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Listen up to be inspired and have your spirits lifted – Bishop’s Stortford Independent

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

Tom Ryder continues his look at charity Retune's SCALES system for mental wellbeing with L for Listen...

When it comes to mental wellbeing, it is easy for us to get caught up in a bubble, overthinking and dwelling on the day-to-day challenges we face. Fortunately there is a way to hand over the reins, by looking to outside sources for inspiration.

Listen is about taking in great content from books, podcasts, music, films and TV, and it also involves listening to your body, which is where diet and nutrition come in.

I'm not going to write extensively about nutrition because I'm no expert that's where Indie columnist Alex Ballard comes in - but here is some material, in the form of top-fives, to inspire and uplift as we weather the final few weeks (fingers crossed) of lockdown life.

I hope it gives your wellbeing a boost.

Books

Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker

Slumber has more benefits both physical and psychological than many of us realise. Walker lays this out in an informative and engaging manner.

Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

The creative person's bible. The famed author of Eat Pray Love eloquently describes how to face fear and pursue your passions.

Jog On by Bella Mackie

Journalist Bella found solace from anxiety by pounding the streets. From a standing start, she demonstrates that we can all follow her lead and discover the joy of running.

The Power Of Now by Eckhart Tolle

All we have in life is the present moment, and through it we can discover enlightenment. Drawing on many spiritual teachings while retaining originality, Tolle is a powerful teacher.

This Is Going To Hurt by Adam Kay

All of us are acutely aware of the astonishing work of the NHS, especially of late. In this moving, hilarious memoir, Adam Kay brings us up close and personal with life on the ward.

Films

When Harry Met Sally

Famed for 'that scene in the diner', this cinematic classic documents the helter skelter romance of Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Meg Ryan). Expect razor-sharp, witty dialogue throughout.

The Pursuit of Happyness

Chris Gardner (Will Smith) is up against it from the start, but bullish determination combined with unwavering devotion to his son (played by Smith's actual son Jaden) wins the day.

Silver Linings Playbook

Pat Solitano (Bradley Cooper) brilliantly portrays bipolar disorder, undergoing turbulent relationships with his father (Robert De Niro) and the beguiling Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence).

The Shawshank Redemption

A timeless tale of the incarceration of Andy Dufresne at Shawshank, and his enthralling escape to freedom from despair. Morgan Freeman is in his element.

Theory Of Everything

This charming flick features an Oscar-winning performance from Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking, who finds his calling in science at Cambridge University, along with the love of his life.

TV shows

The Last Dance (Netflix)

The Chicago Bulls basketball team of the 1990s, led by Michael Jordan, are one of the finest sports teams of all time. Witness the astonishing skill and never-say-die attitude of MJ and co.

The Thick Of It (Netflix)

There's an argument to say we've seen enough of politics lately, but this gripping satire pokes fun at a dysfunctional government department. Peter Capaldi's verbal tirades are iconic.

Queer Eye (Netflix)

A makeover show that offers so much more. Featuring the Fab Five, who have all gone on their own journey to overcome adversity, each episode is educational and deeply moving.

Gavin and Stacey (BBC iPlayer)

Does James Corden and Ruth Jones' masterpiece require an introduction? Hilarious characters and consequences abound as a boy from Essex and a girl from Barry Island fall for each other.

The Office US (Prime Video)

While I loved the cringeworthy antics of Ricky Gervais' David Brent in the UK edition, Steve Carell et al really take it up a notch. Keep an eye out for one of the greatest TV romances ever screened.

Podcasts

Desert Island Discs

Well-known figures choose eight songs to take to a remote island, plus a luxury item. We learn a great deal about their upbringing, and how songs provide a poignant soundtrack to their lives.

Happy Place

Fearne Cotton's acclaimed series discusses wellbeing in detail, and features creative guests. Her chat with Hozier is well worth a listen, and the effervescent Russell Brand is a regular contributor.

Tailenders

Radio 1 (and Bishop's Stortford) favourite Greg James chats cricket and plenty more besides, accompanied by England fast bowling icon James Anderson and Felix White of The Maccabees.

Jay Shetty

Jay gave up all material possessions and spent years living as a monk. He shares his insights on everything from money to relationships to emotional health.

George Ezra podcast

Hertford-boy-come-good George speaks openly about his mental health and encourages his guests, which include former St Mary's schoolboy Sam Smith, to do the same.

Albums

Rumours by Fleetwood Mac

"Don't stop thinking about tomorrow." That line, and that song, says all you need to know about wellbeing. This record has everything, from intensity to tenderness.

Aha Shake Heartbreak by Kings Of Leon

KOL were trotting out indie rock bangers long before Sex On Fire and Use Somebody brought them global adulation. The title track, along with King Of The Rodeo, are highlights.

Parachutes by Coldplay

Not a bad way for the UK's finest to announce themselves on the scene, 20 years ago last Friday. Look out for the epic Everything's Not Lost, which closes this devastatingly good record.

O by Damien Rice

Damien Rice's 2002 debut release brought singer/songwriters deservedly back into the spotlight. Cannonball is the standout hit, but this is an LP you can really lose yourself in.

Tapestry by Carole King

This is an album of majestic songwriting exquisitely delivered. You've Got A Friend, Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow, Natural Woman wall-to-wall anthems.

And finally foods

Nuts

Nuts, seeds and legumes, such as beans and lentils, are excellent brain foods. Walnuts are said to improve memory, concentration and information processing.

Dark green veg

Dark green leafy vegetables are considered to be 'brain protective', so no need to be shy on portion sizes.

Oily fish

Along with fruit and vegetables, focus on eating foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids, such as salmon, to improve your mental health.

Bananas

Bananas are a source of mood-boosting serotonin, a chemical that contributes to overall feelings of wellbeing.

Dark chocolate

Loaded with nutrients that can positively affect your health, dark chocolate is a great source of antioxidants. Plus, you know, it's chocolate. Happy days.

Visit http://www.retunewellbeing.com or follow @RetuneWellbeing to learn more about the SCALES system.

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Listen up to be inspired and have your spirits lifted - Bishop's Stortford Independent

S&P 500 News: Tesla’s Profit Sets It Up to Join the Index, U.S. to Buy Up to 600 Million Coronavirus Vaccine Doses, Microsoft Earnings Overshadowed -…

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

TheS&P 500 Index(SNPINDEX:^SPX) kept its winning streak alive, closing up 18.7 points, or 0.57%, on July 22. This marks the seventh consecutive day the index, which makes up about 80% of the market capitalization of all U.S. stocks, has closed higher.

The biggest news driving markets today is the announcement that the U.S. federal government has reached a deal withPfizer(NYSE:PFE) andBioNTech SE(NASDAQ:BNTX) to pay $1.95 billion for 100 million doses of the two companies' jointly developed coronavirus vaccine, if it earns regulatory approval. Pfizer shares gained 5.2% on the news, while the smaller BioNTech's stock surged almost 14% on the day.

The news spurred big gains by other healthcare and related stocks. Welltower (NYSE:HCN),Ventas(NYSE:VTR), andHealthpeak Properties(NYSE:PEAK), REITs -- real estate investment trusts -- that specialize in healthcare and seniors housing properties, shares gained more than 4%. Hospital operator HCA Healthcare(NYSE:HCA) reported earnings this morning, beating expectations and sending its stock up 12%.

Today's biggest S&P 500-related news happened after the bell and came from a company that's not even in the index -- or at least not yet:Tesla(NASDAQ:TSLA). But after reporting a $104 million profit in the second quarter, that's now set to change.

Image source: Getty Images.

Some details about today's deal between Pfizer/BioNTech and the federal government: For $1.95 billion, the two partners will supply 100 million doses to the U.S. Health and Human Services and Department of Defense. The departments also hold the option to buy up to 500 million additional doses, dependent on FDA approval for a coronavirus vaccine candidate from the BNT162 program. According to recent data, there are two candidate drugs in the program, and both have been given fast-track designation by the FDA.

The vaccine candidate designated BNT162b1 is on track to begin phase 2b/3 clinical trials by month-end and would enroll up to 30,000 participants.

This is one of several agreements the government has reached as part of "Operation Warp Speed" to fund accelerated development of a coronavirus vaccine. Prior deals worth nearly $3 billion with other pharmaceutical companies are aimed at both securing hundreds of millions of doses of a successful vaccine and funding development.

While a typical vaccine development takes multiple years to complete because of the necessity of long-term human studies to prevent potential long-term adverse effects, it is expected that the FDA will issue an emergency use authorization for any coronavirus vaccine candidate that shows itself effective and safe much earlier in trials than is typical.

The vaccine news is helping lift shares of other companies in the healthcare business that deal with some of the most at-risk populations. Welltower, Ventas, and Healthpeak all own seniors housing and nursing homes, and seniors have been by far the hardest-hit demographic by COVID-19. The prospects for a fast-tracked vaccine, with the department of Health and Human Services taking a large number of doses, offers some indication that the government plans to make sure at-risk groups, including physicians, nurses, first responders, and seniors, are given priority access.

HomebuilderNVR (NYSE:NVR) reported second-quarter results today. Revenue and earnings were down 10% and 22% from last year -- not surprising with stay-at-home orders all but shutting down construction and sales activity early in the quarter. But even with the negative events that saw order cancellations increase, the company said new home orders increased by 13% in the quarter. Investors bought on those positive numbers for continued strong demand, sending shares up 10% on the day.

Following NVR higher were other S&P 500 homebuildersD.R. Horton(NYSE:DHI),Lennar (NYSE:LEN), andPulteGroup(NYSE:PHM), up between 3% and 5% today.

The technology giant's cloud computing business continues to deliver massive growth. Azure revenue was up 47%, helping drive total revenue up 13% and delivering earnings of $1.46 per share, well above expectations for $1.36 per share.

But the relatively good report was not getting as much favorable attention as the negative implications from a complaint filed with the European Commission by competitorSlack Technologies(NYSE:WORK). In short, Slack alleges that by bundling Teams with its Office suite, Microsoft is unfairly using its scale to force users to install Teams and does not allow it to be removed.

If this sounds familiar to some readers, it's not that different from prior antitrust complaints about Microsoft's bundling of its web browser, Internet Explorer, with Windows in the past.

With $104 million in net income, Tesla was able to check off the last box to gain eligibility for the S&P 500. The automobile, battery, and solar component maker has made a profit in four straight quarters and is likely to gain entry to the index quickly as a result. And it wasn't just a profitable quarter because of some accounting moves: Tesla generated strong free cash flow of $418 million, and finished the quarter with $8.6 billion in cash and equivalents.

Up next for Tesla: Start its second U.S. Gigafactory, continue growing production in Asia, and see what happens when index funds with more than $1trillionunder management have to add Tesla shares to their top-15 holdings.

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S&P 500 News: Tesla's Profit Sets It Up to Join the Index, U.S. to Buy Up to 600 Million Coronavirus Vaccine Doses, Microsoft Earnings Overshadowed -...

Demand for Chiropractic Medicine Market to Witness Rapid Surge During the Period 2018 2026 – Owned

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

Chiropractic Medicine is an alternate form of medicine used in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases associated with the musculoskeletal system by using hands-on spinal manipulation and other alternative techniques. Chiropractic medicine is primarily used as an alternative to pain relief for muscles, joints, bones, or connective tissue. It can also be used sometimes in combination with the conventional medical treatment. The common and well known therapeutic procedures performed by chiropractic doctors is spinal manipulation. The technique of chiropractic medicine focuses on enabling the body to heal itself without surgery and conventional medication by restoring the mobility of joints which got restricted by tissue injury due to a traumatic event.

