For Metis Secure Solutions, Oakmont, Pa., and many other security-related companies, green trends provide opportunity.

If there is one thing that is constant in marketing, it's that things are constantly changing, according to Michael Wall, a marketing expert at WashU Olin Business School. As social media users flock to sites that align with their political beliefs, brands face the challenge of connecting with diverse audiences.

If there is one thing that is constant in marketing, it's that things are constantly changing, according to Michael Wall, a marketing expert at WashU Olin Business School. As social media users flock to sites that align with their political beliefs, brands face the challenge of connecting with diverse audiences.

US President Barack Obama and Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney debate on October 16, 2012 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. Undecided voters asked questions during a town hall format.; Credit: STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images

There continue to be questions about how moderators approach Presidential debates and about whether the extra time President Obama has received in the first two debates indicates moderator bias in his favor. 

I had chalked up the concerns to Republican hyper-partisanship, such as we saw with many Democrats criticizing Jim Lehrer for his moderating — as though Obama would’ve won the first debate if only Lehrer had asserted himself more.   However, even CNN has been doing significant follow-up on its own Candy Crowley’s performance in debate number two. 

Maybe it’s not just hardcore GOP loyalists who are questioning Crowley’s decision-making on when to cut in and when to allow the candidates to take more time. I thought she did pretty well, but there are plenty of critics.

As someone who has moderated hundreds of debates, I thought I’d share my thoughts on what we’ve seen so far in this election. Though I’ve never moderated a Presidential debate, with its incredible level of attention, concern about rules, and demands by campaigns, there are certain fundamentals regardless of the office or issue at stake.

Time Doesn't Matter...Too Much
First, as strange as this may sound, the time taken by each candidate has little to do with who has an advantage.   Yes, it’s always possible for a candidate to use another minute to fire off the defining line of the night. However, the well-practiced zingers or essential policy explainers are not left to the end of a candidate’s statement, as the clock is running out. 

I’m sure Mitt Romney wasn’t thinking after the last debate, “If only I would’ve had that extra 90-seconds, and Obama hadn’t gotten 90 more than he deserved.”  Both men front-loaded their major talking points and were going to get them in. Neither man could legitimately say he didn’t have a chance to make his strongest points. At some point, a time advantage could make a difference in who wins or loses, but an extra 90-seconds in a debate longer than 90-minutes isn’t going to do it.

Serving The Audience
As a moderator, you also have to think about what best serves your audience. I never guarantee candidates equal time, as it’s my job to serve the listeners, not their campaigns. I strive to get close to equal time, but can’t make any guarantee. Some speakers get to the point succinctly and have their points well put together. Others are messier in their arguments and eat up time just building up any head of steam. 

If the moderator holds to a strict time limit, you run the risk of frustrating listeners by cutting off the rambler just as the candidate is getting to the point. There are methods a moderator can use to help guide the speaker toward being more succinct, but there’s no guarantee the person will be able to comply.

Isn’t this inherently unfair to the succinct speaker? No. The purpose of the debate is to allow the ideas to compete.  It’s not a boxing match that’s about landing punches in a given time. The succinct debater has a big advantage, regardless of how much time the candidate has. That’s why Mitt Romney’s victory in the first debate was so lopsided — he won on the conciseness and clarity of his answers, coupled with Obama’s inability to get to his central points.  Obviously, there are those who thought Obama’s arguments were still more compelling than Romney’s, and that Romney lacked essential details.  However, for most viewers of the first debate, it was stylistically no contest.

Equal Time Is Not A Guarantee
When candidates are allowed to talk to each other directly, it’s very difficult to assure equal time. Even CNN’s clock that registers elapsed time for each candidate is subject to squishiness. Unless a debate is extremely formal, with carefully controlled time limits and a ban on candidates following-up with each other, you’re only going to have an approximation of time balance. I thought Crowley did pretty well to land the second debate with the balance she did. I’m not sure I could get it that close for a debate of that length. She had the added challenge of trying to determine when to cut in on President Obama’s lengthier answers. Also, Romney’s speaking rhythm allows more space for interruption. It’s tougher to break in on Obama.

