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After 9 I Can — And Will — Fall Asleep Anywhere
Find yourself adrift at sea, surrounded by undrinkable water, and you will parch to death. Find yourself lost in a desert and you will meet the same fate, also surrounded by water, also undrinkable. That’s because, even in the driest of lands, the air is loaded with water molecules—they just won’t do you any good. Devices exist that can pull that water out of the air and convert it into liquid, but they are bulky and use a lot of energy. A pair of studies out today in Science Advances, however, describe clever technologies that could suck water right out of the air, one using zero energy and the other using very little. The techniques won’t quench the collective thirst of humanity, but they’ve got serious potential to help us augment water supplies in particularly dry places, especially as climate change wreaks its havoc. The first technology isn’t a new concept, but a supercharged version of of an old one: fog collection. Fog is just a cloud of tiny, innumerable droplets of water. Collect enough of those droplets and you can get yourself a glass of water. In Chile, for instance, fine nets capture fog and funnel it into pipes for drinking and even beer-making. Great, but not as great as it could be. “The efficiency of these sort of passive fog collectors is on the order of anywhere between 1 and 2 percent, it's extremely poor,” says MIT mechanical engineer Kripa Varanasi, coauthor of one of the new papers. When foggy wind passes through your typical netting, most of it flows through the holes between the strands. That means it takes a long time for enough water droplets to smack into the strands and accumulate there. So just make a finer net, right? Nope—the wind just tries to go around it. What you really want is for the water droplets to be attracted to the mesh. To do that, Varanasi turned to electric fields. In the lab, he propelled a stream of fog through an ion emitter, which in this case produces charged air atoms. “As these ions are moving forward, they get intercepted by the droplets, and the droplets get charged,” Varanasi says. These ionized droplets are positively ga-ga for the mesh collector. Take a look at the GIF below. It starts off with fog flowing like normal, but once the ion emitter switches on, the fog can’t escape the collector. The effect is so powerful, water droplets that do make it through the mesh then make a U-turn and come right back for it, resulting in an efficiency of 99 percent. The trapped fog then drips as liquid water into a glass below. Are you listening, San Francisco? Theoretically, any region with a healthy supply of fog could deploy nets and ion emitters, which may run at high voltage but actually draw a small current. In the lab, the system operates at 60 watts per square meter of mesh. Compare that to another technology used in thirsty places like India: “air water generators,” which act like refrigerators to cool the air and allow it to condense, but at considerable energetic cost. So the ionization works, but you can’t just deploy it willy-nilly wherever there might be a little bit of fog. You’d want a lot of the stuff, and you’d want the system to know when’s best to switch on. “What you'd really need to turn this into a viable water supply is to have a good sense of when the fog is present,” says chemical engineer Greg Peters, who studies air water generation techniques. “If it's just going to sit there being struck by lightning on a hilltop for half the year, then that's a lot of sunk costs.” The technology could even make its way into power plants, specifically cooling towers, which spew water vapor. It takes a lot of water to cool these things. Like, 39 percent of total freshwater withdrawals in the United States are earmarked for power plants. Over the course of a year, one facility can use as much water as 100,000 people. “We can capture the plumes and collect that water,” Varanasi says, something no other technology can do. To use this technology to collect natural fog, though, you need natural fog, which deserts don’t really have much of. That’s where our second new technology comes in. Researchers at UC Berkeley have developed what is essentially a water battery: It charges at night and drains during the day. The water battery is based on a material known as a metal-organic framework. The metal being zirconium and the organic bit being carbon atoms. Combined, the two substances form a powder—a framework with lots of space inside. A very fancy sponge, more or less. “If you expose this material to humid air, the framework will get saturated with water molecules,” says chemist Eugene Kapustin, coauthor on the paper. “And then, because the water molecules don't stick too tightly to the interior of the framework, we can release this water by heating the powder.” The researchers took this metal-organic framework and spread it on top of a box. They then put this box inside another clear box with a lid. At night, they keep the lid open, letting air in. This air is relatively humid compared to the day. “During the day we simply close the lid of the outer box and expose it to sunlight,” Kapustin says. This heats the material and releases the water as vapor. “After 5 hours, at the bottom of the outer box we can see liquid water as it condenses on the walls and flows down.” Sure, it doesn’t produce a tremendous amount of water at the moment: 7 ounces for