Offshore gaming boosts demand for PH office space – Inquirer.net

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The local market for office space experienced a big boost in the first quarter, thanks mainly to strong demand from offshore gaming operatorsa subsector of the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry that is growing rapidly with the help of new government regulations.

In a recently published research note, international property consulting firm Pronove Tai described offshore gaming companies as a strong but beleaguered driver in the Philippine office market.

While the office market is still largely driven by the information technology and business process management industry, offshore gaming companies as of end March have been the second single industry demand driver, accounting for 20 percent or 56,000 square meters of the pre-leased office space scheduled for completion in the second quarter, the firm said.

This demand is equivalent to three dedicated high rise office buildings out of the 18 buildings slated for completion in the second quarter of this year.

The property analyst said that a slowdown in the accreditation process by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority for new buildings has resulted in developers taking a second look at offshore gaming clients.

Offshore gaming companies are classified by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation as either service providers or licensed operators, both of which are technology-driven enterprises.

Service providers are gaming and software/platform providers, BPO providers, data/content streaming providers and gaming support providers.

Licensed operators, meanwhile, are gaming agents and those classified as special class BPOs which provide marketing and customer relation services only to duly licensed gaming operators overseas, must not handle betting activities for gaming operators and do not service any Pagcor Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator (Pogo) licensee.

To date, the Philippines is the first and only country in Asia to license offshore online gaming. Pagcor believes it can net an additional P10 billion in annual revenues from its Pogo licensees.

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Offshore gaming boosts demand for PH office space - Inquirer.net

‘The Mummy’ Unearths $142M Offshore, $174M Global; ‘Wonder Woman’ Flies To $230M At International Box Office – Deadline

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Refresh for latest: Universals The Mummy has risen from Saturdays projections to an estimated $141.8M weekend launch in 63 international box office markets. The estimated worldwide total is on track for $174M through today. Those figures give star Tom Cruise his biggest offshore and global openings ever. With No. 1s in 46 markets, the monster movie is also tops for Cruise in 26. China leads with $52.2M, putting the start in the company of such titles as San Andreas and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

As noted over the weekend, it might seem improbable that Cruise would clear his top overseas and global bows ever given the critical bashing this Dark Universe-starter has taken domestically. But internationally, Cruises star power is combined with growth in key and emerging markets and the fact that the initial rollout of this pic includes China.

His previous top international and worldwide openings were with Steven Spielbergs 2005 sci-fi thriller War Of The Worlds ($102.5M/$167.4M). That films first rollout suite did not include such key markets as Korea or France, but did include Germany and Japan (China was not a major factor back then). France and Japan have yet to unwrap The Mummy.

Korea, which has a fondness for showing Cruise the money, is the 2nd best Mummy opening market this frame with $17.8M. The opening day Tuesday holds the record as the biggest launch day ever for any film at $6.6M. Russia follows for the full frame with $7.6M; Mexico is next at $5.1M; and the UK rounds out the Top 5 at $4.4M. (More details and analysis to follow).

Warner Bros.

Other notable milestones this weekend include Disneys Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales crossing $600M at the global box office. Theres $464.4M in the international treasure chest through June 11, led by China with a strong $161.2M to make it the No. 7 grosser of the year there.

Also, from Universal and Blumhouse, Jordan Peeles Get Out, hit $250M worldwide. In Korea, its $15.4M makes it the highest grossing foreign horror/thriller of all time.

Breakdowns on the above and more are being updated below.

NEW THE MUMMY

Universal

Along with the No. 1 start in China, The Mummy was tops in another 45 markets, and was Cruises best opening weekend in 26. Overall, this is the stars all-time biggest global ($174M) and international launch. Contrary to the domestic bow, his global star power combines with growth in key and emerging markets and the fact that the initial rollout of this pic included China.

While the domestic performance dinged the global outlook this weekend, some non-Universal execs see this as a strong performance internationally. The question now becomes its legs and thats where it gets dicey. Next weekend will be telling with no major new wide releases on deck. Some see at least a 2.2 multiple offshore. And, Cruise has a sizeable footprint in France and Japan where The Mummy has yet to unwrap.

Along with Asia Pacific, Latin America, Russia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East saw good openings this frame. The soft spot was Western Europe where the mercury was high and box office was low. There appears to be a battle for No. 1 with Wonder Woman in the UK on $4.4M. Also, Germany opened The Mummy to just $2.2M and Italy was $1.7M.

But looking back to Asia, Korea is the overall No. 2 market with a big No. 1 start at $17.8M for Cruises biggest opening weekend ever. This is a market that has plenty of time for the star and graced The Mummy with $6.6M on its holiday Tuesday bow to score the biggest opening day ever for any movie.

Russia likewise gave Cruise his biggest opening ever with $7.6M; followed by a similar scenario in Mexico at $5.1M.

Other major cumes include Taiwan ($4.9M), India ($4.6M), Indonesia ($4.5M) and Brazil ($3.6M).

In IMAX, The Mummy launched to $12M worldwide from 1,012 screens in 64 markets. Its the 5th best start in the format for a Universal title. Internationally, $9M came from 675 IMAX screens for the 5th best June start ever in the format and Universals 4th all-time best. From roughly 400 screens in China, IMAX delivered $4.6M of the total there.

There are seven more territories to release. France, French-speaking Switzerland, Greece, Israel and Trinidad open next weekend; Egypt on June 21 and Japan on July 28.

HOLDOVERS/EXPANSIONS WONDER WOMAN

Warner Bros.

The Patty Jenkins-helmed DC title has surpassed the lifetime gross of a key comp, Captain America: The First Avenger, in 13 days internationally. Regionally, Europe/Middle East/Africa saw a 41% drop and Latin America 43%. In Asia (outside China) Gal Gadots sword-wielding Diana Prince has topped the full runs (in local currency) of Suicide Squad, Man Of Steel, Guardians Of The Galaxy 1 & 2, Thor, Iron Man, Wolverine and Logan.

She also held No. 1 in Australia, Brazil and others although theres a question mark hanging over the UK right now with The Mummy.

France was a key opening this weekend where gorgeous weather had an impact on moviegoing. The launch estimate is $4.9M (4.4M euros) and 613K admissions on 655 screens for No. 1 and ahead of comps Cap 1 (+83%) and Ant-Man (+17%).

China continues to lead offshore plays for the Themyscira native. An additional $12.6M on 9,000 screens landed her No. 2 for the weekend with a cume of $68.4M (RMB 469.9M) to pass Man Of Steel, Iron Man, Thor and Cap 1.

In the UK, the cume is $16.1M, followed by Brazil at $15.8M for a 31% dip. With R$ 51.4M, Wonder Woman has exceeded Cap 1, Man Of Steel, Ant-Man, Iron Man, Thor and the first Guardians. Mexico has also topped those Marvel and DC comps, as well as Doctor Strange on $15.5M (Ps 286.2M). Koreas cume is $13.4M (won 15B), and Australia rounds out the Top 5 with $10.7M (A$14.4M) and a drop of just -19%.

Wonder Woman further continues to top comps in the Philippines ($8.2M/PHP 408.6M cume); Taiwan (7.4M/NT$ 222.6M); Indonesia ($7.1M/IDR 88.4B); and Russia ($6.8M/Rbl 386.5M).

On deck this week is Germany, followed by Spain on June 23 and Japan in August.

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES

Disney

The 5th Pirates installment added $34.8M in its 3rd frame in 54 markets. Holds were good in parts of Europe where the Johnny Depp-starrer stayed on the No. 1 course in Germany, Belgium, Finland, Lithuania and the Netherlands, (all ahead of The Mummys debuts); Denmark (ahead of the 2nd weekend of Wonder Woman); and also Poland.

In Asia Pacific, China added $7.6M for $161.2M to date. Russia is now at $35.7M, the 2nd biggest play on POTC5 - as well as the No. 1 release of 2017 there, the top Disney Live Action pic ever as and the No. 4 release of all time.

Family-friendly Latin America dipped 48% across the region with particularly strong holds in Chile (-23%), Uruguay (-25%) and Argentina (-34%).

Looking at the same suite of markets at todays rates, POTC5 is currently running 15% ahead of Pirates 4 and 31% ahead of Pirates 3.

