7 New Netflix Shows in August 2020, and the Best Reasons to Watch – IndieWire

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1. Hoops (available August 21)

Why Should I Watch? Between Big Mouth, F Is For Family, and The Midnight Gospel, Netflix has a strong slate of adult animated comedies, and thats without counting the services now ended but endlessly re-watchable episodes of BoJack. Hoops, starring and executive produced by Jake Johnson, looks to join those lofty ranks. Created by Ben Hoffman, Hoops follows Coach Ben Hopkins, a pathetic, angry, foul-mouthed high school basketball coach whos convinced he can make it to the big leagues if he can whip his wayward squad into shape. His father, Barry (voiced by Rob Riggle), is a former professional basketball star, and he wants to help his son succeed even though he knows hes a long way from being the man he should be. Hard-R hijinks ensue, with Chris Miller and Phil Lord (Clone High, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) also on board as executive producers.

Bonus Reason: If youre not familiar with creator Ben Hopkins, perhaps you know him by the stage name Wheeler Walker Jr., a (comedic) country singer whose first album, Redneck Shit, debuted on PornHub. Rolling Stone called that release unfathomably obscene and undeniably offensive for tracks like Cant Fuck You Off My Mind and Sit on My Face, and Walkers follow-ups only pushed the X-rated satire further. (Yup, thats another pull-quote from Rolling Stone.) Now, Hoffman is barely hiding behind another character via Coach Hopkins. Will the results be as extreme? Obscene? Offensive? Netflix has pushed those buttons to great success in other areas of late, so perhaps the strategy will help Hoops make a name for itself, too.

Nickelodeon

Why Should I Watch? If Netflix originals are doing a solid job with new adult animated offerings, than the streamers acquisition team is killing it in anime. After striking gold with Avatar the Last Airbender earlier this summer, Netflix invested in the sequel series to premiere this August. Created by Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino for Nickelodeon in 2012, The Legend of Korra follows the eponymous lead (voiced by Youre the Worst star Janet Varney) through four seasons (Books 1-4) of action, splendid (HD) visuals, and thoughtful commentary on real-world strife. Like Aang before her, Korra is an Avatar who can control the four elements: water, earth, fire, and air. Throughout the series, the hotheaded warrior has to maintain balance in a world facing political and spiritual unrest, though the final season sees her look inward in another imaginative pivot. Its quite a journey for anyone already caught up in the Avatar world

Bonus Reason: and great prep for Netflixs original adaptation. Back in 2018, the streaming giant announced plans for a live-action version of Avatar: The Last Airbender, hoping to do right by a beloved anime property that many felt was mishandled by M. Night Shyamalans 2010 movie. Theres still no word on a release date for the new series, but Netflix is certainly sparking renewed interest by releasing the original series and its sequel.

Why Should I Watch? Brandys beloved 90s sitcom, Moesha, is one of a handful of sitcoms focused on Black families that Netflix has licensed for release in the coming months. Originally planned for CBS before moving to its permanent home at UPN, the half-hour comedy centers on a well-off Black family living in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Moeshas diary entries open and close most episodes (shortly before Carrie Bradshaws essays would do the same on Sex and the City), which capture the titular leads days in high school, as well as her family life. Whether youre looking for a little nostalgia during your time at home or eager to finally see an oft-discussed comedy thats been previously unavailable otherwise, Moesha will give you 50-plus hours of much-needed entertainment.

Bonus Reason: Besides making a star out of Brandy, Moesha followed the grand tradition of most great sitcoms by tackling a number of difficult issues head-on. (The later seasons take on an infidelity arc thats a real humdinger.) So dont worry: This isnt a guilty pleasure or braindead bingeing; Moesha pushes the envelope, too.

Netflix

Why Should I Watch? Still looking for more animated offerings in August? Netflix has you covered with the third season of its kawaii counterculture cartoon, Aggretsuko. Originally the mascot for Sanrio, a Japanese company that designs, licenses, and specializes in super-cute products, Aggretsuko debuted as an anime musical-comedy in 2018, following an accountant named Retsuko who takes out her frustrations via death metal karaoke sessions. Episodes are pretty short about 15 minutes each but the length helps maximize the juxtaposition between crazy adorable creatures (Retsuko is a red panda) pursuing aggressively extreme outlets. (Retsuko eventually turns to marriage as solace from her office aggravations.) Try them out for yourself and see what all the much-deserved fuss is about.

Bonus Reason: One? Weve got five! For more hooks into Aggretsuko, check out our Season 1 breakdown. Heres a small taste: Retsukos name roughly translates to Rage-child in English, which is awesome by itself.

Courtesy of Netflix

Why Should I Watch? A six-part documentary series from Shaul Schwarz and Christina Clusiau (Trophy), Immigration Nation examines Americas immigration process through the daily lives of ICE agents, activists, lawmakers, attorneys, and a sizable number of undocumented immigrants. Schwarz and Clusiau, who shot footage for more than three years, look at an array of immigrant stories, including longtime residents and more recent arrivals, and asks the hard questions about how our nation can live up to the words inscribed on the Statue of Liberty.

Bonus Reason: Early reviews have been strong. Varietys Chief TV Critic Caroline Framke writes Immigration Nation provides a damning indictment of the labyrinthe systems that make ICE so powerful, and a wrenching examination of the human cost its policies have wrought. Times Judy Berman also utilizes the striking descriptor when calling the docuseries as damning for the executive branch as it is illuminating for civilians. Heres hoping the timing of this release encourages voters to do what they can to change things.

Why Should I Watch? Another popular UPN entry, The Game originated as a spin-off of the sitcom Girlfriends (which starred Tracee Ellis Ross) before running one season longer than its predecessor. Mara Brock Akil created both, and recent Emmy nominee Tia Mowry leads The Game as Dr. Melanie Barnett-Davis who, when the series begins, has given up an offer to study at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine to support her husbands professional football career. Melanie quickly befriends her new football family, including Tasha (Wendy Raquel Robinson) and Kelly (Brittany Daniel), while she learns to juggle her responsibilities to her sport with her passion for practicing medicine. Honestly, the real answer to Why Should I Watch? is simply Tia Mowry (now Tia Mowry-Hardrict), but for those who wanted a few more names or a hint at the plot, there you go.

Bonus Reason: In addition to Mowry, The Game featured a slew of famous or soon-to-be famous faces. Moesha star Brandy showed up in later seasons, along with future Insecure star Jay Ellis. Rick Fox, Lee Majors, and Janet Varney were all part of the recurring cast, while guest stars like John Singleton, Jennifer Hudson, MoNique, Gabrielle Union, Serena Williams, Vivica A. Fox, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Jennifer Lopez kept audiences on their toes week in and week out.

Courtesy of Netflix

Why Should I Watch? Whats cuter than animal-centered nature docs? How about an animal-centered nature doc focused on tiny animals? Exotic butterflies, everyday mice, weird-looking lizards, and more take the spotlight in this new Netflix docuseries that dramatizes little animals big adventures across the United States. Expect plenty of slo-motion shots and close calls for these Tiny Creatures, all in bright, beautiful high-definition.

Bonus Reason: Who better to narrate a docuseries on tiny animals than a big, burly man with a buttery baritone? Evil star Mike Colter will talk you through each little creatures story though heres hoping this show will avoid any demon sightings.

Iron Man: Armored Adventures Seasons 1-2 (available now)My Perfect Landing Season 1 (available now)Nagi-Asu: A Lull in the Sea Season 1 (available now)The Next Step Season 6 (available now)Operation Ouch Season 1 (available now)Connected (available now)Toradora! Season 1 (available now)Transformers Rescue Bots Academy Season 2 (available now)Mundo Misterio / Mystery Lab (available August 4)Worlds Most Wanted (available August 5)The Rain Season 3 (available August 6)Alta Mar / High Seas Season 3 (available August 7)The Magic School Bus Rides Again Kids in Space (available August 7)Nailed It: Mexico Season 2 (available August 7)The New Legends of Monkey Season 2 (available August 7)Selling Sunset Season 3 (available August 7)(Un)Well (available August 12)El rob del siglo (available August 14)Glow Up Season 2 (available August 14)Teenage Bounty Hunters (available August 14)3% Season 4 (available August 14)Rita Season 5 (available August 15)Stranger Season 2 (available August 15)Glitch Techs Season 2 (available August 17)DeMarcus Family Rules (available August 19)Biohackers (available August 20)Lucifer Season 5 (available August 21)Rust Valley Restorers Season 3 (available August 21)Trinkets Season 2 (available August 25)Million Dollar Beach House (available August 26)Cobra Kai Seasons 1-2 (available August 28)I AM A KILLER: Released (available August 28)

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7 New Netflix Shows in August 2020, and the Best Reasons to Watch - IndieWire

Transformers Join the Battle in World of Warships Game Announced – Tformers.com

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Transform and Ship OUT! That's right, the Transformers take to the high seas with a new twist on the World of Warships game that brings together historic recreations of battleships with futuristic Transforming robots from outer space. This may be one of the strangest crossovers yet with G1 style Megatron, Rumble, Optimus Prime, and Bumblebee, at least, going into battle with their very own ships, add-ons and even special missions. Watch the game trailer and read the official copy below for more details.

Four iconic Transformers characters will be released initially as unique ship skins and commanders with recognizable phrases and voiceovers. Optimus Prime and Bumblebee will set the stage for the heroic Autobots, with Megatron and Rumble to be available as their eternal foes the Decepticons.

The coming Transformers collaboration with World of Warships will also bring a host of other new content, including special Transformers containers, dedicated in-game Combat missions, camouflages, commemorative flags and patches, and more.

Keep an eye out on the official World of Warships website. Your first port of call for new ship releases!

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Transformers Join the Battle in World of Warships Game Announced - Tformers.com

Great white shark that pinged off Atlantic City, Ocean City leaves South Jersey – Press of Atlantic City

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Where is Isaias now? Where is the forecasted path?

New Jersey remains in the forecast cone. Options from a graze up the coast to an inland track near the Delaware River are possible. Tropical storm warnings extend from Boston, down the I-95 corridor to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

As of 3 p.m., the National Weather Service Hazards for the Northeast. Tropical storm warnings are in dark red.

It is important to note that the heaviest rain will be to the west of Isaias' center. Meanwhile, the strongest winds will be to the east.

"Isaas" is the Spanish and Portuguese word for the biblical Isaiah. It is pronounced ees-ah-EE-ahs.

