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The Everything Guide to Securing Your Dental Health

The Importance of Dental Hygiene Dental hygiene is crucial for maintaining overall health and well-being. Poor oral health has been linked to various health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, and respiratory infections. Therefore, taking care of your teeth and gums should be a top priority in your daily routine. 1. Oral Health and Overall Well-being […]

The post The Everything Guide to Securing Your Dental Health appeared first on Chart Attack.




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'Let The Fire Burn': A Philadelphia Community Forever Changed

On May 13, 1985, after a long standoff, Philadelphia municipal authorities dropped a bomb on the headquarters of the African-American radical group MOVE. In the documentary Let the Fire Burn, director Jason Osder uses archival footage to chronicle the years of tension that ended in tragedy.




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Foreign influence efforts reached a fever pitch during the 2024 elections

While some fake videos made by actors with Russian ties received millions of views, researchers say there's so far no indication that these efforts swayed U.S. election results.




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Have a protein-rich breakfast every day for these 7 benefits - Hindustan Times

  1. Have a protein-rich breakfast every day for these 7 benefits  Hindustan Times
  2. 6 Protein-Packed Breakfast Without Eggs  HerZindagi
  3. 8 High-Protein Indian Breakfast Recipes to Fuel Your Day  Recipes
  4. Wholesome Indian breakfasts that boost energy  Business Insider India
  5. 5 DIY Protein-Packed Snacks That You Can Replace Breakfast With  WION




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‘Nayanthara: Beyond the Fairytale’: The Netflix docu promises to offer a never-seen-before glimpse into the star’s life

The documentary features accounts from friends and colleagues, including Rana Daggubatti, Taapsee Pannu, and Nagarjuna Akkineni




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Vikrant Massey says Hindus, Muslims not in danger in India: ‘Everything is going fine’

The actor, who stars in the upcoming film ‘The Sabarmati Report’, based on the 2002 Godhra train burning incident, emphasised his secular credentials while saying that his perspective on the state of the nation has shifted in the last ten years




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‘Alien: Isolation’ for Android Is Now a Free To Start Release Just Like iOS Letting Everyone Try Two Missions for Free

Earlier this year, Feral Interactive’s superb iOS version of Alien: Isolation (Free) was updated to change the game’s business model …




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Real-Estate Scions Breaking Cardinal Rule: Never Sell...


Real-Estate Scions Breaking Cardinal Rule: Never Sell...


(Second column, 11th story, link)


Drudge Report Feed needs your support!   Become a Patron




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No One Has Ever Found the Le Griffon Shipwreck, Despite the Many Claims

Though many amature divers claim to have found the famous shipwreck, it's likely still below Lake Michigan's waves.




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Giant tadpole fossil is the oldest ever discovered

Scientists have discovered the oldest-known fossil of a tadpole, which lived among the Jurassic dinosaurs 160 million years ago.




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'We basically lost everything': Bats force Sask. family to abandon house

Rachelle and Kelly Swan bought their house in Spiritwood two years ago. They gave up their keys to the bank voluntarily in May, closing the door on the bat-infested house.  



  • News/Canada/Saskatchewan

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Worry Stones 101: Everything You Need to Know About This Anxiety Reliever

Discover the calming power of a worry stone! Learn how this ancient tool relieves stress, boosts mindfulness, and promotes emotional balance through touch.




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What Was the Strongest Earthquake Ever Recorded?

Earthquakes are among the most powerful natural forces on Earth, often causing widespread devastation, triggering tsunamis and altering the landscape of a region. But how strong was the strongest earthquake of all time?




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Nintendo Switch 2: Everything we know about the coming release

As the world turns, so do the console generations. The Nintendo Switch is over seven years old, so it’s due for a refresh. Nintendo Switch 2 rumors have been swirling for years, but now they are really heating up. A sequel to Nintendo's most successful home console ever is coming and it’s likely coming sooner rather than later.

Will it be a straight up sequel to the Switch with updated specs while retaining the same hybrid functionality or will Nintendo get weird with it? Will it even be called the Switch 2, or will the company go with something like the Super Switch or even the New Nintendo Switch? You can never tell with Nintendo. Heck, maybe it’ll call the thing the Switch U.