The goal of chiropractic medicine is to correct alignment problems, relaxes body and support bodys natural ability to heal itself. Chiropractic doctors evaluate patients through the medical examination, laboratory tests, x-rays, etc. and after taking the complete history and diagnosing a patient, the doctor describes the comprehensive treatment plan and recommend therapeutic exercise along with nutritional, dietary and lifestyle counselling. The chiropractic medicine is used to compliment or support the medical treatment but in many cases, the chiropractic therapy may be the principal method of treatment.

Chiropractic Medicine Market: Drivers & Restraints

The main driving factor for the chiropractic medicine market is the relief from taking medications. Multiple studies also prove the safety of chiropractic treatments than any other commonly used medical treatments; including medications, injections and surgeries for similar conditions. These factors also drive the market for chiropractic medicine market. Along with this, increasing geriatric population, increasing openness to alternative medicines and rise in disposable income also supports the market of chiropractic medicines. However, several side effects associated with the treatment, such as, aching or soreness in the spinal joints or muscles, may restrict the market growth. Unavailability of services in low and middle income countries also restrain the global chiropractic medicine market growth.

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Chiropractic Medicine market: Segmentation

By Disease Type:

By Age Group:

By End Users

To receive extensive list of important regions, Request Methodology here @

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The cost of chiropractic services varies from region to region and form the service type. It is one of the major three healing professions of western world. Chiropractic physicians are trained in providing diagnostic, therapeutic & rehabilitative services along with nutritional, dietary and lifestyle counselling. In context to the rising healthcare costs, the chiropractic medicine can also be seen as an inexpensive and relatively effective treatment method. The market for chiropractic medicines is growing with increasing networking and proven results. The approach followed by one practitioner decides its sales performance and helps in developing customer base.

Geographically, the market for chiropractic medicine can be segmented into five regions, North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East & Africa. North America has the highest market share in the global chiropractic medicine owing to the easy access to services and favorable reimbursement scenario. There are over 70,000 licensed chiropractors working in the United States today. This is followed by the European market due to the existence of many healthcare facilities providing chiropractic medicine services. Asia Pacific is expected to represent a stable growth rate during the forecast period supported by the increasing investment in healthcare facilities and rise in the healthcare spending. Latin America followed by MEA represents a slow growth rate in the chiropractic medicines market because of the out of pocket spending and less availability of these services in the region.

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Some of the service providers in the chiropractic medicine include Back to Natural Chiropractic, Alberta Blue Cross, Dr. Spine Clinic, Hampstead Chiropractic Clinic, ChiroMatrix, Manors Chiropractic Clinic, Complete Care Chiropractic and Jandakot Chiropractic Clinic etc. There are however not any international service provider in the chiropractic medicine and vary from region to region.

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Demand for Chiropractic Medicine Market to Witness Rapid Surge During the Period 2018 2026 - Owned

Impact of Covid-19 on Supercomputer Market Comprehensive Growth 2020-2027 with Top key vendor IBM Corporation, Cray Inc., Lenovo Inc., Sugon, Inspur -…

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

The report on the Global Supercomputer Market provides a panoramic view of the current developments and progresses within the Supercomputer market. The report further analyzes the impact of the novel COVID-19 pandemic on the Supercomputer market and provides an accurate insight into the current and future market fluctuations. Factors likely to influence the growth of the market, current trends, opportunities, restraining factors, and business landscape are discussed in-depth in the market study.

The Supercomputer market report further discusses the definitions, classifications, types, applications, market overview, manufacturing processes and costing, raw materials, among other key points. The report additionally provides SWOT analysis, investment feasibility, and investment return analysis.

Get a sample copy of the Supercomputer market report @ https://www.reportsanddata.com/sample-enquiry-form/2921

The major players profiled in the global Supercomputer market report include:

IBM Corporation, Cray Inc., Lenovo Inc., Sugon, Inspur, Dell EMC, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Atos SE, FUJITSU, and Penguin Computing, among others.

Market Segment by Regions:

Type Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion; 2017-2027)Vector Processing MachinesTightly Connected Cluster ComputerCommodity Cluster

Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion; 2017-2027)Biology AreasMilitary and Defense MissionsWeather Forecasting and Climate PatternsScientific ResearchAdvance DatabaseOthers (Smog Control System, Simulated Environment in Automobile, Financial Market Place, Airline Industry)

End User Outlook (Revenue, USD Billion; 2017-2027)Commercial IndustriesGovernment EntitiesResearch Institutions

Request a discount on the report @ https://www.reportsanddata.com/discount-enquiry-form/2921

Key Questions Answered in the Report:

Key takeaways from the Supercomputer market report:

To read more about the Global Supercomputer Market @ https://www.reportsanddata.com/report-detail/supercomputer-market

Thank you for reading our report. For more information on customization, please reach out to us. Our team will ensure the report is tailored according to your needs.

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Impact of Covid-19 on Supercomputer Market Comprehensive Growth 2020-2027 with Top key vendor IBM Corporation, Cray Inc., Lenovo Inc., Sugon, Inspur -...

New Nano Drug Candidate Kills Aggressive Breast Cancer Cells – University of Arkansas Newswire

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

Whit Pruitt, University Relations

Hassan Beyzavi

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. Researchers at the University of Arkansas have developed a new nano drug candidate that kills triple negative breast cancer cells.

Triple negative breast cancer is one of the most aggressive and fatal types of breast cancer. The research will help clinicians target breast cancer cells directly, while avoiding the adverse, toxic side effects of chemotherapy.

Their study was published in June issue of Advanced Therapeutics.

Researchers led by Hassan Beyzavi, assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, linked a new class of nanomaterials, called metal-organic frameworks, with the ligands of an already-developed photodynamic therapy drug to create a nano-porous material that targets and kills tumor cells without creating toxicity for normal cells.

Metal-organic frameworks are an emerging class of nanomaterials designed for targeted drug delivery. Ligands are molecules that bind to other molecules.

With the exception of skin cancers, breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in American women, said Beyzavi. As we know, thousands of women die from breast cancer each year. Patients with triple negative cells are especially vulnerable, because of the toxic side effects of the only approved treatment for this type of cancer. Weve addressed this problem by developing a co-formulation that targets cancer cells and has no effect on healthy cells.

Researchers in Beyzavis laboratory focus on developing new, targeted photodynamic therapy drugs. As an alternative to chemotherapy and with significantly fewer side effects targeted photodynamic therapy, or PDT, is a noninvasive approach that relies on a photosensitizer that, upon irradiation by light, generates so-called toxic reactive oxygen species, which kill cancer cells. In recent years, PDT has garnered attention because of its ability to treat tumors without surgery, chemotherapy or radiation.

Beyzavis laboratory has specialized in integrating nanomaterials, such as metal-organic frameworks, with PDT and other and therapies. Metal-organic frameworks significantly enhance the effectiveness of PDT.

Doctoral student Yoshie Sakamaki from Beyzavis laboratrory prepared the nanomaterials and then bio-conjugated them with ligands of the PDT drug to create nanoporous materials that specifically targeted and killed tumor cells with no toxicity in normal cells.

In addition to cancer treatment, this novel drug delivery system could also be used with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or fluorescence imaging, which can track the drug in the body and monitor the progress of cancer treatment.

This collaborative project also included contributions from U of A research groups through Julie Stenken, professor of analytical chemistry; Yuchun Du, associate professor of biological sciences; and Jin-Woo Kim, professor of biological and agricultural engineering.

The American Cancer Society estimated 268,600 new cases of invasive breast cancer in 2019 and 41,760 deaths. Currently there are more than 3.1 million breast cancer survivors in the United States. Since 2007, breast cancer death rates have been steady in women younger than 50 but have continued to decrease in older women. This decrease is believed to be the result of earlier detection and better treatments.

Triple negative breast cancer is aggressive and lacks estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2, which means it cannot be treated with receptor-targeted therapy. It is difficult to treat with existing chemotherapy and often requires surgery because it quickly metastasizes throughout the body.

Cytotoxic chemotherapy is the only approved treatment for this type of breast cancer. More than 80% of women with triple negative breast cancer are treated with chemotherapy regimens that include anthracyclines, such as doxorubicin, which can cause cardiotoxicity as a serious side effect. Furthermore, chemotherapy treatment of breast cancer cell lines using either 5-FU, cisplatin, paclitaxel, doxorubicin or etoposide have shown multi-drug resistance.

Beyzavi joined the University of Arkansas in 2017 after serving as a research associate at Harvard University. Before that he was a postdoctoral awardee at Northwestern University under the co-guidance of Nobel Laureate Sir Fraser Stoddart.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among fewer than 2.7 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.

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New Nano Drug Candidate Kills Aggressive Breast Cancer Cells - University of Arkansas Newswire

Research Associate – SecuReFET: Secure Circuits through inherent Reconfigurable FET job with TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAT DRESDEN (TU DRESDEN) | 214467 -…

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

At TU Dresden, Faculty of Computer Science, Institute of Computer Engineering, the Chair of Processor Design offers a project position in a collaborative project which aims to design hardware security solutions using reconfigurable transistors to enable secure circuits as

Research Associate

(subject to personal qualification employees are remunerated according to salary group E 13 TV-L)

starting as soon as possible.

Research area:

SecuReFET: Secure Circuits through inherent Reconfigurable FET

Terms:

Balancing family and career is an important issue. The position is basically suitable for candidates seeking part-time employment as well with at least 50% of the fulltime weekly hours.

The position is limited initially for three years. The period of employment is governed by the Fixed Term Research Contracts Act (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz WissZeitVG).

The project is granted by the DFG (German Research Foundation) under the Special Priority Program on Nano Security: From Nano-Electronics to Secure Systems. The project SecuReFET will be carried out in collaboration with the NaMLab gGmbH Dresden.

Position and Requirements

At the Chair of Processor Design we have the long-term vision of shaping the way future electronic systems are to be designed.

Todays societies critically depend on electronic systems. Over the last years, the security of these systems has been at risk by a number of hardware-level attacks that circumvent software-level security mechanisms. Solutions based on classical CMOS electronics have been shown to be either cost intensive due to a high area overhead or energy inefficient. One promising alternative against such hardware level attacks are security primitives based on emerging reconfigurable nanotechnologies. Transistors based on these disruptive reconfigurable nanotechnologies, termed as Reconfigurable Field-Effect Transistors (RFETs), offer programmable p- and n-type behavior from a single device. The runtime-reconfigurable nature of these nano-electronic devices yields to an inherent polymorphic functionality at the logical abstraction. As a result, circuits made of regular RFET blocks are able to provide a large number of possible functional combinations based on the apparently same circuit representation. The manufacturers, therefore, are able to program the desired functionality after chip production. The big difference to standard CMOS electronics is, that the actual circuit or function remains hidden since they cannot be differentiated from other possible combinations by physical reverse engineering.

In SecuReFET, methodologies and circuits will be developed exploiting the inherent polymorphic property of RFETs. RFET-based security-primitives, such as Physically Unclonable Functions (PUFs) which aim to protect proprietary IP designs, will be designed, modeled, manufactured and measured. The benefit of those cells regarding their resilience against side-channel attacks and reverse engineering will be demonstrated. In addition, potential security threats stemming from the very same reconfigurable nature of the technology, such as hardware Trojans, will be investigated. Measures to mitigate those vulnerabilities by circuit as well as device-design will be explored. Furthermore, an RFET-compatible automated design-synthesis environment (EDA) for logic and physical design of secure circuits will be established based on the modified modern design rules. Finally, the developed concepts will be verified and benchmarked by means of modern security tests.

Tasks:

Requirements:

What we offer

You will join a team of enthusiastic researchers who pursue creatively their individual research agenda. Other ongoing projects at the Chair of Processor Design can be found at https://www.cfaed.tu-dresden.de/pd-about. The chair is a part of the Cluster of Excellence Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden, which offers plenty of resources and structures for career development.