every 2 pounds of metal-organic framework. But the researchers are testing an aluminum-based version of the material that is cheaper and twice as efficient. Scale up your box and add more of the metal-organic framework, and you collect even more water. Also, the water battery can withstand at least 150 cycles without any degradation. “We analyzed the purity of the collected water, and we didn't see any organic parts or inorganic parts,” Kapustin says. “So this tells us that the material is stable, and also we see that the performance of our device doesn't decrease over time.” Plus, the beauty of this system is its passivity—it uses only the power of the sun. And it works out in the wild, too—in tests in Arizona, the researchers got the thing to collect water even though humidity during the day dropped to 8 percent. No, technologies like these won’t quench the world’s thirst. But they could help water-strapped areas follow perhaps the most important water rule of all: diversify your sources. Rely solely on infrastructure that pipes in faraway rainfall and you’re asking for trouble. Technologies like metal-organic frameworks and ionized fog collection won’t work everywhere, but one day they could help humanity avoid withering on the vine. More Great WIRED Stories
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Can Namib Desert Beetles Help Us Solve Our Drought Problems?Namib desert beetles live in an area with little ground water, so how is it that they have no trouble finding H2O? Find out how the resourceful insects use their wing scales to absorb water droplets from fog, and how we can use them as a model for combating water shortages. Source: http://allofbeer.com/wanna-pull-water-out-of-air-grab-some-ions-or-a-weird-sponge/ from https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2018/12/01/wanna-pull-water-out-of-air-grab-some-ions-or-a-weird-sponge/
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Strong intelligence pointing to an “imminent threat” drove the decision in March to ban large electronics in carry-on baggage on flights into the U.S., according to a senior House Republican. “Specific and credible intelligence that there was an imminent threat to our aviation sector” was behind the decision, House Homeland Security Chairman Mike McCaul, R-Texas, told Fox News. “I think the administration took very responsible actions to safeguard the safety of Americans here in the homeland.” The ban on electronics larger than iPhones applied to 10 airports in eight countries in the Middle East and North Africa. During congressional testimony on April 5, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly did not rule out expanding the restrictions. “It’s real. I think it’s getting realer, so to speak,” Kelly told a Senate committee, referring to the intelligence and threat. “We may take measures in the not-too-distant future to expand the number of airports.” It is widely reported that terrorist groups seek to plant explosives in lap top computers, or similar devices. According to congressional investigators, the data shows that six years after SEAL Team 6 killed Usama bin Laden in Pakistan, the threat remains high, with terrorist-inspired or directed attacks focused on civilians. McCaul’s committee reported there have been 198 ISIS-linked plots against the West, including 21 this year alone. And the terror group has taken suicide attacks into the mainstream with 63 plots against the West since 2013 — with 42 in 2016 and 2017. The data further shows the growing use of vehicles as weapons. An ISIS-inspired attack in Stockholm, Sweden, last month marked Europe’s fourth attack in 12 months where the group used a truck or car against civilian targets to inflict mass casualties. In that attack, five were killed and even more injured when a beer truck was hijacked and rammed into a central downtown shopping mall. “I think most importantly, that the war on terror did not end with the death of Usama bin Laden,” McCaul said. “In fact, there have been more terror plots against the West since his killing than at any time since 9/11.” Counterterrorism analysts also report French and British authorities see a big jump in women getting involved with terrorism, moving beyond support roles to carrying out operations. On Monday, British police arrested three teenage girls, alleged members of a cell. The fourth member was shot dead. Fox News asked a Homeland Security spokesperson for comment, or to provide additional context, and there was no immediate response. Catherine Herridge is an award-winning Chief Intelligence correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC) based in Washington, D.C. She covers intelligence, the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security. Herridge joined FNC in 1996 as a London-based correspondent. Pamela K. Browne is Senior Executive Producer at the FOX News Channel (FNC) and is Director of Long-Form Series and Specials. Her journalism has been recognized with several awards. Browne first joined FOX in 1997 to launch the news magazine Fox Files and later, War Stories. Cyd Upson is a Senior Producer at Fox News in the Investigative Unit and of the acclaimed military history series War Stories. Source: http://allofbeer.com/intel-on-imminent-threat-drove-airline-electronics-ban-top-lawmaker-says/ from https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2018/12/01/intel-on-imminent-threat-drove-airline-electronics-ban-top-lawmaker-says/ 1.