In any event, recent weeks have brought feverish speculation regarding all aspects of the forthcoming gaming console. It’s important to note, however, that very little information has been confirmed by Nintendo. The company operates on its own timetable. With that said, here are all of the rumors that are most likely to come true, given industry analysis.

As previously mentioned, Nintendo marches to the beat of its own drum. We don’t exactly know when it’ll hold an event to reveal the console. It likely won't be in 2024, as the tech year is winding down and it's rare to get announcements of new harder in late November and December. 

Even Nintendo has trouble keeping the lid on a major console release, so we could learn something before the official reveal. There are parts that have to be sourced and shipments that have to be made. A senior analyst at MST Financial noted a spike in production equipment spending by Nintendo assembler Hosiden.

Once again, this is more or less a mystery. We aren’t totally in the dark, but it’s mostly rumor and speculation. One thing we know for sure is that Nintendo will announce the Nintendo Switch 2 (or whatever it chooses to call it) by March 2025, as the company confirmed back in May. Some are saying there will be a March release date, which makes sense given the OG Switch came out on March 17, 2017. However, other reports put the console’s release window later in 2025.

We can infer a lot from the announcement date. If the console is announced this year, March would be a safe bet, given that the original Switch was officially confirmed in October of 2016. However, the console likely won't be announced until next year, at this point, so expect a late 2025 release. 

Nintendo has a weird track record here. The baffling Wii U followed the massive success of the Wii. The Wii itself followed the more traditional GameCube. In other words, it’s possible it’ll be something out of left field and not exactly a true sequel to the Switch. However, this is unlikely this time around. As much as I would love to see wacky VR glasses or a completely bonkers console concept, all points indicate a more traditional approach.

Developers have already seen the hardware, though in a much earlier form, and it seems to be a regular old console. While Nintendo hasn't confirmed hybrid functionality, it’d be a weird omission given the absolute financial firestorm of the Switch. We’ve also heard rumors of a Mini-LED display, which would track for a hybrid console. It’s highly likely this will be a straight-up Switch 2, or something like it, calling to mind the Super Nintendo.

To that end, recent rumors suggest a design that recalls the original Switch. According to reporting by VGC, photos of the console have appeared online and they show an 8-inch screen and magnetic Joy-Con controllers. There looks to be SL/SR buttons and front-facing player LEDs on these controllers. 

If it’s a sequel to the Switch, the next question has to be about backwards compatibility. The Switch’s library is absolutely massive, and continues to grow, so gamers would be rightfully peeved if they couldn’t play Tears of the Kingdom on their new next-gen console. There’s good news on this front.

The company has officially announced in a recent earnings report that the console will be fully backwards compatible. It will also feature access to Nintendo Online, so users will be able to play all of those old retro titles. 

The rumors regarding specs are all over the place, so it’s tough to pin down. We know one thing for sure: It’ll be more powerful than the ancient Switch hardware, which was already antiquated back in 2017. One analyst allegedly got a hold of a spec sheet from the Korean United Daily News that said the Switch 2 would boast an eight-core Cortex-A78AE processor, 8GB of RAM, and 64GB of internal eMMC storage. This tracks for me, as these specs are about as underpowered in 2024 as the original Switch was in 2017. However, some reports do indicate that the console would include 12GB of RAM. 

Another source suggests that the eight-core CPU will be packaged inside an NVIDIA-produced Tegra239 SoC (system on a chip). Given the current Switch runs on an NVIDIA chip, that makes a lot of sense. The CPU will be more powerful, but it's the Switch 2's new GPU that will be a major differentiator. It's all-but-confirmed that the Switch 2 will support DLSS, NVIDIA's "deep learning supersampling" upscaling tech, which would allow the console to render games at a low resolution internally while outputting a high-resolution image. (Fun fact: We actually wrote about how perfect DLSS was for the Nintendo Switch 2 when the technology was announced alongside the RTX 20 series back in 2018.)

There are still questions about the Switch 2 and DLSS: Will the system support newer DLSS features like frame generation? Will existing games be automatically tidied up by NVIDIA's algorithm? Regardless of the exact implementation, DLSS upscaling will be a huge leap over the rudimentary techniques available to Nintendo Switch developers.