Moderating Is A Balancing Act
Moderators are always trying to balance a need to move on to the next topic with allowing a candidate to answer an opponent’s charge. Sometimes, you open that door for a candidate, only to regret it later when the politician starts into a monologue, instead of confining the response to the previous challenge. Sometimes moderators, having gotten burned, will become less tolerant of such expansive rebuttals, as the debate goes on. Moderators are always juggling competing goals, and it’s a difficult job (at least for me).

Unfortunately, there are those who think debate moderators attempt to influence the outcome of the debate and the performances of the candidates. Maybe I’m naïve, but I can’t imagine any journalist who’s worked hard enough to get to the position of Presidential debate moderator subordinating his or her career in an effort to getting someone elected. Mainstream political journalism is like national sports reporting. You really don’t care who wins the Super Bowl, you want great story lines to explore with your audience. Yes, sports reporters have affinities for the hometown teams of their youth, but that can’t compete with the professional goal of covering great stories. 

Yes, most journalists in mainstream media probably have a stronger cultural and political affinity for Obama, as he’s more like them. However, it doesn’t mean a journalist is going to sacrifice the better story to intentionally provide a benefit to the President.

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

Rob Marshall is either the bravest director in Hollywood or the most foolhardy. Three of his five theatrical films — the musicals "Chicago," "Nine" and now "Into the Woods" — don't just invite comparison to the eccentric genius of other artists, they insist on it.

Originally a Bob Fosse stage project, "Chicago" was so imbued with Fosse's vitriolic spirit that even in Marshall's more straightforward hands the movie version felt like the missing piece in a triptych with Fosse's "Cabaret" and "All That Jazz."

"Nine" is the musical created from Fellini's masterpiece "8 1/2."

(Marcello Mastroianni in Fellini's "8 1/2")

Odd enough that someone thought Fellini's intimate but epic fugue on his own creative doubts and sexual fantasies should be adapted by others for Broadway; stranger still to re-import the hybrid back to the screen, in the workmanlike form Marshall gave to it.

And now we have "Into the Woods," a film placing Marshall in the long line of moviemakers defeated by Sondheim's difficult musical brilliance and penchant for challenging material. It's distinguished company, reaching back all the way to "A Hard Day's Night" director Richard Lester's re-invention of "A Funny Thing Happened (On the Way to the Forum)" as a kind of psychedelic Keystone Cops movie, and forward to Tim Burton's more adept but still wrong-headed Murnau-meets-Hammer-Horror approach to "Sweeney Todd."

Even director Hal Prince, the principal theatrical collaborator during Sondheim's most fertile and formative period, made an absolute hash of their shared stage success "A Little Night Music" in a film version later disavowed by both men, and mostly remembered for Elizabeth Taylor's chirpy and discernibly flat rendition of "Send in the Clowns."

Liz singing "Send in the Flat Clowns"

It's just possible that the real problem is that Sondheim's self-reflexive and deconstructive impulse (his musicals are almost always and to varying degrees commentaries on the Musical itself) makes his projects unfit for screen adaptation. In movies, we miss the artifice of the proscenium, the sweat on the actor's brow. But if any of Sondheim's late-period projects held out the hope of a successful movie version it was surely "Into the Woods," a droll recombination of the fairytale form's literary DNA into something like Sondheim's masterpiece "Company," set in a realm of magic beanstalks and slippers made of glass.

The characters are straight out of the Disney pantheon (or "Shrek"): Cinderella meets Rapunzel meets Red Riding Hood meets Jack and his Beanstalk, with a generic Wicked Witch, a couple of not so charming Prince Charmings, plus a peasant couple thrown in. But the issues at stake — marital fidelity, raising children, the fear of aging and death — are complicated, and filled with gray tones which Sondheim and librettist James Lapine masterfully etched across the fairytale's Manichean black and white.