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Source: http://allofbeer.com/23-large-breasted-women-who-refuse-to-be-body-shamed/ from https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2018/11/30/23-large-breasted-women-who-refuse-to-be-body-shamed/ As you somehow keep holding on when the rodeo horse of life tries to buck you off so it can face its ultimate foe (the rodeo clown of life), you’ll eventually reach a kind of second puberty. The first time, you transformed butterfly-like from child to slightly grosser child. Once all your body’s jagged edges and weird lumps settle into place, you enjoy a prime that’ll last about eight minutes, and you’ll be too drunk or high to remember it. Second puberty will hit between 28 and 33. The physical changes you’ll undergo — the ones I’m experiencing now — aren’t too dramatic, but are different enough to be unsettling. It’s a harbinger of horrors to come. It’s like Batman getting that vision of the Earth reduced to a dusty wasteland controlled by Darkseid in Batman v. Superman. I want to be Batman in that scenario, but it’s become increasingly apparent that I am the wasteland. As evidence of my physical dilapidation, I present the following. 5After 9 I Can — And Will — Fall Asleep Anywhere I’ve been afflicted with a punctual form of narcolepsy. No matter how caffeinated I am, I will fall asleep instantly if certain easily met conditions are present: 1) I have recently eaten dinner after having made dinner, which I do every night. 2) Most of my weight is heaped onto something comfortable. The definition of what can be comfortable is wide enough to include leaning on a wall coated with satin paint (the most comfortable of paints). 3) It is at least 9 p.m. When those three elements combine, I involuntarily enter, exit, and then reenter a deep state of unconsciousness that I will deny having entered if caught in the act. Vehement denial, punctuated with wild fits of slurred vulgarity, is another symptom of this recently acquired disorder. g-stockstudio/iStock If left untreated, the debilitating sleepiness can lead to waking up in a frightened daze at 3:30 a.m., not fully remembering how I got onto this comfy thing from wherever I ate dinner, be it the dining table in my apartment or the Five Guys a mile away. Falling asleep early sounds great, but not when I have a wife whom I’d like to remain conscious enough to hang out with after work, because like an idiot I married someone I love and want to be around. Boy, I’m really paying for that dumb mistake. 4I’m Suddenly Allergic To Life To my recent unpleasant surprise, allergies aren’t something you’re stuck with your entire life. They are for some people, and my heart goes out to them. I don’t know why we don’t have annual telethons raising money to help lifelong seasonal allergy sufferers pay their Claritin and tissue bills. My mom’s side of the family is where this new nemesis of mine comes from. They didn’t feel the torment of allergies until well into their 20s. I followed a similar path. Twenty-eight is when things started to go awry. Scratching one small eye itch could trigger an itch that could go on for days and stop just before I took a back-scratcher to my corneas. Things have ramped up since. One sneeze within 10 minutes of waking up is my body’s way of telling me I should sprinkle some blueberries and Benadryl on my morning oatmeal and call it a day. I don’t know what it’s like to breathe through my nose without fear that if I inhale too vigorously I’ll set off a chain reaction of sneezes lasting hours that very well could blow my brain out the back of my skull. c8501089/iStock There’s such a wide variety of allergy pills and nasal sprays that finding the one that works best for me is nearly impossible. Once swallowed, some pills will take one look at your genetic makeup and go full diva as they refuse to work with that clown show of body. Have you ever torrented a band’s entire discography, only to realize you don’t have the time to listen to 73 albums, so you delete everything but the greatest hits? That’s shopping for allergy pills. One of the brands I’m not immediately familiar with might be a gamechanger, but I can’t risk blowing my life savings on an absurdly priced pack of pills with a brand name I didn’t see advertised during an award show or an NBA game. I’ll stick with the hits everybody can sing along to — Claritin, Zyrtec, Benadryl. Xyzal.com Sorry, Xyzal, but I don’t know you, and I get the inkling that saying your name out loud summons a long-dormant demon. I just can’t take that risk. 3I Can Drastically Change Pants Size In The Blink Of An Eye Technically I’ve worn the same pants size since middle school, but that’s a little disingenuous. I’m a first-wave millennial; we were some of the last kids to think tripping over our very baggy pants was the first step to cultivating an air of supreme dopeness. If I go about my normal diet, everything will be fine. But one Taco Bell pig-out