As for the display, there are many conflicting rumors. Early reports from solid sources suggested the Switch 2 would have an 8-inch display LCD display, but there have also been rumors about an 7-inch display with a 120Hz refresh rate. Some analysts have suggested this would be an OLED screen, while others have said it would be a Mini-LED display. A Mini-LED display is basically an LCD display that has a backlight made of (surprise!) mini-LEDs rather than edge lighting. This allows for local dimming, making the blacks more black. I’m hedging my bets here. I think it’ll be a standard LCD, to cut costs, with an OLED or Mini-LED model coming later down the line. However, Mini-LED screens are slightly cheaper than OLED displays, so that’s certainly a possibility at launch.

As for resolution, recent reporting suggests that the console will output 1080p in handheld and 4K when docked. That's much better than the OG Switch. 

We don't have too much information regarding price but we do have plenty of history to work with. The original Nintendo Switch launched at $300, which is pretty much the "magic number" when it comes to Nintendo console releases in recent years. The Wii U also came in at $300. 

However, there are plenty of rumors circulating that Nintendo could be upping the asking price for the Switch 2. Numerous outlets have reported it'll be $400, or potentially even more expensive. However, the same analysts who say the console will be $400 were also fairly certain it would be out by the end of 2024 and, well, it looks like that ain't happening. 

Dipping back into history, there is some precedence for a price uptick. The GameCube was $200 and the Wii was $250. The Wii U and Switch increased to $300 and, well, numbers like to go up. A $400 price tag would make it nearly as expensive as a PS5 and Xbox Series X. That would also put it at the same price as the 256GB LCD Steam Deck. 

Nope! But it’s certainly been a long time since we’ve gotten a proper 3D Mario adventure, right? That would be one heck of a system seller. Other than that, your guess is as good as mine. Past as prologue, we can expect something from Ubisoft and an off-the-wall title like 1-2-Switch

If there’s a gimmick or hook involved with the console, we’ll also get a game that takes advantage of that. A dual release of Metroid Prime 4, just like Breath of the Wild and Twilight Princess before that, is also a possibility.


That's everything we know about the Nintendo Switch 2 today. We'll update this article with rumors we trust and with information we gather directly from sources. Any changes made to the article after its initial publishing will be listed below.

Update, November 11, 2024, 9:00 AM ET: This story has been updated with details about the Switch 2's backwards compatibility as well as more details about the current expected announcement and release timeline.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-switch-2-everything-we-know-about-the-coming-release-110023903.html?src=rss




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Waymo's driverless cars in LA County are now available to everyone

Waymo has announced expanded availability of its driverless rideshare service throughout Los Angeles. That’s right. Waymo One is now available to all customers anywhere in LA county, which is 80 square miles. The company has dropped the waitlist for area residents. Now LA residents will get to experience sitting in endless traffic with a series of cameras and navigational algos leading the way instead of a person.

This expanded service starts today and it offers “fully autonomous rides” at any time of the day or night. Let’s hear it for some drunken late night bonding with an algorithm. Waymo also says it’ll further expand the service area in the future. After all, Los Angeles comprises five counties. 

It’s been offering driverless rides to LA customers for a while now, but with a mandatory waitlist. Waymo One also started small in San Francisco and Phoenix before announcing similar expansions. The service will be coming to Austin and Atlanta in the near future.

All told, the company says over 300,000 Los Angeles residents have joined the waitlist for the service and Waymo One has completed “hundreds of thousands of paid trips across the city.” Waymo says these driverless rides are also highly rated, with an average rating of 4.7 stars out of five. A recent survey indicated that 98 percent of customers are satisfied with the service.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/waymos-driverless-cars-in-la-county-are-now-available-to-everyone-173237519.html?src=rss




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Spread of dengue fever in Bangladesh worries medics

Dhaka (AFP) Nov 7, 2024
Bangladesh is struggling to tamp down a surge in dengue cases as climate change turns the disease into a year-round crisis, leaving some paediatric wards packed with children squeezed two to a bed. The Aedes mosquito that spreads dengue - identifiable by its black and white striped legs - breeds in stagnant pools, and cases once slowed after the monsoon rains faded. "Normally, around t




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Canada, prepare for the big squeeze. Trump will press on several sensitive fronts

Donald Trump's second term as U.S. president carries implications at home and abroad. That includes potentially wreaking havoc on global economies through the aggressive use of tariffs.




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Several bread and bun brands recalled due to pieces of metal, says Canada's food safety agency

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has issued a recall for several brands of bread and buns due to pieces of metal in the products.




