Why asking Help from Allah is the ‘First Thing First’? As everything is in this universe has made by Allah, Almighty. He is the only One who has power over all. So, we should always ask help from the Almighty first to keep us away from these...

The post Coronavirus Alert! Precautionary Measures & Real-time Apps To Keep An Eye On Covid-19 Outbreak Situation appeared first on SmashingApps.com.

A study to determine if the sport-related concussion (SRC) rate is lower after a rule change that limited the amount and duration of full-contact activities during high school football practice sessions.

CEDAR FALLS — A four-way quarterback competition dominated the preseason headlines for Northern Iowa last August. Walk-on redshirt freshman Will McElvain emerged as the competition’s...

The Iowa high school softball season was supposed to start practice Monday. Instead, the coronavirus pandemic has everything delayed until June 1, or maybe longer. Or, perhaps, canceled. But since...

Once in a while, a college football prospect with potential in another sport ends up with the Hawkeyes. Brody Brecht might be the next one of those for the Hawkeyes. The 6-4, 200-pound wide...

For Keagan Johnson and his family, the decision to play football at the University of Iowa was theirs. A personal decision that set a course for a fairly massive three or four or five years. When...

CEDAR RAPIDS — This was his alma mater, a place he had a ton of success at as a player. The future of the program is clearly bright. But Matt Lesan has a clear plan for his own future, which...

Iowa athletics director Gary Barta began Thursday’s meeting of the UI’s presidential committee on athletics with two numbers: It’s been 56 days since the coronavirus pandemic shut...

Editor’s note: The Gazette sports staff has compiled lists of its top 15 favorite sports movies. Each day, a different staffer will share some insight into one of their favorites. Some of them...

CEDAR FALLS — Like many high school seniors across the country, Norwalk’s Bowen Born is unsure when he’ll be able to get on campus at the University of Northern Iowa and begin...

Editor’s note: The Gazette sports staff has compiled lists of its top 15 favorite sports movies. Each day, a different staffer will share some insight into one of their favorites. Some of them...

As the coronavirus spread from the nation’s meatpacking plants to the broader communities where they are located, it burned through a modest duplex in Waterloo. In the downstairs unit lived...

Installing an SSL certificate on your domain is an essential step you should take to secure your WordPress site and now with Let’s Encrypt you can get one for free.

As the coronavirus spread from the nation’s meatpacking plants to the broader communities where they are located, it burned through a modest duplex in Waterloo.

In the downstairs unit lived Jim Orvis, 65, a beloved friend and uncle who worked in the laundry department at the Tyson Foods pork processing facility, the largest employer in Waterloo. Upstairs was Arthur Scott, a 51-year-old father who was getting his life on track after a prison term for drugs. He worked 25 miles away at the Tyson dog treats factory in Independence.

The two men were not well acquainted. But both fell ill and died last month within days of each other from COVID-19 — casualties of an outbreak linked to the Waterloo plant that spread across the city of 68,000 people.

Similar spread has happened in other communities where the economy centers on raising hogs and cattle and processing their meat, including the hot spots of Grand Island, Neb., and Worthington, Minn.

The virus is “devastating everything,” duplex owner Jose Garcia, who received notification two days apart from his deceased tenants’ relatives, said recently. “These two guys were here last week. Now they are gone. It’s crazy.”

He said it’s possible one of the men infected the other because they shared an entryway, or that they each contracted the virus separately at their workplaces.

The virus threatens the communities’ most vulnerable populations, including low-income workers and their extended families.

“They’re afraid of catching the virus. They’re afraid of spreading it to family members. Some of them are afraid of dying,” said the Rev. Jim Callahan, of the Church of St. Mary in Worthington, a city of 13,000 that has attracted immigrants from across the globe to work at the JBS pork plant.

“One guy said to me, ‘I risked my life coming here. I never thought something that I can’t see could take me out.’ ”

In Grand Island, an outbreak linked to a JBS beef plant that is the city’s largest employer spread rapidly across the rural central Nebraska region, killing more than three dozen people. Many of the dead were elderly residents of long-term care facilities who had relatives or friends employed at the plant.

In Waterloo, local officials blamed Tyson for endangering not only its workers and their relatives but everyone else who leaves home to work or get groceries.

They were furious with the state and federal governments for failing to intervene and for pushing hard to reopen the plant days after public pressure helped idle it.