Informal enquiries can be submitted to Prof. Dr. Akash Kumar, Tel +49 (351) 463 39274; Email: akash.kumar@tu-dresden.de

Applications from women are particularly welcome. The same applies to people with disabilities.

Application Procedure

Please submit your comprehensive application (in English only) including the following: motivation letter, CV, copy of degree certificate, transcript of grades (i.e. the official list of coursework including your grades) and proof of English language skills preferably via the TU Dresden SecureMail Portal https://securemail.tu-dresden.de by sending it as a single pdf document quoting the reference number PhD20-05-PD in the subject header to recruiting.cfaed@tu-dresden.de or by post to: TU Dresden, Fakultt Informatik, Institut fr Technische Informatik, Professur fr Prozessorentwurf, Prof. Akash Kumar, Helmholtzstr. 10, 01069 Dresden, Germany. The closing date for applications is 11.08.2020 (stamped arrival date of the university central mail service applies). Please submit copies only, as your application will not be returned to you. Expenses incurred in attending interviews cannot be reimbursed

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Reference to data protection: Your data protection rights, the purpose for which your data will be processed, as well as further information about data protection is available to you on the website: https: //tu-dresden.de/karriere/datenschutzhinweis

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Research Associate - SecuReFET: Secure Circuits through inherent Reconfigurable FET job with TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAT DRESDEN (TU DRESDEN) | 214467 -...

"The follow through decides where it’s going to go" – Kick it like Matty Forde – SportsJOE.ie

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

If you don't go to bed kicking the ball like Matty Forde, You won't wake up kicking the ball like Matty Forde.

Every night at training, the Wexford ace used spend 45 minutes on his own, lacing balls, honing his technique, perfecting his craft. All told, he will go down as one of the most accurate shooters ever to have kicked a Gaelic football.

The art wasn't mastered by chance.

Matty's brilliance - off left and off right - was the product of inspiration and initiative. The Kilanerin Ballyfad club man recalls watching a certain Maurice Fitzgerald as a youngster, and being mesmerised by kicking ability off both sides.

"I remember looking at good players at the time like, you know one that always springs to mind is Maurice Fitzgerald. You were kind of struggling to see was this fella left or right footed," says Forde.

"As it turned out, it would be something youd be advising all young fellas to do, do you know, whether its football or hurling - it just makes you that bit harder to mark. Do you know like, as I progressed then I kept working on it more and more and it has been a huge help to me over the years, over the duration of my whole career..."

"Some of the better scores I've got probably did come from my left foot! It wasn't just for standing on, I wasn't shy to use the left foot I suppose!"

After school, Forde used head to the pitch to perfect his kicking. He'd drag his nephews along with him. Training nights often meant arriving earlier or staying behind.

"I would have done a huge amount on my own. Again, at that stage with Wexford that was probably my fourth or fifth year playing and just from listening to other players and hearing what other players were doing like, all the really good guys were doing extra stuff on their own.

"The three nights a week that we were on the field just wasnt going to cut it...if you wanted to be a bit better, if you wanted to improve. I was more than happy to go, doing extra stuff. I used to drag my brothers three young fellas along with me and theyd kick balls back to me all day, theyd be happy enough anyway. Id be getting to training maybe 45 minutes early most nights as well...so 45 minutes extra every night, three nights a week is a huge amount at the end of a week, at the end of a month at the end of a season. I never really tried something in a match that I hadnt done in training or that I hadnt tried."

The follow through is key. Between kicking frees from a young age to lining out as an out half for his local rugby team, Gorey RFC, Forde learned plenty and driving out through the ball was a very important part of his routine.

"As I say to young fellas, its like do you know when youre taking frees, its like hitting a golf shot. If you dont follow through...kicking the ball will make it go in one direction. Following through is deciding where its going to go basically. So do you know, you have to, If you look at the good kickers in any sport, I look at a lot of rugby and stuff like that and if you watch the guys kicking balls particularly out of their hands, their follow through is up around their shoulders somewhere. Just take Conor McManus, Clifford, Dean Rock - all of these guys have a serious follow through..."

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"The follow through decides where it's going to go" - Kick it like Matty Forde - SportsJOE.ie

From ‘Hip Hop Hooray’ to ‘YMCA,’ the untold stories of Jock Jams, 25 years later – ESPN Philippines

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS LATER, the commemorative platinum-record plaque awarded for "Jock Jams, Volume 1" still hangs inside the New Jersey recording studio of KayGee from Naughty By Nature. It doesn't occupy the same prestigious wall space as the group's other hit records or even the large custom portrait of former Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison, but after all this time, Jock Jams remains nearly impossible to ignore -- no matter how hard we all might try. "Not to toot my own horn," says KayGee, while locating Naughty's "Hip Hop Hooray" (Track 11) on the original compilation of stadium anthems. "But I don't think I've ever been at a sporting event and not heard our Jock Jams song."

He's not the only one. Released on July 25, 1995, the collection opened with Michael Buffer's now ubiquitous "Let's Get Ready To Rumble" boxing howl and was overstuffed with an infectious, borderline-obnoxious mix of arena earworms such as "Get Ready for This," "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)" and "YMCA." And while many sports and music fans are familiar with the carrot-colored CD case covered in airborne cheerleaders, or the seminal collection of stadium anthems once described as an "orgy of chantable hooks" and "adrenaline-fueled schmaltz," few know the actual creation story behind the project, the vision of the two women executives who made it all possible, or the stories behind the songs that have been echoing inside arenas and our collective sports brains for decades.

And so to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the original Jock Jams release, ESPN tracked down the key executives and artists and asked them to retell inspirations behind the greatest -- and strangest -- compilation of sports anthems in music history.

After gigs as a model and go-go dancer in her hometown of Chicago, Monica Lynch moved to New York, where she answered a want ad in The Village Voice in 1981 to become the first employee of the fledgling Tommy Boy record label. Four years later, after developing De La Soul, Digital Underground, Queen Latifah and others, earning her the title "The High Priestess of Hip-hop," in 1985 Lynch became president of Tommy Boy, which earned her access to the company's luxury box at Madison Square Garden. And it was in that luxury box, watching -- and listening to -- the Knicks and Rangers, that the idea for Jock Jams was born.

Inspired by childhood nostalgia for her hometown Chicago Blackhawks, and encouraged by Ray Castoldi, MSG's director of music and hybrid organist/DJ, Lynch set out to create the ultimate compilation of sports anthems -- a collection that would expand the genre beyond old-timey organ music and yacht rock. "It was a very simple idea, but sometimes those are the best," Lynch says. She already had the anthem part figured out. What Lynch and Tommy Boy needed was a business partner that could help with the sports side.

Monica Lynch, former president of Tommy Boy Records: Culturally, [ESPN and Tommy Boy were] very different operations. An independent record company in the mid-'90s, we were doing our own thing, running fast and loose, and didn't have to answer to anyone. Sharyn was just kind of bemused by us.

Sharyn Taymor, former director of ESPN Enterprises: In the 1990s, the ESPN brand was starting to be everywhere. ESPN2 had just started and there was talk of ESPN News and Classic, and we wanted to start licensing the ESPN brand to products and services. It was like the wild, wild west. We worked on dot-com, The Magazine, video games, fantasy sports, merchandise and music. We didn't even have to seek out that many opportunities; you just had to sit back and see what people brought to us. I remember having a fantasy football meeting with the NFL. I had no idea what I was talking about. It hadn't existed until then. To give you an idea of what it was like, the products and services we worked on are now entire divisions within the company.

And ESPN was kind of straight-laced and Tommy Boy Records was not. We weren't into being provocative at all, and Tommy Boy was totally the opposite. [But] it was an area that made sense for us because we hadn't done anything in that genre and music and sports are so closely tied together.

Lynch: My uncle was in charge of the ticket office at Chicago Stadium, so as a kid I got to go to a lot of Blackhawk games and sit in the front row right behind the goalie. I had the biggest crush on Keith Magnuson because he was the bad boy of that team and he was always spitting his teeth out on the ice, which I just thought was the sexiest thing ever. My uncle arranged for Bobby Hull to introduce us after a game. And when Bobby said, 'She's your biggest fan, Keith, and she wants to give you a great big kiss,' I was so mortified I turned around and punched Hull right in the stomach. I guess that's where this all started. I just loved hockey, the sights, the sounds, the energy; it was so violent and visceral.

KayGee, Naughty by Nature, "Hip Hop Hooray" (Track 11): A lot of musicians call themselves sports guys, and a lot of sports guys call themselves musicians. So there's a community between us, a natural connection that's embedded in all of us. When we first came out, one of our favorite teams was the Fab Five. We [KayGee and fellow group members Treach and Vin Rock] all started wearing baggy shorts on stage, and when we played in Michigan, they came to our show and I became lifelong friends with those guys.

Freedom Williams, singer, C+C Music Factory, "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)" (Track 10): Sports is nothing but a dance. It's rhythm, right? Baseball is a slow dance. Football is a violent dance. Basketball is a quick dance. When you hit a ground ball to the shortstop and the shortstop hits the second baseman and the second baseman throws it to first, that's poetry, that's a dance they're doing.

Taymor: The first [sport-compilation project Tommy Boy did] was "Jock Rock," and it was all about rock and established sports anthems, you know, Queen, "We Will Rock You," that kind of stuff. It came out in 1994 and charted No. 79 on Billboard, and we knew we had something terrific. There was a record label called K-Tel, and they did compilations for many years, and we just kind of took their place. Tommy Boy was more of a hip-hop, rap and dance label, though, and they wanted to go more in that direction. That's where Jock Jams came from. We wanted to be the influencers of this kind of sports music instead of being influenced by it.

Castoldi: Hip-hop as a pop music form, that idea was still pretty new. My first bosses at MSG told me "Ray, we're not running a nightclub up there. These hip-hop records -- are they really the kind of music our audience is gonna groove to?" And the answer was: Of course! Absolutely! "Jock Rock" was almost entirely oldies. With Jock Jams, it was all about: Let's talk about the new stuff.

Did you know?On top of his MSG organist gig, Ray Castoldi also worked as a DJ under the name Frequency X alongside Joe Turri and Nicolai Vorkapich. He performed at the Limelight nightclubs and was signed by Radikal Records, which distributed the first import of 2 Unlimited's "Get Ready for This" (Track 2).

With the project approved, it was now up to Taymor and Patrick Edmonds, from Tommy Boy -- with an assist from Castoldi -- to curate the collection.

Taymor: Castoldi had a lot of influence on that list because he knew what songs were already being played at sporting events. Patrick would then give me a CD with 30 to 40 tracks on it and then we'd try to figure out what to put on the album. That was the really fun part. I'd listen to them in the office, at home, in the car, and go back to him and say, "OK, how about this group?" Or "I don't like this one." There was a lot of back and forth -- a lot.

Castoldi: One of the only debates we had was: Do we put KC and the Sunshine Band "Get Down Tonight" or the Village People's "YMCA" on Volume 1? I mean, they're both classics. But "YMCA" had the dance, so that's gonna win. KC ended up on Volume 2. Rock tracks like "Welcome to the Jungle" were hard to get, those bands just wouldn't do the licensing. I remember later on we wanted "Song 2" by Blur and they were like "Uh, no, we don't want to be on a sports-oriented record." More power to them. And now, it's weird, it's almost hard to hear that song anywhere else but in an arena.

Taymor: Monica and I had to work at always finding the right balance, and there was a lot of tugging and pulling from each side, whether it was a song, or a lyric, or the artwork or the commercials. That was always the issue: They wanted to go in that direction, and I was very, very paranoid and protective of the brand. There were just a bunch of things we had to say no to. I don't think a project like this would happen now. Now, things are just out there and blatant. Back then, it was all innuendo and double entendres, it could mean this or it could mean that.

