting as it is inspired by a classic fruit machine. There are a number of different fruits involved in the game in the form of various icons, and each one of them gives you a different payout. Not only the graphics and gameplay will impress you but if you consider the soundtrack of the game it is also really impressive and makes the whole situation interesting for a player.
"Details for Electric Tiger Game"
Wild: The wild is represented by an Electric Tiger in this slot. It has the ability to replace each and every other symbol except the bonus one. It can help you win 120 times your stake if you land 5 of these on the active paylines.
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Electric Tiger mobile is an interesting game for every online gambler because it presents multiple bonus features as well as special icons. There is no need for a PC to play it as it is available for a smartphone user as well as compatible with a tablet. You can easily play Electric Tiger for real money on JackMobileCasinos as well as on multiple other casinos online. Try to play the free version first if you are a beginner and always start with the smallest possible bet.
Overall it is an exciting online gambling slot for any player who wants a medium variance slot with affordable betting range. The RTP is 96.25%. Although there are no jackpots involved, you can win hundreds of times your stake by just landing the special icons and making use of bonus features which will definitely increase your interest in playing this slot.


Ali A. Ali A Ali, Arjumand.Transplant and Immunology. In: Dangleben DA, Lee J, Madbak F. Dangleben D.A., Lee J, Madbak F Eds. Dale A. Dangleben, et al.eds. ABSITE Slayer New York, NY: McGraw-Hill; . http://accesssurgery.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?bookid=2500&sectionid=201385141. Accessed April 20, 2019.
Ali A. Ali A Ali, Arjumand.. "Transplant and Immunology." ABSITE Slayer Dangleben DA, Lee J, Madbak F. Dangleben D.A., Lee J, Madbak F Eds. Dale A. Dangleben, et al. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, , http://accesssurgery.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?bookid=2500&sectionid=201385141.
Topics related to transplant are usually memorization-based.
Quickly review transplant medications and the types of rejection the night before the test.
What cells produce interferon-γ and what are its functions?
What cells produce interferon-α, β and what are their functions?
What cells produce tumor necrosis factor-α, β and what are their functions?
What cells produce transforming growth factor-β and what are its functions?
What cells produce lymphotoxin and what are its functions?
What are the 2 commercially available antilymphocyte globulins used for induction immediately after transplantation?


Another Simply Bogus Blog: Brownie with Sugar free!
I love brownies like dogs love bones! I am not a good cook but when there is Internet there is way to do impossible feats and I finally succeeded in cooking brownies with sugar free as my today's dessert. I'll be sharing this sugar free brownie recipe with you.
You will need:- 100 gm of butter, two eggs, five teaspoonful of Sugar free, one cup of chopped chocolate, half teaspoon baking powder, one cup flour, one spoonful vanilla extract and a pinch of salt.
This is how you need to cook it:- Mix the chopped chocolate and butter and heat it over low flame while stirring the mixture intermittently till it melts fully and mixes uniformly. Pour rest of your ingredients in a container and mix them uniformly. Add the previous molten chocolate mixture to this container and stir well once more so that everything blends proportionately. At last add the flour and mix it nicely to the preformed mixture. Put an aluminium foil over a baking pan and pour the content over it. Insert the pan an oven preheated to 400 degrees F. Bake it for half an hour. Take it out gently and let it cool down in half an hour. Cut it into yummy pieces of brownies and enjoy your own cooked sugar free brownies!


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Suspect Arrested After Barricading Himself Inside Westminster Motel
WESTMINSTER, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — A suspect was taken into custody Friday afternoon after police say he barricaded himself inside a motel in Westminster.
According to Massachusetts State Police, several units including the Special Tactical Operations Team and a crisis negotiator responded to the barricaded suspect at the Rodeway Inn on East Main Street at around midday Friday.
MSP said the man was wanted in connection with a shooting that happened earlier Friday in Orange, Mass.
According to Western Mass News, at around 10 a.m. one person was taken to a hospital with a gunshot wound after a shooting occurred on Lois Street.
State Police said the male suspect was taken into custody shortly after 1 p.m. after he exited a room at the motel in apparent attempt to enter a motor vehicle.
"The Massachusetts State Police K9 Unit and a Trooper from the MSP Bomb Squad also responded," MSP said. "The Bomb Squad Trooper was prepared to deploy a robot into the room where the suspect was barricaded in order to provide the teams outside the room visual situational awareness of the suspect's position. The suspect exited the room and was apprehended by the STOP Team prior to the robot's deployment, however."