session, or more than one slice of pizza, or more than one beer, and soon I’ll reach the full potential of my middle-school-era JNCOs. It’s so drastic that I want to take this show on the road. I’ll wow skeptical crowds by swallowing a slice of chocolate cake, and with a magician’s dramatic wave of my hands make any discernible separation between jawline and neck disappear before their eyes. They’ll be looking around for the wires or prosthesis, but they won’t find any. Some will call me a simple trickster; others a heretic. But the truth is that my metabolism is shit and I have to eat like a bird so I don’t look like a boar. To make sure it wasn’t just me, I asked around. John Cheese told me that once he turned 40, his weight started fluctuating 30 pounds in both directions. He seriously has to keep two wardrobes: one for the fall when he shoots up to 235 pounds, and one for the spring when he drops back down to 200. If you’re thinking that weight change happens over the course of six months, think again. He gains and loses 30 pounds in a matter of weeks, changing absolutely nothing about his diet or exercise routine — the one he has aptly named “I Don’t Exercise, Ever.” Please, if you’re in your early 20s, listen to me: Enjoy eating however much of whatever you want while you can, because within a handful of years, every ounce of junk food you eat will be converted into a pound of fat in the exact spot that determines your clothing size. Have fun jogging the width of Texas to burn off one bite of donut. When you’re young, your body is a furnace that instantly incinerates whatever you put in it. Eventually it will be a landfill where things slowly decompose over centuries, poisoning the groundwater. 2My Shit Literally Never Stank Before I Hit My 30s I don’t want to brag or nothing, but for a long time, I could’ve taken a hearty dump during a crowded house party and no one would’ve been the wiser. I left no odor behind. My body converted the stink into pure energy. I believe there was a point in my life when close study of my body’s internal workings could have led to the design of a more efficient internal combustion engine, thus slowing climate change, thus making my ass the savior of the human race. And then I got older and my dookie stench roared in with the fury of a long-dormant demon named Xyzal awakening for the first time in centuries. I just wish I’d been able to appreciate what I had before it was gone. Hypothetically, if you and I were in the same room, and I were shitting in that room, you wouldn’t have known it until you heard the plop plop of the water, because I could never figure out how to muffle those. But by scent alone? Nah. Too ninja for you. You’d never know it. I’m just happy my stink powers activated in the same era as the advent of Poo-Pourri. I don’t want to turn this column into an ad for a bottle of essential oils you spray in a toilet to conceal your turd funk, but that stuff is amazing. If I made the smells I do now 10 years ago without Poo-Pourri, I wouldn’t have friends and I wouldn’t be married. I’d be living in an adobe in the desert, where there’s nothing alive to offend. 1My Teeth Are Sensitive Little Snowflakes Every new transformation in second puberty comes with a small shame. Parts of your body are losing function and you can’t do anything to stop it. You can iron the wrinkles out of your balls to make them look 20 years younger, but you’re just filling pot holes in a road as it’s being carpet-bombed. All I can do is accept it. I’ve only just begun accepting every unfortunate transformation I’ve already mentioned. But my sensitive teeth and I will be locked in a mythical eternal battle between good and evil so grand it will one day inspire the creation of a religion. Wars will be fought in its name. When my teeth suddenly became sensitive to cold temperatures, I felt I had fundamentally failed at being alive. I can’t belt out an “Aw fuck!” when I lick an ice cream cone without ceding some confidence. I can’t feel like I’m in the prime of my life when I double over in a blinding-white flash of pain because I made the fatal mistake of eating cold salami slices straight from the fridge. It’s stupid to say I like eating, because if I didn’t like it, I’d be too dead of starvation to say it. But I’m certain I like eating a lot more than you do. Anywhere between 50-65 percent of my day consists of grunting orgasmically as I chew. So you have understand how crushing it is to have something that makes me so happy cause me so much physical pain. It got so bad that at one point my teeth would leave me screaming in pain if a cool breeze wafted across them when I smiled. My teeth were training me to fear happiness. That’s the psychical damage you lay on the person you’re keeping the pit you’ve dug in your basement. There are toothpastes that help. But brushing too enthusiastically is one of the things that caused the sensitivity to begin with. I’m trying to mend a gunshot wound by