Isaias joins Tropical Storm Fay, which made landfall just south of Long Beach Island on July 10, as the two storms put the region in the forecast cone.

The cone represents a two-thirds probability of where the center of the low pressure center is.

The storm will slip through a weakness in a large high pressure system, which expands from the Gulf of Mexico into much of the Atlantic Ocean.

This map shows the steering patterns of the atmosphere between the 300 to 850 millibar level, between about 30,000 and 5,000 feet high. Isaias will slip through the weakness in the clockwise spinning high pressure system off the coast of Florida.

One it reaches Georgia, the steering patterns sharply moves west to east. While the storm won't curve immediately out to sea, there will be a turn to the northeast as it moves north, hence why New Jersey is in the forecast cone.

Forecast model guidance continues to narrow. A landfall will be possible, or can a pass two to three hundred miles out to sea.

The model track guidance for Tropical Storm Iasias, as of 8 a.m. Friday.

There are three options at play. However, it will not be until Saturday when they can be narrowed down. If the storm makes landfall before reaching New Jersey, that will weaken the storm, and vice versa. The first two scenarios are favored, with the third one looking less and less likely.

Option 1:

The European model from Wednesday night is a good representation of what scenario 1 would look like. The center of the storm is well out to sea.

Isaias stays 200 to 300 miles out to sea, passing between late Monday and Tuesday.

Spotty, but heavy, rain bands will pass. Winds would be gusty, but likely would not be enough to bring damage.

The real concerns would be out on the water. Given the full moon Monday and the onshore winds. Multiple rounds of minor or moderate coastal flooding would be likely. High seas would be present, with dangerous rip currents, too. During Tropical Storm Fay, a teenage lost his life in Ventnor while swimming with two friends the evening of the storm. In Ocean City, two 18-year-old girls were brought to shore by city police the following morning.

A heat wave that drives you to the shore, warm water temperature that draws you to the surf

Option 2:

The storm hugs the Jersey Shore. While the western side of the storm is usually the safer side, since the winds around the counter-clockwise spinning system goes against the northerly direction of the storm's movement, worse impacts than option 1 are possible.

Flooding rain, damaging winds at the coast, minor to moderate coastal flooding, dangerous rip currents and high seas will all be likely.

This being said, a track coast to the close would likely mean land interaction with North Carolina. If that happens, the storm would weaken. This could mean the difference between a strong tropical storm and weak, less organized one.

The Global Forecast System, American, model paints this picture. Though, note that the exact track of the storm should not be paid attention to. Rather, note how organized the storm is.

The GFS, American model, paints tropical storm force sustained winds at the shore Tuesday morning. Emergency personnel will not respond to a 9-1-1 call when winds are above tropical storm force.

Option 3:

Isaias makes landfall in Florida or the Southeastern United States and the center of the storm passes to the west of the state. That is illustrated on the western edge of the forecast cone.

The storm would likely be a remnants storm by then, or perhaps a Tropical Depression. However, flooding rains, some coastal flooding, dangerous seas, rip currents and high surf would be likely.

The Canadian weather forecast model from the Thursday night model run. Note the center of the storm is inland and would likely be a remnant storm, or a tropical depression by then.

Saturday.

By then, the storm will be near Florida. In the weakness of the large, Gulf of Mexico to Atlantic Ocean high pressure system, there will be a better idea on how the steering currents will move the storm.

Tropical Storm watches may go up Saturday night or Sunday morning, 48 hours before tropical storm force (39 mph or greater) winds arrive.

The Press of Atlantic City's Hurricane section of the Weather Center has the information you need to know to protect yourself and learn more about tropical systems in South Jersey.

Ten tropical storms and hurricanes have made landfall in South Jersey since 1900. Here's the list, newly updated with Tropical Storm Fay, which made landfall July 10. As long as the storm makes landfall in New Jersey, it will be the first time with two storms making landfall within the same year.

Making landfall on the Delaware Bay side of Cape May County on the morning of August 21, 1971, Doria was responsible for an F-2 tornado, with winds over 100 mph, near Cape May .

According to the Weather Prediction Center, 3 to 7 inches of rain fell in most of the region.

An active 2020 hurricane season was predictedby Colorado State University. With Isaias, 2020 continues its record breaking pace to hurricane season, beating out the historic 2005 year.

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Great white shark that pinged off Atlantic City, Ocean City leaves South Jersey - Press of Atlantic City

Breaking up is hard to do, but sometimes it needs to be done – The Japan Times

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When I first came to Japan as a university English teacher in 1993, the hydrangea were in full bloom and I was 29 years old. Four years later, in 1997, I met my best friend here when we both started working for the same company at the exact same time. Both still relatively new to Japan, we bonded quickly over the strange customs, challenges and fathomless possibilities presented to us each day.

Since we both worked full time, we met every Sunday morning over coffee, often at a cafe where we chortled, gesticulated and expressed outright wonder as we struggled to understand Japan. We didnt care what others thought we were playful, untamed, carefree.

When I met her, I had just recentered my life by moving to Shiraishi Island in the Seto Inland Sea where I could satisfy a longing to live closer to nature: Where I could watch the tide whisper in under a full moon, taste the dew on the morning glories and swim in briny waters with swaying seagrass tickling my toes.

During that first year on the island, an abandoned kitten came upon me when I was running in the mountains. Imploring me to pick her up, she rested in my palm like a fragile, brilliant white goose egg. When I showed her to my best friend, she was smitten. It was just a normal cat, of course, but she told everyone it was the most elegant jewel in the whole world because it was mine. Thats just how she was.

My friend and I shared many of the same passions: the environment, sustainability and traditional Japanese culture, to name a few. She visited me often, and in our little island paradise we bathed in a sea of pink sunsets and danced in the shimmering summer air to appease the warrior spirits of the Battle of the Heike from 800 years ago.

When the autumn winds came, we wandered the ancient pilgrimage route while picking persimmons and memorized the Heart Sutra. In winter, her charm alone coaxed invitations into the warm island houses of Buddhist priests, shamans and folk dancers.

Time trudged on, I bought my island house and planted iris. She took on more work and stayed later each night at the company. We still met once a week, but eventually switched to Saturdays. When my parents came to visit me in Japan, they thought my friend was terrific, and returned home satisfied I was succeeding in this country with such wonderful support. It was true that she helped me get through the growing pains of this culture, just by being there.

When the internet moved life online, we did too, no longer meeting at a cafe for coffee. Instead, we caught up once a week as time permitted since meeting online gave us more freedom, less structure.

My friend was sophisticated, charming and more popular than I ever was, but she shared her vast cohort of admirers and many journeyed out to this remote, misty, plum-blossomed island in the Inland Sea she talked so much about. Some even became my life-long friends.

But as time rolls on, people mature and, inevitably, change. I married and her job made even more demands on her time. Japan was in a deep recession and she took a pay cut. We kept our chins up.

A decade later, my parents had passed away and hers separated after a long marriage. Her father took a new wife and things were never quite the same for her. So many adjustments to a new parent. I offered to help but was at a loss of what I could actually do for her. We occasionally took different views, had petty arguments, but tried not to allow a wedge to come between us.

About five years ago we had slipped to meeting just twice a month, on Mondays, and our relationship started showing real signs of weakness. We both knew something wasnt quite right, but we couldnt put our finger on it. We seldom cracked jokes anymore; in fact, we argued.

Still, she accompanied me to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang in 2018 and we took four journeys together along the Kumano Kodo from 2014 to 2017.

Fast friends: Sometimes fate can bring just the right thing into your life. | AMY CHAVEZ

When I took a trip to Europe earlier this year with my husband, I sent her dispatches, just as I always had, starting with my first major solo trip on the Shikoku Pilgrimage in 1998, then again when I muddled through a stint in Hokkaido in 2007, and during two extended sailing voyages over the high seas in 2004 and 2012.

So when I came back from my European trip, it was a comfort to know she was still here waiting for me, the way she always had.

Last year in June, my precious jewel of a kitty passed away. For 22 years I had buried my nose in her fur when I was sad, and the pain of parting with my feline for good was so acute, I couldnt even share my loss with my best friend. I cradled the sweet old cat (mere bones!) and, amid a pouring spring rain, returned her to the mountain where she had first found me. For the rest of the rainy season, while the hydrangeas turned from green to pastel pink, pale blue and back to green again, I imagined the rain soaking down through the soil staining that beautiful white coat.

But I still had my best friend. We continued to meet once a month, and it felt somewhat stable.

Id been so dependent on her for so long. She mentored me through my 30s, 40s and now into my mid-50s. Because of her, I felt accepted and valued. It was a rare friendship and we knew it. Was it too late to renew that spark?

Then came COVID-19 and our worlds turned upside down. My friend could only meet me once every two months. When we did catch up, our viewpoints diverged, and we fell into spats. We made up though, before hopelessly quarreling again. The stress of diminishing finances among a world pandemic magnified our woes.

Where to go from here? I wondered, and it was not a new thought. Is such struggle normal? If I let her go, would I ever find another soulmate like her? In truth, I had started feeling estranged a long time ago, and I think she did too. Finally, I accepted that we had just grown apart.

Already, the cicadas are in full cry, but the last time I saw her was May 11.

Ive withheld her name until now because if you regularly read my column, you already know who she is. Ive written about her exactly 1,034 times, in essays that total 1 million words. Shes been in my life for 23 years and its so hard to let her go. But I know its time. She knows it, too. Farewell, Japan Lite.

A lot happens in 23 years but, in the end, time is itself an evanescence.

I have not regrets, but still I weep. And the Inland Sea tide rises.

Special thanks to the editors and staff at The Japan Times, and, of course, the readers for supporting me and Japan Lite for 23 years.

A new home: Shiraishi Island is a comfortable getaway from Japans busy urban centers. | AMY CHAVEZ

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Breaking up is hard to do, but sometimes it needs to be done - The Japan Times

Video: Boxship Arrives in UAE With Toppled Containers – The Maritime Executive

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UNI Florida - image from Uni-Asia Group

By The Maritime Executive 07-31-2020 04:25:25

Despite recent reports that suggested a decline in incidents of containers falling overboard, there apparently has been another incident this time approaching the Dubai port of Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

While the full details of the situation are currently unknown, images have begun to appear of the 3,500 TEU container ship UNI Florida arriving in port with visible signs of container damage. The aft stack of boxes has toppled over leaning over the side of the ship. No reports have been released as of yet on the circumstances of the incident or the number or location of containers lost.

