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'Gag laws' stopping sexual assault survivors in the NT from speaking out

With Tasmania committed to changing its laws, the Northern Territory will be the only place in Australia where sexual assault survivors are not legally allowed to share their own stories and journalists can face time behind bars if they name victims.




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Bradyn Dillon was 'too scared' to speak about abuse to case worker, but file was closed anyway

A case worker responsible for murdered Canberra boy Bradyn Dillon admits she was overwhelmed by her job, and felt child protection services did not support her in dealing with the boy's abusive father.




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Chroming killed Rosie's cousin. Now she's speaking out about her addiction in the hope of deterring others

Two teenagers who have recently sought help to stop chroming are speaking out about their addictions, which have led to the loss of friends and family members, in the hope of deterring others from heading down the same path.




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Sun Yang's former training partner speaks about Chinese swimmer's world championships controversy

Former Commonwealth Games competitor Matthew Levings trained for years alongside Sun Yang. Now the Gold Coast tradie says China's Australian coach, Denis Cotterell, would never train swimmers he knew to be doping.




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Her son was the first known victim in a new wave of a deadly workplace disease, now Di White is speaking out

Di White says her son Anthony, 36, needed a ventilator to breathe after his diagnosis and "really didn't have a life" in the 16 months before he died in the bathroom at the local tavern.




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Murder victim Danielle Easey's father speaks outside Newcastle court, hopes to face accused

The father of murder victim Danielle Easey says he is waiting to come face-to-face with the man accused of the violent death of his daughter whose body was found wrapped in plastic and dumped in a Newcastle creek.




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Peak Hill grain silo has special place in history, even though it has no mural

While many grain silos around Australia are getting large-scale mural makeovers, one century-old structure is still operational, little-known and unadorned.




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These drought-hit young people feel forgotten, but they're speaking up with their ideas on dealing with the dry

Young people across Australia are being hit hard by the drought now they want to be heard and be part of a solution.




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Who on Earth speaks English?

Have you ever wondered why everybody in the world doesn't speak the same language? Or at least why we don't all share a common second language? If we did, what language would it be? Listen to why Robert McCrum says that 'Globish', a version of English, is the world's second language. If you like this clip, listen to the full ABC RN documentary by clicking ‘Download Audio' at http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/broken-english/3042354 




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Pandemic Hampers Outreach To Voters Who Speak Limited Or No English

The in-person events that were the heart of voter outreach efforts have been put on hold. But Multnomah County election officials are still holding office hours, as they also go virtual.




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FutureSpeak: A Preview of the 2009 IEEE Accessing the Future Conference

First-of-a-kind conference developed to identify the next generation of accessibility challenges—challenges arising from the increasingly pervasive use of technologies such as 3-D Web, online collaboration, shared medical records, and advanced systems for transportation and communication.




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Speaking of Awards: IBM India Research Lab honored with National Award for Technological Innovation.

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in India recently presented its National Award for Technological Innovation to the IBM India Research Lab for Project Spoken Web.




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IBM feature article: IBM Sponsors AFB Leadership Conference in the Windy City featuring keynote speaker, Chieko Asakawa, IBM Fellow.

The AFB Leadership Conference was held in Chicago, IL on April 18-20, 2013. The conference had over 400 attendees and covered a wide range of topics over the 3 days. Chieko Asakawa, IBM Fellow, was a keynote speaker.




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Gemmink v. Jay Peak Inc.

(United States Second Circuit) - In an injury action arising from a skiing accident, the district court's grant of summary judgment to defendant ski resort is affirmed where plaintiff failed to offer sufficient evidence of the link between his injuries and the assumed negligence of the defendant.




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Between Vintage And Electronic: Speakeasy, The New Album By Luke & The Belleville Orchestra

Lemon Slice Records Has Released Speakeasy, The New Album By Luke & The Belleville, A Masterly Integration Between The Swing Of The 1930s And The Most Modern Rhythms And Sounds Of Electronic Music.




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GRAMMY®-Nominated Night Street / Interscope Records Artist K.Flay Hosts First-Ever Microcast Designed For Smart Speakers, “what Am I Doing Here”

A First Of Its Kind For The Music Industry, Listeners Can Access The Show By Asking Amazon’s Alexa To “Open K.Flay Show” Or By Asking Google Home To “Talk To K.Flay Show.”




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Kim Burrell Speaks on Forgiveness



Kim Burrell gives a mini sermon on Romans 8:28.




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Oprah Will Be Virtual Speaker For Graduating Seniors



The COVID pandemic has halted graduation ceremonies.





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Nicki Minaj Gives Sneak Peak of K-Mart Collection



It's already Black [Pink] Friday.




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Ahmaud Arbery’s Mother Speaks Out About Her Son’s Killing



She has not been able to watch the horrifying video







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NBA Player Donovan Mitchell Speaks On Being Quarantined With Coronavirus

He also addresses his teammate Rudy Gobert.