“We were failed by people who put profit margins and greed before people, predominantly brown people, predominantly immigrants, predominantly people who live in lower socioeconomic quarters,” said Jonathan Grieder, a high school social studies teacher who serves on Waterloo’s City Council. “This is going to be with us for so long. There are going to be very deep scars in our community.”

Grieder cried as he recounted how one of his former students, 19, lost her father to the coronavirus and has been left to raise two younger siblings. Their mother died of cancer last September.

Black Hawk County Sheriff Tony Thompson said he first became concerned after touring the Tyson plant April 10 and witnessing inadequate social distancing and a lack of personal protective equipment. As hundreds of workers began getting sick or staying home out of fear, Thompson joined the mayor and local officials in asking Tyson to close the plant temporarily on April 16.

But Tyson, with support from Gov. Kim Reynolds, waited until April 22 to announce that step after the outbreak intensified. The company warned of the significant economic consequences even a temporary shutdown would create.

The plant, which can process 19,500 hogs per day, resumed limited production this past week.

First, Tyson invited local officials and some employees inside for tours to show the new safety precautions, including plastic shields and more space between workers.

This time, Thompson said he was “reserved in my optimism” that worker safety would be a priority at the plant.

Although Tyson has declined to say how many of the plant’s 2,800 workers had been infected, state health officials announced last week that 444 — or 17 percent — had the virus.

In three weeks, Black Hawk County’s cases skyrocketed from 62 to at least 1,450, or more than 1 percent of the county population. Deaths because of the virus rose from zero to at least 15. Ninety percent of the cases are “attributed or related to the plant,” the county’s public health director said.

Thompson said the plant’s outbreak decimated the community’s “first line of defense” and allowed the virus to spread to nursing homes and the jail he oversees.

“These are the places we did not want to fight the COVID-19 virus,” he said.

The losses mounted.

A refugee from Bosnia died days after falling sick while working on the Tyson production line, leaving behind her heartbroken husband.

The virus also took an intellectually disabled man who died at 73, years after escaping forced labor at a turkey plant and retiring to Waterloo.

Scott, who went by the nickname Dontae, was planning to reunite in June with two teenage children he had not seen in person since he was incarcerated on federal drug charges in 2011.

A former small-time heroin distributor who suffered from addiction, he and his wife divorced during his prison term, and she moved to Mississippi with the children.

Since his 2018 release, friends said he was doing well and rebuilding relationships.

Scott told his daughter, Destiny Proctor, 18, that he suspected he became infected at the Tyson pet food factory, which has stayed open under federal guidance classifying the industry as critical infrastructure.

Proctor and her 15-year-old brother were looking forward to living with their dad this summer. Instead, their final talk was a video call from a hospital where he struggled to talk.

“It was so, so sad,” Proctor, who described her father as funny and caring and frequently sending her cards and gifts, said of their final call. “He told me he couldn’t breathe.”

We’ve all see that face. The well-meaning face of pity: the downturned brows and lips, the misty eyes. After Hugh’s TBI, I seldom met a friend or acquaintance who did not flash this expression at me every time we met. My daughters felt it, too. The funny thing is, we did not want pity. We’d had our fill of it in the ICU.

In the world of smartwatches, the two big contenders are the Apple Watch and the Fitbit Versa. The Smartwatch Showdown infographic from The Watchstrap is very timely with recent news that Google has just acquired Fitbit.

In the world of wearable gadgets, smartwatches are all the rage at the moment. The smartwatch market is growing by the day, and new and improved devices are constantly being released. This means that picking the right smartwatch can be a real head-scratcher. To help you choose the right device for your needs, we’ve compared two of the hottest smartwatches on the market: the Apple Watch Series 4 and Fitbit Versa!

If you want to find out which of these devices came on top in the end, don’t miss the comprehensive infographic below!

First, this is a great use of infographics in content marketing! The Watchstrap is an online retailer of watch bands, and the infographic is a comparison design without being a sales pitch. It draws in traffic by providing valuable information, which build credibility for their brand.

There are a handful of things I didn’t like about the design itself that could be easily improved to make this a better infographic design:

• Too much text. I realize there isn’t much data to work with, but they need to cut down the text in the infographic. Paragraphs of explanation don’t belong in the infographic, they belong on the landing page. The infographic should be short and draw in readers to the website if they want to learn more.