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Home Opinion Is Britain Fueling The Hong Kong Protests?
Is Britain Fueling The Hong Kong Protests?
China, making a departure from its usual caution, has accused Britain of fuelling unrest in Hongkong. GVS analyses the background.
China on Friday condemned an incident in which Hong Kong's justice secretary was jostled by masked demonstrators in London, and accused Britain of fueling 'pro-democracy unrest' in Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the country. China blames the western countries for supporting protesters under the cover of democracy and freedom of expression. However, prior to the justice secretary's incident, China did not explicitly name the United States of America or Britain for backing the miscreants.
China says Britain fuelling protests after Hong Kong minister jostled https://t.co/RjxQoV2j9n pic.twitter.com/Et8n6XdL3c
— CNA (@ChannelNewsAsia) November 15, 2019
According to media reports, Teresa Cheng, Hong Kong's most-celebrated Secretary for Justice, fell while being surrounded by protesters as she prepared to attend an event on Thursday night in London. She regained her feet moments later and was escorted away with no visible signs of injury in video footage of the incident.
But China called it an "appalling attack" and has demanded Britain to offer security protection to the Hong Kong minister. "If the British side does not change its wrong practices, and continues to add fuel to the fire, sow discord and instigate others, and make false countercharges, then it will bring calamity on itself," foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at a regular press briefing.
Read More: Stop Glorifying violent Hong Kong Protesters: China blasts France and EU
Geng said that failing to act on "anti-China elements" in Hong Kong will not only cause trouble in the semi-autonomous territory but will also "cause serious interference and destruction to the international community including the United Kingdom."
He called for Britain to "bring the culprits to justice, and safeguard the personal security and dignity of all Chinese personnel in the UK."
Hong Kong: Brief Political Background
Hong Kong was governed as a British Colony, from 1842 when China defeated in the First Opium War had ceded Hong Kong to Britain through the "Treaty of Nanking" in August 1842.
Chinese sources told GVS that Britain tried making radical changes in Hong Kong's political system through the "Reform Package of 1994" when Chris Patten was the governor.
This British mandate was expanded on surrounding areas for the next 99 years, through the "New Territories Lease" in 1898. In 1997 Britain returned Hong Kong and surrounding areas back to China under an arrangement in which China agreed to continue Hong Kong's British created a political system for next fifty years in what was then called, "One Country, two Systems"
What Do the Protestors Want?
The extradition bill which triggered the first protest was introduced in April and would have allowed for criminal suspects to be extradited to mainland China under certain circumstances.
Opponents claimed that it might expose the people of Hong Kong to unfair trials and violent treatment. They also argued that the bill could be used to target activists and journalists and would also give China greater influence over Hong Kong.
Thousands of people came out on the streets to protest and it was finally decided by leader Carrie Lam that the bill would be suspended.
After almost six months of protests, Hong Kong's government is being willfully blind to the chaos it's creating | Analysis by CNN's @jgriffiths https://t.co/L0dJedTQ2T pic.twitter.com/ZWnCFsYa3C
— CNN International (@cnni) November 15, 2019
The protests, however, continued to grip the city as the people feared that the bill would be revived. Protestors called for the bill to be withdrawn completely. The bill was finally withdrawn in September but the protestors said that it was a little too late.
The protestors have five demands in total. One of their demands has been met and that was the withdrawal of the bill. The second demand that they have is for the protests to not be categorized as riots. They also demand amnesty for the arrested protestors and an independent inquiry into alleged police brutality. They also call for the implementation of complete universal suffrage.
Protests Getting Violent
The Hong Kong protests which began almost six months ago are now turning violent. The young college students are challenging the writ of the state, officials claim. Many of the troublemakers have also been arrested by the city police. Some analysts believe that "the protests themselves become more violent and disruptive" because of the government's inability to adequately read out the underlying causes of this large-scale unrest.