On a video shot by a local observer in the port, you can hear the surprise when they see the stack of boxes toppled over on the stern of the ship. Built in 2007 at the Hyundai Mipo Dockyard, it is apparently not the first instance that this vessel had a container accident in the same aft container bay. Pictures online dated 2007 show the same vessel with its boxes topped to starboard versus the current incident to the port side.

The vessel, the UNI Florida, however, was sold between these two incidents. She is currently owned by the Uni-Asia Group of Hong Kong working on time charters. AIS data indicates that the 43,000 DWT vessel remains in port at the UAE.

Recently, the World Shipping Council (WSC) issued a report saying that the incidents of containers lost overboard has been on the decline and is a small percentage of the total annual volume of containers transported at sea. The WCS concludes, based on data from the past 12 years, that half of all containers lost at sea are attributed to a limited number of major incidents that have occurred during those years. They reported that the number had declined to an average of 779 between 2017 and 2019.

Two and a half weeks ago, the MSC Palak reported that she had lost 22 containers overboard in high seas off the coast of South Africa in Algoa Bay. The South Africa Maritime Safety Authority responded to that incident briefly closingthe port over fears that the drifting containers were entering the shipping channel. The vessel was detained for a week in South Africa before it departed. SAMSA reports that MSC supported the clean-up efforts.

While many of the incidents similar to the UNI Florida often go unreported, others had drawn broad attention. In May, the APL England sailing east of Australia lost approximately 50 containers overboard in another heavy weather incident. The Australia authorities briefly detained the ship reporting that their inspectors had determined that the lashing arrangements for cargo were inadequate and found heavy corrosion on the securing points for containers on the ships deck. The clean-up from that incident is reported to still be ongoing while Australia has brought charges against the ships captain and is pursuing financial compensation from the ships owners.

The WCS admitted in its report that the goal should be both to improve incident reporting and seek to further reduce incidents such as these. They outlined a series of actions that were recommended to improve the safety of container ship operations.

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Video: Boxship Arrives in UAE With Toppled Containers - The Maritime Executive

The Galapagos islands face an invasion of trawlers – The Economist

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A new treaty is the best hope of stopping it

ON JULY 16TH the Ecuadorian navy announced it had spotted a fleet of 260 fishing vessels, most of them Chinese, anchored in international waters near the Galapagos islands. Ecuadors government reacted as if it were facing some sort of invasion. It increased patrols to ensure that the ships would not venture into the Galapagos Exclusive Economic Zone, where Ecuador claims a sole right to resources. President Lenn Moreno formally complained to China.

Overfishing in high seas near the Galapagos is endangering the unique species that thrive there. Yet there is little Ecuador can do to stop foreign fleets from ransacking its stock of marine wildlife. No laws regulate fishing in international waters. The ships use bait to lure sharks out of Ecuadorian waters and then catch as many as they can.

It is impossible to track how much the ships fish. The Chinese under-report the international catch coming in through their ports, says Alex Hearn, of MigraMar, a marine-wildlife research organisation. But Ecuadorians got a glimpse in 2017, when one Chinese vessel was intercepted in the Galapagos Marine Reserve. The authorities found 300 tonnes of fish, most of it scalloped hammerhead shark, a critically endangered species. Two-thirds of hammerhead fins found in Hong Kong markets belong to species that depend on Galapagos waters.

China claims the vessels belong to independent companies it does not control. But there is no way Chinese ships would go all the way to fish around Ecuadorian waters without government subsidies and technical support, says Max Bello of Mission Blue, an NGO based in California. Chinas distant-water fishing fleet is the worlds largest but it is not the only country to have one. Taiwan, South Korea and America subsidise theirs, too. Global Fishing Watch, another American NGO, says much of the industry would collapse without subsidies.

Ecuador had played a big role in pushing countries to promise to negotiate a new UN treaty to regulate the fishing of endangered species. But its government took a back seat when the negotiations started, in deference to its own fishermen, who also trawl international waters. Thanks to the Chinese fleet, Ecuador is now eager to reassess its position, says Jeff LeBlanc, a government adviser. We now see there are more pros than cons. He hopes the new treaty will be signed next year, in time to save some threatened species. If not, fishing fleets will loot the waters near the Galapagos until there is little left.

This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline "Fishy business"

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The Galapagos islands face an invasion of trawlers - The Economist

The story behind the latest humongous ship to dock at Ocean Terminal in Edinburgh – Edinburgh Live

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A huge new ship has appeared in Leith today, and has docked right in front of the Royal Yacht Britannia at Ocean Terminal.

The gigantic Caledonian Vanguard is a behemoth of a supply vessel. She was built 15 years ago and is currently sailing under the flag of the Cayman Islands: she is an impressive 93.45 metres long.

A platform supply vessel (PSV) is a ship specially designed to supply offshore oil and gas platforms. They move goods, tools, equipment and staff to and from the platforms: the Caledonian Vanguard travelled to Edinburgh from Aberdeen, a journey that took her 8 hours in total.

The ship is so big because she has to carry huge tanks for things like diesel fuel, water and chemicals that offshore oil platforms need to carry out their day-to-day functions. PSV's also carry chemical waste back to shore for proper recycling or disposal.

Platform Supply Vessels are also used to help reduce the extent of oil spillage in the high seas; some of these vessels are equipped with a firefighting capability and fire monitors for fighting potentially catastrophic platform fires.

Other vessels are equipped with tools, chemicals and personnel to help increase an oil well's production.

Often half of the crew are specialists such as scientists, geologists or other people involved in special jobs related to operations on the oil platforms.

Crews sign on to work and live aboard the platform supply vessels for an extended period of time, working in shifts.

Hopefully they'll be allowed onshore for a fun trip round the shops at Ocean Terminal today before they have to head back up to the North Sea oil fields.

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The story behind the latest humongous ship to dock at Ocean Terminal in Edinburgh - Edinburgh Live

President Faure attends ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of the Office of the Auditor General – Office of the President of the Republic of…

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31 July 2020 | Legal Affairs

The President of the Republic, Mr Danny Faure, attended a ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of the Office of the Auditor General held this morning at the International Conference Centre Seychelles (ICCS).

In his opening address, the Auditor-General, Mr Gamini Herath, said that since a new Auditor General Act came into force in 2010, his office has made a significant milestone in the long history of Seychelles national audit service, which has existed in different forms under all systems of governments over the past 250 years.

Under the new law, the office was established as a body corporate with wide-ranging powers and safeguards for greater independence. In drafting the new law, we drew on the experiences of leading national audit service providers from across the world and we came up with the best practice at the time, said Mr Herath.

The Auditor-General thanked everyone locally and internationally for their support and gave a presentation which showed the positive impact the new law has had on the ranking of Seychelles National Audit Service within the international community. The ceremony was also highlighted by a report and photo exhibition to commemorate the day, and President Faure was given a visual tour of the work the Office of the Auditor General has done over the years.

Also present at the ceremony this morning was the Speaker of the National Assembly, Hon Nicholas Prea, Minister for Finance, Trade, Investment and Economic Planning, Mr Maurice Loustau-Lalanne, the Attorney General, Mr Frank Ally, Chairman of the Human Rights Commission, Justice Bernardin Renaud, CEO of the Public Enterprise Monitoring Commission, Mr George Tirant, staff at the Office of the Auditor General, and other dignitaries.

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President Faure attends ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of the Office of the Auditor General - Office of the President of the Republic of...

Randonautica: What Is It and Are the Stories Real? – The New York Times

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The app led one person to a friendly dog in the desert and another to a field of wildflowers. One young woman, after making her college decision, followed the app to a field where her schools initials had been mowed into the grass.

And then there were the friends who followed the app to a suitcase full of human remains.

That is the gamble one takes with Randonautica, which claims to channel users intentions to produce nearby coordinates for exploration. Think: The law of attraction meets geocaching.

Randonautica makes a few asks of users What would you like to get? Choose your entropy source before prompting them to focus on your intent while it fetches coordinates. This process relies on location settings and a random number generator, which, despite what the company says, cannot be directly affected by human thoughts.

Many of the places users have been sent to since Randonautica became available in February are unremarkable: parking lots, grasslands, many bodies of water. However, interest has been driven by the spooky and often synchronistic randonauting stories many have shared on social media. While several of them appear to be fake, others have raised some cause for concern.

The creators of Randonautica say the app has evolved beyond their intentions. But what were those intentions?

Before Randonautica, there were the Randonauts: Strangers who swapped stories about their bot-assisted adventures into the unknown. They wanted to open their minds to the world around them and make meaning of lifes coincidences.

The bots code came from a group of programmers called the Fatum Project who were interested in, among other things, using the technology to ensure the randomness of online gambling outcomes.

Joshua Lengfelder, 29, discovered the Fatum Project on the messenger app Telegram in January 2019, in a fringe-science chat room. He absorbed the projects theories about how random exploration could break people out of their predetermined realities, and how people could influence random outcomes with their minds.

Mr. Lengfelder, a former circus performer, thought the code and its underlying ideas could be used to explore the relationship between consciousness and technology. In February 2019, while caring for his father, who had just suffered a stroke, he created a Telegram bot that used the Fatum Projects code to generate random coordinates. In March, he created a Randonauts subreddit, which now has 125,000 members. And in October, a developer named Simon Nishi McCorkindale created a web page for the bot.

That same month, Auburn Salcedo, the chief executive of Presley Media, an agency that creates brand integrations for TV, found the Randonauts on Reddit and offered to help Mr. Lengfelder get the word out. On Jan. 24, Ms. Salcedo and Mr. Lengfelder incorporated Randonauts, L.L.C., with her as C.O.O. and him as C.E.O. (She remains the chief executive of Presley Media, which handles P.R. for Randonautica.) They released a beta version of the app on Feb. 22.

Since its release, Randonautica has been downloaded 10.8 million times from the App Store and Google Play, according to the research firm Sensor Tower. After a few months of rapid growth, much of it propelled by TikTok, its downloads have started to taper off, according to data from the analytics firm App Annie.

In an interview in July, Mr. Lengfelder described Randonautica as a multimedia storytelling platform that encourages performance art. He said the overwhelming response has not surprised him.

I kind of figured it was inevitable, he said. Because basically what it is is like a machine that creates memes and legends, and it kind of virally propagates on its own.