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Floyd Mayweather Jr. Speaks Out After Tragic Death Of His Uncle Roger Mayweather

The boxing icon had just lost ex-girlfriend one week prior.




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How Serena Williams Is Dealing With Peak Quarantine Boredom

How Serena Williams Is Dealing With Peak Quarantine Boredom




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Ahmaud Arbery’s Mother Speaks Out About Her Son’s Killing



She has not been able to watch the horrifying video




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Today in Black Twitter: Mark Luckie Speaks His Mind



Mark Luckie is tracking the daily trends of "Black Twitter"




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Beyoncé Speaks: 'Pain Is Not Pretty'



The icon opens up — big time — in a rare interview.




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Energy Director To Speak In Dominican Republic

The Government of Bermuda’s Department of Energy Director, Jeane Nikolai has been invited, as a guest, to speak on a panel at the 2018 Resilient Infrastructure Forum [RIF]. The RIF takes place June 26 – 28, 2018 in the Dominican Republic. The RIF brings together key stakeholders from the public and private sectors to create […]

(Click to read the full article)




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Tributes Paid To Former Speaker Stanley Lowe

[Updated] “A true man for all seasons, and a firm but fair Speaker of the House,” said Premier David Burt today after learning of the passing of former Speaker Mr. Stanley Lowe. Mr. Lowe served as a Member of Parliament from 1968 until his retirement in 2012, having served as Speaker from 1998. The Premier […]

(Click to read the full article)




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Turini To Speak At WWD Influencer Summit

Bermudian fashion expert Shiona Turini will be one of the speakers at the first WWD Influencer Summit on June 25 in New York. The story in WWD said, “WWD will be hosting its first InfluencerSummit in New York on June 25 at Live Nation. “The daylong event will bring together more than 150 senior-level executives and […]

(Click to read the full article)




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BTA Looks Forward To Peak Summer Season

Bermuda Tourism Authority CEO Kevin Dallas has shared a message with tourism industry stakeholders expressing gratitude on the heels of the 35th America’s Cup. Mr. Dallas said, “The Bermuda Tourism Authority is very grateful for all the individuals and organisations that worked together to execute a stellar destination experience during the 35th America’s Cup, the […]

(Click to read the full article)




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Peak Re Complete Lutece Holdings Acquisition

Peak Reinsurance Company Limited today [May 5] announced that it has completed the 100% acquisition of the capital of Lutece Holdings Ltd. A spokesperson said, “Peak Reinsurance Company Limited, a Hong Kong-based global reinsurer, today announced that it has completed the 100% acquisition of the capital of Lutece Holdings Ltd. [renamed as Peak Capital Holdings […]

(Click to read the full article)




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Speaker: Lockdown? Day? Whatever the fuck day it is …

I live in Stockport, just outside Manchester. It's 10 minutes by train away, but I’m not sure if the trains are running – and in any case I’ve not actually been in my office in Central Manchester since February 20.
That got complex. I was in Iraq for work and came home in early March with a virus. Just not that virus but they wouldn’t test me because Iraq (you know, right next door to Iran) wasn’t on the WHO list.
So. Context. We live in a suburban semi-detatched house with a garden (big for Edgeley). There’s me. Matt the husband.…




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12/2/13 - To speak and remove all doubt




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Senator Bernie Sanders speaks out against the Trans Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement to the United States Senate May 12 2015

The Senate considered H.R. 1314, the legislative vehicle for trade promotion authority reauthorization.?It would give the president broad fast-track authority when negotiating trade agreements and require Congress to consider treaties without an amendment process. Senator Bernie Sanders speaks out against this bill before the Senate on May 12, 2015. Continue reading



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IBM Executives to Speak at the Gartner Supply Chain Management Executive Conference

IBM today announced that Joanne Wright, Vice President, IBM Watson Supply Chain and Jeanette Barlow, Vice President of Offering Management and Strategy for IBM Watson Supply Chain will be participating in the “Industry Value Chain Exchange Series,” part of the Gartner Supply Chain Management Executive Conference. The conference takes place from May 23-25 in Phoenix, Arizona.




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IBM Vice President Supply Chain Joanne Wright to Speak at Supply Chain Leaders in Action Business Forum

IBM today announced that Joanne Wright, Vice President Supply Chain has been selected to speak at the upcoming Supply Chain Leaders in Action Business Forum, which takes place in Naples, Florida on June 5-7.




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Bushnell Wingman GPS Speaker



  • Audio & Speakers

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The 2020 Eta Aquarid meteor shower peaks tonight! See 'crumbs' of Comet Halley rain on Earth

The Eta Aquarid meteor shower peaks overnight tonight (May 4), with the best views arriving before dawn on Tuesday (May 5).




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Book week 2019: Jane Setter's Your Voice Speaks Volumes

Welcome to the first review post of Book Week 2019. See the intro to Book Week 2019 to understand more about what I'm doing this week.