What seemed audacious when Sondheim and Lapine conceived it in 1987 ought to fit comfortably into the era of "Sleepy Hollow" and "Maleficent," but in Marshall's hands, it does not. The good news is that though populated by what old school TV shows used to call a Galaxy of Today's Brightest Stars (Anna Kendrick as an appealingly unglamorous Cinderella; Chris Pine as the nymphomaniac Prince who stalks her; Meryl Streep quite moving in the Wicked Witch role made famous on Broadway by Bernadette Peters) this is mostly a very well-sung movie. There have been controversial excisions and revisions (enabled by Lapine, who is Marshall's screenwriter), but as an introduction to one of Sondheim's more beloved scores, "Into the Woods" makes for a solid musical primer.

WATCH: The "Into the Woods" trailer

But though Marshall has taken a lot of flack for daring to cut out characters (most notably the stage production's Narrator, who served as a kind of Greek Chorus in the original) and for softening plot points (Rapunzel died onstage), the big problem is that Marshall isn't nearly ruthless enough in rethinking "Into the Woods" as an honest-to-God movie. There are many moments (Johnny Depp ending a scene with a stagy howl at the Moon that virtually screams "and... fade out!;" the unseen death of a major character) where Marshall embraces the limitations of stagecraft when something bigger and more cinematic is needed, as if afraid to mar the pedigree of Broadway with Hollywood's debased visual stamp.

"Giants in the Sky," Jack's coming-of-age number, where he describes finding manhood in the sexual and physical dangers available above the clouds in the Giant's Castle, is a showstopper onstage, where we're willing to accept rhetoric in place of physical immediacy. Onscreen, it's simply frustrating for a character to suddenly appear and tell us he's just had the adventure of a lifetime, and that it's too bad we missed it.

The Woods themselves — both character and symbol onstage, a kind of living maze representing moral confusion — are lush here and geographically nondescript, like a particularly plush unit set, done up in a generic Lloyd Webber-meets-Disney house style.

Perhaps most unfortunately of all, Marshall seems constitutionally incapable of conveying the pervasive satiric impulse at the heart of the Sondheim/Lapine original, which could have been called "What Happens After Happily Ever After." Without ironic distancing, the film's second half, where the characters betray each other in decidedly contemporary sexual and self-interested terms, plays as non-sequitur.

It's possible to imagine a more idiosyncratic movie director who both understands and embraces the arsenal of cinematic effects available through editing, camera movement and design transforming "Into the Woods" into a rousing cinematic triumph — the young Terry Gilliam comes to mind. But Hollywood doesn't really embrace its daring cranks and visionaries very often, as Gilliam's difficult career demonstrates. Whenever possible, today's studios like to import genius at a safe remove, and then hand it off to a reliable journeyman who won't make waves or piss off the suits. The limitations of that approach are visible in every scene of "Into the Woods," and perhaps they explain its failure best of all. It's one thing not to be up to the task of adapting a work of odd brilliance. It's something else again to not even take it on.

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

India's legal system, while respected, grapples with a backlog of over five crore cases. Artificial intelligence offers a potential solution by streamlining legal research, predicting case outcomes, and identifying risks. However, AI's limitations in understanding complex legal concepts and ethical concerns regarding data privacy and potential misuse necessitate human oversight.

The most pressing issue facing EHS professionals in the new year, according to ISHN’s 2015 EHS State of the Nation subscriber survey, is an age-old challenge that has been reported in ISHN State of the Nation surveys since the 1980s – dealing with the safety and health attitudes and behaviors of line employees. Consider:

The maturity and evolution of the EHS profession (going beyond the traditional compliance mindset) is evident in the most serious hazards pros say they will contend with in 2015, according to ISHN’s 2015 EHS State of the Nation subscriber survey.