Behind China and Russia, Germany ($21.4M), Korea ($21.1M) and the UK ($20.5M) round out the Top 5. This is all ahead of Japans July 1 bow the market has typically been major for the franchise.

BAYWATCH

Paramount

Germany (where the film is No. 2) and the UK (where its No. 5) are tied to lead overseas hubs with $9M each. Germanys 2nd frame was $2.4M from 567 locations. In Britain, Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron and the gang delivered $1.5M at 495.

Other key totals include Australia ($5.1M), Russia ($3.1M), Austria ($1.9M), Italy and Switzerland (both $1.5M), the Netherlands ($1.4M) and Malaysia ($1.2M).

Up next weekend are Brazil, Mexico and Spain; followed by France on June 21.

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL 2

Disney

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

Disney

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'The Mummy' Unearths $142M Offshore, $174M Global; 'Wonder Woman' Flies To $230M At International Box Office - Deadline

Offshore tuna cools a bit while the bays heat up for corvina and halibut – San Diego Reader

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The word is that the shortfin corvina and halibut are on the chew in the bays. San Diego Bay and Mission Bay can be excellent fisheries for spotted bay bass and sand bass through the summer, but late springtime is when the shortfin corbina and halibut start working the edges before the water warms up and the halibut slide back into the cooler troughs. The corvina tend to move with the bait as the fry grow and move out of the bay over the summer. I have read many accounts of quality shortfin corvina to over 8 pounds from either bay. The current IGFA record is 10.6 pounds.

Shortfin corvina are often mistaken for juvenile white seabass, but there are a few telltale differences that are hard to miss. The white seabass doesnt have the inner fangs at the roof of the mouth that the corvina sports, and white seabass tend to have vertical broad bars on its side and a ridge along its belly called a "zipper." Shortfin corvina are excellent table fare, akin to the other fish in the croaker family with white flakey meat and a mild natural flavor. These fish generally feed in the mid to upper water column and respond well to medium running crankbaits, spoons and swimbaits.

Shortfin corvina first appeared in San Diego Bay around 1990 due, probably, to moving in with warm El Nio water and remaining due to the plethora of baitfish. At first, most caught were smallish, 14 inches or so. Now, after a quarter-century in the bays, they are averaging much larger and towards their max length around 36 inches.

The halibut are biting well, especially off the edges of the channel to the edge of the eelgrass as the low drops into slack. The reason is obvious; they are a broad, flat fish and hunting in the current is not their forte, they are ambush hunters that feed more during lesser tide swings and slacks, in spite of the many anglers out there that insist halibut bite better in a hard-running current. They are flat-wrong as wrong as folks that thought the world was flat. Think about it. If you were built like a kite and had to go catch a chicken, youd have a hard time putting bird on the table on a windy day. Its just that simple.

As the tide slows, the halibut move from their shelter up the edges to nail their prey as it passes. As the tide drops the bait gets pushed to the outer edges of the eel grass, over the holes. Ive caught more decent bay halibut at the edges of these ambush points, whether along the eelgrass cut, or deeper, along the channel cut near the shallower flats leading up to the eelgrass. As the tide slacks, Ill move closer to the eelgrass and cast to the deep edge, right at the edge, and let it sink as though I were flipping on a piling. If it gets hung in the eelgrass, I casted just a tad too far.

On the cast, I let sink and sit an extra count before slowly hopping it across the bottom back to whatever fishing platform I am angling from. I generally use grubs, twin-tail or single, in lighter colors with lots of flake on a plain bullet-style leadhead heavy enough to keep it low and work it back a hop at a time. Most of my bites come right on the sink or when nearly all the way back under the vessel. That method has flat out worked best for me over four decades of fishing for the flat ones.

Top performing boats of the week: The Pacific Queen ran two 1.5 day trips with a total of 65 anglers (32 & 33 respectively) for a total catch of 265 yellowtail, 2 bluefin tuna and 2 yellowfin tuna. The Chief scored well on their only run this past week, a 2.5 day trip wherein 21 anglers put 1 bluefin tuna, 1 yellowfin tuna and 108 yellowtail in the hold. The Pacific Voyager ran two trips this past week; a 3 day outing with 18 anglers aboard and a 2 day run carrying 16 anglers. Total catch for both trips was 11 bluefin tuna, 182 yellowtail, 180 rockfish, 20 calico bass and 64 barracuda.

Dock Totals 6/4 6/10: 2610 anglers aboard 109 boats out of San Diego landings this past week caught 148 bluefin tuna, 11 yellowfin tuna, 665 yellowtail, 670 calico bass, 187 sand bass, 3,180 rockfish, 111 sanddab, 24 lingcod, 104 bonito, 84 barracuda, 65 sculpin, 351 mackerel, 8 whitefish, 28 sheephead, 7 halibut and 1 mako shark.

Fish Plants: No plants scheduled this week.

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Offshore tuna cools a bit while the bays heat up for corvina and halibut - San Diego Reader

Faith Communities to Honor Pulse Victims on One-Year Anniversary – 41 NBC News

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Photos of the victims of the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting strung together into a banner sits on Fifth Avenue before the start of the 46th Annual Heritage of Pride March in New York City. Albin Lohr-Jones / Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

Faith communities have a poor track record when it comes to LGBTQ inclusion, Rabbi Sharon Brous told NBC Out. Righting that historic wrong has been a priority for our community from its inception.

Brous co-founded and leads

IKAR, a Jewish community in Los Angeles. Every year the community celebrates Pride Shabbat as part of their commitment to overcome the ills of the past. She believes, she said, that houses of worship should counter the discrimination and denigration the LGBTQ community has had to face.

Celebrating Pride month in our synagogues, churches and mosques is one meaningful step in that direction, she added.

Last year, their Pride Shabbat fell on the Friday following the shootings as Pulse. Being that many within their community were shaken by the shooting, it was only fitting that they address the tragedy and honor the victims and survivors as part of their prayer service. Before the Kaddish, a prayer recited by those in mourning, they paused and one at a time, community members stood to read the name and age of each of the victims.

It was incredibly powerful, she added.

This year, Pride Shabbat will be more intentional as they remember the Pulse victims, but will be no different from Shabbats in the past. According to Brous, they will once again mark a celebration of their LGBTQ community, speak about the Pulse shootings and recount the the ways in which LGBTQ folks are made to feel invisible and unsafe.

In Atlanta, St. Mark United Methodist Church will host a commemorative service sponsored by Faith in Public Life (FPL). Beth Larocca-Pitts, senior pastor of the congregation, said they were asked to host the event.

We are rather unusual being that we are a Methodist church yet much of our congregation is made up of members of the LGBT community, she told NBC Out.

In the United Methodist Church, homosexuality is considered incompatible with Christian teaching and clergy are forbidden to officiate same-sex marriages. However, Larocca-Pitts said she accepted the request from FPL gladly.

Certainly a lot of our congregation were deeply affected by the Pulse shootings, being that a lot of our members are acquainted with the nightclub, she said. It was an extraordinarily horrific event, and we thought it fitting to check back in with people and see where folks are.

Last year, following the shootings, Larocca-Pitts said her church allotted time for members to write personal messages to the victims. They then collected the messages and shipped them to Orlando.

Graham Younger, Georgia statewide coordinator for FPL, said the organization has partnered with Outcry: Interfaith Voices Against Gun Violence for this years day of remembrance. In addition to the service at St. Mark, churches from across the state will ring their bells 49 times at noon in honor of the Pulse victims.

Remembrance, said Rev. Claudia Aguilar Rubalcava, is at the heart of her faith tradition. That is why she has chosen to participate in the FPL remembrance service. As an associate pastor at Virginia-Highland church in Atlanta, Rubalcava serves a congregation that has a significant number of LGBTQ and

Latinx members.

We are getting so accustomed to black brown, and LGBTQ bodies being treated as objects that we are getting quieter and quieter each time, she told NBC Out. It is important to remember this tragedy, because we need to speak up again until these events stop taking place.

Rubalcava also warned against criminalizing the entire Muslim faith community because of the acts of the Orlando shooter, who was Muslim. She referenced the backlash the Muslim community experienced shortly after the tragedy.

At the same time, we cannot emphasize enough the importance of legislation on gun control. This and many tragedies could have been avoided if we had stricter regulations on access to guns, she added.