Jay "Ski" McGowan, Quad City DJ's member and 69 Boyz producer: We just decided, Hey, if anyone from ESPN asks about 69 Boyz, just say the guys were all born in 1969 and "Tootsee Roll" (Track 5) is a candy and a fun dance and just leave it at that. A little bit more, we would have been in trouble with ESPN, but we stayed right there on that line. ... Yes [laughing], I do expect you to believe that! That's our story, and we're sticking to it. [Editor's note: McGowan and the 69 Boyz were not all born in 1969.]

Lynch: I love the 69 Boyz, that's the perfect answer. I guess a song like K7's "Come Baby Come" (Track 7) had a naughty tone to it. I suppose it's the double entendres that matter. But it was already a popular record, so it was the kind of thing, in a meeting at ESPN, you could say, "But I sing that song to my 2-year-old." And if the feeling was that "it's mom-friendly," it would be OK.

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Taymor: Tommy Boy once brought us a Coolio song, and I kind of read too much into it and pushed back. It was "one-two-three-four, get your woman on the floor..." I told them what I thought he was saying, and they all said, "That's not what it means!" So we put that song on Jock Jams 2.

Lynch: The throughline in the selection of the songs was these were all hits or were all about to be hits. We looked for high-energy records that had crossed over and were either being played or just starting to get played in sports arenas. Some of these records, like "YMCA," were already chestnuts in the stadiums, and with some of our artists, like K7, we wanted to use Jock Jams to usher a song like "Come Baby Come" into anthem status.

Did you know?When contacted by ESPN, a rep for the Village People's original lead singer Victor Willis, 69, responded: "What is Jock Jams?"

Castoldi: The lineup is all killer and no filler, like they used to say on the radio. Because it was the first one, there was so much low-hanging fruit that you could just pick the best of the best, the songs that we'd all consider late-game go-to songs, big anthemic songs that you want to play at key moments of a game. And these are all there on Jock Jams 1. You gotta remember, there was no iTunes, no YouTube, no internet, no Shazam, so part of the reason why this was so successful is Jock Jams put all of this stuff in one place for you. Otherwise, at the time, you would have had to go out and buy, like, 20 CDs to collect all these songs.

As the lineup began to take shape, Taymor still found herself facing a challenge.

Taymor: The challenge was how do we put an ESPN spin on it? How do we brand it with ESPN? That's when we came up with the idea of what we called interstitials, little sports-related sound bites you'd hear between songs.

Castoldi: The goal from the beginning was to make it an immersive sports experience, like you were actually at the game. I recorded my little "The Old Ballgame" organ riff (Track 19) at the Garden or maybe just in my apartment. We recorded cheerleaders, hot dog vendors at Yankee Stadium, marching bands, as well as personalities like Michael Buffer. I mean, how many people got married that year with Michael Buffer and 2 Unlimited kicking off their reception?

Lynch: That was not an inexpensive undertaking to get Michael Buffer and "Let's get ready to rumble" on the first Jock Jams. I don't remember what the number was, but I remember a gulp when I saw the number. He didn't come cheap. We decided to do it, and in hindsight I'm really glad that we did. He was "the" guy, the voice of sports, the voice of god. Having that as the opening was absolutely perfect. When you hear "Let's get ready to rumblllllle" within the first few seconds, everybody knew what this was.

Did you know?Buffer tried out "Man your battle stations!" and "Ladies and gentlemen, fasten your seat belts!" before settling on LGRTR, which was inspired by Muhammad Ali. Buffer trademarked the phrase in 1992, and it was estimated to be worth $400 million as of 2009.

The backstory of Jock Jams doesn't end, though, in New York City and Bristol, Connecticut -- where ESPN is located. The stories behind the songs are as compelling as the tunes themselves -- and reveal much about the music industry, and the culture, 25 years ago.

Rob Base, vocals, songwriter, "It Takes Two" (Track 8 | LISTEN):

We had to be in the studio that same night [in early 1988], so me and E-Z Rock went over to a friend's house, and we were just going through a bunch of different albums and he found a beat he liked and I found this Lyn Collins record I liked. That's where the "woo, yeah" comes from. We just blended them together, and that's how we came up with the song. It was quick. In that era of hip-hop, we were all digging through crates of old records trying to find beats and samples no one had used before, so that was the key -- if you found something that was hot, that no one had used, you pretty much had something, for sure. It worked out really well for us waiting to the last second. We had no idea what we were going to do in the studio that night, but the music just came together. I had the rap part already written, and it just all fit perfectly.

I was met with heavy resistance at the time about all the "woo, yeah"s, and I had to really fight for that. At the time Public Enemy had a record that had a siren that rode all the way through. That made that record stand out so much, and I was thinking to myself, If I leave the "woo, yeah" in the whole record, that's gonna make this record stand out too. They wanted to take it out at the beginning of the verses and bring it back in at the end. I put my foot down with management: It gotta stay. And I won.

Did you know?Rodney Bryce, aka DJ E-Z Rock, who became friends with Base in the fourth grade in Harlem, died in 2014 from complications of diabetes. ... Rolling Stone christened the repeating "woo, yeah" the "single greatest use of a looped drum break in rap history -- the hip-hop equivalent of the guitar solo in 'Stairway to Heaven.'" (Track 8).

Ian Dench, songwriter, guitarist, "Unbelievable" by EMF, (Track 15 | LISTEN):

When the record deal with my first band [Curse] came to nothing, there I was back in Gloucester, England, living in a little bedsit. My mum had a nice piano, and so I used to ride my bike over there and write songs. She was distraught. If my own son gets into Oxford and then gives it all up to play in a rock 'n' roll band, I would burst into tears as well. Anyway, I was riding my bike through the park, thinking about all these songs I was working on about my ex-girlfriend who dumped me. I was always looking for words and ways to say what I was feeling, and that's why "unbelievable" was such a great word because it had that double meaning to it where you're amazing but perhaps there's something underhand to you as well. I was on the bike trying to think of a way to say it, and that's when it just popped into my head -- "The things, you say; Your purple prose just gives you away; The things, you say" -- followed by that phrase and that stop: "bawm, badada-da-dat-dadadaa ... You're unbelievable." My place was not too far, five minutes away, so I just kept riding and humming it in my head, round and round, got back to my bedsit, pulled out my guitar and cassette, and there it was.

I do have to give a shoutout to Andrew Dice Clay [too] because that "Ohhh" is a wonderful sample and it's quite a funny story. Def Jam released his record -- It was really terribly misogynistic, wasn't it? -- and before our record came out, we kept trying to get ahold of Rick Rubin to clear the sample. But he never got back to us. Well, we were in L.A. for meetings before the release of the record, and we went into The Rainbow Bar & Grill on Sunset, which was quite the big heavy-metal hangout at the time, and there was [Def Jam co-founder] Rick Rubin. So I just went up to him and said, "Sorry to interrupt, big fan; we just made a record, and we're trying to clear this sample." And he said, "No problem, fax it to me in the morning." Sure enough, we faxed it to him, and he cleared it. I mean, talk about the stars aligning on a record.

Did you know?In 2009 Dench earned two Grammy nominations for collaborations with Beyonce ("Once in a Lifetime" and "I Am... Sasha Fierce."). ... A few years ago, he got a message from a student in Wales who said his teacher was claiming she was the inspiration for "Unbelievable." Dench did some checking and wrote back to the student "Yes, yes, that's absolutely true." (Track 15).

McGowan, Quad City DJ's, producer on "Tootsee Roll" (Track 5 | LISTEN):

We had just come off the road, back in Jacksonville, and I was with my son, who was 5, and we were in a Cracker Barrel -- or, in the store next to the restaurant walking around. I mean, we've all been in a Cracker Barrel with our kids, and they aren't as super excited about the meal as they are about running through that store. Well, I come across this thing, this piggy bank that was a long roll, painted like a Tootsie Roll and I thought, "This is cool, I'll get this for my son and have him start saving some coins." As I'm walking through Cracker Barrel, my son in one hand, the Tootsie Roll bank in the other, it just hit me: This would make a perfect concept for a record, a dance that's a play on the candy.

We always wanted to create the party and the club feel on record, so that's why we'd add those whistles and all that background crowd noise; we wanted them to be a signature. We came from the skate-rink era and they had whistles, and we'd grab our friends and say, "Hey, we're doing crowd vocals" and put everybody in the vocal booth, pitch down an octave or two, and mix it together and add effects, and before you knew it, it sounds like a party in there. And that's why our records worked so well on Jock Jams and in stadiums because it almost felt like, with all the crowd noise already on our records, all people in the stands had to do was just join in.

Did you know?Quad City DJ's was nominated for a Grammy for "Space Jam" off the 1996 "Space Jam" movie soundtrack, and McGowan now works as "Jay the EnterTrainer," speaking on leadership and innovation. ... The original Tootsie Roll bank is still at his son's grandmother's house.

Martha Wash, singer, "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)," (Track 10 | LISTEN):

I was in a studio in New York, and one of the producers, who had worked with Mariah Carey, was on the phone explaining what he wanted me to sing, and I said to him, "That key is really high for me." I remember on The Weather Girls' "Big Girls Don't Cry" album there was a song with a really high obbligato part at the beginning, and so we put the microphone on the floor and I bent over to sing on top of the microphone. We all laughed about it, how no one would have believed it, but that's how I got that note out of me. With "Everybody Dance Now," to get the power of those three words, I had to really, really almost scream it out. So I was in the booth reaching my hands up to the ceiling to try and see about getting those notes out correctly and in the right key without it sounding crazy.

People love that screaming part, OK? Yeah, it's hard to sing live. Can you do the same thing you were doing 30 years ago? OK then.

Did you know?In 2017 a Canadian man singing "Gonna Make You Sweat" in his car was issued a $118 ticket by police for "screaming in a public place."

Wash, singer, "Strike It Up," (Track 4 | LISTEN):

Believe it or not, that was never one of my favorite songs. What makes it so interesting is the music on that song. I won't say it's necessarily my vocals; it's more so the music for that particular song. When you put that together with an athletic situation and a game and you hear that bass line come in and it goes into that baump baump baump ba ba, the audience gets into that because it's a sports chant.

Did you know?Although Wash's thunderous, distinctive voice was easily recognizable from her No. 1 dance hit "It's Raining Men" with The Weather Girls and a dozen other No. 1 dance songs, she was not properly credited for her vocals in the original versions of "Gonna Make You Sweat" and "Strike It Up." In the age of Milli Vanilli, C+C Music Factory and Black Box attempted to cast slimmer, younger women to lip sync Wash's vocals.Says Wash: "I had just checked into a hotel, had the TV on, channel surfing, and I landed on this station that was playing the video for 'Gonna Make You Sweat,' and I'm seeing this thin, thin woman lip-syncing to my vocals, and I'm like, 'What is going on?' I was not happy about that." The ensuing legal battle inspired federal legislation mandating proper vocal credit on all published music. "Lots of people know the voice, know the songs, they dance to those songs and sing every word to those songs, but they don't know my name," she adds. "It's not fun. They know Beyonce, Ariana Grande, Lizzo. My goodness I've been doing this for 40 years and I've had a hit in every decade since the '80s, and John Q. Public still doesn't know my name."

Jean-Paul De Coster, producer, songwriter, "Get Ready for This" (Track 2 | LISTEN) and "Twilight Zone" (Track 18 | LISTEN):

In 1983 I was still in school, teaching mechanics and electricity, and I was wanting to quit to follow my passion. I knew Patrick [De Meyer] from Technotronic (Track 17: "Pump Up the Jam") for ages because I was coming into his record store in Antwerp [in Belgium] and asking him, "Can you explain to me how a record store works?" And he says. "How do you know?" And I said "How do I know what?" He was selling the record store because he was so busy with his own music and record company, and so I said, "OK, I'll jump in and have a coffee." And I bought his shop.

