Larry Mantle interviews Tom Brokaw at the 2012 Republican National Convention.; Credit: Lauren Osen/KPCC

Our trip to the RNC in Tampa is coming to a close, but we’ve spent time with so many interesting people that our memories will stay strong.  We hope you’ve enjoyed the photos, tweets, and blog postings that have expanded our coverage beyond what we provide live on the air two hours a day.

This is the first political convention where KPCC has used multiple ways of bringing you here without time off from work or having to take a plane ride.  There are many great stories to tell and people to share.  We trust our photos give you a more complete sense of how much goes on at a massive convention like this.

For KPCC journalists, it’s particularly exciting to interact with you in these new ways.  We welcome your tweets and retweets (@AirTalk), comments on our blog postings (www.kpcc.org/blogs/politics), and feedback on our “AirTalk” segment pages. 

All this helps create a real-time way to connect listeners and users of social media in one big conversation.  We hope you enjoy taking part in the convention with us, as much we enjoy sharing it with you.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Closing Notes by Alonzo Adams is a(n) Limited Edition. The Edition is Limited to Limited Edition 500 pcs

Steffans Jewellers has opened a new store in Market Harborough.

The tourist information centre in Cromer has been vital for some, but is set to close.

1. McDavid closing in on 1,000 points, rare company at ‘remarkable’ pace  NHL.com
2. Draisaitl lifts in the OT winner  NHL.com
3. McDavid on brink of 1,000 points after huge performance in Oilers' OT win  Sportsnet.ca
4. McDavid's 4-point night leaves him one shy of 1,000-point milestone  TSN
5. Player grades: McDavid, Draisaitl to the rescue as Oilers pull another one out in overtime  Edmonton Journal

Aim/Purpose: Significant urban digital divide exists in Nairobi County where low income households lack digital literacy skills and do not have access to the internet. The study was undertaken as an intervention, designed to close the digital divide among low income households in Nairobi by introducing internet access using the domestication framework. Background: Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have the potential to help reduce social inequality and have been hailed as critical to the achievement of the Sustainable Development goals (SDGs). Skills in use of ICTs have also become a prerequisite for almost all forms of employment and in accessing government services, hence, the need for digital inclusion for all. Methodology: In this research study, I employed a mixed methods approach to investigate the problem. This was achieved through a preliminary survey to collect data on the existence of urban digital divide in Nairobi and a contextual analysis of the internet domestication process among the eighteen selected case studies. Contribution: While there have been many studies on digital divide between Africa and the rest of the world, within the African continent, among genders and between rural and urban areas at national levels, there are few studies exploring urban digital divide and especially among the marginalized communities living in the low-income urban areas. Findings: Successful domestication of internet and related technologies was achieved among the selected households, and the households appreciated the benefits of having and using the internet for the first time. A number of factors that impede use of internet among the marginalized communities in Nairobi were also identified. Recommendations for Practitioners: In the study, I found that use of differentiated costs internet services targeting specific demographic groups is possible and that use of such a service could help the marginalized urban communities’ access the internet. Therefore, ISPs should offer special internet access packages for the low-income households. Recommendation for Researchers: In this research study, I found that the urban digital divide in Nairobi is an indication of social economic development problems. Therefore, researchers should carryout studies involving multipronged strategies to address the growing digital divide among the marginalized urban communities. Impact on Society: The absence of an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) inclusion policy is a huge setback to the achievement of the SDGs in Kenya. Digital inclusion policies prioritizing digital literacy training, universal internet access and to elucidate the social-economic benefits of internet access for all Kenyans should be developed. Future Research: Future studies should explore ways of providing affordable mass internet access solutions among the residents of low-income communities and in eliminating the persistence urban digital divide in Kenya.