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‘Everyone wants to be Suarez’

HE was spotted playing soccer in a park by a talent scout on holiday in Uruguay at age 15. Now Andrew Alvarenga has made the first grade side at top division soccer’s Club Atletico Cerro.




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Voting Has Never Been More Secure Than It Is Right Now

Efficient machines, paper ballots and human checks make the U.S. voting system robust




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What Trump Can—And Probably Can’t—Do to Reverse U.S. Climate Policy

The new president-elect can go beyond just pulling out of the Paris Agreement. But it may be more difficult to roll back clean energy policies




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As MFP Approaches, Transparency Is More Important Than Ever

Today’s guest post comes from Angie Franks, Chief Executive Officer of Kalderos.

Angie discusses how the Maximum Fair Price provision of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 will challenge providers, pharmacies, and manufacturers. She explains how Kalderos’ Truzo platform could reduce duplicate claims and address compliance issues.

To learn more, register for Kalderos’ October 25 webinar Cracking the MFP Code: How Flexible Technology Helps You Navigate an Evolving Landscape.

Read on for Angie’s insights.
Read more »
       




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A Salmon on Every Plate/The Hard Road of Innovation

Chicken was once an expensive delicacy. In 1928, America’s quest for a better diet and a better standard of living was summarized by the campaign promise of “a chicken in every pot.” Today, chicken is a ubiquitous, low-cost source of protein, which we largely take for granted. Despite depletion of ocean-based stocks, fish hold similar potential. To begin this transformation, FDA must approve a scientifically-based innovative product—a faster growing genetically-engineered (GE) Atlantic salmon. When FDA Matters wrote about this subject 18 months ago, I believed the agency was near to approval of this first-ever food product from a GE animal. It is still not resolved and there are implications for all innovations that require FDA approval.




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Everything you should know about the coronavirus pandemic

The latest information about the novel coronavirus identified in Wuhan, China, and advice on how pharmacists can help concerned patients and the public.




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Everything you need to know about the COVID-19 therapy trials

Researchers around the world are working at record speed to find the best ways to treat and prevent COVID-19, from investigating the possibility of repurposing existing drugs to searching for novel therapies against the virus.




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Pharmacology: The Anchor for Nearly Every Diligence

By Haojing Rong and Aimee Raleigh, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC This blog post is the second in a series on key diligence concepts and questions. If you missed the intro blog post yesterday, click

The post Pharmacology: The Anchor for Nearly Every Diligence appeared first on LifeSciVC.




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Every Unhappy PREA Study is Unhappy in its Own Way

“Children are not small adults.” We invoke this saying, in a vague and hand-wavy manner, whenever we talk about the need to study drugs in pediatric populations. It’s an interesting idea, but it really cries out for further elaboration. If they’re not small adults, what are they? Are pediatric efficacy and safety totally uncorrelated with adult efficacy and safety? Or are children actually kind of like small adults in certain important ways?


Pediatric post-marketing studies have been completed for over 200 compounds in the years since BPCA (2002, offering a reward of 6 months extra market exclusivity/patent life to any drug conducting requested pediatric studies) and PREA (2007, giving FDA power to require pediatric studies) were enacted. I think it is fair to say that at this point, it would be nice to have some sort of comprehensive idea of how FDA views the risks associated with treating children with medications tested only on adults. Are they in general less efficacious? More? Is PK in children predictable from adult studies a reasonable percentage of the time, or does it need to be recharacterized with every drug?

Essentially, my point is that BPCA/PREA is a pretty crude tool: it is both too broad in setting what is basically a single standard for all new adult medications, and too vague as to what exactly that standard is.

In fact, a 2008 published review from FDA staffers and a 2012 Institute of Medicine report both show one clear trend: in a significant majority of cases, pediatric studies resulted in validating the adult medication in children, mostly with predictable dose and formulation adjustments (77 of 108 compounds (71%) in the FDA review, and 27 of 45 (60%) in the IOM review, had label changes that simply reflected that use of the drug was acceptable in younger patients).

So, it seems, most of the time, children are in fact not terribly unlike small adults.

But it’s also true that the percentages of studies that show lack of efficacy, or bring to light a new safety issue with the drug’s use in children, is well above zero. There is some extremely important information here.

To paraphrase John Wanamaker: we know that half our PREA studies are a waste of time; we just don’t know which half.