On social media, the most popular randonauting videos feature eerie and seemingly dangerous situations that are dramatized through editing. Some creators have capitalized on the trend by posting exaggerated or false accounts of their randonauting adventures. The 27-year-old YouTuber Josh Yozura, for instance, claimed to have been led to a crime scene. (Mr. Yozura did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)

Ms. Salcedo denounced such videos in an interview with the YouTube creator Billschannel. In a phone interview this month, she spoke further about the proliferation of fake videos. Its so hard to manage, because people are really taking creative liberties after seeing how much traction the app is getting in that fear factor, she said.

On first use, Randonautica offers a brief intro and some tips (Always Randonaut with a charged phone, Never trespass) before prompting you to share your location.

Then it will ask you to choose which type of point you would like it to generate (the differences between which only matter if you believe the app can read your thoughts) before fetching coordinates from a random number generator. The user can then open that location in Google Maps to begin their journey.

Randonautica throws big words like quantum and entropy around a lot. Its creators believe that quantum random numbers are more likely to be influenced by human consciousness than non-quantum random numbers. This hypothesis is part of a theory Mr. Lengfelder refers to as mind-machine interaction, or M.M.I.: It posits that when you focus on your intent, you are influencing the numbers.

Basically if youre looking for any kind of peer-reviewed, scientific consensus, that does not exist yet in the literature, Mr. Lengfelder said in a TikTok video in June, speaking about the theory. Instead, he pointed to the work of Dean Radin, a prominent figure in the pseudoscientific field of parapsychology, and the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) program, which has cited Dr. Radins research, as evidence.

Randonautica claims that a 1998 PEAR experiment supported the idea that people can control random number generation with their thoughts. That study was published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration, which includes work about the paranormal, spirit possessions, poltergeists and questions about Shakespeares authorship. In the study, PEARs researchers wrote that the experiment was far from conclusive.

It looks like they saw some kind of correlation, but they admit that it was weak and it needed to have further research associated with it, said Casey Schwarz, an experimental physicist and assistant professor at Ursinus College who reviewed Randonauticas claims for this article. She said she did not know of any quantum system that could be influenced by human thoughts.

Lisa Fazio, an assistant professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University, said that the more synchronous experiences were likely coincidences colored by confirmation bias, or the tendency to look for information that affirms ones beliefs and tune out contradictory evidence.

She pointed to a story shared on Reddit, in which an Australian poster described being led to a map of the London underground. Things like that happen all the time, its just that you dont notice that map of London if you didnt have the intention already to be thinking of London, Dr. Fazio said. She also noted that coincidences are far more common than people realize.

Mr. Lengfelder dismissed such criticisms, stating that the app was not created to prove a hypothesis. I would say its not some kind of academic science work, he said. Were more like inventors than academic scientists.

An update coming in August will feature improved graphics and, Mr. Lengfelder said, a custom random number generator that would have a higher rate of entropy. So technically our M.M.I. effects should be higher, he said. Of course, as noted above, M.M.I. is a theory that is not supported by science.

Daniel J. Rogers, a physicist who has worked with quantum random number generators, called Randonauticas M.M.I. theory completely absurd.

There is no quantum physics here, said Dr. Rogers, a founder of the Global Disinformation Index. This is just people using big science words to sound magical. There is no actual science here.

Randonauting became popular partly because of reverse psychology; young people approach it with a sense of foreboding. Do not go randonauting has become a popular title for videos.

Several people who shared unsettling stories about the app say they have since sworn it off. Adrian Chavez, 21, was led to an ominous beach near his home in Orange County, Calif. A video of his journey, posted on TikTok in early June, has been viewed 4.5 million times.

I deleted the app right after that and never used it again since, Mr. Chavez said in an interview in July.

The 18-year-old TikTok user who posted the viral video about finding a suitcase of human remains on a Seattle beach, @UghHenry, wrote in the comments of his video: The moment I got back home, I broke down. I still cant sleep.

In an interview with The Atlantic, Mr. Lengfelder was blas about the story, which was covered by news outlets including KING 5 News and The New York Post. Its not the best press, but Im not really that upset about it, because its kind of cool, he said. I kind of wish it was me who found it.

Some adults have expressed concerns about the apps lack of safety precautions for children. Though Randonauticas terms of use specify that anyone who is a minor must obtain parental consent to use the app, such consent is collected by email, making it easy for young users to bypass.

Know and Tell, a child protection education program with the Granite State Childrens Alliance in New Hampshire, has posted on Instagram telling parents to keep young people off the app, or at least supervise their use.

It was very apparent that these were young teenagers that were going to undisclosed areas in the middle of the night, said Jana El-Sayed, the outreach project manager for the Granite State Childrens Alliance. She described these circumstances as a perpetrators dream.

Concerns about human trafficking and personal data use are addressed in Randonauticas F.A.Q., which specifies that all location data is anonymized and only made available to developers, and that starting locations are never saved by the app.

Pokmon Go, which uses augmented reality to encourage local exploration, has handled safety concerns by putting PokStops and Gyms in notable, public locations, and encouraging users to remain vigilant.

Randonauticas safety tips are similar: Avoid dangerous areas, do not trespass, try to explore during the day or with friends. Randonauticas website repeatedly urges users to use common sense. The latest version of the app will feature multiple screens and pop-ups reminding users to use the app safely.

Randonauticas executives say they dont understand why people would use the app to seek out risk or harm.

You wouldnt go out on a walk and say, Let me think about seeing death, Ms. Salcedo said in an interview, referring to a viral TikTok video in which an 18-year-old user claims she set her intention as death and then happened upon a shooting victim.

Yeah, Lets see if I get stalked, Mr. Lengfelder added.

Ms. Salcedo said Randonauticas legal counsel reassured her and Mr. Lengfelder that the app would not be liable for any user misconduct.

Is Google Maps liable too, for giving them directions? Mr. Lengfelder said. At a certain point, if somebody wants to really go out of the way and harm themselves, theyre going to do it. Whether its with Randonautica or not.

Ben Decker contributed reporting.

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Randonautica: What Is It and Are the Stories Real? - The New York Times

How Your Subconscious Mind Is Running Your Life And How To Fix It – Forbes

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Is your subconscious in charge?

By Rhiannon Rees

Have you ever wanted to drive a Lamborghini? Imagine the speed, the ease of handling, the wind through your hair. The car embodies class and thrills to the max.

Compare that to being on a skateboard, moving under your own steam. It takes effort, only goes fast in short bursts, is unpredictable and not great on handling. Youre exposed, dependent on the terrain and battered by weather conditions.

Which would you rather drive?

Lets call the Lamborghini your conscious mind and the skateboard a part of your subconscious. One is powerful, present and has you arriving in style; the other is slow and clunky and maybe gets you there in the end.

Which one is driving you?

Self-limiting beliefs drive us. The beliefs stored in our subconscious minds were often created when we were children. We took most of them from our parents and other adults who were influential in our lives. Once formed, these beliefs are stored, rarely questioned and all but forgottenyet they provide the compass we live by as adults. Every time something in our life matches the subconscious belief we hold, that belief is further confirmed.

The trouble with being guided by these unquestioned beliefs is that, while they may have served a purpose when they were created and may have even kept us safe when we were younger, many of them are outdated and over-simplified. Some are downright wrong. Theyre not the kind of beliefs we need as a driving force in our adult lives.

With firmly held beliefs like these the richness, or desire for riches, turns stagnant.

Our self-limiting beliefs become our reality. They influence our identity and, in turn, our future. Henry Ford once said, Whether you think you can or think you cant, youre right. Exactly. It is our thoughts that create our reality.

What if you could harness techniques that enable you to transform your self-limiting beliefs? What if you could reach into your subconscious mind to explore and effectively change the beliefs stored there?

You can. In quantum physics the simple act of observing a particle has been demonstrated to actively affect its behavior. The results of various experiments show us the potential power we have over our environment when we take on the role of observer. If we turn the light of observation on ourselves and delve into our subconscious minds, we can look closely at the beliefs we created long ago and see how they now run our lives.

Meditation can help us to reach that place of observation by allowing us access to deeper levels of consciousness. Other mindfulness techniques such as visualization, deep breathing and paying attention to how we react in situations can also work. As soon as we bring our beliefs into conscious awareness, they begin to change. Once conscious, they can be explored, and when theyre unhelpful, then new, more useful beliefs can be planted in their place.

And then theres the voice chattering away inside our heads. That voice can harangue us, undermine us and bring us downor it can support and sustain us. Much of what it tells us is colored by the beliefs we laid down in childhood. When we stand back and watch this self-talk, we can learn a lot about which beliefs support us and which do us harm. The next step is to shift the language we use, both in our thoughts and our speech. For example, we can:

Exchange I should with I choose to

Shift I cant into Im learning to

I dont sleep well shifts to I have a restful sleep every night

I know it wont work can become I make it work

Instead of I never know what to do, try I can ask for help

Rather than saying I need to keep my feelings to myself, say Its okay for me to be open with my feelings

Change Im always broke with Im expansively abundant or Money comes to me easily and effortlessly

Compared to those old limiting beliefs above, how much more powerfully would the new beliefs support you? But money and abundance arent the only areas to focus on. Dont forget to look at your beliefs around self-worth and receiving as well. In order to succeed, we need to be open to receiving success and to believing ourselves worthy. Do your beliefs build your power, or are they limiting it in any way?

Daily affirmations can help you set your new beliefs in place. By choosing your words thoughtfully and forming them into phrases that accurately reflect beliefs that will better serve you and help you reach your life goals, you can actively create the life you want.

The trick is to become aware of what is working and whats not working in your life, then harness techniques to access your subconscious mind and conquer self-limiting beliefs. Thats the first step in moving from debt to abundance, shifting from being overlooked to being valued for your skills, or changing a flailing business into one that pulls in the profits.

Is your subconscious mind getting your attention now?

Would you prefer to get where youre going on the subconscious skateboard of limiting beliefs? Or would you rather cruise your road to success in the ever-cool Lamborghini?

The choice is yours.

Rhiannon Reesis a human behavior expert and international high-performance coach helping clients redefine their level of success.An Australian native,Rhiannonis a best-selling author, thriving entrepreneur and a global speaker.

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Netflix’s ‘The Old Guard’ Is The Superhero Movie We Need Right Now – The Federalist

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The Old Guard, Netflixs newest superhero film based on the comic of the same name, is an engaging and clever look at immortality through fun action set pieces and interesting characters.

The film doesnt do anything particularly special or new with its genre, but its a smart movie, and certainly worth watching. The most compelling superhero worlds are the ones where heroism has serious downsides and consequences.