shooting it. And that’s a good summation of the state second puberty has left me in. I’m just fucked forever, so I guess I should try to look at the bright side: I’ll get to watch my body spontaneously do weird things for the rest of my life, like I’m a living video game glitch. Luis is perpetuating the cycle as he digs into a pint of Haagen-Dazs chocolate-chocolate chip. In the meantime, you can find him on Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook. For more, check out 7 Creepy Physical Changes Your Mind Can Make in Your Body and 6 Freaky Things Your Body Does (Explained by Science). Subscribe to our YouTube channel, and check out Why ‘Big’ Is More Terrifying Than You Remember, and watch other videos you won’t see on the site! Also follow us on Facebook. You’ll be alright. Source: http://allofbeer.com/puberty-sucks-but-second-puberty-is-just-the-god-awful-worst/ from https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2018/11/29/puberty-sucks-but-second-puberty-is-just-the-god-awful-worst/ Does giving up booze for a month make any difference to our health? Thousands across the UK are set to do just that as part of Go Sober for October, in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support. Apart from raising money for a good cause, the charity suggests participants may also benefit from less snoring, better sleep, and increased energy. Similar benefits are promised for Dry January, organised by Alcohol Concern, which is now something of an annual ritual for many as a way of recovering from the excesses of the festive period. According to a recent YouGov poll, 5 million of us had a Dry January in 2017. It was once thought that light drinking was harmless – and maybe even beneficial, but recent research seem to have put paid to that theory. One study, published in The Lancet, suggested there is no safe level of alcohol consumption and the more you drink, the higher your risk. No surprise then that many of us are calling time at the bar, at least for a few weeks of the year. ‘A different person’Trust Me I’m a Doctor teamed up with scientists from University College London and the Royal Free Hospital, led by liver specialist Prof Rajiv Jalan. He’s looked into the health benefits of doing dry January before. The problem is that people normally give up alcohol as part of a New Year health kick – which means they also tend to exercise more and eat more healthily, making it difficult to know whether it’s the lack of alcohol alone that’s conferring the health benefit. So we chose July. We divided a group of 26 volunteers into a group who would carry on drinking as normal, while the rest gave up booze altogether. They were given full health checks at the beginning and the end of the month, including blood pressure and liver checks. Surprisingly, given that it tends to be a month that’s full of parties, BBQs and weddings, there was only the odd slip-up. When we tested them at the end, the health of all those who gave up alcohol improved – liver fat and overall weight fell, and their quality of sleep and concentration improved. The effect was more pronounced among those who usually drank over the government’s recommended limit of 14 units a week – equivalent to around six glasses of wine or six pints of beer. Kathy, one of those who cut out booze for the month, said: “After the four weeks, I felt like a different person. I don’t drink hardly anything any more, I feel absolutely amazing, I feel revitalised. “I’m still losing weight, and I’m just loving the way that I feel. And I cannot stand the smell of alcohol now!” Longer-term benefitsProf Jalan’s team were also keen to see if the people would undo their good work by going back to the booze, so the volunteers were retested three weeks after they had started drinking again. There was a clear divide between the light drinkers, who stuck to the government guidelines for alcohol, and those who regularly drank more. The light drinkers soon went back to drinking their previous drinking levels. But the heavy drinkers were still drinking 70% less three weeks afterwards. While this study involved only a small number of people, our results did seem to suggest that cutting drink in the short term did improve the health markers we measured. If you’re a light drinker, the reduction in your risk of contracting an alcohol-related disease is already low and giving up alcohol for a month will only result in a slight risk reduction. More research is needed, but the fact that our heavy-drinking volunteers were still drinking significantly less three weeks after returning to alcohol suggests that temporarily abstaining might help people to evaluate their relationship with alcohol and drink less in the future. Trust Me I’m a Doctor continues on Wednesday 3 October on BBC 2 at 20:00. Related TopicsSource: http://allofbeer.com/is-it-worth-giving-up-alcohol-for-a-month/ from https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2018/11/29/is-it-worth-giving-up-alcohol-for-a-month/ Despite losses from Cynthia Nixon, Jumaane Williams and Zephyr Teachout challengers crushed a group of state senate Democrats further down the ballot The Resistance Now is a weekly update on the people, action and ideas driving the protest movement in the US. If you’re not already receiving it by email, subscribe. A progressive silver lining in New YorkAt first glance, Thursday wasn’t a good night for the progressive “insurgent wing” of the Democratic party in New York: their gubernatorial candidate, Cynthia Nixon, lost by a 30-point margin to incumbent Andrew Cuomo. Their other statewide candidates for lieutenant governor, Jumaane Williams, and attorney general, Zephyr Teachout, came up short, too. But down the ballot, the primary results offered a significant silver lining: challengers crushed a group of state senate Democrats who for years had allied with the senate’s Republicans, handing them control of the chamber in Albany, the state capital. Six of the eight members of the now-defunct group, known as the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC), went down in defeat. The group’s leader, Bronx senator Jeff Klein, lost despite spending more than $2m on his re-election race. H was brought down by Alessandra Biaggi, a 32-year-old former Hillary Clinton staffer. New York City senators Tony Avella, Marisol Alcantara, Jose Peralta and Jesse Hamilton, and David Valesky upstate, were the other losers from that group. The string of wins for their challengers is all the more remarkable when you consider that in New York state legislative races, incumbents almost never lose. Over the last decade, there has never been a year when more than three legislators lost. At an election night party in Brooklyn organized by the liberal Working Families party, liberals disappointed by the governor’s race quickly turned to touting the senate results as they sipped beer and nibbled Caribbean food. “We wiped them off the map,” party political director Bill Lipton told the Guardian, as he made the rounds making the case that the night’s results weren’t all bad. “We didn’t checkmate Andrew Cuomo, but we completely remade the game around him.” Nixon, too, praised the “brilliant insurgent campaigns” even as she conceded to Cuomo in her own race. “The blue wave is real, and it’s not only coming for Republicans, it is coming for Democrats who act like them,” she said in her concession speech. To make the wins count, Democrats will have to flip one more senate seat in November to claim full control of the state legislature. The IDC was a convoluted formulation for the start, allowing a select group of Democrats to trade their support for Republican leadership for more funds for their districts. In part because it was so arcane, attacks on the group for years failed to penetrate with voters. That changed this year, as activist groups made the successful case that New Yorkers should reject politicians they labeled “Trump Democrats”. Jessica Ramos, 33, another first-time candidate, won by a healthy 10-point margin over Peralta in Queens. “The IDC better be dead,” she told reporters at her victory party, according to the Queens Chronicle. “New Yorkers are pissed. They’re tired of being lied to. They’re tired of government not working for them. They’re sick of it.” Record number of women running for governorWith the victory of Molly Kelly in the Democratic primary for governor in New Hampshire, a record 15 women have now won gubernatorial nominations this year. There are currently only six women serving as governors. The female nominees are a diverse group – Kelly, a former state senator, was considered the party establishment favorite and defeated an opponent who ran to her left. Stacey Abrams in Georgia could be become the country’s first black female governor, and Christine Hallquist in Vermont would be first transgender woman to hold the job. Look out for a special piece by the Guardian’s David Smith next week on the gubernatorial race in Georgia. Source: http://allofbeer.com/new-york-progressives-find-silver-lining-in-primary-losses/ from https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2018/11/28/new-york-progressives-find-silver-lining-in-primary-losses/
Image: Mitchell Layton/Getty Images
Josh Norman was ready. After blasting the NFL a couple weeks ago for its double standard on player celebrations, the Washington Redskins defensive back had something elaborate planned for Sunday’s game, a bold celebration that would’ve challenged that double standard, head on. But in a game where Norman was locked and loaded, ready to fire shots at the NFL, one of the league’s other prominent issues fired back. Before Norman could uncork his celebration, a concussion knocked him out of the game. Norman’s proposed celebration unveiled last week would have mocked the NFL’s attempt to keep football PG for younger audiences even as it religiously features beer advertisements at games and during broadcasts.