In Orlando, an interfaith service was held on June 6 as a means of not only bringing faith communities together, but to also engage through poetry, music and dialogue. The event was designed to honor the victims of the Pulse massacre, while also reflecting on the mistakes too often made by people of faith in dealing with LGBTQ people.

Navtej Singh Khalsa, a member of the Orlando Sikh community and a regional director of SALDEF, a national Sikh civil rights group, participated in the event. He said in in addition to the June 6 event, the Orlando Sikh community also intends to memorialize the 49 Pulse victims in a prayer service at a local gurdwara, a Sikh house of worship, on Sunday, the day before the anniversary.

This tragedy reflects the lack of tolerance and hatred of others. Efforts must be made in schools and society to teach and advocate tolerance and peaceful coexistence of all, Khalsa told NBC Out.

One year later, the faith community has a unique responsibility, said FPLs Graham Younger.

The Pulse shooting was an event that touched so many different communities. The faith community is in a unique position to help people heal, and they take that responsibility seriously, he said.

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Faith Communities to Honor Pulse Victims on One-Year Anniversary - 41 NBC News

Donald Trump ascension a corporate coup, says activist author Naomi Klein – The Sydney Morning Herald

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Author and activist Naomi Klein was on a visit to Sydney last November when Donald Trump shocked the US and Western political establishment by taking the White House.

"I think a great many of us felt that the world had just turned upside down, but [in Australia]I literally felt the world had turned upside down," she says, recalling that moment of supreme disorientation.

Since then, unlike many American liberals, Klein has been fixated less by the drip-drip of revelations about the Trump campaign's murky links to the Kremlin, and more with what she calls the "corporate coup" taking place under cover of the President's antics.

"I'm not saying don't look into Russia, of course that should be investigated," she told Fairfax Media.

"But to say to US voters, 'I am going to protect your jobs, I'm going to protect social security, I'm going to protect your healthcare, I'm going to stand up for the little guy, I'm going to drain the swamp - and then bring in half your cabinet from Goldman Sachs? And pass or try to pass the most aggressive pro-corporate legislation that the US has ever seen? I'm comfortable calling that a corporate coup."

Klein is speaking by phone from her native Toronto, a few days in advance of the global release of her latest book No Is Not Enough, a scathing polemic on the Trump phenomenon.

In many ways the book picks up and continues passionate campaigns she waged in previous volumesNo LogoandThe Shock Doctrine on the failings, as she sees it, of modern capitalism, andThis Changes Everything, her call to arms for urgent action on climate change.

No Is Not Enoughlooks at how the election of Trump has turbocharged those issues for the progressive movement in the US and elsewhere.

Klein's core thesis is that Trump's elevation to the apex of political power in the West is not an aberration but"the logical conclusion of the worst trends of the past half century", including rising inequality.

As a branding exercise, she writes, it's a triumph: the presidency is the "crowning extension of the Trump brand". Trump's wife Melaniaand children are "spin-off brands".

"After decades of seeing the public sphere privatised in bits and pieces, Trump and his appointees have now seized control of the government itself. The takeover is complete,"she argues.

Klein, who backed Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential nomination contest, takes plenty of swipes against Clinton in her new volume.

The presidency is the crowning extension of the Trump brand.

Controversially, she argues the Clintons helped pave the way for Trump by "blurring ethical lines" when they allowed the Clinton Foundation to accept massive donations from private and foreign government sources while Hillary was secretary of state under Barack Obama.

Challenged on this harsh judgment Klein pushes back.

"The Clintons blurred the lines, there is no doubt. But what really paved the way for Trump was the narrative of the CEO saviour," she claims.

"The idea that our problems are going to be fixed by a Richard Branson or a Bill Gates out of the goodness of their hearts, with their massive profits that they earned in very large part because of the frenzy of deregulation that took place in the 90s ... when we seriously behave as if a multimillionaire like Gates is going to fix malaria and AIDS and climate change for us, that prepares our brains for Trump's message which is, 'Sure I don't have any experience, but I'm rich so I can fix this'."

Klein is appalled by Trump's announcement the US will pull out of the Paris climate accord, but says this is largely "optics", and that the real damage is being done with dismantling of the Clean Power Plan, the centrepiece of what the US brought to Paris under Obama.

Having seen for herself the impact of coral bleaching when she visited the Great Barrier Reef during her Australian visit, she says climate change remains an "existential crisis".

"You don't get a do-over on a drowned country," is how she puts it in the book.

"In the real world, what matters more than the Trump show is how much carbon is being emitted, and the way countries which are not the US respond to this," she tells Fairfax Media.

"And I think Australia is particularly vulnerable, because you have a government that I think would be quite happy to seize on any excuse to go, 'Well, see we can't be uncompetitive.' "

If there's a silver lining for Klein in the advent of Trump, it's that he seems to be turning voters off those of his ilk elsewhere.

"It seems to be serving as a kind of warning in many places,"she says, "people going, whoa, we don't want to go down that road."

"We have seen this with the European elections, and we may well see it with climate ...it's really about how the rest of us respond."

Not Is Not Enough is released on June 13

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Donald Trump ascension a corporate coup, says activist author Naomi Klein - The Sydney Morning Herald

URL’s Ascension Goes Down June 11 – BattleRap.com

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In the main event of the night, the always solid veteran Cortez, takes on Prez Mafia. For Cortez, this is really another day at the office. He's battled a virtual who's who in battle rap, and has generally acquitted himself quite well. Unlike many of the battlers on this card, this really isn't a make or break battle for Tez', as not only does he have a long battle history to fall back on, he's booked for URL's Double Impact 2, just a few weeks later.

For Prez though, this really is a huge opportunity. Near the start of Prez's battle career in late 2013-early 2014, he had picked up a good deal of hype, with fans being very excited about the potential that he was showing. By the end of the year though, he had parted ways with URL and became a free agent. After taking a few battles on smaller platforms, Prez was exposed for lifting an entire verse from a 2007 song and using it in a battle. Obviously, this did significant harm to his standing in battle rap, and at that time it seemed as though a return to the top platform in battle rap was unlikely. Now, 3 battles into said return, Prez seeks to take his biggest step towards fully re-establishing himself in this battle. A convincing win against a respected vet like Cortez could do just that, so look for Prez to come out with something to prove.

In a matchup of two Pennslyvania emcees, Bill Collector takes on Uno Lavoz. Though many were skeptical of Lavoz when he came over to URL initially, his first two battles, against Jae Laww and Young X were actually quite well received, and it had looked like he may have found a home on that platform. This came to an abrupt halt however after a poor performance against Cortez in a battle that URL to date have not chosen to release (it happened in 2015). Since this point Lavoz has been absent from the URL stage, and is looking for a strong performance to bring him back into the fold.

So while Lavoz never quite got his footing on the URL stage, Bill Collector was at one time one of the most promising faces in the league. Part of the original (and in many eyes the best) PG class, Bill came on platform with much hype and fanfare. Despite his undeniable talent, his career on URL hit several speed bumps. From legal issues to public spats with URL management, the last few years have been a tumultous time for the Norristown emcee. With this being the second URL battle of the year for Bill, a good showing could help cement his return and lead to some bigger names in his future.

In the trailer voiceover, Beasley referred to Young Kannon and Money Bagz as being a battle of two of the most underrated emcees in the culture. Underrated has to be a difficult label for a battle rapper, it's undeniably a compliment, the statement that they are more talented than their buzz would suggest, but at the same time, it begs the question, "if they are so talented, why are they so slept on?" Ascension is a name which will perfectly fit this battle, as both guys will be seeking to shed the label "underrated" with a dominating performance that forces fans to take note of them, and the next time they're booked for a battle, we're not calling them underrated, we're calling them top tier.

The event goes down June 11 in New York City, and as always, BattleRapDotCom will be in the building. Check out the site for live updates if you can't make it out.

Predictions? Let us know in the comments below

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Bram on Ex-Wife Charlotte, Being in the Ascension, Being Suspended and Dixie Carter – Wrestling Rumors (blog)

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Bram has been in the wrestling industry for years. He has been all over the place. He has competed with WWE, Impact Wrestling and promotions like NOAH in Japan. While it seems not everything has always gone his way, he has still made a name for himself.