Batman will forever be isolated by his duty to Gotham. The X-Men face rampant discrimination. Spidermans powers put everyone he loves into jeopardy. Likewise, the titular heroes must face the brutal problems associated with their expanded lifespans.

The concept of immortality is played with beautifully in The Old Guard. The film doesnt bombard audiences with information or deep mythos surrounding their powers, as the characters themselves dont know all that much. Bits and pieces of the films lore are peppered throughout the film, with hopefully more to be fleshed out in the likely upcoming sequel.

There is a profound sorrow throughout the film, but it never overindulges in bleakness to the point of banality. Director Gina Prince-Bythewood handles the tone nicely, allowing a surprising sense of hope to what could have been a boring, depressing mess.

The air of mystery surrounding the groups powers is welcome in a genre that often attempts to over-explain the more magical aspects of their story in order to ground them in some sense of realism, only to inadvertently reduce the realism due to unforeseen plot holes. By not creating a convoluted explanation for everything, but rather create lived-in, set rules, the film can abide by its own internal logic much better than its genre compatriots.

The effects for their healing are fairly standard, nothing that hasnt been done before and done better by cinematic portrayals of Wolverine. Nevertheless, it never gets old, watching the slow reversal of wounds as our heroes recover.

The central team is fantastic, sharing an easy and believable chemistry for a groups supposedly working together for centuries. Likewise, each character in the eponymous Old Guard comes from a different era, which plays into their characters and relationships.

Charlize Theron has cemented herself as a fantastic action star in recent years, turning in excellent turns in the phenomenal Mad Max: Fury Road and underrated Atomic Blonde.Here, she shines as Andromache of Scythia, or Andy, a 6,000-year-old woman who has dedicated her incredibly long life to protecting humanity. The oldest of the group, Andy is a woman wearied by seeing the worst of humanity for millennia, and, despite lifetimes of effort, evil still exists and thrives.

Booker (Matthias Schoenaerts) fought for Napoleon, and primarily views his immortality as a curse. Forced to watch his wife and children age, suffer, and die in the 1800s, he knows immortality means slowly losing everyone youve ever loved.

Joe (Marwan Kenzari) and Nicky (Luca Marinelli) met while fighting against each other in the crusades, ultimately falling in love.Their relationship leaves the two of them the least resentful with their immortality, as an extended lifespan means more time together. Further, it is a nice change to see two immortal beings in a stable, committed relationship lasting centuries.

The newcomer of the group, Nile (KiKi Layne) was a marine who discovered her immortality upon being killed in the line of duty and awakening with her wounds entirely healed. It is through her eyes, as well as Andys, that we are primarily seeing the film. Nile serves both as an effective audience surrogate and an interesting character in her own right, as her emotional journey of dealing with newfound immortality is compellingly treated with nuance. Layne was excellent in 2018s If Beale Street Could Talk, and The Old Guard cements her as a talent as someone to keep an eye.

The villains are likewise each individualized, with disparate motives and degrees of humanity. All three are after the secret behind the protagonists immortality, but with disparate methods and motives.Chiwetel Ejiofor plays the primary antagonist, James Copley, who is likewise the most sympathetic. A former CIA agent who lost his wife to a long battle with ALS, he is desperate to understand how wounds can heal and death can be undone to make sense of his wifes suffering.

Pharma Mogul Steven Merrick (Harry Melling) is driven by one motive profit. He sees the potential in using the immortals DNA to market lifesaving drugs and make a fortune, not caring if he has to imprison and torture five people for decades to do so. Lastly, the desire for scientific discovery and helping people is worth the cost of human suffering for Dr. Kozak (Anamaria Marinca). Rather than make the villains a generically evil monolith, the trios respective complexities deeply enhances the story.

The action in the film is very enjoyable.Therons dance training allows for longer choreographed fight sequences, rather than an over-reliance on quick cuts to simulate action. Prince-Bythewood uses that to its full potential. In a film with immortal characters, it can be tough to generate high enough stakes to make anyone care about the outcome of fights aside from watching pretty movements.

Prince-Bythewood, however, leans on the immortality aspect of the story, emphasizing their ability to survive many deaths, which can be in and of itself a curse when faced with endless torture. The most horrifying sequence in the film shows one of the immortals former teammatesstuck in an iron maiden at the bottom of the ocean for centuries, drowning over and over again in perpetuity.

I do hope that we get more films in this series. The characters are engaging and sympathetic, and theres a lot more that can be done with them. Im looking forward to seeing the continued adventures of Andy, Nile, Joe, Nicky, and Booker.

Paulina Enck is an intern at the Federalist and current student at Georgetown University in the School of Foreign Service. Follow her on Twitter at @itspaulinaenck

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Netflix's 'The Old Guard' Is The Superhero Movie We Need Right Now - The Federalist

Judd Trump’s bid to end 43-year-old Crucible curse is a shot at World Championship immortality – Eurosport.com

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"I look up to the sky. And now the world is mine. I've known it all my life. I made it, I made it.

For the best part of the past decade, Judd Trump, the very best of a delightfully brimming Bristol cream, has been bounding into various outposts across the globe to the lyrics of Kevin Rudolf's club banger I Made It.

World Championship

When he officially did make it as a made man by becoming snookers world champion for the first time last May, Rudolf's rap number had been replaced by Dutch DJ Martin Garrix's High On Life as Trump's walk on tune of choice.

An absorbing anthem when you are giving it large under Ushuaias sultry lights in Ibiza, but arguably not so apt upon entering the potting promised landed under the Crucible Theatre's heavenly light bulbs.

Which ironically suggests that time spent at the table is a bit like the wider world when you are making symbolic song choices: you can control so much in life, but you are always relying on a little bit of luck to get the right split when you plunge into the pack. In the pursuit of happiness, timing remains everything on the old green baize and off it.

Amid the furnace of rolling balls and rolling the dice, especially amid a summer World Championship delayed and damaged like much of sport by a global health pandemic, there is seemingly always a battle against the wider narrative as much as yourself. For Trump, a little slice of snooker folklore could soon be his exclusive property, an elusive ornament not afforded to any other man since the Steel City of Sheffield first steeled itself to host the World Championship in 1977.

If he emerges victorious for the second successive year, Trump will have lifted the Crucible Curse that has hung over various potting protagonists like the Sword of Damocles, or perhaps the cue stick of Tony Knowles, for the past 43 years and counting.

It is a bit like British tennis and its 77-year wait for a mens winner of Wimbledon until Andy Murray emulated Fred Perry in 2013. One year it will happen, you just aren't sure if the end of days will arrive before the hex, rather than the Hexagon, is finally lifted.

It sounds like something out of Harry Potter's Cruciatus Curse, but has nothing to do with pot luck or the horse racing tips of John Parrott, the 1991 world champion and another victim of the odd phenomenon. Even The Wizard of Wishaw has been unable to escape the voodoo beyond the infamous disappearing act of Alex Higgins legendary large vodkas and a dash aided by a Crucible ice bucket back in the day.

John Higgins was responsible for dashing the defending champion Ken Dohertys brave bid when he overcame The Darlin of Dublin 18-12 in the 1998 final and another 22 years have rolled relentlessly by.

Higgins was himself gazumped 17-10 by Mark Williams in the semi-finals in 1999 as the curse struck him down with as much venom as an Alexandra Palace wasp.

Only Doherty and Bradfords swashbuckling Joe Johnson have returned to the final a year after lifting the old trophy for the first time. Johnson was a 150-1 outsider when he stuffed Steve Davis 18-12 in 1986, but The Nugget was not ready to be ambushed a second time as he prevailed 18-14 in 1987.

Davis was on the receiving end of one of the biggest upsets in the sports history after lifting his first world title in 1981 with an 18-12 win over Doug Mountjoy. He came across Boltons Knowles, a firm housewives favourite, in the first round in 1982 and was promptly roundhoused 10-1.

The ghosts of champions past haunt maiden winners at the old joint with more focus than Cliff Thorburn stalking a cigarette prior to compiling the first 147 at the venue in 1983.

Stephen Hendry lost 13-11 to Steve James in the quarter-finals in 1991, Mark Williams was eclipsed 13-12 by Joe 'The Outlaw Swail in the last 16 in 2001 and Ronnie OSullivan was bullied into submission by Hendrys scoring power of five centuries and eight breaks over 50 in a grudge match in the 2002 semi-finals.

Mark Selby, a three-times champion, lost 13-9 to Anthony McGill in the second round in 2015 a year after denying OSullivan a sixth title 18-14 in 2014. The list is long and seemingly endless.

Trump was only 21 when he himself toppled Neil Robertson 10-8 in the first round in 2011 a year after the Melburnian had become Australia's first world champion.

All the true prospectors of the green baize have returned a year later to defend the trophy and have been struck down by fate in the longing for unique sporting gold.

Will the curse of the black ball see the champ swallowed up by Davy Jones locker or Davy Gilberts dressing room this time? Do such stats truly matter? Too many classy players have come up short over such a long period of time to render it a meaningless quirk. Form, pressure and expectation levels tend to take hold with greater strain than an ill-fitting bow tie rather than a curse.

It could be argued that none of the previous have-a-go heroes were better equipped to successfully defend the trophy than Trump, snookers greatest undisputed world number one since Hendry used to wash up at the venue in the 1990s with room for the trophy already earmarked in his motor.

His 18-9 filleting of John Higgins in the final last year was something to behold as he ran in a record seven centuries and 15 breaks over 50 in a final that became as much a procession as an exhibition of snooker sovereignty. It was the best standard we have witnessed at the annual cueball conference.

I think I can play better, he told me after last years final. Hopefully I can take the game to standards that havent been seen before. Im going to put in the work, go back and practice even harder to produce a new standard that no one has seen before.

Trump has made good on his promise by casting a spell over the sport in carrying off an unprecedented six ranking events at the International Championship, World Open, Northern Ireland Open, German Masters, Players Championship and Gibraltar Open before coronavirus halted play.

As a rightful 5/2 favourite with 879,600 officially banked already this season, tournament sponsors Betfred will not be overly displeased if this snooker sorcerer comes up short.

As is tradition, the defending champion begins his campaign against Tom Ford at 10am on Friday morning before they play to a finish in the evening. He has won 10 out of 14 meetings with his fellow Englishman, but it should also be noted that he lost 10-3 to Ford a decade ago in a qualifier for the main Crucible draw.