This would seem to me to be the highest regulatory priority – to be able to predict which new drugs will work as expected in children, and which may truly require further study. After a couple hundred compounds have gone through this process, we really ought to be better positioned to understand how certain pharmacological properties might increase or decrease the risks of drugs behaving differently than expected in children. Unfortunately, neither the FDA nor the IOM papers venture any hypotheses about this – both end up providing long lists of examples of certain points, but not providing any explanatory mechanisms that might enable us to engage in some predictive risk assessment.

While FDASIA did not advance PREA in terms of more rigorously defining the scope of pediatric requirements (or, better yet, requiring FDA to do so), it did address one lingering concern by requiring that FDA publish non-compliance letters for sponsors that do not meet their commitments. (PREA, like FDAAA, is a bit plagued by lingering suspicions that it’s widely ignored by industry.)

The first batch of letters and responses has been published, and it offers some early insights into the problems engendered by the nebulous nature of PREA and its implementation.

These examples, unfortunately, are still a bit opaque – we will need to wait on the FDA responses to the sponsors to see if some of the counter-claims are deemed credible. In addition, there are a few references to prior deferral requests, but the details of the request (and rationales for the subsequent FDA denials) do not appear to be publicly available. You can read FDA’s take on the new postings on their blog, or in the predictably excellent coverage from Alec Gaffney at RAPS.

Looking through the first 4 drugs publicly identified for noncompliance, the clear trend is that there is no trend. All these PREA requirements have been missed for dramatically different reasons.

Here’s a quick rundown of the drugs at issue – and, more interestingly, the sponsor responses:

1. Renvela - Genzyme (full response)

Genzyme appears to be laying responsibility for the delay firmly at FDA’s feet here, basically claiming that FDA continued to pile on new requirements over time:
Genzyme’s correspondence with the FDA regarding pediatric plans and design of this study began in 2006 and included a face to face meeting with FDA in May 2009. Genzyme submitted 8 revisions of the pediatric study design based on feedback from FDA including that received in 4 General Advice Letters. The Advice Letter dated February 17, 2011  contained further recommendations on the study design, yet still required the final clinical study report  by December 31, 2011.
This highlights one of PREA’s real problems: the requirements as specified in most drug approval letters are not specific enough to fully dictate the study protocol. Instead, there is a lot of back and forth between the sponsor and FDA, and it seems that FDA does not always fully account for their own contribution to delays in getting studies started.

2. Hectorol - Genzyme (full response)

In this one, Genzyme blames the FDA not for too much feedback, but for none at all:
On December 22, 2010, Genzyme submitted a revised pediatric development plan (Serial No. 212) which was intended to address FDA feedback and concerns that had been received to date. This submission included proposed protocol HECT05310. [...] At this time, Genzyme has not received feedback from the FDA on the protocol included in the December 22, 2010 submission.
If this is true, it appears extremely embarrassing for FDA. Have they really not provided feedback in over 2.5 years, and yet still sending noncompliance letters to the sponsor? It will be very interesting to see an FDA response to this.

3. Cleviprex – The Medicines Company (full response)

This is the only case where the pharma company appears to be clearly trying to game the system a bit. According to their response:
Recognizing that, due to circumstances beyond the company’s control, the pediatric assessment could not be completed by the due date, The Medicines Company notified FDA in September 2010, and sought an extension. At that time, it was FDA’s view that no extensions were available. Following the passage of FDASIA, which specifically authorizes deferral extensions, the company again sought a deferral extension in December 2012. 
So, after hearing that they had to move forward in 2010, the company promptly waited 2 years to ask for another extension. During that time, the letter seems to imply that they did not try to move the study forward at all, preferring to roll the dice and wait for changing laws to help them get out from under the obligation.

4. Twinject/Adrenaclick – Amedra (full response)

The details of this one are heavily redacted, but it may also be a bit of gamesmanship from the sponsor. After purchasing the injectors, Amedra asked for a deferral. When the deferral was denied, they simply asked for the requirements to be waived altogether. That seems backwards, but perhaps there's a good reason for that.

---

Clearly, 4 drugs is not a sufficient sample to say anything definitive, especially when we don't have FDA's take on the sponsor responses. However, it is interesting that these 4 cases seem to reflect an overall pattern with BCPA and PREA - results are scattershot and anecdotal. We could all clearly benefit from a more systematic assessment of why these trials work and why some of them don't, with a goal of someday soon abandoning one-size-fits-all regulation and focusing resources where they will do the most good.