I'm starting with the most recent book in the ol' pile of books from publishers:

Your voice speaks volumes
it's not what you say, but how you say it

by Jane Setter
Oxford University Press, 2019


Jane is Professor of Phonetics at the University of Reading (UK) and a recipient of the prestigious National Teaching Fellowship. (As you can see, we are on a first-name basis, as we travel some of the same Public Linguist circles.) I mention the teaching fellowship because it is relevant: Jane is excellent at making linguistics, particularly phonetics, crystal clear for the uninitiated. She uses that talent to great effect in her first book for the general public. 

This book speaks squarely to a general British audience — and to those who want to know more about English-language issues and attitudes in this country. I'm writing this on a day when my social media feed has given me (a) the story of a man wrongly arrested for public drunkenness in Brighton—because the police had mistaken his Liverpool accent for slurring and (b) a misreading of the relevance of accent in the US (as a means to say something about how accents are read in the UK). But I'd have at least two such things to tell you about on any other day when I might have written this post. Accents make the news in Britain because they matter inordinately. Differences that might not be discernible to those from other countries are imbued with layers and layers of meaning and subjected to piles and piles of prejudice. 

As I warned in the intro to Book Week, I have not been able to read the whole book. But I was able to get through much more than I thought I'd be able to in a single evening (four of the seven chapters: 1, 2, 3, 7). Part of my speed was because I could skim the bits that were explaining linguistic facts that I already knew. (That's not to say that the facts here are too basic. I've just had a helluva lotta linguistics education.) But it is a zippy read throughout. Setter uses personal and celebrity stories to demonstrate the everyday relevance of the phonetic and sociolinguistic facts that she's explaining. (Hey look, I seem to revert to last-name basis when I'm reviewing someone's book.) 

The chapters I haven't yet read are those that I'd probably learn the most from: on the use of linguistics in forensic investigations, on voices in performance (including accent training for actors and why singers' accents change in song—which she should know, since she's also a singer in a rock band), and on transgender and synthesized voices. I started with the chapter that relates most to my work ('English voices, global voices') and then went back to the beginning where I was most likely to run into things I already know. That's good from a reviewing perspective, because I can say with confidence that Setter covers well the things that I know need to be covered for her audience. But as I got further into the book, the more unexpected things I learned. I ended in the chapter on women's and men's voices, and I will tell you: I learned some things! To give an example, I liked her interpretation of a study in which women and men were asked to count to ten using various kinds of voices, including 'confident' and 'sexy'. It turns out men generally don't have a 'sexy voice' to put on, while women do, and this might tell us something about what we're sociali{s/z}ed to find sexy—and why.

It's hard to write about sound —and especially about linguistic sounds for a general audience. Writing for linguists is easy, because we have a lot of practice in using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). But you don't want to fill a book for non-linguists with letters that don't make the same sound as they make in English spelling, or letters they've never even seen before. Setter mostly talks about accents without having to get into the kind of phonetic minutiae that excite linguists and make laypeople glaze over. Where she does need technical terms (e.g. lexical sets), she explains them carefully and clearly. But happily for all of us, Setter wrote this book in the internet age. Throughout the book, there are scannable QR codes by which one can hear the sounds she's talking about. (You can get there without a QR reader too, the web URLs are provided.)

For readers of this blog with an interest in US/UK issues, there is plenty of comparison between UK and US and discussion of "Americani{s/z}ation". These are discussed with an assumed familiarity with British Englishes and less with American Englishes.

This book is an important instrument for fighting accentism and other linguistic prejudice in the UK. It might make a nice gift for that person in your life who says they "care deeply about the English language", but really what they mean is "I like to judge other people's use of the English language". 

But more than that, it is a great demonstration of what the study of phonetics can do. I really, really recommend it for A-level students in English (language) and their teachers, as it touches on many of the areas of linguistics taught at that level and would surely inspire many doable research projects. 

Let me just end with: congratulations on this book, Jane!




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New Malware Jumps Air-Gapped Devices by Turning Power-Supplies into Speakers

Cybersecurity researcher Mordechai Guri from Israel's Ben Gurion University of the Negev recently demonstrated a new kind of malware that could be used to covertly steal highly sensitive data from air-gapped and audio-gapped systems using a novel acoustic quirk in power supply units that come with modern computing devices. Dubbed 'POWER-SUPPLaY,' the latest research builds on a series of





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EPA Names City of Chesapeake Garage WasteWise Local Government Partner of the Year

PHILADELPHIA – (May 7, 2020) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the 2019 winners of the National WasteWise Awards this month. The City of Chesapeake Garage, in Chesapeake, Virginia, was recognized as Local Government Partner of the Year.




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Second NYC teen speaks out on 30-hour detention as city officials promise to investigate

Flushing High School junior Arialis Guzman said she “just didn’t get treated right" while police held her and a friend for more than a day in the aftermath of an after school altercation. The teens spent the night of Wednesday, Feb. 12 and much of the next day, Feb. 13, handcuffed to a bench in a Queens police precinct.