In 1987 we had the first Belgium music wave, which was inspired by New Wave, and they called it New Beat and they played records and slowed them down from 45 rpm to 33 rpm, with bpm 100 to 105, very dark and mellow and moody, like a fashion scene. When New Beat was over, I saw in my record shop and in the clubs when I was DJing that people were going crazy on this new Belgium House Sounds that had evolved from New Beat. I said to [Belgium DJ] Phil Wilde -- he is the computer wizard and studio guy -- "Something's happening with this sound, we need to make a record." And he said, "Fine, come in."

So on a Wednesday, I took a day off from my record shop. He would play riffs, and I would say, "No, no, play it more like this." We wanted more energetic, more pumping, and so we were twisting sounds together, layered and mixed. It was very important that we made sounds that were different from the rest. An early review called it an energetic, powerful, crispy sound.

KayGee, Naughty By Nature, "Hip Hop Hooray" (Track 11 | LISTEN):

We were on tour and Tommy Boy was putting pressure on us to hurry up and finish our second album. After the success of "O.P.P.," it was like, you guys need to keep it going. I had made a bunch of beats. But on our tour bus, Treach was just blasting that one beat over and over. It's the Isley Brothers, it's just playing on 45. Their song is slow, and I just sped it up real fast and that gave it a different sound and a new feel. That's the process of a producer: We chop stuff up, speed it up, slow it down, filter it, do a lot of things to it, because when you mess around with it, it turns into something different.

So we're on the tour bus, with Treach writing, and the whole concept of the chorus, they did that in parties back in New York when a good record would come on, they'd say "Heeey, hooo," like to say, "That's my joint." Treach remembered that, and he was like, "It would be dope to use that heeey, hooo they do in the clubs, but I'm gonna call it Hip Hop Hooray-Hooo and I'm gonna talk about the love of hip-hop and how we advanced as hip-hop artists."

We wrote the whole thing on the tour bus and we recorded it, and Tommy Boy didn't even know about that song. We performed it at KMEL [Bay Area] Summer Jam. It was packed; there must have been 25,000 people out there, and the very first time it was introduced, Treach and Vin put their hands up in the air and the whole crowd, I mean everybody, started waving side to side with the beat. We started in talent shows, getting the crowd involved to win those talent shows. It was so spontaneous the way the crowd followed along. So we knew not only did we have a song that connects we have a visual that connects with our audience too. The program director called Tommy Boy and said "Naughty performed a song last night, and if I don't have a copy of it on my desk Monday morning, I'm playing the live version." So Monica was calling me, yelling at me, "What song are they talking about?!"

Did you know?As a mental exercise while recovering from COVID-19, actress Rita Wilson posted an Instagram video of her near-perfect rendition of "Hip Hop Hooray," which she memorized while preparing for a 2019 movie role. After the video got 2 million views, Wilson teamed up with KayGee and Naughty for a remix to benefit MusiCares Covid-19 Relief Fund. "It's incredible," KayGee says. "She did better than I would have done trying to sing Treach's lyrics like that."

"Jock Jams, Volume 1" went platinum in just over a year and peaked at No. 30 on the charts. By expanding the definition of stadium anthems to include Eurodance, Latin music, pop, hip-hop and rap, Lynch and Taymor had ensured that Jock Jams would have an impact at the cash register and across the culture. (Despite all of Taymor's precautions, Jock Jams 1 was not completely controversy-free. The 20th and final track on the original compilation, "Rock and Roll Part 2," is by Gary Glitter, who, in 2015, was sentenced to 16 years in prison after being convicted of sexually abusing three young girls.)

"Jock Jams, Volume 2" was released in 1996, and thanks to the "Macarena" by Los Del Rio, it managed to crack the top 10 -- an extraordinary feat for a compilation album. But the series truly hit its Jock Jam peak with Volume 3, which included an "It's Awesome, Baby!" intro by Dick Vitale, "official" Jock Jams Cheerleader chants, a rendition of "The Chicken Dance" by Castoldi and a brain-searing sound salad called the "Jock Jam Mega Mix," featured in a classic series of infamous commercials that fused a public-access cable milieu with the low-key approach of a carpet liquidator.

The final Jock Jams was released in 2001, just as Napster, the online music-sharing (and piracy) service hit its peak. All told, the series sold more than 4 million copies and -- for better or worse -- helped pave the way for modern-day bands such as Fall Out Boy to integrate their songs into sports culture. "There is nothing like your song being played in a stadium; you get this whole different kind of shiver," FOB's Pete Wentz told ESPN in 2014. "Integrating your music into the texture of a larger experience, like a sporting event, is important. 'Empire State of Mind' and Jay-Z and the Yankees are a thing. Forever. The music and the experience become interwoven. That's powerful."

Castoldi: I ran into Naughty a few years ago at the Garden, and I was like, "You guys remember Jock Jams?" And they were all like, "Uh, yeah, we made some money off that one." Today recording artists are looking for any avenue, any outlet, to get their music out into the world and get it heard. And I think sports was on the leading edge of that, as an alternative outlet for artists to break new music and promote their material.

Lynch: Jock Jams had this enormous audience of women. It started getting used as a soundtrack for exercising and aerobics and cheerleading dance routines. At the time, we had no idea it was going to take on this whole other audience. The high school girls and the female component of the audience, we did not anticipate that part of the audience was going to explode that way.

Taymor: I would go to the Tower Records [near] Union Square -- this was not a not once-or-twice thing, I did it all the time -- and I would take all the Jock Jams and move them to the front of the stack so they would be more visible. We used to get Billboard magazine delivered to the office, and the first thing I'd do was go to the page with all the listings and see where we were that week. I used to rip out the page and tape it to the door of my office, and it was so much fun watching them climb the charts each week.

De Coster: Jock Jams introduced a lot of different music cultures to a big audience. In those days, in the 1990s, it was all rock music, Nirvana, Guns N' Roses, and we were struggling and fighting to have our records on the radio. So compilations like Jock Jams were very important to us because it introduced us to an audience we never could reach.

Freedom Williams: The first time I ever realized the song was gonna be big, I was walking down the block and everyone was jamming to it on the JumboTron on 42nd [Times Square]. They were playing the song -- "Jump to the rhythm, jump-jump" -- while NBA players were dunking and jumping to it. That's when I knew it was gonna be a big record.

KayGee: Before the COVID situation, I had to drive and pick up my daughter at Purdue, and on that ride we took her car, so she's the DJ, she's controlling everything, and I'm hearing a few of my records come on. That's pretty cool, and she's like, "Come on, Dad, you know you want to sing along."

McGowan: Jock Jams gave us more life. We played on the field in Philadelphia, at the top of the fifth inning in Game 3 of the World Series. That was mind-blowing. We played "Space Jams" as the intro for Zach LaVine when he won the NBA Slam Dunk contest. I just read in a book about Tiger Woods that after he won his first Masters at 21, he rode off down Magnolia Lane with the SUV windows down blasting "C'mon N Ride It (The Trainz)."

Base: I played some baseball growing up, a little third base, shortstop, outfield, and I always wanted to be a baseball player, but that didn't happen. I'm a big Yankees fan. I remember sitting at home watching my Yankees and they got a double play and they started playing "It Takes Two," and I jumped out of my seat and I started running around trying to call everyone I could, but they were all calling me at the same time going, "Yo, the Yankees just played your song!" I thought it would be a big record in the tri-state area. Once sports started playing this song, I was like, "That's it, this is a mega-song. Babe Ruth, Reggie Jackson and Rob Base?" Yeah, yeah, I like that.

Did you know?The NFL used "It Takes Two" in its 100-year celebration commercial during Super Bowl LIII, where a pickup football game breaks out in the middle of an anniversary banquet. And as for Base's commonly misheard "can't stand sex"? In the song, what he actually says he can't stand is "sess." "Don't smoke buddha, can't stand sess." It's a reference to sinsemilla, a strain of marijuana. "A lot of people have been singing that wrong for the last 30 years," Base says. Although it's frowned upon by die-hard fans in New York, Base roots for both the Giants and the Jets. "People get on me for that, but I've been like that forever," he says. In his defense, these days, for NFL fans in New York who want to watch a normal amount of success, it takes two (franchises). "It takes two? Oh, right, I'm gonna use that, thanks," Base says.

De Coster: [During the] Winter Olympics in Russia, they used one of our songs in the closing ceremonies. That was goose bumps. DJ Steve Aoki remixed it at Tomorrowland, and the whole festival went bananas. My daughter is 24, and she had her birthday party in the garden and I told her I would DJ for her. But I am an old guy, and in the beginning it felt very uncomfortable. Then I started playing some '90s music and they all knew all those records. So now when my daughter has a party, her friends want to know: Is your dad playing? It's all hip again. Very strange.

Lynch: At Tommy Boy, I always called Jock Jams "the love that dare not speak its name." It was funny because for a period of time, we were a label that had distinguished itself in hip-hop, and Jock Jams was like this big mainstream pop project, this juggernaut that was a huge record that didn't really have street cred. For years after, you'd say Jock Jams and people would laugh and say, "Oh, my mom loved Jock Jams." And then, funny enough, just a few years ago, for some reason, people were like, "Oh, Jock Jams was so cool." I think it was just one of those things that was so uncool it became hip.

Taymor: The Jock Jams franchise eventually went away because record labels got wise to it and said, "Why don't we take our own music and put out our own albums?" And those were the compilations called "Now That's What I Call Music!" But the first Jock Jams, you go to a game now and 75 to 80 percent of the songs you hear are from that era still. And those aren't going away. I still go to Madison Square Garden and brag, absolutely.

KayGee: We didn't understand the significance of being a part of Jock Jams at first, but as time went on, we got it. Our ultimate goal, we wanted to be able to rock sports arenas and rock stadiums, and that's what Jock Jams represented.

McGowan: You catch me riding in my truck, you'll catch me listening to those Jock Jam records. I could ride and listen to Jock Jams to this day, start to finish, from Track 1 to the end, because I genuinely still love that vibe. And I think a lot of people still do.

Dench: We've all grown up together, I suppose, haven't we? I've never been super sporty, so it has been wonderful to contribute to sports in some way, without ever having to actually break a sweat.

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From 'Hip Hop Hooray' to 'YMCA,' the untold stories of Jock Jams, 25 years later - ESPN Philippines

Felix The Reaper on iOS review – "Lots of love, not enough game" – Pocket Gamer

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

Decapitated deer heads, star-crossed lovers, and super sick beats - these seemingly random elements may look completely out of place with each other, but thats exactly where the appeal of Felix the Reaper comes in. If somebody had pitched me the idea of a game where you dance around killing people on the quest to be with your one true love, Id have slammed my fist on the conference table, exclaimed a vehement Yes, and shoved what little money I had left in whichever direction I had to in order to make that game a reality.

Turns out that the higher-ups at publisher Daedalic Entertainment and developer Kong Orange were way ahead of me from the very beginning.

Yes, Felix the Reaper is all about you dancing through grids in a 3D puzzle platform in order to make the predetermined deaths of mortals a reality, often in a hilariously dark and twisted fashion (imagine accidentally decapitating your brother with an arrow because you thought he was a deer). As Felix, the agent of death working for the Ministry of Death, you have to get from Point A to Point B essentially, making sure to stick to the shadows and avoid the sun - not because youre a vampire, but because its just spookier to off people when youre not in broad daylight.

To do this, you have to manipulate a sundial that shifts the grids where you can move around, so you really have to knock around the ol noggin to figure out how to succeed in your assignments without stepping into the light.

The game was initially released on PC and on consoles during the latter part of 2019. To be honest, I had never heard of Felix the Reaper before all this, but the advantage of me living under a rock all this time is that when I started playing, everything was a surprise for me. I reveled in the quick and quirky introduction about the world of the game and who you play as, and no, I wouldnt mind having Sir Patrick Stewart feed me instructions on how to do my job all day.