However, others argue that the current wave of violence and use of extralegal means i.e. attacking police officials is demonstrative of the fact that these protesters are desperate to get the attention of the international media to compel the government to address their demands for so-called democratic reforms.
Read more: Pressure builds with more protests in Hong Kong, but what's the end game?
Young Hong Kongers, see the police as the enemy and attack them whenever they are found off guard. The police also brutalize the protestors in return. Unfortunately, Hong Kong protests have seen their first death and there might be more to come. A protester who fell several stories under suspicious circumstances died on Friday. Another is fighting for his life after being shot at close range by police on Monday. A man who was shouting Pro-Beijing slogans was also set on fire by the protestors and is now in a very critical condition.
West Targeting China Under Pretexts of Democracy?
It is worth noting that the Chinese government and state-run media have repeatedly blamed Western countries of hypocrisy in their attitude to violent protests in Spain, Chile, and Hong Kong over the past week
If Beijing puts troops in Hong Kong, Washington should suspend the city's trade status, US commission says
Recommendations come after China calls for tougher crackdown on anti-government protests. https://t.co/YbD6B5EI40
— Amrita Bhinder (@amritabhinder) November 15, 2019
The western media is presenting the ongoing public demonstrations in Hong Kong as a reflection of 'a powerful struggle for democracy'. The protests started after the proposed legislation of the 2019 Hong Kong extradition. The New York Times opines that these protesters are demanding democratic reforms in the region without any delay.
Hua Chunying, Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman, recently said that the response by Western countries to the protests showed "democracy and human rights are only a pretentious cover for Western interference in Hong Kong affairs."
China accuses West of double standard over Hong Kong protests after disorder in streets of Barcelona and London https://t.co/YoGjVMLscg
— Michael Carey (@Kitehawk1) October 22, 2019
Chinese officials maintain that western countries continue to pose challenges to China under the pretexts of democracy and human rights. "More and more people have come to realize that 'human rights', 'democracy' and 'beautiful sights' preached by some Western politicians are just illusory as a mirage in the desert," she said.
In a commentary published in the state-run Beijing News, former Chinese diplomat Wang Zhen wrote: "the disastrous impact of a 'chaotic Hong Kong' has begun to influence the Western world."
Read More: US must stop trying to 'mess up' Hong Kong: China
Chinese sources told GVS that Britain tried making radical changes in Hong Kong's political system through the "Reform Package of 1994" when Chris Patten was the governor. Chinese believe that while Britain governed Hong Kong with an iron hand for 150 years from 1842 onwards, it suddenly created the controversy of expanded political rights from 1994 onwards to make things difficult for the post-British administration. Chinese believe that the pro-democracy movement of Hong Kong is being sponsored from abroad and sees the actions of western media and now the US House of Representatives in that light.
China VS Democracy: Hong Kong's celebrations politically charged
China's Huawei gets Indian approval for participation in 5G trials
Huawei says 'survival' top priority as sales fall short
Hong Kong protesters boycott schools, block trains
Pakistan crush Hong Kong in Asia Cup
Afghan peace talks: Deadlock in Doha?
Hong Kong Police Shoot Protestor and Spark Further Fury


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https://www.barrons.com/articles/microsoft-stock-price-earnings-51635280789
Microsoft's Earnings Show the Cloud and PCs Are Still Going Strong
Eric J. Savitz
Updated Oct. 27, 2021 8:45 am ET / Original Oct. 26, 2021 4:41 pm ET
Microsoft posted better-than-expected results for the quarter, driven by strength in its cloud-software operation, as all three of its primary business segments turned in more robust numbers than anticipated. Plus, the company projected continued strength in the December quarter.
For its fiscal first quarter, Microsoft (ticker: MSFT) reported revenue of $45.3 billion, up 22% from the year-ago quarter, and above the Wall Street analyst consensus for $44 billion. Non-GAAP profits were $2.27 a share, 20 cents above the Street...
Microsoft posted better-than-expected results for the quarter, driven by strength in its cloud-software operation, as all three of its primary business segments turned in more robust numbers than anticipated.