Event Begins: Thursday, November 14, 2024 8:00pm
Location: Couzens HALL
Organized By: Sessions @ Michigan

Event Begins: Thursday, November 14, 2024 6:00pm
Location:
Organized By: Sessions @ Michigan

Event Begins: Thursday, November 14, 2024 6:00pm
Location: Study Center
Organized By: Maize Pages Student Organizations

Hi all,We are excited to invite you to Ratio Christi Meeting this Thursday 11/14 from 6-7 pm! The question for this week is: "How do Christianity and Buddhism  differ?" Our meeting will be held at the Study Center at 611 1/2 E. William St. Ann Arbor. This is a safe space for inquiring about religion and faith. Your perspectives are valued in fostering a thoughtful understanding of these subjects. All are welcome!! There will be pizza! If you are interested in learning more about us, you can join the Ratio Christi Maize page for updates and discussions: Ratio Christi Maize page. We're also active on Instagram: Ratio Christi Instagram page. We are excited to see you all soon and please feel free to reach out with any questions! Sincerely,Ratio Christi Team ????

Event Begins: Thursday, November 14, 2024 4:00pm
Location: Michigan League
Organized By: Planet Blue

With the existing waste reduction goal sunsetting in 2025, the Office of Campus Sustainability has been leading a workstream to review and recommend expanded waste reduction goals. These targets will more accurately reflect our waste reduction strategy, which supports a circular economy in conjunction with zero waste efforts, while considering the embodied equity, environmental justice, and carbon neutrality impacts of materials management. Come join a town hall to learn about the proposed new goals and discuss metrics, implementation strategies.

We will also be hosting a clothing swap so please bring your gently-used clothing to rehome and a bag for carrying away some new, pre-loved favorites!

Stop by for the whole event, just a few minutes, or anything in between!

Event Begins: Thursday, November 14, 2024 12:00pm
Location:
Organized By: University Career Center

The Pro Football Hall of Fame is proud to offer a series for learners in high school, college and beyond! “Before the Snap” gives an insight to professional careers in and around the NFL, while giving the live viewing audience the opportunity to interact with an industry expert.Our special guest is Jim Porter, who currently serves as the President and CEO for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.We will be streaming the program LIVE on the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s YouTube page and will take questions from students across the country throughout the program. To participate, all you will need to do is: - Visit https://www.youtube.com/user/ProFootballHOF at 12:00pm ET on Thursday, November 14, 2024 to view the program. -To ask a question, comment on the post with the following information:*  Name of School (if applicable)*  Location*  Question for Industry ExpertIf youhave any questions, do not hesitate to reach out! You can contact me at 330-588-3558 or by email at Jacob.Ray@ProFootballHOF.com

Valhalla, Floki’s PlayToEarn Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) blockchain game is proud to announce a partnership in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

On Nov. 13, Valhalla unveiled a partnership with Dubai's Mall of the Emirates, marking a milestone in its global outreach efforts.

The partnership will see Valhalla’s branding prominently displayed across 93 screens in the mall for a four-week campaign running from November 15 to December 12.

Mall of the Emirates, located in the heart of Dubai, is one of the world’s most prestigious shopping destinations. Since opening in 2005, it has become an iconic landmark, attracting millions of visitors each year. The mall sees daily traffic of approximately 111,500 people, making it a prime venue for Valhalla’s campaign to reach a diverse and international audience.

The mall’s strategic location on Sheikh Zayed Road, a prime area in Dubai, combined with its diverse visitor base, offers Valhalla an opportunity to engage both local and international audiences.

Spanning an area of 255,489 square meters, the multi-level mall boasts over 630 retail outlets, 80 luxury stores, and 250 flagship stores. It also features some of Dubai’s most popular attractions, including the indoor ski resort Ski Dubai, the Magic Planet entertainment center, and VOX Cinemas. The mall’s dining options, with over 100 restaurants and cafés, further enhance its appeal as a top destination for both residents and tourists.

The Campaign’s Goal

Valhalla is ramping up its presence in the UAE, a key market for crypto adoption.