The fact that a concussion kept Norman from pulling it off is too fitting. Players are criticizing the NFL for a range of issues this season. Meanwhile, the league is punishing players for celebrating touchdowns and big plays, and fining players for wearing cleats deemed too flashy. Yet it’s still fumbling in the player safety department, particularly with its concussion protocol. It was only a matter of time before a pair of those issues collided and Norman’s case feels like the perfect mesh of two controversies that have played major roles this season. Source: http://allofbeer.com/josh-norman-just-exposed-two-of-the-nfls-biggest-problems-in-one-game/ from https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2018/11/27/josh-norman-just-exposed-two-of-the-nfls-biggest-problems-in-one-game/ Want to let friends know you’re trying to party, hit the gym, focus on work or grab a drink? That’s the idea behind a powerful new feature Facebook Messenger is testing called Your Emoji. Akin to offline meetup app Down to Lunch, it lets you overlay a chosen emoji on your Messenger profile pic for 24 hours as a way to spur conversation and hang outs, or just let people know what you’re up to without a dramatic post or Story. It’s a bit like AOL Instant Messenger’s old away messages. WhatsApp blog WABetaInfo shared a screenshot of the test with Matt Navarra. Now a Messenger spokesperson has confirmed this test and how it works to TechCrunch:
For now, users will only see people’s emoji in the Active tab on Messenger, which is also where users in the test group can change their emoji as often as they’d like. But if the test proves popular, Messenger could potentially expand Your Emoji to appear in the inbox and message threads where it would be much more visible. There’s a ton of potential for emergent behavior here. Users could make up their own inside jokes and secret meanings to certain emoji. A red circle could mean don’t talk to me. A GPS dot-style blue diamond could mean you’re out on the town. Or a moon emoji could signal an after party is going down later. A chance to cure lonelinessMessenger is perhaps the best-poised app to make an offline meetup tool, with Snapchat being a runner-up. I wrote about the opportunity in my 2016 article“The quest to cure loneliness,“ and I even helped build a failed app called Signal with the same purpose. People often spend leisure time alone because they aren’t sure which of their friends are free to meet up in person, but asking people directly or broadcasting “anyone want to hang out tonight?” can make you feel desperate and uncool. I believe the answer is to bake an offline availability indicator into a ubiquitous app. Signal, Down to Lunch, Foursquare’s Swarm and other apps in the space have flopped because not all your friends are on them, and there isn’t a reason to open them frequently. Messenger tried to let people share what they wanted to do via Messenger Day/Stories, but the feature was clumsy and never caught on. Facebook’s Nearby Friends, Snapchat’s Snap Map, Foursquare and more try to use maps to drive meet ups, but it turns out someone’s location doesn’t matter if they’re not actually available to see you. Down to Lunch’s innovation that briefly saw it rise to the No. 2 app was replacing long-winded text posts and visual Stories about what you want to do with a simple emoji. But a year and a half ago, the Down to Lunch team secretly launched a different app in the space and began working on other projects. Now Messenger is borrowing the emoji idea. With 1.3 billion monthly actives, a social graph borrowed from Facebook and non-stop usage, Messenger has the omnipresence to facilitate spontaneous connections between people looking for something to do. You could be messaging someone else about an unrelated topic, and not even be thinking about your after-work plans. But if you happened to see a close friend with the beer Your Emoji, you’d know you could message them to try to go knock back a few cold ones. Facebook’s new mission is getting you to have meaningful interactions, not just passively consume social media. Using Messenger to get people off their phones and hanging out in person might be the best way to remind us of what’s good about the social network. Source: http://allofbeer.com/facebook-messengers-your-emoji-status-tells-friends-whats-up/ from https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2018/11/27/facebook-messengers-your-emoji-status-tells-friends-whats-up/ Nobody could answer a single football question on Jeopardy! and Alex Trebek cant handle it11/26/2018
BTW
We’ve seen our fair share of Jeopardy! questions stumping all three contestants over the years, but everyone dropped the ball for an entire category in Thursday’s episode. The final category of Thursday’s first Jeopardy! round was “Football,” and with time left on the clock Ryan—who had control of the buzzer—ran down each of the plays. Ryan didn’t appear to know much about football, so the other two contestants could’ve easily stepped in for an interception during any part of the round. But they were just as stumped, even as Alex Trebek set them up for an easy touchdown. The longer the contestants stood there waiting for the buzzer to end the play, the louder the audience reacted when none of them responded. Five-and-out is not the most exciting way to end a round of Jeopardy!, but all of the contestants made it out with their money, and Trebek made the best of the lack of responses. “If you guys ring in and get this one, I will die,” Trebek said after reading one of the questions. And if Trebek’s snark wasn’t enough, the Jeopardy! Twitter account took an additional football swipe when posting a video of the deflating category.
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H/T Reddit from https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2018/11/27/nobody-could-answer-a-single-football-question-on-jeopardy-and-alex-trebek-cant-handle-it/ |
AuthorHi my name is Samantha Roberts I am 23 years old and I just graduated with my BSN degree I love to enjoy going out with friends on my spare time and enjoying the Bachelor life. Archives
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