Bram recently appeared on the Art of Wrestling Podcast where he spoke about being in The Ascension, being suspended from Japanese promotion NOAH due to an image posted on social media, working for Dixie Carter and the success of his ex-wife Charlotte.

Bram first spoke about working for Dixie Carter, Billy Corgan and Jeff Jarrett while being in Impact Wrestling. Bram explains that Corgan is a close friend of his and is very talented. He explains he never had a problem with Dixie Carter. Finally, he respects Jarrett and is glad to have him back with Impact.

I love Billy Corgan! Hes a close friend of mine and someone I hold in high regard. His mind for the business, and business in general, is impeccable. Having him on board for the time he was with us, for me, was fantastic. Im pretty sure all the boys would agree with that too. I always liked Dixie a lot and she was good to me. I had no issues with her whatsoever. What goes on in the office or behind closed doors is not my business, nor do I put much thought into it, my job is to entertain. Anthem seem keen to get stuck into Impact and turn it around for the better, so Im all for it. Having Jeff Jarrett back is great, its his baby at the end of the day and he gets and understands the business from every angle.

Recently, Bram was suspended from a NOAH show he and Robbie E were to compete at due to a photo posted on social media of him laying on an ice-cream fridge. He spoke about this with Colt Cobana, the host of the podcast.

Robbie E and I were asked to come over to Japan to take part in the Global Tag League. Robbie and I were killing it as a team over there and had great matches. I love Japan and their style and I was excited to have the opportunity to go over there and wrestle for NOAH. Their office is great and the boys were great to us. I loved it! However, one evening, as a joke, I laid on an ice cream fridge and took a picture, which I put on my Instagram account. I was trying to be funny and meant no harm, I had no idea it would upset people, no idea! I publicly apologized for the incident to the media, but it was too late, NOAH suspended me due to the picture. I hope one day I can return to NOAH and finish what I started. I like it there. The relationship between NOAH and Impact is completely fine and theres no hard feelings. I just had no idea it would be such a bad thing and honestly meant it only to be funny. Im hoping once the dust settles I can go back, because I know they liked me.

Back in FCW and the early days of NXT, Bram was signed with WWE and was part of The Ascension, which also included Ricardo Rodriguez, who many may remember as Alberto Del Rios (now Alberto El Patron in Impact Wrestling) exclusive ring announcer. He speaks on his time as part of what was once a stable.

The Ascension was cool and I am glad I was a part of the early stages. I am still close with both guys, Konnor and Viktor. I wish them nothing but the best and success. What we did and what is on TV now is a completely different product to what we were doing when I was part of it, so I cant really comment. However, they are on TV and making money so to me that is still a successful endeavor.

Finally, he spoke on his ex-wife Charlottes progress in wrestling. He had nothing but nice things to say about her, explaining that she is the best womens wrestler in the world, even better than many of the men.

I cant say I watch a lot of womens wrestling, but I will watch if Ashley [Charlotte Flair] is on. Without sounding bias, Charlotte Flair, is my ultimate favorite. Shes the best in the world when it comes to womens wrestling. Hell, shes stepping on the dudes toes too! She has so much natural charisma, its effortless to her. Its like shes been doing it forever and shes only been doing it for a handful of years. I love watching her work.

Charlotte is scheduled to enter the first ever Womens Money In The Bank match alongside Natalya, Becky Lynch, Carmella and Tamina at Money In The Bank.

With H/T to WrestlingInc for the quotes.

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FCW Alexander Rusev Colin Cassady vs. The Ascension (June 24th 2012)

Editors Note:

Bram is a veteran in my eyes. I love what he had to say about Charlotte, despite their past. I would love to see him come back to WWE, as it has been reported in the past. Though he seems happy with Impact Wrestling.

What do you think about Bram? Did you know about the NOAH incident?Let us know in the comments below or over on our Facebook page or Twitter account. Additionally, you can find me on Twitter at @SOSNH1995.

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Bram on Ex-Wife Charlotte, Being in the Ascension, Being Suspended and Dixie Carter - Wrestling Rumors (blog)

I-10 closure in Ascension over but ramp repair not complete – WBRZ

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SORRENTO - A total closure of I-10 eastbound ended earlier than expected - around 7 o'clock Sunday morning.

A stretch of I-10 going toward New Orleans had been closed since Friday night, the second time this year, so crews could replace an overpass that's been out of use since 2015.

The ramp being repaired is Airline Highway to I-10 westbound. It was damaged back in 2015 when a contractor that was moving large machinery, hit the ramp.

Dr. Shawn Wilson, DOTD secretary, says the same company that broke the ramp, is fixing it, and paying for it.

"It does happen where contractors are involved in accidents just like regular travelers are, in this case they did the right thing, and said look... we want to fix it for you, and we'll absorb the cost like were gonna have to pay for anyway," he said.

This same detour happened back in March, so crews could remove the ramp, and fix it, just to the side of the interstate.

"Putting it back is probably a little more complex than taking it out, because you have to make things work and you have to put it back together again to ensure its safe for users to travel under it," said Wilson.

The ramp was not in place when the interstate reopened Sunday. It's not immediately clear if crews had trouble replacing it or why it's not finished. The ramp appeared to be wedged into place Saturday, though.

I-10 will reopen Monday morning, but the ramp won't be ready just yet, it will take another month for finishing touches on the ramp.

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I-10 closure in Ascension over but ramp repair not complete - WBRZ

Nanotech-based test can predict prostate cancer risk better | The … – The Indian Express

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By: IANS | Toronto | Published:June 10, 2017 11:37 pm Representational Image.

Using nanotechnology, scientists have developed a new diagnostic process that can identify aggressive prostate cancer from a single drop of blood with 40 per cent more accuracy than current screening methods. The Extracellular Vesicle Fingerprint Predictive Score (EV-FPS) test uses machine learning to combine information from millions of cancer cell nano-particles in the blood to recognise the unique fingerprint of aggressive prostate cancer.

The diagnostic, evaluated in a group of men suspected of prostate cancer, correctly identified aggressive prostate cancer 40 per cent more accurately than the most common blood test Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) and helped them avoid unnecessary painful biopsies and over-treatment.

Higher sensitivity means that our test will miss fewer aggressive cancersfor this kind of test you want the sensitivity to be as high as possible because you dont want to miss a single cancer that should be treated, said John Lewis from the University of Alberta in Canada.

Current tests such as the PSA and digital rectal exam (DRE) often lead to unneeded biopsies, the researchers said, while presenting the paper at the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles conference in Toronto recently.

More than 50 per cent of men who undergo biopsy do not have prostate cancer, yet suffer the pain and side effects of the procedure.

It is estimated that successful implementation of the EV-FPS test could eventually eliminate up to 600,000 unnecessary biopsies, 24,000 hospitalisations and up to 50 per cent of unnecessary treatments for prostate cancer each year in North America alone, Lewis said.

Compared to elevated total PSA alone, the EV-FPS test can more accurately predict the result of prostate biopsy in previously unscreened men, added Adrian Fairey, Urologist from the University of Alberta.

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Will Thucydides’ Trap lead to World War 3? – The Sunday Guardian

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LONDON: Where do you think World War 3 (WW3) will start? Probably not in Europe, even though there are tensions in the Ukraine and on the borders of the Baltic states. President Vladimir Putin is using these areas to scratch away at NATO and in the case of Ukraine, to prevent the further expansion of this defence treaty, which will celebrate its 70th birthday in two-years time. Putin has nothing to gain from attacking the Baltic states and the Crimea will remain a permanent part of Russia. Provided the West recognises these facts and Kiev agrees to some form of federation within Ukraine, Putin will scale down his support for the rebels in the east, which will de-escalate tensions in the area. Nor will WW3 start in the troublesome Middle East, whose problems are likely to fester without a solution for years to come. Only if President Donald Trump cancels the Iranian nuclear deal, will tensions there rise even further. As Syria approaches the messy endgame in its civil war, Turkey, Iran and the Kurds are hovering over recaptured land from ISIS, like vultures over a carcase and will re-draw the ill-fated line in the sand created by the Sykes-Picot agreement in 1916. Russia will be satisfied with an enlarged naval base in Tartus and a greatly expanded airbase in Latakia as a reward for supporting the Bashar al-Assad regime, which will remain beholden to it. These bases will provide Putin with a useful counterbalance to NATO in its south-eastern flank, lost when the Soviet Union collapsed more than 25 years ago. Nor will WW3 break out over the crazy nuclear antics of North Korea. The recently increased sanctions by China give a useful clue to the seriousness with which they consider the threat of the nuclear build-up by Kim Jong-un. China could solve this problem at any time they wish, as the regime of Jong-un would collapse without its assistance. No, the most likely scenario for WW3 is over the sovereignty of the South China Sea (SCS).