Despite its smaller population, the UAE ranks as the third-largest crypto economy in the MENA region, with $34 billion in crypto transactions recorded between July 2023 and June 2024. This represents an impressive 42% year-on-year growth, far outpacing the MENA average of 11.73%, according to Chainalysis.

Dubai’s rapid evolution into a crypto hub has been fueled by initiatives like the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA), which offer crypto-friendly regulatory frameworks. This has drawn major players and startups, solidifying Dubai’s status as a global crypto leader.

Valhalla’s campaign at Mall of the Emirates aligns perfectly with this momentum. By showcasing its brand in one of Dubai’s busiest and most iconic locations, Floki aims to boost awareness and adoption of its ecosystem.

This campaign follows Floki’s recent four-week marketing initiative at WAFI Mall in Dubai, running from November 8 to December 5, where its branding appears across 18 digital screens. Together, these efforts are part of Floki’s larger strategy to dominate the Dubai crypto scene.

About Valhalla

Valhalla (https://valhalla.game/) is a blockchain-based MMORPG inspired by Norse mythology, offering players the chance to discover, tame, and battle with creatures called Veras. The game features a player-driven economy and a hexagonal battlefield designed for dynamic combat. Users can learn more at Valhalla.game.

About Floki

Floki is the people’s cryptocurrency and utility token of the Floki Ecosystem. Focused on utility, community, philanthropy, and strategic marketing, Floki is working toward becoming the world’s most recognized and used cryptocurrency. With over 490,000 holders globally, Floki has already established a strong brand presence.

https://www.cpa.com/system/files/cpa/infographics/top-challenges-facing-firms-performing-pcr-services-onpoint-cpacom_0.pdf

WARSAW, 30 June 2016 – Michael Georg Link, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), expressed his concern following the rise in hate incidents reported to the police in the United Kingdom following the 23 June referendum vote to leave the European Union.

"These manifestations of hate and intolerance have a negative impact on the whole of British society, undermining the security of minority and immigrant communities. The current political climate in the United Kingdom provides absolutely no justification for racism and xenophobia," said Director Link.

He also commended the strong national response by Prime Minister David Cameron and other national leaders. "By publicly denouncing these incidents, the authorities have sent a strong message that bias motivated attacks have no place in the United Kingdom. I add my voice to those calling for the swift identification and prosecution of the perpetrators."

The National Police Chiefs’ Council reported a 57 per cent increase in reporting to True Vision, the online hate crime reporting site run by the police, between 24 and 27 June, compared to the same time in May 2016. ODIHR has also received reports of hate crimes and expressions of concern about the safety of people living in the United Kingdom.

Related Stories

• ODIHR Director and IHRA Chair on Roma and Sinti genocide commemoration day: greater effort needed to protect memorial sites and ensure victims dignity
• OSCE/ODIHR Director Michael Link expresses shock over Orlando shootings, commends calls for unity in face of hatred and terror
• OSCE workshop in Kosovo focuses on improving the recording of hate crimes

South Korean car maker Kia expects challenging market conditions in the near term due in part to governments' policies but will stick to its target of selling 1.6 million electric vehicles annually by 2030, a senior executive said.

BT’s Derek Cassidy helps us dive deep into the world of subsea cables and explains how they’re managed and protected. Read more: Cable ties: The geopolitical challenges of the internet under the sea

By JM McNab Published: November 13th, 2024

A former Crown prosecutor is bringing a Charter challenge against the Nova Scotia government and the Workers’ Compensation Board over the province’s limit on compensation for injured workers after being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder due to his job.

The union representing Montreal dockworkers is planning a legal challenge of the federal labour minister's decision to end lockouts at ports by sending the disputes to binding arbitration.

Donald Trump this week tapped Pete Hegseth to be his secretary of defense -- despite the Fox News host having previously criticized him before he was elected in 2016.

Donald Trump was elected with a mandate last week. He's now using it to challenge Republican senators to confirm his Cabinet picks.