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The Trust-Building Playbook: 5 Tips Every Digital Health Marketer Needs to Know

Building trust while simultaneously building products, selling, recruiting, and fundraising can feel impossible. But it’s required whether you have the time or not, and it doesn’t stop no matter how big you grow.

The post The Trust-Building Playbook: 5 Tips Every Digital Health Marketer Needs to Know appeared first on MedCity News.




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The Challenges Facing the Nation's Electricity Power Sector: A Conversation with Severin Borenstein

Energy economist Severin Borenstein, Professor of the Graduate School at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, discussed the many significant challenges facing the nation’s electricity power sector in the latest episode of “Environmental Insights: Discussions on Policy and Practice from the Harvard Environmental Economics Program.




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U.S.-Africa Policy: An Interview with Judd Devermont

Judd Devermont is interviewed by Natalie Colber about the U.S.'s new policy towards sub-Saharan Africa in April, 2024.




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Leveraging Charging Strategies to Reduce Grid Impacts of Electric Vehicles

Electric vehicles (EVs) can challenge or support electricity systems depending on how they are charged. Controlled charging that combines technical solutions with heterogenous EV user behaviors can reduce peak demand to avoid grid constraints and support the integration of renewable energy.




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Blu� Homes Partners with Real Simple and This Old House to Launch the �Design Smart, Live Beautifully� Home Tour and Announce the Selection of Blu�s L.A. Breezehouse as the First-Ever 

The �Design Smart, Live Beautifully� Home Tour coincides with the launch of the 2014 model of Blu�s award-winning�Breezehouse, which is�packed with luxurious features and an even more spacious floor plan




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Blu� Homes Breezehouse: Awarded First-Ever "2014 Dream Home of the Year", by Real Simple and This Old House - Blu Homes Breezehouse is the Real Simple and This Old House "2014 Dream Home of the Year."

Blu Homes Breezehouse is the Real Simple and This Old House "2014 Dream Home of the Year."




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Live Free. Couch Hard.: Totino's Pizza Rollsâ„¢ Unveils First-Ever 'Bucking Couch' to Deliver the Ultimate Gaming Experience Before the Big Game - Brad Hiranga Interview

Brad Hiranga, General Mills Business Unit Director, Pizza and Tacos Business Unit discusses the Bucking Couch and Bucking Couch Bowl.




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Henkel's Persil� ProClean�, Releases First-Ever Super Bowl� Commercial - Persil ProClean�#1 Rated� Super Bowl Commercial

A leading consumer testing publication recently tested the top laundry detergent brands in America. Persil ProClean 2in1 didn�t only beat Tide, it beat every single detergent tested.





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2016 MORE/SHAPE Women's Half-Marathon To Honor 13 Female Leaders For The First-Ever Women Run The World Relay & Mentorship Program - 2015 MORE/SHAPE Half-Marathon Broll

The 12th Annual MORE/FITNESS/SHAPE Women�s Half-Marathon on April 19, 2015 in New York�s Central Park




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President George H.W. Bush Joins Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation (RBFF) to Present First-Ever George H.W. Bush Vamos A Pescarâ„¢ Education Fund Grants - Broll footage and soundbites from a Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundat

Broll footage and soundbites from a Recreational Boating & Fishing Foundation (RBFF) event at the George Bush Presidential Library on Thursday, April 14, 2016, in College Station, Texas. RBFF is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to increase participation in recreational angling and boating, thereby protecting and restoring the nation�s aquatic natural resources.








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Wheels Up Officially Unveiled First-Ever Pink Beechcraft King Air 350i Aircraft In Support Of Breast Cancer Awareness Month - The Wheels Up Pink Plane Unveiling

The Wheels Up Pink Plane is the first-ever pink Beechcraft King Air 350i. Proceeds benefit the Dubin Breast Center at Mount Sinai in New York City. Westchester County Airport, White Plains, NY






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First Response� Unveils First Ever Bluetooth� Smart-Enabled Pregnancy Test at CES - First Response� Unveils First Ever Bluetooth�-Enabled Pregnancy Test at CES

First Response� Unveils First Ever Bluetooth�-Enabled Pregnancy Test at CES




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Gout & Uric Acid Education Society Hosts Roundtable Exploring Strategies for Elevating the Severity of Gout and Improving Access to Public Education and Treatment - Gout as a Serious Health Issue

Gout as a Serious Health Issue




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Every Conceivable Way EA Could Screw Up Star Wars: Squadrons

We're getting a new cockpit-focused Star Wars flight game this October! While visions of the classic LucasArts simulators X-Wing and TIE Fighter do barrel rolls in our heads, we should temper our expectations.