Consider a few facts. Some $6 trillion of trade passes through the SCS every year. According to the US Energy Information Administration, there are $11 billion barrels of oil and $190 trillion cubic feet of gas in the SCS. At the present time, more than half of the tonnage of world crude oil transported by sea passes through the SCS, with thousands of merchant and fishing vessels using it every day. If you take a look at a geopolitical map of the region, you will see a number of overlapping areas of the SCS which show the various claims of sovereignty by six neighbouring countries. Dotted within these areas are numerous islands, reefs and banks, many of which are not only claimed, but also occupied by the awakened giant in the area, the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). Over the past few years, the PRC has dredged and reclaimed thousands of acres in the SCS, building artificial islands, on which they have constructed such infrastructure as runways, radar facilities, support buildings and loading piers. From these the PRC has the potential to boost their power projection over the entire area, well into the Bay of Bengal, by deploying aircraft, warships and offensive missiles. Recent satellite imagery of the Subi and Fiery Cross Reef of the Spratley Islands, which are also claimed by Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan, shows advanced Chinese military facilities which are now active.

In 2011, the PRC, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam agreed to a set of preliminary guidelines, which would help to resolve the dispute over sovereignty of the SCS. This covered the normal maritime activity such as safety of navigation, communications and search and rescue, but left the issue of oil and natural gas exploration unresolved. The latter was tested by India when its state-run explorer, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) signed an agreement with PetroVietnam to carry out exploration in certain blocks of the SCS claimed by Vietnam. This was denounced by PRC in a statement which began China enjoys indisputable sovereignty over the SCS and islands. This emphatic response was later backed up by the Chinese President Xi Jinping when he stated We are strongly committed to safeguarding the countrys sovereignty and security, and defending our territorial integrity, the latter referring to the newly created islands. In the northern SCS, often referred to as the East China Sea (ECS), lie the Diaoyu/Senkakus islands, over which China and Japan have been in dispute since the Sino-Japanese war of 1894. Provocations against Japans sovereign sea and land are continuing, but they must not be tolerated, said Japans Prime Minister Shinzo Abe recently, referring to these islands. The hard line approach by the PRC over much of both the SCS and ECS could trigger not only armed conflict with its neighbours, but also the United States, through the latters military alliances and commitments with its allies, Japan and the Philippines. In February this year, the US sailed a carrier group on what they called routine operations through the SCS, during which time they were tailed by Chinese vessels as they surveilled the man-made islands, ignoring Beijings warnings not to challenge its sovereignty in the strategic waterways. The Pentagon issued a statement that the US Navy had been doing these operations for many years and would continue to do so. Defense Secretary James Mattis, a staunch believer in President Trumps Peace through Strength policy, is likely to abandon the previous administrations policy of seeking to avoid upsetting China. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also weighed in on the dispute, promising that the US would block China from further militarising the islands. This is a potentially explosive scenario, which could lead to conflict on a grand scale between an established world power and one which is rapidly developing into an equivalent world power.

Almost two and a half thousand years ago, a similar dilemma resulted in the Peloponnesian War of 411 BC, which devastated Greece. At the time, Sparta (read US) became fearful of a rising power Athens (read China), which made war inevitable. The Athenian historian, Thucydides, recounted this war which engulfed his homeland, the city-state of Athens, and since then it has been called Thucydides Trap, a phenomenon which has occurred no less than 16 times, according to some historians, when an established world power was challenged by a rising one and major miscalculations were made. In his 2015 essay in the Atlantic, the renowned historian Professor Graham Allison, argued that this historical metaphor provides the best lens available for illuminating relations between China and the US today. During their 2015 summit, Presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping discussed the Trap at length. Both being aware of the dangers, it was re-assuring that they concluded that the two countries are capable of managing their disagreements. However, since then a new player has arrived on the scene, one who is committed to making America great again. President Trump, having fired up populist nationalist support, could well dress himself in Spartan robes (particularly if they were made of gold) and see China as Athens. Unless the US and China can avoid conflict as effectively as did the US and the USSR during four decades of the Cold War, there is the possibility that Thucydides Trap could be enacted for the 17th time in the form of WW3.

Although this scenario appears to be as unlikely as it would be unwise, we are currently commemorating the centenary of another example of the Trap, which resulted in the folly of the First World War. It is well to keep in mind the words of the Spanish philosopher, George Santayana, Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

John Dobson worked in UK Prime Minister John Majors Office between 1995 and 1998 and is presently a consultant in the private sector.

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Cary Grant was one of the first to benefit from LSD therapy – Quartz

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Today, research on the effects of psychedelics is one of the most exciting fields of psychology. The US Food and Drug Administration recently approved a clinical trial to test if the psychedelic compound in ecstasy can treat PTSD; psilocybin, the key ingredient in magic mushrooms is now considered a promising treatment for depression; and studies suggest that LSD could help combat alcoholism. Theres still plenty of red tape and skepticism, but it feels like scientists are well on their way to establishing the health benefits of these powerful drugs.

It feels terribly cutting edge, but such research is, in fact, old. Before LSD became a party drug, it was used to treat conditions like alcoholism, PTSD, and depression. And, as a new documentary on Cary Grant explores, the actor was one of the first to experience LSD in a psychiatric setting.

According to the film, Becoming Cary Grant, the actor first tried LSD at the Psychiatric Institute of Beverly Hills in 1958 and took the drug 100 times over the following three years. He was effusive about the results, as Vanity Fair reports, telling Look magazine in 1959, at last, I am close to happiness. He viewed the treatment as a way of resolving childhood trauma and coming to terms with the ends of difficult marriages; after starting his LSD treatment, Grant realized, all my life, Ive been going around in a fog.

Though LSD had been used as treatment for a few years previously, Grants enthusiasm helped popularize the then-little-known drug. In total, from 1950-1965, around 40,000 patients were prescribed LSD to treat a variety of conditions. The drug was little known at first but gradually increased in popularity before US drug safety regulations began to restrict its use in 1962. In 1966, possession of the drug was made illegal in the US.

The backlash against LSDpartly attributed to negative experiences of the drug, or bad trips, and partly to its association with the political counterculture of the timewas closely linked not just to its recreational use, but also the lack of rigor around psychological research at the time. Timothy Leary, a Harvard psychologist who was studying the psychological effects of psychedelics in the late 1950s and early 1960s, was not allowed to continue working at the university in 1963, in part due to his sloppy research. Leary was accused of giving psychedelics to undergraduates without medical supervision and, after leaving academia, went on to promote psychedelics with the phrase, Turn on, tune in, drop out. Then-president Richard Nixon reportedly called him the most dangerous man in America.

But though early research in LSD as therapy has a decidedly mixed reputation, Robin Carhart-Harris, head of Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London, says that much of the work undertaken in the 1950s and 60s was actually quite strong.

Its easy for us to be derogatory about the old research but they were asking all the questions were asking now, he says, Perhaps the methods werent as tight as they are today but, even so, there was a fair amount of good work.

Today, he says researchers are more privileged. Brain imaging has been instrumental in navigating the effects of psychedelics and there are now standard rating scales for measuring depression, for example, as well as careful placebo control procedures and a greater awareness of biases.

Carhart-Harris says he and his colleagues occasionally read through older literature. It can feel reassuring, he says, to see that the effects theyre finding today were also noted decades ago.

In a way were re-inventing the wheel, but were doing it with the knowledge and methods we have now, he says. You can think of the old literature as being quite extensive and rich but also a little loose and quite poetic.

Herbert Kleber, professor of psychiatry and substance-abuse researcher at Columbia University, notes that the smaller doses used today are far safer than in previous decades. While working on narcotics addiction at the US Public Health Service Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky (now called the Federal Medical Center) in 1965, Kleber conducted research into LSDs potential as a treatment treatment for addiction.