Aim/Purpose: Parasocial relationships are today established on social media between influencers and their followers. While marketing effects are well-researched, little is known about the meaning of such relationships and the psychological mechanisms behind them. This study, therefore, explores the questions: “How do followers on Instagram interpret explicit fiction cues from influencers?” and “What does this reveal about the meaning of parasocial attachment?” Background: With a billion-dollar advertising industry and leading in influencing opinion, Instagram is a significant societal and economic player. One factor for the effective influence of consumers is the relationship between influencer and follower. Research shows that disclosing advertisements surprisingly does not harm credibility, and sometimes even leads to greater trustworthiness and, in turn, willingness to purchase. While such reverse dynamics are measurable, the mechanisms behind them remain largely unexplored. Methodology: The study follows an explorative approach with in-depth interviews, which are analyzed with Mayring’s content analysis under a reconstructive paradigm. The findings are discussed through the lens of critical psychology. Contribution: Firstly, this study contributes to the understanding of the communicative dynamics of influencer-follower communication alongside the reality-fiction-gap model, and, secondly, it contributes empirical insights through the analysis of 22 explorative interviews. Findings: The findings show (a) how followers rationalize fiction cues and justify compulsive decision-making, (b) how followers are vulnerable to influences, and (c) how parasocial attachment formation overshadows rational logic and agency. The findings are discussed with regard to mechanisms, vulnerabilities, rationalizations and cognitive bias, and the social self, as well as the ethics of influencer marketing and politics. Recommendation for Researchers: The contribution is relevant to relationship research, group dynamics and societal organizing, well-being, identity, and health perspectives, within psychology, sociology, media studies, and pedagogy to management. Future Research: Future research might seek to understand more about (a) quantifiable vulnerabilities, such as attachment styles, dispositions, and demographics, (b) usage patterns and possible factors of prevention, (c) cognitive and emotional mechanisms involved with larger samples, (d) the impact on relationships and well-being, and (e) possible conditions for the potential of parasocial attachment.

Monday, November 25th promised to be a fun evening for pastors Glen and Deborah Berteau. It was Deborah’s birthday and her prayer group had planned a party for her at church. She recalls, “I was happy my husband was with me. Lots of times he stays home because he's very tired after preaching three times on the weekend. But that night he came with me because of my birthday party.” Deborah had no idea it could be the last birthday they’d ever spend together. They had arrived early and were...

On Sept. 6, Simpson Manufacturing Co., Inc., the parent company of Simpson Strong-Tie, rang the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange in celebration of the company’s 30th anniversary as a publicly listed company.

Washington – The House Armed Services Committee recently adopted a proposed amendment that would exempt many federal defense contractors from disclosing labor law violations.

Miami-Dade County’s condo sales and total dollar volume fell last week. Brokers closed 83 condo sales totaling $61 million from Nov. 3rd to Nov. 10th. The previous week, brokers closed 120 condo sales totaling $92.5 million. Last week’s units sold for an average of $735,595, lower than the $770,797 average price from the previous week. […]

The post Grovenor House closing tops Miami-Dade weekly condo sales  appeared first on The Real Deal.

[Sports] :
The 2024 Paris Paralympics came to a close on Sunday after a 12-day run.  The global sports festival wrapped up Sunday night with a glitzy closing ceremony at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, near Paris. About 44-hundred athletes with disabilities competed in 22 sporting events, representing 169 ...

[more...]

Don’t make these seven sales mistakes.

The Guarddog Self Closing Safety Gate from Bluewater Mfg., Inc is tough, durable and easy to install.

Latest investments support banks serving communities of color in California and Florida

Empowering Women to Lead Boldly: Join Africa's Top Female Changemakers in Nairobi for The Audacity Conference 2024—Uniting Aspiring and Established Leaders to Shape a Future of Equality and Progress. Join us from November 27th to 30th, 2024.

Much of the business world has bought into the idea of stakeholder capitalism. But Freada Kapor Klein and Mitch Kapor say that doing some good by doing well isn’t enough when the business impact still creates negative effects and broader disparities overall. Freada, with a background in social justice and empirical research, and Mitch, an entrepreneur and investor who got his start making early spreadsheet software, strive to invest in ventures that close the distance between those with wealth and privilege and those without. The founders explain their metrics and decision-making process at Kapor Capital. The profitable firm explicitly invests in tech startups serving low-income and underrepresented communities. Freada and Mitch wrote the book Closing the Equity Gap: Creating Wealth and Fostering Justice in Startup Investing.