Im not normally a fan of puzzle games, and the only ones I really enjoyed were Sid & Al's Incredible Toons by Sierra On-Line back in 1993 and Scribblenauts on the Nintendo DS in 2009. But the thing that really got me tapping and grooving with Felix was the story. Im a self-confessed sucker for tragic love stories, and if this ones going to take the form of a woman who works for the Ministry of Life and a man whos essentially the Grim Reaper, then Im totally and completely on board.

More than the actual gameplay, I found myself browsing through all of the descriptions and entertaining tidbits in the game. There were backstories to every mortal target, and tongue-in-cheek little details that most players will likely miss. For instance, during the tutorial, you end up offing the wrong victim, and you get a company memo that tells you to report immediately to the Department of Unexistence of Non-Existing Events with a note that says, This didnt happen!

The problem is that its only very briefly shown until you have to move on to the actual game. I like those little things, but sadly, they werent enough to really make me enjoy the game to its fullest.

Heres the downside to all this. The game doesnt hold your hand, and while Im all for discovering things on your own, it probably wasnt the smartest choice for the developers to make here. I spent an unholy amount of time during the first few missions of the first victim alone, trying to figure out how to get to a shadowed part of the grid, only to find out that I could actually move certain things that were in the way to get to where I wanted to go.

It was also a bit frustrating to target the specific grids while dragging-and-dropping. Because I needed to zoom out and see the lay of the land most of the time, the boxes always end up too small for my finger to drag-and-drop onto. Its also a shame that I constantly had to zoom out to check my path, when a zoomed-in view would have been lovelier - the art is stunning, and missing out on all that jazz (not to mention Felixs sick dance moves) is just too bad.

I love a good challenge as much as the next person, but whenever I finally got through a round, it just didnt feel as satisfying as I thought it would. You get a score card and some checkmarks for certain criteria, which, quite frankly, are too difficult to achieve. It can be pretty frustrating (especially for someone whos more spatially challenged as me), and while I really wanted to keep going, I had to stop and take a break because my head was literally hurting.

Oddly enough, the moment I stopped, I had this sudden urge to immediately go back to the game. I guess thats the great conundrum of puzzle challenges, isnt it?

Overall, I have mixed feelings about Felix the Reaper. Levels get bigger but end up becoming repetitive. I puff up my chest in self-pride with each round I clear, and end up with more debilitating self-doubt when the next stage starts. While I absolutely devoured the concept and storyline and wanted to see what happened next, I also couldnt bring myself to just keep going.

I really want Felix to beat all odds and be with the love of his life. I mean, that look alone that he gives at the end of every round is enough to break my heart into a million pieces. He kind of does this little glance and takes one last look at his surroundings in hopes of spotting the girl of his dreams, then heaves this huge, dejected sigh of disappointment before he hops onto the elevator and leaves. Its an ingenious idea, but if this were a short film instead of a game, I probably would have enjoyed myself way more.

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Felix The Reaper on iOS review - "Lots of love, not enough game" - Pocket Gamer

McAfee Report Shows Threat Actor Evolution During Pandemic – Business Wire

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--McAfee, the device-to-cloud cybersecurity company, today released its McAfee COVID-19 Threat Report: July 2020 examining cybercriminal activity related to COVID-19 and the evolution of cyber threats in Q1 2020. McAfee Labs saw an average of 375 new threats per minute and a surge of cybercriminals exploiting the pandemic through COVID-19 themed malicious apps, phishing campaigns, malware, and more. New PowerShell malware increased 688% over the course of the quarter while total malware grew 1,902% over the past four quarters. Disclosed incidents targeting the public sector, individuals, education and manufacturing increased; nearly 47% of all publicly disclosed security incidents took place in the United States.

Thus far, the dominant themes of the 2020 threat landscape have been cybercriminals quick adaptation to exploit the pandemic and the considerable impact cyberattacks have had, said Raj Samani, McAfee fellow and chief scientist. What began as a trickle of phishing campaigns and the occasional malicious app quickly turned into a deluge of malicious URLs and capable threat actors leveraging the worlds thirst for more information on COVID-19 as an entry mechanism into systems across the globe.

Each quarter, McAfee assesses the state of the cyber threat landscape based on in-depth research, investigative analysis, and threat data gathered by the McAfee Global Threat Intelligence cloud from over a billion sensors across multiple threat vectors around the world.

CAPABLE THREAT ACTORS EXPLOIT PANDEMIC

McAfee researchers found it is typical of COVID-19 campaigns to use pandemic-related subjects including testing, treatments, cures, and remote work topics to lure targets into clicking on a malicious link, download a file, or view a PDF. To track these campaigns, McAfee Advanced Programs Group (APG) has published a COVID-19 Threat Dashboard, which includes top threats leveraging the pandemic, most targeted verticals and countries, and most utilized threat types and volume over time. The dashboard is updated daily at 4pmET; more information can be found here: McAfee APG COVID-19 Threat Dashboard.

Cybersecurity cannot be solved by cookie cutter approaches, each organization is unique and has specific intelligence requirements and objectives, said Patrick Flynn, head of McAfee APG. The McAfee COVID-19 Threat Dashboard utilizes data to create true analyzed intelligence, which allows users to understand the total threat environment, informing them of potential threats before they are weaponized."

DATA BREACHES: THE NEW RANSOMWARE ATTACK

Over the course of the first quarter of 2020, McAfee Advanced Threat Research (ATR) observed malicious actors focus on sectors where availability and integrity are fundamental, for example manufacturing, law and construction firms.

No longer can we call these attacks just ransomware incidents. When actors have access to the network and steal the data prior to encrypting it, threatening to leak if you dont pay, that is a data breach, said Christiaan Beek, senior principal engineer and lead scientist. Using either weakly protected Remote Desktop Protocol or stolen credentials from the underground, we have observed malicious actors moving at lightspeed to learn the network of their victims and effectively steal and then encrypt their data.

New ransomware declined 12% in Q1; total ransomware increased 32% over the past four quarters.

Q1 2020 THREATS ACTIVITY

Malware overall. New malware samples slowed by 35%; total malware increased 27% over the past four quarters. New Mac OS malware samples increased by 51%.

Mobile malware. New mobile malware increased by 71%, with total malware growing nearly 12% over the past four quarters.

Regional Targets. Disclosed incidents targeting the Americas increased 60%, incidents targeting Asia-Pacific increased 27%, while Europe decreased 7%.

Security incidents. McAfee Labs counted 458 publicly disclosed security incidents, an increase of 41% from Q4. 50% of all publicly disclosed security incidents took place in North America, followed 9% in Europe. Nearly 47% of all publicly disclosed security incidents took place in the United States.

Vertical industry targets. Disclosed incidents targeting the public sector increased 73% individuals increased 59%, education increased 33%, and manufacturing increased 44%.

Attack vectors. Overall, malware led disclosed attack vectors, followed by account hijacking and targeted attacks.

Cryptomining. New coinmining malware increased 26%. Total coinmining malware samples increased nearly 97% over the past four quarters.

Fileless malware. New JavaScript malware declined nearly 38%, while total malware grew nearly 24% over the past four quarters. New PowerShell malware increased 689%; total malware grew 1,902% over the past four quarters.

IoT. New malware samples increased nearly 58%; total IoT malware grew 82% over the past four quarters.

Resources:

About McAfee

McAfee is the device-to-cloud cybersecurity company. Inspired by the power of working together, McAfee creates business and consumer solutions that make our world a safer place. http://www.mcafee.com

About McAfee Labs and Advanced Threat Research

McAfee Labs and McAfee Advanced Threat Research are a leading source for threat research, threat intelligence, and cybersecurity thought leadership. With data from over a billion sensors across key threats vectorsfile, web, message, and network McAfee Labs and McAfee Advanced Threat Research deliver real-time threat intelligence, critical analysis, and expert thinking to improve protection and reduce risks.

McAfee and the McAfee logo are trademarks of McAfee, LLC or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Other marks and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

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McAfee Report Shows Threat Actor Evolution During Pandemic - Business Wire

How Subscriber Management Systems Have Evolved Over The Years – Broadband Communities

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

As Wi-Fi has given rise to an array of bandwidth-hungry in-home applications, subscriber management has evolved from service providers offering new TV programming packages to building real relationships with users.

For many years, subscriber management systems were nothing more than billing systems geared toward private cable and internet service businesses. They had a ledger for each product offered including basic cable, HBO and high-speed internet and any customer care representative could easily manage the system.

Today, these systems have grown to become an essential part of service providers support function, and they no longer track just the basics of managing customers.

In the old days, I remember, a lot of cable operators used old-school products that worked for the basics of the broadband business. Their usefulness diminished significantly, however, when a real change in customer interactions emerged.

Fifteen years ago, independent cable companies outsourced their call centers, which also included subscriber management tools, or paid licensing fees and staffed the call centers internally. These tools were not very sophisticated back then they could schedule work orders and track payments.

Over the past decade, managing customer experience has changed dramatically, putting a lot of pressure on service providers to rethink how customers view this part of the business.

Having the right set of tools in your subscriber management arsenal is critical, says Josh Thackery, CEO of NorthStar TeleSolutions. The very nature of how we manage this relationship has been turned on its head, and operators are dealing with having to give their reps the right capabilities to support them properly.

Thackery saw this change occurring in recent years when most of his business was moving from digital TV to broadband-centric service issues.

The communication was very different, he says. In the past, it was about paying a bill, adding a premium channel, checking on a digital set-top box. Now it is monitoring 20 different devices on a Wi-Fi connection and being able to provide answers to a whole different set of questions.

Cable customers also interact very differently than broadband subscribers do with their service providers. They want immediate action. They use the product at different hours, often late into the evening. And many of them want to communicate through chat, text or email but not by phone.

The role of the service provider has evolved, too, and includes more of a network monitoring need with a strong set of sirens, alerts and messages to proactively guide the provider to potential issues.

Thackery was aware of this development when he toured one of his potential customers call centers. It was trying to run its broadband business without any tools, he says. I could see the problems and frustration the reps felt.

That is why NorthStar went to work to build the industrys first customized subscriber management solution designed specifically for the core needs of the MDU market. It is called MDU+. This solution was tailored to the call centers reps needs in handling a myriad of service issues, he says. We monitor devices and users, not unit addresses, and can track problems and experiences over time.

MDU+ has a lot of unique tools, such as a community portal to sign up and the ability to view a dashboard of performance metrics. MDU+ also includes customer relationship tools, workforce efficiency applications and billing mechanisms.

We see this as an interface that is modular for the needs of any service provider working in the MDU market, Thackery continues. It is the best way to manage and enhance the service experience for an operator.

And providers are jumping on board. We like it a lot, reported Dave Erkman of SpeedCast. It will give us the needed data points to be proactive with our users.

These new systems also come with revenue features, such as single-button upgrade features to go to a higher internet speed tier. In addition, the product is designed to support the proliferation of mobile devices in MDU residents homes, including smart-home features such as digital door locks and energy management tools.

MDU+ is one example of this evolution in management tools. There are other offerings on the market today, many of which were re-engineered from the single-family market. Some are excellent solutions and have been picked up by many reputable providers.

There is no question the market has changed dramatically from 15 years ago. Subscriber management is not about picking a programming package, but about building a real relationship with users that gives them confidence in service providers product and support teams.

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How Subscriber Management Systems Have Evolved Over The Years - Broadband Communities

Best Buy Provides Updates on Evolution of Employee Pay and Sales Performance – Yahoo Finance

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

Increasing Starting Hourly Wage to $15 on Aug. 2

Quarter-to-Date Sales Up Approximately 2.5% Compared to Last Year

Sales Up Approximately 15% Compared to Last Year Since Stores Re-opened for Customer Shopping

Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY) today announced updates related to employee pay evolution and Q2 FY21 quarter-to-date sales performance.