He did not get far in his research, and though he believed there were early signs that the drug could be useful for breaking addiction cycles, he also saw plenty of bad trips. I remember there was a painting on the wall and under the influence of LSD, one patient [in the study] saw the painting come off the wall and chase him around the room, he says. Another one tried to break down a door because he was convinced his wife was on the other side and we were keeping her from him. Kleber was interested in testing the drug at a lower dose, he says, but LSD was banned soon after.

Despite the downsides, researchers were uncovering the potential value of LSD. Carhart-Harris points out that prominent figures such as senator Robert F. Kennedy were supportive of the research, and went to bat for LSD in Washington, DC. If they [LSD experiments] were worthwhile six months ago, why arent they worthwhile now? Kennedy asked the FDA in 1966, after research on the drug was banned. Perhaps to some extent we have lost sight of the fact that [LSD] can be very, very helpful in our society if used properly.

But research into the medical benefits of psychedelics stalled in the late 1960s. [Cultural attitudes] are very powerful and they stick, says Carhart-Harris. Were the victims of that, and so are patients to some extentvictims of this stigma and misinformation. As a result, there are no approved medicinal uses for LSD, but both Kleber and Carhart-Harris agree theres evidence the research should continue. If you have a compound that seems to be beneficial, works in a novel way, and does something different than currently available treatments, then you could really question the ethics of withholding funding, says Carhart-Harris.

The good news is that, thanks in part to tighter research methods, government agencies are starting to loosen up restrictions on studying psychedelics. Psychologists are now picking up a decades old experiment. Were both catching up and advancing, adds Carhart-Harris.

But theres no guarantee that the trend will hold. I dont want to be too naive and say, its just not going to happen this time because weve learnt from the mistakes of the past, says Carhart-Harris. After all, he adds, in politics, anything can happen.

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Cary Grant was one of the first to benefit from LSD therapy - Quartz

Local Super Group Debuts At Music on the Green – Sierra News Online (press release) (registration) (blog)

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Written by Ronnie Sweeting

MARIPOSA Music on the Green brought to you by The Mariposa County Arts Council and its many fine sponsors presents the third of thirteen weekends of free concerts with a special appearance/ debut of local super-group Arroyo (w/Little Tiger) on Friday, June 16, and from San Francisco, Trance Mission Duo (featuring Stephen Kent & Beth Custer) on Saturday, June 17.

Arroyo is a result of the collaboration of singer/songwriter Ben Goger (The Trespassers), drummer Chris Adcock (Robes, Chaz), guitarist Adam Burns (Bootstrap Circus, Little Tiger), bassist Benny Lee Friedrich (The Trespassers), and multi-instrumentalist Jonny Troyna (Wools Surf Club, Robes).

It began out of Gogers desire to give some of his songs a rock n roll rhythm, and his brother-in-law Chriss constant attempts to shoehorn country and folk into Devo and Ramones style rhythms. The result is an upbeat type of country rock music, veering occasionally into power pop and 70s-style arena rock.

Opening the night will be Little Tiger, Burns and wife Mandy Vances synth pop duo.

Trance Mission Duo features two extraordinary and award-winning multi-instrumentalist/composers (Stephen Kent: didjeridu, percussion, cello-sintir, bass; Beth Custer: B flat, alto, bass clarinets, percussion) with mountains of global accolades to their credit.

In this new duo incarnation, Trance Mission continues the genre-breaking musical traditions they started in the 1990s. Founded in 91 by Kent (Baraka Moon; host of the World Music program on KPFA-Berkeley) and Custer (film score composer; recent Emmy award-winner [KQED]), this seminal 4th World duo out of the Bay Area performed extensively on the West Coast and in Europe and created four universally acclaimed recordings released on San Franciscos City of Tribes label.

The music of Trance Mission is a nearly indescribable amalgam of World/ Trance music that includes implements of progressive Jazz, African and Aboriginal, with an infectious improvisational spirit and humor.

Trance Missions unique, multi-genre music is unlike any presented in Mariposa before their debut at the Art Park in 2015, making their return a truly special appearance. Notable performances include Maybeck Studio, Live Oak Festival, Freight & Salvage, Slims, Palms Playhouse, and many more.

The digital aura remarkably marries the indigenous instrumentation with a rare naturalness, resonating with the full flame of world-derived trance power. Sam Prestianni

A unique Aboriginal, African and European fusion. Their rhythmic, trance-inducing music for didgeridoo, drums and synthesizer makes a perfect soundtrack. j. poet

This is such deep, exploratory, soulful musicunlike anything Ive ever heard. Its world music, yes, but at the same time its progressive, jazzy, tribal, traditional, jamming, driving, trance rhythmsI hear something new every time I put this CD on. PG, Dirty Linen

A complete schedule of the talent performing throughout this summer season (along with a brief description of each) can be found at http://www.mariposaartscouncil.org.

All performances begin at 7 p.m. at the Mariposa County Art Park, located on Highway 140, between 4th and 5th Streets, in historic downtown Mariposa. Free parking on 5th Street along the Creek Walkway to the Park, also providing handicapped access.

The shows are free to the public tips for the performers will be solicited, encouraged and appreciated.

The Mariposa Arts Council, sponsor of Cousin Jacks Music on the Green, is funded in part by Mariposa County, the California Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

The MARIPOSA COUNTY ARTS COUNCIL, INC. is an incorporated not-for- profit organization, created to promote and support all forms of the cultural arts, for all ages, throughout Mariposa County.

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Witcher 3 developers won’t bow to extortion for stolen Cyberpunk … – Network World

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By Ms. Smith, Network World | Jun 11, 2017 7:50 AM PT

Ms. Smith (not her real name) is a freelance writer and programmer with a special and somewhat personal interest in IT privacy and security issues.

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With E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) starting this week, we can expect a flood of gaming news. It remains to be seen if the person or people trying to extort Polish game developer CD Projekt Red will choose this week to leak stolen Cyberpunk 2077 game files.

Instead of staying quiet about an extortion attempt, CD Projekt Red, the developers behind The Witcher 3, got out ahead of any potential leak by tweeting:

An unidentified individual or individuals have just informed us they are in possession of a few internal files belonging to CD PROJEKT RED. Among them are documents connected to early designs for the upcoming game, Cyberpunk 2077.

A demand for ransom has been made, saying that should we not comply, the files will be released to the general public. We will not be giving in to the demands of the individual or individuals that have contacted us, which might eventually lead to the files being published online. The appropriate legal authorities will be informed about the situation.

The documents are old and largely unrepresentative of the current vision for the game. Still, if youre looking forward to playing Cyberpunk 2077, it would be best for you to avoid any information not coming directly from CD PROJEKT RED.

When the time is right, you will hear about Cyberpunk 2077 from us officially.

The developers posted the same notice on its Cyberpunk 2077 forum.

Cyberpunk 2077, which has been in the works for years, was first announced in 2012. Its supposed to be an RPG set in the open world of Night City. The game is based on the cyberpunk role-playing game Cyberpunk 2020. CD Projekt Red said it was working closely with Mike Pondsmith who wrote the original pen-and-paper game. In 2013, a teaser video was released.

But since then, CD Projekt Red released The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The wildly popular 2015 release is a fantastic game and it apparently changed everything for developers.

When you release a game like The Witcher and create the expansions, the perception is not the pre-Witcher 3 expectation, CD Projekt Red co-founder Marcin Iwinski told Eurogamer. The bar is higher and its externally and internally as well.

I cannot talk about plans but we have to adjust to it and also adjust our own ambitions, Iwinski added. If CD Projekt Red releases a new game and it is not better than Witcher 3, people [will say], Hmm, wow, why is it not better? Witcher 3 set a certain bar and we definitely cannot go lower. Its always about improving and making new, pretty stuff, [and] storytelling games and mechanics and what not.

With that in mind, its not entirely impossible that the stolen internal documents about Cyberpunk 2077 would have little to do with the direction CD Projekt Red took the game after the Witcher 3 release. The documents may indeed be old and largely unrepresentative of the current vision for the game as the developer claimed.