The California Division of Workers’ Compensation said it is closing a virtual district office in Eureka on Oct. 18 and shifting cases to Santa Rosa. Beginning Oct. 1, all hearing requests…

Western University researchers are taking a unique global approach to finding an effective treatment for people living with long COVID. Led by Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry professor Dr. Douglas Fraser, the projects represent the first multi-continental research conducted on long COVID, with study sites in Africa and North and South Americas. The long-term effects of long COVID – including symptoms such as brain fog, fatigue and difficulty breathing – can be debilitating and greatly impact quality of life. At least 65 million people around the world are affected by the condition. 

The official closing date for bookings for the parallel session was Wednesday 15 June 2005. [2005-06-15]

Please note that the official closing time for IWMW 2007 is 13.00 on Wednesday 18 July 2007. [2007-07-07]

Ken Frazier, CEO of Merck, is one of only four Black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. He talks about his new initiative to close the opportunity gap for Black Americans and Merck’s own journey in the race to develop a vaccine.

When it comes to training technicians, numerous HVAC contractors have elected to create their own academies, granting them the opportunity to equip technicians with the skills and knowledge that best fit their service models.

131-24 : Holidays and Early Closings 2024-2025

Amcor’s new AmSky blister packaging uses HDPE throughout for curbside recycling.

Acquisition allows ProMach to establish a powerful position in the food and pet care sectors where can filling and sterilization are required.

The Top Wrap and Top Close labelers offer two high-quality and resource-saving solutions for the closing of fresh produce trays with labels.

The Theme Park Rangers say goodbye to Poseidon’s Fury at Universal’s Islands of Adventure and celebrate Animal Kingdom’s birthday.

Almost one in five project management professionals working in the manufacturing sector who consider themselves to be neurodivergent have not told their employer about their condition, according to a new survey by the Association for Project Management (APM), the chartered membership organisation for the project profession.

The Smithsonian said in a statement that its “top priority is to protect the health and safety of its visitors and staff.” No reopening date is scheduled.

The post Smithsonian closing museums and zoo again amid virus spike first appeared on Federal News Network.

Dozens of beloved Washington restaurants closed this year, more than in 2022, according to the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington.

Bonnie McCoy has been living at the Trent Resource and Assistance Center, or TRAC, for two years…

The aim of this week’s lesson is to reveal what the prophetic Word says about the closing events and discover a new Christ’s strength to take us through earth’s final conflict and get us home. *Study this week’s lesson, based on chapters 37 and 38 of The Great Controversy.

Every year I try to do the looptober challenge, creating a short music loop every day in October. Day 1's track was made in jummbox, an eccentric online music tool. I probably won't try to post on mefi music very day because of the strict 24 hour waiting period, but I will post everything on mastodon and maybe also instagram (both linked from my profile).

A look at the post-election ratings shows the walls are finally closing in on MSNBC and CNN.

The post Nolte: Post-election Ratings Crash Proves ‘Walls are Closing In’ on MSNBC and CNN appeared first on Breitbart.

Green Dragon, one of Colorado’s largest cannabis companies, is preparing to cease operations.

Enerplus Corp. merged with Chord Energy Corp. earlier this year in $11 billion deal.

Wendy’s plans to close 140 U.S. restaurants before the end of this year on top of the 100 it said it would close in May.

[Updated] Butterfield’s Banking Centres will close early on August 16 due to Hurricane Ernesto, with a planned reopening on August 19th. A spokesperson said, “Please be advised that due to Hurricane Ernesto, all of our Banking Centres will close at 2 p.m. on Friday, August 16, and for the entirety of the weekend. We anticipate […]

皆様こんばんは。 先日開催しておりました「Press Room Closing Sale」にお越し頂き 誠に有難うございました。 バタバタとしておりすっかりとご挨拶が遅れ失礼致しました。 プレスルームには最後の瞬間まで沢山のお客様で賑わい 大変素敵な時間を過ごさせて頂きました。 遠方からの方や、何度もお越し下さった方、 残念ながら来られなかった方も Victorian maidenを愛し...