How times have changed. At full throttle, his game is pristine, full of cavalier potting possibilities and studied safety solutions. His level of natural ability and adventure has rarely been witnessed in the modern era. Certainly not since OSullivan became UK champion at the age of 17 in 1993.

Therein lies the importance of Trumps attempt for a career-defining second world title at the age of 30. It is a time limited, one-off offer and he only gets one shot at it, but the pieces of a career tapestry in any sport are forged by such timeless trivia.

OSullivan continues to be recalled as the youngest winner of the UK Championship. His world record 147 in five minutes and eight minutes in 1997 is timelessly celebrated. Trump could become the first original champion to win back-to-back titles which would instantly separate him from the rest in the history of the game and ensuing debate of who is deemed worthy of all-time greatness.

The 500,000 first prize would go a long way to putting down a lasting deposit on whatever legacy he wishes to leave in the sport. If he has notions of taking the game to a new level, sometimes the pieces of the puzzle, indeed lifes endless challenges, do not begin and end in a natural order. It is how you make sense of the enfolding chaos that is key.

Like the longing to clear the table at one visit, solving the matrix more often than not separates the good from the great in snooker as regularly as they split the balls.

Trump has already enjoyed the days of his life, but one of the final missing pieces of the jigsaw is there for the taking this year and this year only. For Trump, immortality is within potting distance.

Desmond Kane

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Judd Trump's bid to end 43-year-old Crucible curse is a shot at World Championship immortality - Eurosport.com

Why Jesus Did NOT Have To Die On The Cross – Patheos

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Honestly, I think at least once a week I hear someone invoke the phrase, This is why Jesus died on the cross or ask the question, Why did Jesus have to die? or some other variation of the concept.

Heres the thing: Jesus did NOT have to die on the cross.

In other words, God did not require Jesus to be crucified to fulfill some mystical prophecy.

However, it is clear that the death of Jesus was expected from the very beginning. So, whereas we might say that Jesus didnt need to be crucified [specifically], it was inevitable and necessary for Jesus to die [or to taste death].

How do we know this? Because once Christ became flesh, death became inevitable. Once Immortality became clothed with Mortality; once the Incorruptible took on Corruptibility; Once God became Man, death was a foregone conclusion. It couldnt have ended any other way.

The decision for Christ to take on flesh indicated an intention to experience death, one way or the other.

So, once the Incarnation took place, the death of Jesus was already in play. Just as everyone one of us who is born must one day taste death, so, too, did Christ agree to die simply by virtue of being united with us in our mortal bodies.

And, I would argue, that the death of Christ no matter how it had taken place would have resulted in the salvation and transformation of all mankind, with or without the cross.

The plan all along was for Christ to become incarnate in a body of flesh so that the seed of immortality could be planted into the soil of mortality [death] and the resurrection power of Christ could forever liberate us from the power of the grave.

As Jesus phrased it: Truly, truly, I say to you,unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. [John 12:24]

So, it was always the plan for Christ to die. This is how the power of death was broken. The resurrection life of Christ invaded the realm of death and turned it inside out. The light of the world descended into the depths of outer darkness and illuminated it from within.

Or, as Paul phrases it in the inverse here in 1 Corinthians 15:

For thisperishable must put onthe imperishable, and thismortal must put on immortality.But when thisperishable will have put onthe imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, Death is swallowed upin victory.Odeath, where is your victory? Odeath, where is your sting?The sting ofdeath is sin, andthe power of sin is the law;butthanks be to God, who gives us thevictory through our Lord Jesus Christ. [1 Cor. 15:53-57]

See, because Christ the imperishable one took on perishable flesh, and because the immortal one became mortal, we [the mortal ones] are qualified to take on immortality [now that we are all in Christ and Christ is now in us].

Whether Jesus had died from cholera, or typhoid fever, or old age, or yes, by the hands of men who nailed him to a Roman cross, is irrelevant. Regardless of the how, the what was always in full view: Christ became flesh and experienced death so that we could put on immortality and share in the life of Christ forever.

Paul says as much in the very same chapter of 1 Corinthians:

But now Christhas been raised from the dead, thefirst fruits of those whoare asleep.For sinceby a mancamedeath, by a man alsocamethe resurrection of the dead.Foras in Adam all die, so also inChrist all will be made alive. [1 Cor. 15:20-22]

So, Christ knew he would die from the start. But how he would die wasnt inevitable, or even contingent upon the success of his mission. Once Christ took on mortal flesh everything was set in motion.

To be clear, God did not send Jesus to be crucified. We [humans] decided that Jesus would die in this way. But there was nothing magical or specific about crucifixion itself that accomplished Gods plan. Christs obedience, even unto death on a cross, is what mattered most.

Over the years I think too much has been made about the cross, specifically, as if drowning Jesus wouldve thwarted the entire salvation operation, or as if food poisoning wouldve been insufficient for us to have counted his death as a victory over sin and death.

We chose the cross as the means of Christs death. Peter and the other Disciples say it over and over again:

thisMan, delivered over by thepredetermined plan and foreknowledge of God,you nailed to a cross by the hands ofgodless men and putHimto death. Acts 2:23

but put to death thePrince of life,the onewhomGod raised from the dead,a factto which we arewitnesses. Acts 3:15

The God of our fathersraised up Jesus,whom you hadput to death by hanging Him on across. Acts 5:30

Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming ofthe Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderersyou have now become; Acts 7:52

What we did was kill Jesus.

What God did was to raise him up again.

We crucified Jesus.

God did not.

Certainly, Jesus knew that he would most likely be crucified by the Roman authorities. That wasnt hard to guess. Even Plato predicted, hundreds of years prior to Christ, that a truly righteous man would be beaten and crucified if we ever got our hands on him. [SeePlatosRepublic, Book II.360-61]

So, while the death of Christ was inevitable, his crucifixion was not.

The answer, then, to the question, Why did Jesus have to die? is answered simply: Because he became human at his Incarnation.

But the answer to the question, Why did Jesus die on the cross? is answered by admitting that our reaction to Christs innocence, righteousness and radical love was to nail him to a cross.

Yes, Jesus died for our sins in that it was our sins that nailed him to the cross. But, even as we were in the process of nailing him there, his forgiveness was instantaneous and complete. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

In Christ, we are reconciled to God. In Christ, our sins are not being counted against us. In Christ, we experience freedom and newness of life.

Our choice was to crucify. His choice was to love and forgive.

**

FREE DOWNLOAD: The e-book Unraveled: More Thoughts On Christian Entanglement by Keith Giles is available now as a free PDF. If youd like a FREE download of the entire 85-page book, you can grab oneHERE

Keith Gilesand his wife, Wendy, work withPeace Catalyst Internationalto help build relationships between Christians and Muslims in El Paso, TX. Keith was formerly a licensed and ordained minister who walked away from organized church over a decade ago to start a home fellowship that gave away 100% of the offering to the poor in the community. Today he is the author of several best-selling books, includingJesus Undefeated: Condemning the False Doctrine of Eternal Torment which is available now on Amazon.

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Why Jesus Did NOT Have To Die On The Cross - Patheos

Shravan Purnima 2020: Know The Significance Of The Day – NDTV

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Shravan Purnima 2020: Raksha Bandhan wraps up the holy month of Sawan ends

Shravan Purnima 2020: One of the most auspicious days in the Hindu calendar, Shravan or Sawan Purnima, is being observed by devotees ofLord Shiva today. This year Shravan Purnima assumes even more significance as it coincides with Sawan Somwar - a day dedicated to Shiva. Sawan Somwar is observed on every Mondayin the month of Sawan, which corresponds to July-August.

On Shravan Purnima, a key puja is performed at the Amarnath shrine in south Kashmir. This yearAmarnath Yatra was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic but all rituals were held at the shrine. The traditional 'Pratham Pooja' or the first prayer was done in early June when the annual pilgrimage to the shrine of Amarnath starts. Shravan Purnima marks the end of the puja.

Mahant Deependra Giri, the custodian of the holy mace of Lord Shiva, along with few others travelled from Srinagar to Amarnath shrine on Monday by a helicopter. Only a few people were allowed to accompany the Mahant due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Mahant Deependra Giri along with few others travelled from Srinagar to Amarnath shrine by a helicopter

"Chhari-Mubarak (holy mace) Swami Amarnath Ji - one depicting Lord Shiva and another Shakti Goddess Parvati Ji - led by Mahant Deependra Giri was carried to holy the shrine from Dashnami Akhara (in Srinagar) on August 3 by air," news agency ANI quoted a press release from Amarnath shrine authorities.

The rituals are performed while Vedic hymns are chanted during the puja at the holy shrine. According to scriptures, Lord Shiva recounted the 'Amar Katha' (the story of immortality) to Goddess Parvat at this time.

On Shravan Purnima devotees observe a special fast and offer prayers at Shiva temples. Sawan is significant not only for festivals, but for farmers as well as the month starts with the first showers of the monsoon season. The month also marks the beginning of the Chaturmas or the four holy months of the Hindu calendar. During these months most of the important festivals like Teej, Raksha Bandhan, Navratri and Diwali take place.This year Sawan began on July 6 and ends on August 3, with Shravan Purnima.

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Shravan Purnima 2020: Know The Significance Of The Day - NDTV

How Yu Darvish Began to Recreate His Success From the Second Half of Last Year – NBC Chicago

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Yu Darvish shuffled across Waveland Avenue in sweat pants and slides. A family of Cubs fans snapped photos from in front of the fire station before Friday's game.

Darvish acknowledged them but kept beelining toward the Wrigley Field gate. Even off the field he had his own unique flare and focus.

On the mound later that day, that was even more apparent.

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In the Cubs' 6-3 win over the Pirates Friday, Darvish threw six shutout innings and resembled the lights-out starter he was in the second of last season.

"Today I felt the same as the second half," he said. "But still I need to work on my mechanics and normal cutter and command. But I feel like it's really close or almost the same."

The first time through the rotation, Darvish was the only starter who didn't have his best stuff. Kyle Hendricks threw a complete game shutout. Jon Lester threw five no-hit innings. Tyler Chatwood and Alec Mills each pitched six innings and allowed fewer than three runs.

Then there was Darvish, who gave up three runs in four innings. Not terrible under the circumstances of a pandemic and a three-week summer camp. But not up his standard.

Darvish said he wanted to work on his splitter, changeup and hard cutter before his next start.

On Saturday, he took a different approach.

"I tried to throw fewer hard cutters," Darvish said. "I used the normal cutter, knuckle curveball and four-seam. And that worked tonight."