The developers did not say what the blackmail amount was, when or how the game material was stolen. Earlier this year, The Witcher fans received breach notifications after the CD Projekt Red forum was compromised. About 1.9 million CD Projekt Red accounts were exposed; the developers said the accounts came from an old database which was compromised in March 2016.

One of my first thoughts was wondering if The Dark Overlord hacking group was involved; the hackers who were responsible for leaking 10 new Orange Is the New Black episodes after Netflix refused to be extorted. But after releasing unaired episodes of ABCs Steve Harveys Funderdome, most of the groups tweets revolve around A Business A Day which has so far involved dumping records from doctors and dentists unwilling to be blackmailed. So far, theres no mention of CD Projekt Red.

It remains to be seen if whomever is responsible does follow through and leak info related to Cyberpunk 2077 and if that will happen amidst all the gaming news which pour out this week from E3.

Ms. Smith (not her real name) is a freelance writer and programmer with a special and somewhat personal interest in IT privacy and security issues.

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Witcher 3 developers won't bow to extortion for stolen Cyberpunk ... - Network World

TMS Lighting

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The pendant with pizazz... Ezra blends with contemporary to modern interiors, for a tasteful touch to the theme.

The 88 diameter geometric design provides wide area coverage with a high degree of uniformity.

A modern, concentric look, for spaces where the quality of light and style are important.

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TMS Lighting

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Political correctness even infiltrates realm of ilnesses – New Castle News

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Editor, The News:

Political correctness is not only attacking our First Amendment and attempting to destroy our ability to communicate, it is putting the lives of Americans in jeopardy.

There are politically correct illnesses such as AIDS and breast cancer.

AIDS is not like, for instance, prostate cancer because a specific act must be committed before you contract AIDS.

A study by the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that diseases such as AIDS and breast cancer have strong political lobbies, such as the Red Ribbon campaign and covering everything and everybody in pink, and receive more federal money.

Dr. Ernie Bodai, a surgeon from California, got a special stamp issued that raised $50 million to fight breast cancer, which is laudatory. But he has been unable to win a similar prostate cancer stamp. He stated, The prostate cancer community is 10 years behind the breast cancer groups in terms of being acknowledged and receiving funds from the National Institute of Health. Hopefully, since this injustice occurred, he was able to receive that stamp.

Story continues below video

Prostate cancer strikes more men than breast cancer strikes women every year. The latest figures I have in prostate cancer 235,000, breast cancer 215,000 incidence rate per 100,000 is 172.3 to breast cancer 135.1.

Political correctness took hold when Obama was first elected and made his apology tour in the MIddle East, refusing to acknowledge that America is the greatest nation on earth. Everything is relative, is how he related to his country. Now on our campuses, some even refuse to use male or female or anything gender specific. God help us if they begin running the country.

Oh, was I allowed to say God?

Paul Dici

Ellwood City

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Political correctness even infiltrates realm of ilnesses - New Castle News

Political correctness has gone wild – The San Luis Obispo Tribune

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The San Luis Obispo Tribune
Political correctness has gone wild
The San Luis Obispo Tribune
A firestorm erupted over a costume picture that resulted in a public apology. The picture I saw had a bunch of kids in some pretty funny costumes. I did not see anything that degraded a gender, race or religion. Perhaps one of the complainers could ...

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Political correctness has gone wild - The San Luis Obispo Tribune

Cities should be studied as evolutionary hotspots, says biologist – The Guardian

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Birds in cities often sing at a higher pitch, perhaps to be better heard against higher levels of background noise. Photograph: Sue Tranter RSPB Images/PA Wire

Foxes loitering around rubbish bins and pigeons roosting in train stations: urban animals are widely regarded as the dregs of the natural world.

However, according to biologist Simon Watt, cities represent some of the worlds hotspots for evolution and behavioural adaptation. Speaking at the Cheltenham science festival, Watt, who is founder of the Ugly Animal Preservation Society, said: The ice caps are melting, the rainforest is shrinking, the one environment that is growing is cities. If were going to look for evolutionary shifts right now in our world, the place to look is cities.

In his talk, Watt cited a host of examples of how the urban environment is prompting new genetic shifts and unexpected behaviours. A proportion of black cap warblers, which used to migrate to Morocco or southern Spain, have shifted their route to Britain where urban heat islands and garden bird feeders allow them to survive at more northerly latitudes than was previously possible.

The ones that come to Britain are starting to get shorter wings better for manoeuvrability, worse for long flights and longer beaks, which are better to get through the wee bars of garden bird feeders, although worse for things like fruits and berries.

In Australia, the mating croak of the male pobblebonk frog has been steadily rising in pitch, an adaptation that means it can still attract females in the presence of the background rumble of motorway traffic.

Pobblebonks never hear their parents, so its an evolutionary shift, said Watt. Outside the urban setting the frogs with the deepest croak tend to be most attractive to females. They still would be the most attractive males if they could be heard, but its become an advantage to have a falsetto, he added. Barry White is out, Justin Bieber is in.

Birds have also changed their vocalisations, although this appears to be acclimatisation rather than evolution. In general we can say that birds in cities have a couple of things in common. They tend to sing at a higher pitch, they tend to use fewer notes and they tend to sing faster, he said. They have their own urban music. This happens across all the species, they sing at different times at night because theyve got street lights. They are not quite sure when its bedtime. It does mean that some of these birds are stressed out.

A weed, called Crepis sancta which looks like a delicate version of the dandelion, is evolving to release higher numbers of heavy seeds and fewer light floaty ones (the plants produce a mixture) because of its concrete-bound existence. If youre in concrete, theres no point in distributing your seeds widely, youre better to just land your seeds in the patch next to you, said Watt.

There is even a species, sometimes known as the London Underground mosquito, which has adapted from a southern mosquito variety to survive in the warm underground spaces of northern cities.

Watt said the types of species that are able to thrive in urban environments tend to be adaptable omnivores, relatively intelligent and scavengers by nature.

In other words theyre rather a lot like us, he said. He added that the changes taking place in the urban environment were sometimes neglected, even by the scientific community. We dont have to go to Borneo to watch evolution in action.

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Cities should be studied as evolutionary hotspots, says biologist - The Guardian

300000 year-old early Homo sapiens sparks debate over evolution – Ars Technica

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Two views of a composite reconstruction of the earliest known Homo sapiens fossils from Jebel Irhoud based on micro computed tomographic scans of multiple original fossils. Dated to 300 thousand years ago these early Homo sapiens already have a modern-looking face that falls within the variation of humans living today. However, the archaic-looking virtual imprint of the braincase (blue) indicates that brain shape, and possibly brain function, evolved within the Homo sapiens lineage.

Philipp Gunz

View looking south of the Jebel Irhoud site in Morocco. The remaining deposits and several people excavating them are visible in the center. At the time the site was occupied by early hominins, it would have been a cave, but the covering rock and much sediment were removed by work at the site in the 1960s.

Shannon McPherron

The mandible from the individual dubbed Irhoud 11 is the first, almost complete adult mandible discovered at the site of Jebel Irhoud. The bone morphology and the dentition display a mosaic of archaic and evolved features, which the researchers believe place it close to the root of our own lineage.

Jean-Jacques Hublin

Here are some of the fossils being uncovered at Jebel Irhoud. In the center of the image, in a slightly more yellow brown tone, is the crushed top of a human skull (Irhoud 10) and visible just above this is a partial femur (Irhoud 13) resting against the back wall.

Steffen Schatz

Some of the Middle Stone Age stone tools from Jebel Irhoud. Pointed forms such as a-i are common in this period. Also characteristic are the so-called Levellois prepared core flakes.

Mohammed Kamal

Scientists Shannon McPherron (left) and Abdelouahed Ben-Ncer discussing the new fossils finds from Jebel Irhoud. The crushed skull from Irhoud 10 is just barely visible above the blue dustpan.

MPI EVA Leipzig

Daniel Richter drilling into the site of Jebel Irhoud as part of his work dating the deposits containing the fossils and stone tools. Richter applied thermoluminescence dating to heated flints coming from the excavations, and demonstrated that the site is about 300 thousand years old. The holes are drilled for dosimeters which measure the background radiation of the sediments for an entire year. Knowing the background radiation and the charge trapped in the heated flints, the age can be determined.