Penn State student Nate Carey, of Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, has been nominated as a finalist for the 2025 Marshall Scholarship. 

ISRO and IIT Madras have launched a Centre of Excellence in Fluid and Thermal Sciences to tackle critical thermal management challenges in spacecraft and launch vehicles. This collaboration, backed by ₹1.84 crore funding, will enable advanced research, helping to improve spacecraft design reliability and longevity. The centre aims to address extreme temperature variations in space, fostering new technologies and experts in space engineering.

Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou on Wednesday said he was not “indifferent” to the challenges of local government reform and that he in fact “did more than that for which the law provides”. Ioannou was reacting to claims made by Akel that the government had “not shown the necessary fervour” in its efforts to ensure a […]

[New Times] Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente has affirmed the government's commitment to advancing toward the nation's Vision 2050 goals, emphasizing resilience in the face of challenges.

Zendaya revealed that the Challengers cast still stays in touch with a “group chat”.In a conversation besides the star-studded lineup for the cover of Vanity Fair’s 31st Annual Hollywood Issue, the actress revealed what role she plays amongst the members of the...

Nadhmi Al-Nasr’s successor, Aiman al-Mudaifer, currently head of PIF's Local Real Estate Division, will serve as Neom’s acting CEO.  

Bananas takes his feud with Michele past the point of no return.

Longtime Democratic Party strategist James Carville defended his past comments warning that the Democratic Party will lose male voters if it does not change its messaging.

Rep. Juan Ciscomani has been projected as the winner in the race for Arizona's 6th Congressional District, one of the most closely watched House races in the country.

1. 'Red Monster' galaxies in early universe challenge current models of galaxy formation  Nanowerk
2. James Webb Space Telescope’s data unveils galaxies that could lead to a dark matter revolution  The Times of India
3. NASA James Webb Telescope Data Points to Dark Matter Alternative: 10 Key Insights  Moneycontrol
4. ‘Red Monster’: Scientists discover three ultra-massive galaxies, challenging previous formation theories  Business Today
5. James Webb Space Telescope finds galaxies pointing toward a dark matter alternative  Space.com

The Arizona Commerce Authority has announced 15 finalists for its 2024 Arizona Innovation Challenge. Read on to learn more about the participating companies.

On this episode, Fr. Barnabas welcomes Fr. Lawrence Farley, author of the Bible Study Companion series and teacher on the Coffee Cup Commentaries. They discuss demons, demonology, and Halloween.

Some 100 high school students, pedagogues and psychologists from across Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) took part in two youth summits in Teslić and Vogosća this week co-hosted by the OSCE Mission to BiH and the BiH Security Ministry ...

Wu, Y; Tian, H; Yin, R; Chen, D; Grasby, S E; Shen, J; Li, T; Ju, S; Peng, P. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 616, 118211, 2023 p. 1-9, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2023.118211
<a href="https://geoscan.nrcan.gc.ca/images/geoscan/20230261.jpg"><img src="https://geoscan.nrcan.gc.ca/images/geoscan/20230261.jpg" title="Earth and Planetary Science Letters 616, 118211, 2023 p. 1-9, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2023.118211" height="150" border="1" /></a>

UPS today announced third-quarter 2024 consolidated revenues of $22.2 billion, a 5.6% increase from the third quarter of 2023.

The Q2 2024 results for the DHL Hong Kong Air Trade Leading Index (DTI) have been published.

The AIDS Hope team encourages children in their afterschool program in Mamelodi to share the gospel with the community.

A Discipleship centre student from an unreached people group meets a girl with the same ethnic background and tells to her about salvation.

OM Philippines completes their annual mission training and exposure programme in the tribal areas of Palawan, Philippines.

Six young people joined STEP OUT 2014 and an outreach in the Philippines to challenge their comfort zones, and they were not disappointed.

“God is working in this community,” James said. He and other Christians in his village are challenging the culture by living their lives for Christ.