After walking the first batter he faced, Adam Frazier, Darvish picked off Frazier at first and retired the next two in order. He gave up just two hits, both singles with no one on base. Both pitches were at the edge of or out of the zone.

"Yu was great tonight," Cubs manager David Ross said. "Had it all working. Just spinning the breaking ball really well in the zone, out of the zone. Looked like the splitty showed up tonight and then a couple times there, late fastballs just blowing guys' doors off."

The 18 whiffs he generated were a testament to just how good all those pitches were.

"I didn't know that," Darvish said when that statistic came up in his postgame interview. "But that's enough."

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Let’s make baseball weirder with even more new rules – The Oakland Press

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The stat geeks are all excited, even if no one else seems to be. Theyve spent the first days of the baseball season analyzing a bunch of new numbers that show the possibilities and probabilities of runners scoring after being put on second base to open extra innings.

What theyve found is interesting enough, though the sample size is small. Still, deciding whether to bunt or not with the first batter has at least introduced a bit of strategy into a game that in recent times has seemed intent on eliminating any deep thoughts.

Assuming the pandemic doesn't cause the season to come to a crashing close a big assumption right now theyll also soon be able to dive into the seven-inning doubleheaders and come up with numbers that show the proper way to handle pitchers. And theyll study what needs to be done to make the new playoffs, though with 16 teams thats easy enough even for those of us who werent paying much attention in math class.

But why stop there? Like it or not we have a weird new season with some weird new rules. Lets keep going to make baseball Americas favorite pastime once again.

Heres a few more things baseball can do in this, a season like no other:

NEW COUNTS: Batters will now start with 1-1 counts, much like competitive softball. This will save on pitcher arms, ultimately allowing starters to go four, perhaps even five, innings.

BIG HITS: Lets face it, all home runs arent created equal. Some barely curve around a foul pole into the first row of seats, others are caught by the Wrigley Field ball hawkers on Waveland Avenue. From now on, any home run over 400 feet is worth two runs instead of one. This will give hitters the incentive to blindly swing as hard as they can and cut down on boring singles. Still to be determined is what to call a long home run with the bases loaded, which would now be worth five runs. Grander Slam?

PICK A PITCHER: Teams will have to warm up two relief pitchers at a time in the bullpen, something that should be doable in a season of expanded rosters. If a pitcher is pulled, the team at bat gets to pick which reliever it wants to face.

SCHEDULE: The Yankees must be scheduled to play at least a third of their games against the Orioles. Unless, of course, the Orioles have a winning record. Then the Yankees play the Red Sox like usual.

SWING AND MISS: Its tough to face 99 mph fastballs, and splitters that dive before they reach the plate. To help hitters, anyone who has swung twice and missed in an at-bat will be allowed to place the ball on a tee and hit.

POWER BALLS: With the coronavirus very much in play, umpires are tossing out new balls almost every time one gets touched. Under the new rules, two orange balls will be put in the umpire pouch at the start of each inning to be pulled out at random. The batter at the plate when the ball is put into play has the option of accepting a free pass to first base or taking a chance on spinning the wheel behind home plate that offers outcomes ranging from a ground out to a home run. The inning is automatically over if the wheel lands on a picture of Rob Manfred's face.

UMPIRE DISCIPLINE: Enough grousing about umpires who slow games down by missing obvious calls. Lets do something about them. Umpires who have calls overturned will now have to sit on a big stool in the right field corner and wear a dunce cap for an inning.

MOUND VISITS: Eliminated, along with conferences on the mound. Talking behind gloves spreads the virus.

ROJAS RULE: There will be new protocols for deciding whether teams can play games because of the coronavirus. Final decisions will now go to Marlins shortstop Miguel Rojas, who will make the ruling. Rojas is also the designated relief bus driver for Covid Coaches that take infected teams that were on road trips back to their home city.

COVID RULE: Remember all those rules about spitting, high-fiving and wearing masks in the dugout? Start respecting them and quick or there will be no baseball.

And, one final new rule:

The next time a team cheats to win a World Series dont punish the losing team for being upset about it.

Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg@ap.org or http://twitter.com/timdahlberg

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Let's make baseball weirder with even more new rules - The Oakland Press

Ram Could Follow Tesla, Ford and GM and Build an Electric Pickup Truck. But Should They? – Gear Patrol

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Electric vehicles may have first achieved a beachhead in the automotive marketplace in the form of compact hyper-efficient rides yes, we still remember you, EV1 but if they do eventually achieve victory over internal combustion in America, it seems likely to come at least in part in the form of electrified pickup trucks. After all, pickups aren't just the bread and butter for Detroit's Big Three they're the meat and potatoes, the starter salad and the unlimited breadsticks, too.

Tesla, of course, has its entry in the wings the highly-anticipated, batshit-crazy, probably-not-street-legal-yet-but-hey-that's-a-later-problem Cybertruck. Rivian's R1T is poised to launch early next year, its production slightly delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. GM has its GMC Hummer EV coming, along with an electric Chevy Silverado and an onslaught of battery-powered Cadillaqs. Ford has a plug-in hybrid F-150 coming this year, with a fully electric one close behind. And upstarts like Lordstown, Nikola and Bollinger are poised to throw their hats into the ring, as well.

All this leads us to wonder: will Ram follow suit?

After all, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles ahem, Stellantis has been something of a laggard in vehicular electrification compared to GM and Ford. Apart from an unprofitable electric Fiat 500 and a PHEV minivan, its lineup has remained purely gas-powered, albeit with some vehicles receiving the mildest of hybrid assistance in the form of the eTorque system. PHEV Jeeps are about to join the lineup, but the omnipresence of 700-plus-horsepower V8s across the brands certainly creates the impression that The Automaker Formerly Known as FCA is more interested in kicking it old-school.

That said, Mopar's seeming reluctance to adopt electron-powered trucks could change if buyers start snapping up electric trucks by Ford, GM, Tesla et. al. and eating away at Ram's hard-won market share. That's the word from CEO Mike Manley, who said as much in a recent earnings call, according to The Detroit News.

"Obviously pickup trucks are a key franchise for us, and were not going to sit on the sidelines if there is a danger that our position gets diluted going forward," Manley said.

"The reason we havent spoken much about electric pickup trucks is not because we view that market as nonexistent," he said. "But weve always had a slightly different view of timing and adoption rates, particularly in North America in terms of full electrification. We are very committed to our electrification strategy most of which we have revealed."

So far, those revelations largely revolve around the aforementioned PHEV Jeeps and other plug-in hybrid vehicles, although a fully-electric Jeep or two certainly seems among the possibilities. Luxury brand Maserati seems likely to be the first brand in the portfolio to push into full EVs, with the company's next GT expected to offer an electric powertrain.

Still, while Stellantis has been more forthcoming than many carmakers about its product plans for the next few years, Manley says the company hasn't shown every card in its hand yet. "We havent revealed everything," he said.

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Ram Could Follow Tesla, Ford and GM and Build an Electric Pickup Truck. But Should They? - Gear Patrol

Europe Is Building the Next Tesla. Who Knew? – Bloomberg

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Chris Bryant is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies. He previously worked for the Financial Times.

When Nikola Corp. started trading on Nasdaq in June, the Phoenix-based clean transportation company raced quickly to a valuation of almost $30 billion.

Its market worth has since fallen to a more reasonable $10.5billion, but thats still pretty spicy for a business yet to generate any revenue. Its most promising products are its heavy trucks, powered by electric batteries or hydrogen fuel cells.

The rise of Nikola (whose name, cheekily, is another evocation of electrical engineer Nikola Tesla) will have reinforced a view among European auto industry executives that the U.S. stock market operates by different rules. While Tesla Inc. is only modestly profitable, its valued at about $275billion, more than Europes five largest carmakers combined.

At least Europe has a stake in the latest heavily hyped project.Founded by Trevor Milton, a 38-year-old American college dropout, Nikola is relying heavily on expertise from the old continent. Robert Bosch Gmbh, a German automotive supplier, has helped develop the U.S. companys electric powertrain, and the first Nikola trucks will be built in a German factory belonging to Italys Iveco, a truck maker backed by the billionaire Agnelli family. Bosch and Iveco each own more than 6% of Nikola.CNH Industrial NV, Ivecos parent, just recorded a $1.5 billion fair value gain on that investment.

The biggest question is whether a start-up dependent on so much external help should have a whizzy valuation like Tesla, which builds much of its technology itself.And if Europe has this expertise, why hasnt it produced its own rival to Elon Musks carmaker?

Thank these companies if the start-up becomes the Tesla of heavy trucks

Source: Nikola, Opinion research

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Maybe its a lack of chutzpah. Nikolas name isnt the only reason its often compared with Tesla. Miltons hyperactive Twitter presence makes Musk look tame by comparison. Both mens ambitions extend beyond selling zero-emission vehicles to producing and storing clean energy. While Nikola is focused on heavy-duty trucks, it has touted a variety of consumer products including a pickup called the Badger. These are catnip for retail investors, as the excitement over Musks Cybertruck demonstrates.

While Tesla and Nikola are both working on electric heavy trucks, they differ in at least two important respects. The first is hydrogen: Musk is dismissive, while Milton thinks hydrogen is the perfect fuel for long truck journeys. The second is their attitude towardbuilding stuff in-house.

True, in its early days Tesla worked withLotus to help make the Roadster, and Daimler AG helpeddevelop the Model S saloon. Teslapartners with Panasonic to produce battery cells. But Musk is famous for trying to build his own technology, from electric powertrains and automated-driving software to car seats.

Nikola developed its own software,infotainment andbattery management-system, as well as vehicle aerodynamics, according to Cowen analyst Jeffrey Osborne. It has outsourced or used hired help to do much of the other stuff.More than 200 Bosch employees were involved in building important parts of Nikolas trucks, including the electric motor for the axle, the vehicle-control unit, the battery and the hydrogen fuel cell. The result isa mix of intellectual property owned either separately orjointly by Nikola and its suppliers.

Theres no doubt, however, who has the deeper expertise.So far Nikola has been awarded 11 U.S. patents, about 1% of the totalBosch is awarded in a typical year. Bosch gets paid to help us get to industry standards on products, Milton told me.

Getting partners to providethe technological building blockshas some advantages. Nikola has only 300 employees and yet its first trucks should start rolling off theproduction line soon. Working with partners cuts the risk of the manufacturing delays and quality problems that plagued Tesla.