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We Have To Stop Letting Assholes Ruin Everything.

We have to do better. If you feel attacked, it's about you.




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Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F

Years ago while trying to explain that a bad remake does not ruin your childhood, I described modern remakes as attempts to make money by “strip-mining nostalgia.” And before I explain the metaphor further, let me clearly state that BEVERLY HILLS COP: AXEL F is a much, much better movie than that.

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F – NETFLIX

Strip-mining is how you destroy the landscape to get at just one thing. The strip-mining nostalgia metaphor kind of means “ruin my affection for the franchise.” And BEVERLY HILLS COP: AXEL F did NOT ruin things.

I watched all three Beverly Hills Cop films before watching this, and then I watched the first one again, with Sandra, who hadn’t actually seen it.

She agreed with my assessment of the first film: the original BEVERLY HILLS COP is a very good movie, and the music deserved acting credit because it was not just instrumental (hah!) to the atmosphere of the film, it helped tell the story in ways that almost-but-not-quite crossed into the line of musical theater.

BEVERLY HILLS COP II was a competent, 80’s-era sequel. The production team knew how to make a good movie, but they didn’t really understand the science of a brilliant sequel. This was the 80’s, almost nobody understood that.

BEVERLY HILLS COP III was awful, and its biggest sin lay in the orchestral variations on Harold Faltermeyer’s “Axel F” theme. They were competent¹ arrangements, sure, but they sounded like they belonged in “Axel Foley Goes to Silverado.” Which I would watch, provided it was not made by the people who made BEVERLY HILLS COP III.

BEVERLY HILLS COP: AXEL F was made by people who do understand the science of a good sequel. It follows the beat chart of the first movie, but it doesn’t just go through the motions. It knows what those beats are for, and why they worked, and it leans into that understanding to deliver what, for some people, can serve as a master-class in making a franchise film.

I’ve read several articles about the production of the film, and the most interesting thing I learned was that they re-recorded the Axel F theme using the original synths, which they got from a museum. This meant the theme had the same *exact* waveforms, delivering that familiar sound even after giving it the deconstruction and theme-and-variations treatment. That one song could now support multiple scenes without making us feel like they were just playing samples of the same song over and over. (Which, thanks to Crazy Frog², is a treatment we have definitely seen applied to Axel F. )

BEVERLY HILLS COP: AXEL F follows the same basic plot as the first two films, in that the audience and the protagonist know who the bad guy is, and the detective work lies in accumulating the right evidence, and then surviving to deliver it³. It also improves on the scene-to-scene flow⁴ of that formula, giving us snappy dialog and dramatic moments that run straight up against action.

I should sum up. I’ve watched BEVERLY HILLS COP: AXEL F twice now, and I have no regrets. I’m not tracking my thresholds lately, but this one definitely clears the Threshold of Awesome. It was better than just “better than I expected it to be,” and that might sound like low praise, but I’ll definitely watch it a third time. Hopefully that helps you calibrate your own expectations.

— notes —

¹ I used ‘competent’ twice because it’s the right word. In the arts it kind of means “knows how to hold a paintbrush, mix colors, and create a painting, but doesn’t know how to make actual art.”

² Google “Crazy Frog” at your peril. It was silly fun twenty years ago, but now it just leaves me annoyed, and ashamed for having liked it once.

³ The third film messes with the formula, giving us a plot twist right at the end. It was a nice idea, but it was not executed well. Just take my word for it. Don’t go watch BEVERLY HILLS COP III. Sure, you can go listen to “Crazy Frog” at your peril but BHCIII is a different level of DO NOT.

³ “Scene-sequel” format, which comes to us from Dwight Swain’s TECHNIQUES OF THE WORKING WRITER, is perfectly employed here. You don’t need to know that to enjoy the movie, but if you are a writer then it’s something you should pay attention to.