Employee Pay Evolution

The company is raising the starting hourly wage for all Domestic employees to $15 effective Aug. 2.

"Strong consumer demand, combined with shopping experiences that emphasize safety and convenience, has helped produce our sales results to date," Best Buy CEO Corie Barry said. "None of this would be possible without the effort and energy of our front-line employees working in stores, supply chain facilities and customers homes. Todays announcement on pay reflects an ongoing evolution and investment in how we compensate them for their critical work and is the result of clear and consistent feedback from field employees across the country. In the early days of the COVID-19 crisis, we made a number of temporary decisions, including providing appreciation pay to hourly field employees, and were now pleased to evolve to a more structural approach that significantly invests in paying and supporting them in ways that they have asked for and so clearly earned."

Since the early stages of the pandemic, all hourly retail associates and supply chain employees who were working received incremental hourly appreciation pay. The incremental appreciation pay started March 22 and ends Aug. 1.

On April 19, the company temporarily furloughed approximately 51,000 Domestic hourly store employees, including nearly all part-time employees. At that time, the company retained approximately 82% of its full-time store and field employees on its payroll, including the vast majority of In-Home Advisors and Geek Squad Agents. On June 15, the company began bringing employees back from furlough, and approximately half of the 51,000 Domestic hourly employees have returned from furlough so far. The company has extended health benefits at no cost through Sept. 5 to the remaining furloughed employees currently enrolled in a Best Buy health plan.

Beginning Aug. 2, the company is evolving its pay structure. Driven by extensive employee feedback, and to provide more predictability in pay, a 4% increase in hourly rate will replace short-term incentive compensation for hourly store employees below the leadership level. After the 4% hourly pay increase, employees who are not yet at $15 per hour will have their pay increased to the $15 per hour starting wage.

Q2 FY21 Sales Update1

At the beginning of Q2 FY21, the company started welcoming customers back into its stores by offering an in-store consultation service to customers, by appointment only. On June 15, Best Buy began allowing customers to shop without an appointment at more than 800 stores across the U.S. As of June 22, almost all of the companys stores were open for shopping. The company has also continued to offer contactless curbside pickup and in-store consultations for those who prefer to shop that way. Throughout this entire time period and across all the ways customers can shop, the company has continued to adhere to safety protocols that limit capacity, follow strict social distancing practices and use proper protective equipment.

The companys Q2 FY21 quarter-to-date sales through July 18 increased approximately 2.5% compared to the prior year, which included Domestic sales growth of approximately 2% and International sales growth of approximately 8%. The following provides additional information regarding estimated sales results for the companys Domestic business:

As a reminder, on March 21, the company withdrew all previously issued financial guidance for FY21. The company will provide additional business updates when it releases its Q2 FY21 results on Aug. 25.

Notes:

(1) All references to sales within this release are calculated based on the companys interim period data, which the company uses to monitor transactional revenue performance on a daily or weekly interval. The company believes interim sales data provides helpful insight during periods when the company may experience significant shifts in revenue trends as a result of COVID-19-related impacts. Sales growth percentages represent the year-over-year change compared to the same period in the prior fiscal year, which are based on absolute sales dollar changes and are not presented in accordance with the companys comparable sales definition. The sales percentages in this release are unaudited and subject to quarter-end revenue accounting adjustments. When the company prepares its financial statements for the fiscal quarter ending August 1, 2020, it may identify material adjustments that would have changed the amounts shown for the periods described in this release. Other companies may track interim period sales data using different methods and systems, and therefore the estimated data presented here may not be comparable to any data released by other companies.

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Forward-Looking and Cautionary Statements:

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 as contained in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that reflect managements current views and estimates regarding future market conditions, company performance and financial results, operational investments, business prospects, new strategies, the competitive environment and other events. You can identify these statements by the fact that they use words such as "anticipate," "believe," "assume," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "foresee," "project," "guidance," "plan," "outlook," and other words and terms of similar meaning. These statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the potential results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Among the factors that could cause actual results and outcomes to differ materially from those contained in such forward-looking statements are the following: the duration and scope of the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact on demand for our products and services, levels of consumer confidence and our supply chain; the effects and duration of steps we take in response to the pandemic, including the implementation of our interim and evolving operating model; actions governments, businesses and individuals take in response to the pandemic and their impact on economic activity and consumer spending; the pace of recovery when the COVID-19 pandemic subsides; general economic uncertainty in key global markets and a worsening of global economic conditions or low levels of economic growth; competition (including from multi-channel retailers, e-commerce business, technology service providers, traditional store-based retailers, vendors and mobile network carriers), our expansion strategies, our focus on services as a strategic priority, our reliance on key vendors and mobile network carriers, our ability to attract and retain qualified employees, changes in market compensation rates, risks arising from statutory, regulatory and legal developments, macroeconomic pressures in the markets in which we operate, failure to effectively manage our costs, our reliance on our information technology systems, our ability to prevent or effectively respond to a privacy or security breach, our ability to effectively manage strategic ventures, alliances or acquisitions, our dependence on cash flows and net earnings generated during the fourth fiscal quarter, susceptibility of our products to technological advancements, product life cycle preferences and changes in consumer preferences, economic or regulatory developments that might affect our ability to provide attractive promotional financing, interruptions and other supply chain issues, catastrophic events, health crises, pandemics, our ability to maintain positive brand perception and recognition, product safety and quality concerns, changes to labor or employment laws or regulations, our ability to effectively manage our real estate portfolio, constraints in the capital markets or our vendor credit terms, changes in our credit ratings, any material disruption in our relationship with or the services of third-party vendors, risks related to our exclusive brand products and risks associated with vendors that source products outside of the U.S., including trade restrictions or changes in the costs of imports (including existing or new tariffs or duties and changes in the amount of any such tariffs or duties) and risks arising from our international activities.

A further list and description of these risks, uncertainties and other matters can be found in the companys annual report and other reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including, but not limited to, Best Buys Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on March 23, 2020. Best Buy cautions that the foregoing list of important factors is not complete, and any forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made, and Best Buy assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement that it may make.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200721005860/en/

Contacts

Investor Contact: Mollie O'Brienmollie.obrien@bestbuy.com

Media Contact: Keegan Shoutzkeegan.shoutz@bestbuy.com

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Best Buy Provides Updates on Evolution of Employee Pay and Sales Performance - Yahoo Finance

Plan to put Amazon warehouse on Grand Island back on after town supervisor said project was on pause – WIVB.com – News 4

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

GRAND ISLAND, N.Y. (WIVB)The much-anticipated project that could bring a massive Amazon warehouse to Grand Island experienced a see-saw this week when the developer pressed pause on the deal.

Opponents breathed a sigh of relief, while supporters scrambled. That changed again as the week wore on.

But it was a day earlier this week that looked to potentially sink a project that could change the physical and financial face of Grand Island.

News 4 broke the story about the idea that could bring whats now known as Project Olive to this plot of land off Long Road near the Holiday Inn Express.

After what town and other local officials describe as a problematic meeting of the towns planning board, when an attempt was made to vote in opposition to a zone change on the land, the developer pulled back and informed board members the project was on hold.

Town officials, including Grand Island Chamber of Commerce President Eric Fiebelkorn, were relieved to learn it was still moving forward.

We see it really as a once in a lifetime opportunity financially, and something thats going to take some time to work out. This is how deals get done. Nothing gets done in a day, Fiebelkorn said.

The plan calls for a 3.8 million square foot building that would eventually house 1,000 employees for another Amazon distribution hub.

Those are big numbers for the aging infrastructure of Grand Island, particularly the bridges on the north and south ends. But there are other big numbers to consider, Fiebelkorn says.

With a conservative assessment potentially on the building, its going to give the local share 35 million dollars, 25 million of that to the schools, over a 15 year period, he added.

Former Grand Island Town Supervisor Nate McMurray told voters this week Project Olive offers both risk and reward.

And though he says Amazons labor relations and the potential environmental impact should be examined more closely, hes hopeful the town board comes to a supportive conclusion. And that union workers are used to build what could be a five-story center, to decades of future development.

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Plan to put Amazon warehouse on Grand Island back on after town supervisor said project was on pause - WIVB.com - News 4

Man charged with murder in Whitemarsh Island shooting that left woman dead – WSAV-TV

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

CHATHAM COUNTY, Ga. (WSAV) A man has been charged with felony murder in connection with a shooting on Whitemarsh Island that left a woman dead early Wednesday morning.

The Chatham County Police Department (CCPD) says officers were called to the 100 block of Forestay Court in the Battery Point subdivision just after 4 a.m. When they arrived, they found a deceased female with an apparent gunshot wound.

The victim has been identified as 34-year-old Samantha Sams.

Witnesses on the scene told detectives there was an altercation between Sams and 34-year-old Christopher Hall. Hall and Sams knew each other, and detectives say this was not a random shooting.

Hall was taken to the hospital for treatment of injuries he sustained during the incident. He was then released and taken to the Chatham County Detention Center.

Hall was charged with aggravated battery on Wednesday. On Thursday, he was also charged with felony murder and possession of a firearm during the commission of an aggravated battery.

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Man charged with murder in Whitemarsh Island shooting that left woman dead - WSAV-TV

Vinalhaven residents reject paying county sheriff to continue patrolling the island – Bangor Daily News

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

Vinalhaven residents on Wednesday night shot down a proposal to continue paying the Knox County Sheriffs Office to police their community.

The Courier-Gazette reports that the proposed $125,335 contract was the only item out of 48 on the town meeting warrant to fail.

That comes after residents have complained about ineffective police coverage following a series of high-profile incidents on the island.

In March, the island attracted national attention after a group of armed men allegedly tried to force out-of-staters to quarantine during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic by cutting down a tree to block their driveway.

Then, on June 14, 28-year-old Roger Feltis died from knife wounds. Feltis had filed a harassment complaint with a sheriffs deputy against Dorian Ames three days before his death, which police ruled a homicide. A Knox County grand jury declined to indict Ames in the death earlier this month. Details about the circumstances around Feltis death are still unclear.

Vinalhaven has contracted with the sheriffs office for police coverage for decades, according to the Courier-Gazette. It is one of two towns the other is North Haven that have a dedicated officer, Knox County Sheriff Tim Carroll told the newspaper.

The previous contract with the sheriffs office expired on Dec. 31, 2019.

Vinalhaven Town Manager Andrew Dorr told the Courier-Gazette that residents have questioned the quality of the service, complained about coverage gaps and that the bill for it is too high.

Carroll acknowledged that a bone of contention between the islanders and his office is that a deputy does not live on the island full time. Under the expired contract, the town paid $750 a month for housing and up to $4,500 for heating and electricity for a deputy, the Courier-Gazette reports.

Another town meeting will be scheduled in the coming weeks to discuss police coverage, including options ranging from reviewing the contract with the sheriffs office and starting an island-based police force, according to the newspaper.

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Vinalhaven residents reject paying county sheriff to continue patrolling the island - Bangor Daily News

Positive coronavirus test rates on Staten Island remain low. Check for your ZIP code. – silive.com

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. Despite sharp spikes elsewhere in the country, the rate of positive coronavirus (COVID-19) tests remained below 3% on Staten Island for the sixth straight week, data show.

In fact, the percentage of positive tests in the borough over the past seven days decreased from the prior one-week period.

As of Thursday afternoon, 2.56%, or 132 of the 5,159 borough residents who were checked since July 16 have confirmed coronavirus cases, according to the most recent data compiled by GitHub, which is linked to the city Heath Departments web site.

Previously, for the week between July 9 and July 15, the positive test rate was 2.82%.