Its an efficient use of capital too. Nikolas research and development expenses were just $68million last year. Tesla spent$1.3 billion. After going public, Nikola has about $900 million of cash,although that wont go far in the automotive business. Forthe North Americanmarket, Nikola plans to handle its own manufacturing, with technical assistance from Iveco. Nikola broke ground this week on a$600 million factory in Arizona.

Whether or not you believe the extensive involvement of outside partners shouldhave a bearing on its lofty valuation, there are other things that could upset Nikolas plans.

Building a refueling network is a central part of its business model, but this wont come cheap at $17 million for each hydrogen station. The company is also entering a competitive field populated by more experienced and better capitalized rivals. Daimlers Mercedes-Benz failed to follow through on its early experiments with electric cars and let Tesla roar past. It probably wont make the same mistake withtrucks.

Daimler is the worlds largest truck maker and it plans to start production of its electric eActros and eCascadia models next year. The German giant has alsoformed a joint venture with Swedens Volvo AB to develop hydrogen fuel cell systems for heavy vehicles. That venture is valued by the companies at just 1.2 billion euros ($1.4 billion), putting the Nikola valuation into perspective.

Even if its share price looks overblown, Nikolas improbable rise shows theres investor demand for clean transportation companies that dont still have one foot planted in the combustion-engine past. European manufacturers have the technicalchopsbut they must find better ways to capitalize on investor excitement through new business models or spinoffs. Otherwise someone else will.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the author of this story:Chris Bryant at cbryant32@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:James Boxell at jboxell@bloomberg.net

Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal.

Chris Bryant is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies. He previously worked for the Financial Times.

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Europe Is Building the Next Tesla. Who Knew? - Bloomberg

Confused Tesla Model 3 Thinks It’s a Lambo with Huge Wing and Louvered Window – autoevolution

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Any trip outside the house - something we've come to appreciate a lot more than we should lately - will tell you the aftermarket modding business is alive and thriving. Anywhere you look, you'll see a car with various degrees of customization, ranging from the very discreet to the full out "what the hell model is that?" extravaganza.

Of course, as Fleetwood Mac used to say, you can go your own way and ignore the most obvious options that everyone is going to use for that 100 percent personal look. Yes, it does come with associated risks, but so does getting up in the morning, and we still do that every day.

The thing with Teslas, in general, is that they don't project their performance in the way they look. You can buy a Model S P100D with all the Cheetas and Ravens you want, but it's still going to look like a family car. Because that's what it is: a stupidly fast five-seater with a big trunk that can pick up the kids from school and smoke a Lamborghini,bothduring the same outing.

The smaller Model 3, in its Performance version, isn't too different either. That's probably why this particular ownerfelt it was OK to install a huge wing (it seems to be wider than the car itself, so the descriptor is not hyperbolic, but completely accurate) and partial louvers on the rear window of his Model 3. If this makes your day slightly better, you have him to thank for it and Danny Meng (via Facebook) for snapping the picture.

That wing has a particular Lamborghini feel to it. Could it be that the Model 3 driver won it in a drag race after defeating a Sant'Agata-made supercar? Well, we're not entirely sure they still make this kind of bets, but we guess stranger things have happened, so while the assumption started off as a joke, it might even be true. However, it still wouldn't explain the louvers. Actually, never mind that: it's 2020, nothing could ever explain the louvers.

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Confused Tesla Model 3 Thinks It's a Lambo with Huge Wing and Louvered Window - autoevolution

How Tesla Was Lured to Austin – Texas Monthly

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Amid a frog-drowning on Sunday, several dozen members of the Austin Tesla Club gathered jubilantly in a parking lot in East Austin. Masked fans cheered as a middle-aged man flashed the Bevo with one hand and fired a flamethrower with the other. The crowd was there to celebrate the deal between Travis County and the electric car manufacturer, inked late last week, to build a $1.1 billion, two-thousand-acre factory, named Giga Texas, in the tiny municipality of Del Valle, near Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

The proposed Tesla plant, which will produce Cybertrucks and Model Y SUVs, is expected to be a billion-dollar investment that will employ five thousand in manufacturing jobs and benefit hundreds of contractors and suppliers. When the deal was announced, Tesla said that about 65 percent of the factorys jobs will be middle-skilled and will not require college degrees, with salaries starting at $35,000 a year and averaging more than $47,000. The company pledged to make at least half of its hires from among Travis County residents, and stated it would make a good faith effort to hire women and people of color.

The deal was praised by Governor Greg Abbott, the Austin Chamber of Commerce, various local labor groups, and leaders of job training programs. Its like winning the lottery , said Ed Latson, CEO of the Austin Regional Manufacturers Association.

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To win this much-needed boost to its virus-impaired economy, the Austin area had to outbid Tulsa. Most of the incentives came in the form of tax breaks, though Tulsa also repainted its iconic 75-foot-tall Golden Driller statue in the likeness of Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Many involved in Austins bid for Tesla drew different lessons from the citys failed 2018 pursuit of Amazons gleaming $5 billion HQ2. That deal went to two bigger metro areas: Arlington, Virginia, just west of Washington, D.C., and New York Citywhich ultimately backed out after a public outcry over the cost of its subsidies, roughly $48,000 for each job created. Proponents of the Austin areas deal with Tesla say that it represents a bargain, at about $1,200 in annual subsidies for each job created. But a coalition of community groups and labor rights advocates argue that the concessions to Tesla are too expensive, and that the deals terms undercut the very manufacturing workers it is supposed to benefit.

The Del Valle Independent School District, which received a C under the states letter-rating system, played an integral role in wooing the electric car manufacturer. Del Valle, which has become a target for developers, is a rural section of Austins low-income eastern crescent fit for a large factory. Through Texas Tax Code Chapter 313, also known as the Texas Economic Development Act, a school district can reduce the property taxes of a new business seeking to relocate to its jurisdiction to an amount below those paid by other property owners. In Teslas case, the incentive agreement allows the company to cap its property value at $80 million, as opposed to its projected $1.1 billion valuation, meaning thatTesla will pay just $776,000 a year in property taxes for the first ten years, as opposed to the more than $5 million it would pay without the tax break. The Tesla propertys current tenant, a gravel mining facility, pays just $6,400 a year in property taxes, and few of the children of Tesla employees will attend school in Del Valle, whose population is about 17,000. But the cost of educating the children of new Tesla employees moving to the Austin area will fall on the areas schools.

Del Valle ISDs incentives were matched by Travis Countys, which will give Tesla additional property tax rebates worth $14 million over ten years. If Tesla were to spend more in operational costs than the $1.1 billion proposed, the companys subsidies would only increase: a 75 percent tax break for any spending between $1.1 billion and $2 billion; an 80 percent break for spending above $2 billion. Tesla, whose press team did not respond to requests for an interview, could also unlock state support from the Texas Enterprise Fund, which offers grants to companies that create jobs in Texas rather than in other states. While neither party has said how much these funds will amount to, comparable allocations to organizations such as Apple have been north of $21 million over sixteen years.

Supporters of the deal believe Teslas promised internships and job training programs can transform the region, providing an attractive return for the local governments tax incentives. The prospect of Tesla being in our community was exciting for the opportunities that would come to fruition for our students, said Del Valle ISD Superintendent Annette Tielle in a statement provided to Texas Monthly.

But most of Teslas negotiations took place behind closed doors, leaving community groups and stakeholders out of the process. The lone dissent in the Del Valle ISD school boards 71 vote in favor of the deal came from trustee Susanna Woody, who said the vote felt completely rushed.

When youre staring at a budget deficit of billions of dollars due to COVID and youre talking about giving any money to a billionaire, thats a tough thing to swallow, said Rick Levy, president of the Texas chapter of the AFL-CIO.

Critics argue that incentives such as Chapter 313 prioritize the interests of multinational companies over those of taxpayers, often unnecessarily. University of Texas professor of government Nathan Jensen, who models the use of tax incentives to bring business to the state, estimates that 85 percent of companies would have relocated to employer-friendly Texas without the likes of Chapter 313 incentives.

Even if we know an incentive will swing an investment, it is rarely a win for the local community. First, what [else] could the community have done with this money? Could they have offered $50 million to small businesses that are already here? Jensen said, citing the incentive package from the Del Valle ISD. Likewise, many companies end up having to leave these incentives on the table, after bringing fewer jobs or less investment than initially expected.

This is not the first time local governments have offered Tesla incentives to build new factories: Nevada gave the company a $1.3 billion tax break to build its first Gigafactory outside Reno in 2014. Six years later, the plant contributes billions of dollars to the local economy and employs seven thousand workers. But local activists and labor groups have raised concern over the plants strain on the housing market, and its worker safety record. In 2018, the company ranked amongst the nations Dirty Dozen for employers engaging in unsafe practices, according to the Council for Occupational Safety and Health, a worker-safety watchdog. A 2019 USA Today report detailed both a culture of negligence at the Reno facility that placed manufacturing employees at risk and the misreporting of injuries to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Tesla also came under fire this month after an outbreak in its Fremont, California, plant for not taking the necessary precautions against the spread of the coronavirus, whose severity Musk has publicly questioned. (Tesla maintains that its safety standards are on par with the overall manufacturing sector, and a spokesperson told USA Today that a few isolated incidents are not representative of our overall safety culture at Gigafactory 1.)

In its agreement with Travis County, Tesla will be enrolled in OSHAs voluntary protection program, designed for employers who have implemented effective safety and health management systems. Travis County also laid out a set of best practices for Tesla to follow to protect its workers. But detractors, including Emily Timm of the Workers Defense Project, an Austin-based organization fighting for low-income workers, argue that the deals language is vague and grounded largely in unenforceable, good-faith agreements.

While labor rights activists support Teslas stated commitment to a minimum wage of $15 an hour, substantially above Austins $7.25, the agreement sheds no light on which workers this standard applies to. The average hourly rate for manufacturing jobs in the U.S. is $22. The fear is that a company like Tesla keeps its high-level creative jobs in places like the Bay Area and begins to see Austin like a low-wage, high-tech town, said Doug Greco, lead organizer of Central Texas Interfaith, representing a coalition of nonprofit groups in Austin.

But to a school district and a county suffering from financial distress, the promise of new jobs and tax revenue was too good to pass up. Teslas making real contributions back to the school district. Its developing a site that was previously a mine, said Laura Huffman, CEO of the Austin Chamber of Commerce. So the value trade in this deal with Tesla, I think, is strongly in favor of the community. And it was necessary because we were competing.

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How Tesla Was Lured to Austin - Texas Monthly