NOTOCON XIV is fast approaching! The cutoff date to receive our group rate at the hotel is Friday, July 21st. Please reserve now. The speaker schedule has been published on the NOTOCON website. Event registration is still open! We can’t wait to see all of you in August, and wish you all safe travels!

The post Cartoon of the Day: Closing Thoughts appeared first on Liberty Unyielding.

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Gov. Tim Walz lost his own Blue Earth County in Minnesota. Trump also flipped three other..

Late injection Johan Grobbelaar may find himself more than simply an “extra” on the Bok tour, writes Rob Houwing.

How Beijing is closing surveillance gaps in the South China Sea The World Today iallan.drupal 15 October 2024

The discovery of a new radar system on China’s Triton Island military base shows that Beijing is rapidly developing its intelligence capacities in contested waters, write John Pollock and Damien Symon.

New satellite images reveal how the Chinese military is dramatically expanding its capabilities on Triton Island, which looks set to become a one of Beijing’s key signal intelligence bases in the South China Sea.

Once completed, the radar system would significantly increase China’s signals intercept and electronic warfare capabilities across the disputed Paracel Islands archipelago and add to a wider surveillance network spanning much of the South China Sea.

The enhanced facility on Triton is likely to offer a challenge to China’s competitors in the region and internationally.

China seized control of the Paracels from Vietnam in a 1974 naval battle, and competition for access to it waters has intensified since the recent discovery of oil and gas reserves. Chinese and Vietnamese maritime militia clashed off the coast of Triton in 2014.

In addition, American, British and Australian naval forces have for the past decade patrolled the waters to collectively challenge China’s contested ‘nine-dash-line’ claim to large stretches of the South China Sea. 

Overlapping anti-stealth network

A year after work was first identified on Triton, satellite images from Maxar have helped build a clearer picture of Beijing’s efforts to defend this strategic waterway.

The most striking development is the construction of a new radar system, known as SIAR – synthetic impulse and aperture radar – which purportedly detects stealth aircraft. The counter-stealth radar on Triton is characterized by its distinctive octagonal structure, which resembles another SIAR system built by China on Subi Reef in the Spratly Islands, south of the Paracels, in 2017. A half-completed tower also sits near the SIAR radar on Triton, which is likely to be the operations centre.

Once completed, the radar on Triton will form what is believed to be a wider network of at least three overlapping counter-stealth radars built across Chinese bases in the South China Sea over the past decade, including on Hainan Island, home to several Chinese naval bases. 

The positioning of the radar on Triton, 320km south of Hainan, is telling, says J. Michael Dahm, Senior Resident Fellow for Aerospace and China Studies at the Mitchell Institute. 

‘SIAR radars cannot see over the curve of the Earth, which means there is a gap in China’s air surveillance coverage between Subi Reef and Hainan Island. The Triton Island site will help close that gap’, said Dahm.

The aim, he suggests, is to give China contiguous counter-stealth radar coverage of the South China Sea.

More construction underway

The satellite images reveal other building projects on Triton. One is a large pad at the end of the road network which will probably be used as a launching point for a mobile anti-ship missile battery. The building at the northeast end of the road is probably a storage building for missile transport vehicles. 

Diminishing Vietnam’s options

The development of a new counter-stealth radar system and other suspected signals intercept structures on Triton represents a notable increase in China’s intelligence capabilities in the Paracels. The Chinese Communist Party has not disclosed the purpose of the building work on Triton, but its effects on regional and global competitors are likely to be wide ranging.

For Vietnam, which is rapidly expanding its own bases in the South China Sea, the intelligence structures on Triton would significantly diminish its capacity to operate undetected in the area. Alongside existing radar on Triton which can detect sea-going vessels, Beijing now has the potential to track Vietnamese air movements and gain forewarning of Hanoi’s manoeuvres in the area, including efforts to access oil and gas deposits.

The desire to strengthen control over these resources may explain why China is fortifying Triton Island, says Bill Hayton, Associate Fellow in the Asia-Pacific Programme, Chatham House. ‘The developments might be a warning that China is planning to mount another drilling expedition’, he suggests.

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron has joined a private school in a lawsuit against Gov. Andy Beshear, arguing that a school closure order not only violated state law but also the First Amendment.