Shannon McPherron

Until this week, the earliest known fossils of Homo sapiens were about 200,000 years old. But two recent papers in Naturehave obliterated that date with a report of 300,000 year-old skull fragments from five individuals found in Morocco. The researchers who discovered the fossils call them "early Homo sapiens." But other scientists say this misrepresents the complex story of human evolution.

The Moroccan remains tell a complicated tale. While their faces are shaped almost exactly like those of modern humans, their skulls are sloped and elongated like much earlier species. While the media exploded with reports about how we've discovered the "earliest" Homo sapiens, the real story isn't that simple.

These papers are just part of a much larger debate about how and where humans evolved.

The five early humansthree adults, a child, and an adolescentwere found in what would have been a roomy, pleasant cave about 300,000 years ago. Located on a Moroccan hillside between Marrakesh and the Atlantic coast, the site known as Jebel Irhoud was until recently beena mine and a quarry. Miners first discovered human remains there in the 1960s, but they were identified as 40,000 year-old Neanderthals. Max Planck Institute evolutionary biologist Jean-Jacques Hublin wasn't satisfied with this explanation.

Unable to let go of his hunch, Hublin started periodically excavating at Jebel Irhoud in the 1980s. In 2004, he got lucky: Hublin's team uncovered an area of the site untouched by decades of quarrying. There, he told reporters at a press conference, they found a perfectly-preserved package of red clay about 3 meters deep, withlayers containing the remains of five humans along with campsite debris such as stone tools, butchered animal bones (mostly gazelle), and charcoal from a fire. Some of the bones and tools were burned too, perhaps from cooking.

The charred remains were another stroke of luck. They meant that evolutionary biologist Daniel Richter, Hublin's colleague at Max Planck, could determine the age of these objects using a technique called thermoluminescence (TL) dating. Put simply, TL dating works by measuring how much radiation an object has absorbed since it was last heated. It works only on materials like rocks and sediments with crystalline structures.

By averaging the results of TL dating on several tools and sediment layers at Jebel Irhoud, Richter determined that the fossils were about 300,000 years old, from a period called the Middle Stone Age. This date was also found using another technique, electron spin resonance dating, used on the tooth enamel from some of the fossil finds.

The dates were solid, so Hublin and his colleagues analyzed the fossils to see where they fit in the human evolutionary tree. There were no traces of DNA in the fossils, so they had only cranial shapes to guide them. Perhaps the most striking thing about the Irhoud people was their faces. These ancient people could easily have wandered around in a modern city and passed as one of us"as long as they wore a hat," Hublin joked. Their faces and tooth shapes were modern, but their elongated skulls looked more like much earlier hominins. At that point, Hublin and his colleagues dubbed them "early Homo sapiens." In an e-mail to Ars, Hublin clarified that they aren't modern humans, but instead "representative of populations directly ancestral to us."

Composite reconstruction of a fossil skull from Jebel Irhoud, based on micro computed tomographic scans of multiple original fossils. The brain case is roughly the size of a modern human's, but it slopes backward instead of creating a taller, bulbous shape.

Perhaps most important, these individuals were hunting in North Africa, far from Ethiopia and South Africa, where previous examples of ancient humans have been found. This undermines the hypothesis that humans evolved in sub-Saharan Africa and spread out from there into Eurasia. Hublin and colleagues call the Jebel Irhoud finds strong evidence for the Pan-African hypothesis, which holds that modern humans evolved all over the continent. Disputing the popular notion that there's an East African "Eden" or cradle of humanity, Hublin argued: "If there is an Eden, it's the size of Africa."

No scientists I spoke with disputed the Irhoud fossil ages, but some were less than impressed with the magnitude of Hublin and his colleagues' discovery. University of Hawaii geneticist Rebecca Cann, known for dating humanity's last common female ancestor (so-called Mitochondrial Eve), called the Nature papers "incremental at best." An evolutionary biologist who preferred to remain anonymous added that calling any ancient human fossil in Africa "the earliest whatever" is "clickbait."

These scientists don't like the way Hublin and his colleagues suggest that the "earliest" Homo sapiens walked the Earth 300,000 years ago. Evolution is a constant process, with no perfect beginnings and endings, so there can never really be an "earliest" version of humanityonly transitional forms between one species and the next. Cann elaborated in a series of e-mails with Ars:

We figure the genetic lineage of our species is placed in Africa, with dates that vary depending on which set of loci/chromosomes/geographic group/SNP vs. [whole genome sequence] gets assayed. The rough estimate of the split between Neanderthal and Homo sapiens is placed at 500-600,000 years ago. So this site should have hominins on the Homo sapiens side, roughly half way down to modern. Most evolutionary biologists would say: "OK that's lots of variation over space/time, so expect transitional forms." What do I see? Transitions. [It's a] nothingburger.

Cann suspectsthe Jebel Irhoud people are just another transitional stage in hominin evolution, and hardly the "earliest" Homo sapiens. If anything, they're a middle stage, stuck halfway between our common ancestor with Neanderthals and modern humans. This is nice, but it's hardly news; as she put it, it's an evolutionary nothingburger. Other scientists felt that the results weren't a breakthrough, given that they just confirm evolution is a series of gradual changes. As Arizona State University evolutionary biologist Curtis Marean put it, the findings are "very important to know, but perhaps not unexpected."

Philipp Gunz, another Max Planck evolutionary biologist who worked with Hublin on the fossils at Jebel Irhoud, said the team isn't disputing any of this. Still, he thinks the "earliest" Homo sapiens label fits. "Our view is that Jebel Irhoud falls close to the root of the Homo sapiens lineage," he told Ars via e-mail. "I recognize that species do evolve over time, and I am convinced that the Homo sapiens fossils from Jebel Irhoud are a beautiful illustration of such changes within an evolving lineage."

For his part, Hublin thinks the problem ultimately boils down to semantics. "In the end if one does not call them 'sapiens,' what should they be called?" he asked via e-mail. "A new name of species like [scientists would have done] in the 19th century? Or a generic term mixing all sorts of unrelated fossils? All this seems a bit ridiculous when any geneticist would tell you that most likely all the hominins of the last 2 million years could interbreed."

You have very early skulls from Spain, some people call them Homo antecessor, that have some of the facial features of modern humans over 700,000 years ago. Maybe that early population is connected to the common ancestors of humans and Neanderthals. If that were the case, its not too surprising to see some similar facial features in a later African population. It might be closer to modern humans, but it might also represent a different offshoot of that early ancestral population.

Our flattened, delicate facial features may actually be from an ancestor who pre-dated both Neanderthals and the Jebel Irhoud line. If that's the case, we're likely to see a lot of early groups of hominins running around Africa and Eurasia with so-called human faces. That doesn't mean they all evolved into modern humans.

Added Hawks, "I don't think we should redefine 'modern human' to include things like Jebel Irhoud. That just avoids the interesting questions. How were these complex hominins interacting? How did they all coexist on this continent?"

Listing image by Philipp Gunz

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300000 year-old early Homo sapiens sparks debate over evolution - Ars Technica

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Could Get Successor in Six Years – Motor Trend

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Mitsubishi has revealed that it will eventually bring a successor to the legendary Lancer Evolution; however, that model wont happen for another six years. Speaking withAustraliasMotoring,Mitsubishis global boss, Trevor Mann, revealed that a new performance model is under consideration and will likely be a crossover instead of a sedan.

According to Mann, the Evos successor is part of a long-term plan rather than mid-term. Mann also indicated that Mitsubishi wants a halo car; however, its still undecided what type of vehicle that will be for the Japanese brand. Mitsubishi discontinued the Lancer Evolution back in 2015 when it revealed the Final Edition model. That particular model had an updated 2.0-liter turbo-four rated at 303 hp and 305 lb-ft of torque paired exclusively to a five-speed manual transmission. In the U.S., only 1,600 units of the Lancer Evolution Final Edition were available.

On the same interview, Mann also hinted that Mitsubishi is evaluating the possibility returning to motorsport. Thanks to the Lancer Evolution, Mitsubishi has a rich rally heritage and competed with fellow Japanese automaker Subaru back in the 1990s and even early 2000s. Mann toldMotoringthat returning to motorsport has been discussed within the company recently and that it has to consider it because of its heritage since it has the technology for it.

Source: Motoring

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Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Could Get Successor in Six Years - Motor Trend