Over the past month-and-a-half, the lowest positive test rate was 2.36% between June 18 and June 24.

Earlier last month, the rate had been above 3%, specifically, 3.44% from June 4 into June 10.

At the same time, Thursdays data showed the continuing decline in Staten Islands total positive test rate since the pandemics outbreak in March.

Of the 81,673 residents checked thus far, 14,208, or 17.39%, have been infected, the data said.

Last week, 14,076 of the 76,514 Islanders examined through July 15, or 18.39%, had confirmed coronavirus cases.

Overall, the total infection rate is significantly lower than it was three months ago at the pandemics peak.

On April 16, of the 19,174 borough residents checked to that point, 9,108, or 47.5%, had confirmed cases.

*** CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE COVERAGE OF CORONAVIRUS IN NEW YORK ***

The highest percentage of positive tests remains in two North Shore ZIP codes 10302 and 10303.

ZIP code 10302, which includes Port Richmond and Elm Park, has retained the highest positive rate on Staten Island 21.34%, or 654 of 3,065 residents checked.

But fewer individuals have been tested in that ZIP code compared to all but one other in the borough.

ZIP code 10303, which includes Mariners Harbor, continues to have the second highest rate of confirmed cases 19.51% - or 918 of the 4,706 residents examined.

Third highest was ZIP code 10305 with 1,316 of the 7,274 residents checked testing positive, or 18.09%.

Communities in ZIP code 10305 include Arrochar, Fort Wadsworth, Grasmere, Ocean Breeze, Rosebank, Shore Acres, South Beach, and part of Dongan Hills.

ZIP Code 10304 has the fourth highest rate of confirmed cases.

Residents there were positive 18.04% of the time 1,448 of 8,026 individuals examined

ZIP code 10304 covers a long swath of the East and North shores, including Clifton, Concord, Emerson Hill, Stapleton, Todt Hill and part of Dongan Hills.

While the rate of confirmed cases in ZIP codes 10314 and 10312 are toward the middle of the pack, those two ZIP codes continue to have the greatest number of total cases.

They are two of the boroughs largest ZIP code areas.

In ZIP code 10314, of the 15,769 residents checked, 2,780, or 17.63%, have confirmed cases, said the data.

ZIP code 10314 includes such communities as Bulls Head, Castleton Corners, Graniteville, Meiers Corners, New Springville, Travis, Westerleigh and Willowbrook.

There were 1,600 confirmed cases in ZIP code 10312, which displayed a positive rate of 16.79% for the 9,532 residents examined.

ZIP code 10312 includes Annadale, Arden Heights, Eltingville, Greenridge and Huguenot.

Positive test rates in the remaining communities ranged from 15.92% in ZIP code 10306 to 17.5% in ZIP code 10307.

Residents in ZIP code 10306 had 1,519 positive cases in 9,539 tests.

Included in its area are Egbertville, Grant City, Midland Beach, New Dorp, New Dorp Beach, Oakwood, Richmond, and part of Dongan Hills.

ZIP code 10307, whose residents had tested positive in 406 of 2,320 examinations, contains Tottenville.

ZIP code 10307 has the lowest number of overall documented cases, as well as the fewest number of individuals examined.

Following ZIP codes 10314 and 10312, the highest number of total confirmed coronavirus cases have occurred in residents in zip codes 10306, 10304, 10305, 10301 (1,273 of 7,423), 10303, 10309 (886 of 5,354), 10310 (730 of 4,413), 10308 (678 of 4,252), 10302 and 10307.

DEATHS

Additional data show the disease has claimed the most lives in ZIP codes 10314 and 10304.

As of Thursday afternoon, there had been 203 fatalities in ZIP code 10314 in which the decedent was a confirmed coronavirus case.

That figure marked an increase of one over the past week.

The death total remained slightly lower 182 in ZIP code 10304, which saw no change in the number of reported fatalities from July 16.

The tally does not include probable coronavirus fatalities, which the city has also been tracking daily.

A death is classified as probable if the decedent was a city resident who had no known positive laboratory test for the coronavirus, but the death certificate lists COVID-19 or an equivalent as a cause of death.

A Health Department source said the figures reflect totals as of when they are reported to the agency and not when the deaths occur. All data are preliminary and subject to change.

Below, in descending order, are the number of deaths in confirmed coronavirus cases for the remaining ZIP codes. There was no change from July 16 in any of those areas:

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Positive coronavirus test rates on Staten Island remain low. Check for your ZIP code. - silive.com

Station No. 7 nears completion for Paradise Island area – WCBD News 2

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

AWENDAW S.C. (WCBD) The Awendaw-McClellanville Consolidated Fire District is nearing their date of completion for their newest firehouse, Station No.7. According to Battalion Chief Mike Browers, the dream forthe structure beganabout 7 yearsago.

Battalion Chief Browers said, it all started with their yearly audit after it was discovered that the area of Paradise Island was one of the areas that we were deficient in fire protection. He said after recognizing the weakness, they created a temporary station where a tent was put up. Underneath that tent was a singular unstaffed fire truck.

The structure being put up now is a 4,000 square foot buildingwith multiple pieces of equipment chosen with their surroundings in mind.

We dont have yah know, fire hydrants.Sowe use the pondsand the intercoastal, and whatever water source we can use. So really the technology that we had added to the station is mainly safety features. That would be the extractor and also the vent system that hooks to the firetruck. And we dont have either one of those in any other station that we got.

As for the location, Chief Browers said its able to reaching thepeoplethey want to reach, and the positionnear Half Way CreekRoad could belife-saving.

Weve had several traffic crashes over the years in between steed creek road andGuerinsbridge road on halfway creek road. Several fatality wrecks, its been avery dangerous stretch of road.Sothis, were hoping being on, weve got a station closer to steed creekthis will be down towards the end. Well be able to meet in the middle and cut response times to that areaof our district.

For nowStation 7 answers roughly 1500 calls a year,but with new developments coming to the areait will prove its worth both for now and thefuture.

Despite the usual construction delays that they have had, Station No. 7 should be open to the public and operating by the end of this August or early September.Chief Browers said hes excited to be open for the community, whether its to assist them, or have a cup of coffee.

To stay connected with Cait Przetak, follow her on social media! For Facebook click here, for Twitter click here, and for Instagram click here.

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Station No. 7 nears completion for Paradise Island area - WCBD News 2

Private lots in Newbury on Plum Island open to nonresidents – The Daily News of Newburyport

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

PLUM ISLAND Although the City of Newburyport is restricting weekend parking in the public lot at Plum Island Point to residents only until early September, there are at least five private parking lots in the Newbury section of Plum Island open to paid parking by people from out of town.

Licensed private lots are located along Plum Island Turnpike at The Cottage Island Market and next to Surfland, as well as two at the corner of the turnpike and Northern Boulevard.

The small lot adjacent to the beach is for Newbury residents only. There is an additional private lot owned by Blue Inn on the Beach on Fordham Way that also is open to paying visitors.

Newburyport put restrictions in place on the city's public lot at the northern tip of Plum Islandto reduce overcrowding and prevent the spread of COVID-19 on beaches, according to a press release this week.

The restrictions start this weekend and run through Sept. 5-6. Newburyport residents will be able to park in the lot on weekends at the discounted resident rate of $12 per day.

Proof of residency includes an active City of Newburyport resident parking pass; a current city yard waste sticker displayed on the vehicle; or a Plum Island Parking Lot 2020 vehicle sticker.

"This sticker is available at no cost by registering the vehicle in person at the (Newburyport) harbormaster office at 27R Water Street during normal business hours," the statement reads.

We are making critical coverage of the coronavirus available for free. Please consider subscribing so we can continue to bring you the latest news and information on this developing story.

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Private lots in Newbury on Plum Island open to nonresidents - The Daily News of Newburyport

Grand Island food and beverage tax revenues down 7% for the year – Grand Island Independent

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the major summer events and early fall events that draw hundreds of thousands of people to Grand Island have been canceled. The latest victim was the Harvest of Harmony parade, canceled Thursday by the Grand Island Chamber of Commerce.

A large part of Grand Islands economy is the reputation it has developed during the years as a destination community. Events ranging from Harvest of Harmony, Husker Harvest Days and the Nebraska State Fair to national livestock shows, national 4-H shows and the annual crane migration have all taken economic hits this year because of COVID-19.

As a destination community, visitors, along with locals, like to eat, drink and dine at many of the communitys restaurants and bars. But due to the health restrictions placed on those establishments because of the virus, they were not allowed to have customers when directed health measures were the most severe. It has been only in the past month that health restrictions have eased, allowing people again to eat and drink out.

A good indicator of how the food and beverage industry in Grand Island is doing is the citys collection of its food and beverage tax from those establishments.

According to Cindy Johnson of the Grand Island Chamber of Commerce, Junes food and beverage tax revenues were $171,799, compared to $201,786 collected in June 2019. That is a 14.86% decline.

Johnson said that looking at year-to-date figures for this year, the food and beverage tax revenues have been $1.637 million, compared to $1.757 million for the same January-through-June period last year. That is a 6.8% decline.

Revenues, while still down, were significantly better (as a percentage) than April and May, she said.

April and May were when restaurants and bars could not serve customers in their establishments. Many improvised to keep some revenue flowing, especially as the government was paying many of those businesses to keep their employees. They implemented curbside pickups, some had drive-thru windows going and others were delivering food directly to their customers.

Considering the effect the pandemic was having on the communitys businesses, having food and beverage taxes down by less than 7% is a testament of those businesses resiliency, as food supply chains to restaurants were severely disrupted.

Looking at labor force numbers for the Grand Island market area, Johnson said the unemployment rate was 7.6%. Last year, during June, it was 3.3%.

She said that Junes workforce in Grand Island was 44,571 people, of which 41,175 people were employed.

Hall Countys initial unemployment insurance claims dropped to 128 the week of July 18, Johnson said. That compares to the highest initial unemployment insurance claim total of 940 in April.

As the federal COVID-19 relief package (which provided an additional $600 per week in unemployment benefits) and the executive order waiver of requiring work search come to an end (slated for Aug. 1), we expect to see more unemployed individuals return to the workforce, Johnson said.

She also reported that building permits for residential construction so far this year total $12.642 million, with 86 permits. That compares to $12.682 million for 76 permits for the same period last year.

For commercial building permit valuation for January through June, three permits have been issued for a valuation of $4.383 million. Last year, during the same period, there were six permits for $11.62 million in valuations.

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Grand Island food and beverage tax revenues down 7% for the year - Grand Island Independent

Three-year-old Grand Island girl deemed "bird-whisperer" – WKBW-TV

Posted on July 25, 2020 by Danzig

GRAND ISLAND, N.Y. (WKBW) All summer long, three-year-old Vivian Budnack of Grand Island sang out these words.

Mr. Cardinal!!! Vivian said.

Her friends and family even proclaiming her as a bird-whisperer.

[She] has gotten this great interest with birds, and she just wants to be friends with them, her mom Rachel Budnack said. She tiptoes all over the backyard, all summer, saying Im Vivy, Im your friend,

Well, on July 15, a bird friend answered her call. A red cardinal.

I love cardinals, Vivy said.

Mom says the cardinal approached her at a picnic table at Sandy Beach. She called over Vivian over and the two chatted for about 10 minutes. Just enough time for mom to capture this photo.

I talked to it and I fed it, Vivan said.

And you know, shes gonna think shes a Disney princess now. Stick out my hand and here comes the bird, mom said laughing.

Vivian says she doesnt always get the chance to come in close contact with a red cardinal, but she always tries.

Yeah and this has been her prayer and her big dream all summer. To be friends with the birds, mom said.

A prayer that has been answered for this new fairy princess. At a time when so many spirits could use a lift.

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Three-year-old Grand Island girl deemed "bird-whisperer" - WKBW-TV

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