• The scale is wrong in the Size & Design section of the infographic. The dimensions of the Apple Watch are larger, but the graphic illustration on the page is smaller. The illustrations should be visually correct to scale.

• Eliminate any word wrap when possible. There are a number of list points that have one hanging word wrapping to a second line. This could be avoided by shortening the text or just widening the text box. There’s room in the design without wrapping some of these words.

• The URL in the footer should link to the infographic landing page, not the home page of the company site.

• Copyright or Creative Commons license is completely missing.

• Don’t obscure the source by only listing the home page URL. What’s the link to the research data?

Whether taking classes online or finding a seat in a lecture hall that makes you feel safe, Adam shares ideas for vets with TBI and PTSD returning to school.

Returning to school as a veteran — especially with a brain injury — can be difficult. Adam suggests strategies like starting slowly or taking a smaller course load that balances better with work and life.

Adam shares a message of hope to those diagnosed with TBI and/or PTSD: Your life may be different, but you are still the driver and in control.

Adam says that like drill and ceremony and calling cadence, which start with a first step, so does recovery from a brain injury and/or PTSD.

Adam talks frankly about his challenges keeping up with family and friends since his injury; he has good intentions but following through remains difficult.

Adam offers advice to caregivers of a loved one with TBI and/or PTSD — from simply trying to see how that person's life has changed to helping him get involved in confidence-boosting activities.

Adam shares an inspiring story about a friend with TBI and PTSD who almost ended his life but instead found the courage to ask for help — even though at the time he may not have known what that help looked like.

Transitioning from military to civilian life can take time and can be tricky. Adam talks about how student veteran groups on college campuses can help vets reintegrate socially in their own way and  time.

TBI? PTSD? Both? No matter your diagnosis, Adam says that taking the first steps to get help is what will matter most for a successful recovery.

Despite the improvements in helmet technology, helmets may prevent skull fractures, but they do not prevent concussions.

Competition is steep in games like football. The desire to win often trumps safety.

The decisions coaches make on the sidelines about returning a concussed player to the game or not can be a "game changer" for that athlete's life.

Research is showing that the accumulation of sub-concussive hits in sports like football can be just as damaging as one or two major concussions.

For many competitive high school football players like Garrett Harper, the intensity of this contact sport has its price.

The issues of sports-related concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy were intensified when the brain of a deceased 21-year-old football player was examined.

Why do some parents and coaches think it's okay to let 9-year-old kids get hit in the head over and over in football practices and games?

Despite multiple concussions, a high school freshman continues to play football. Will family tradition outweigh the risks?

Summer Camps 2020 Breakthrough Basketball: Elite Guard Camp A three-day basketball camp for intermediate to advanced players, covering essential skills, techniques, habits and drills to become an elite player and to develop an elite mindset.…

Summer Camps 2020 G-Prep Softball Camp A fundamental camp for girls; details TBA.…

Summer Camps 2020 All Northwest Football Passing Academy An offensive skill development for quarterbacks, wide receivers, tight ends and running backs.…

A side rail of a floor assembly of a trailer, such as a flatbed trailer, including a channel formed in a top wall of the side rail and an aperture formed in the top wall of the side rail at a location spaced-apart from the channel. The channel extends along a length of the side rail and is configured to receive a first cargo restraint device therein. The aperture is configured to receive a second cargo restraint device therein.

A dartboard includes a board frame and a plurality of target blocks coupled at the board frame. Each target block includes a block body, a predetermined amount of target materials, and a block panel. The block body has a material compartment and two openings aligning with the material compartment. The target materials are made of sisals and filled within the material compartment. The block panel is affixed to one of the openings of the block body to form a bottom panel of the respective block body so as to retain bottom of the target material within the material compartment of the block body.

A controller determines and adjusts system parameters, including cleanliness levels or sootblower operating settings, that are useful for maintaining the cleanliness of a fossil fuel boiler at an efficient level. Some embodiments use a direct controller to determine cleanliness levels and/or sootblower operating settings. Some embodiments use an indirect controller, with a system model, to determine cleanliness levels and/or sootblower settings. The controller may use a model that is, for example, a neural network, or a mass energy balance, or a genetically programmed model. The controller uses input about the actual performance or state of the boiler for adaptation. The controller may operate in conjunction with a sootblower optimization system that controls the actual settings of the sootblowers. The controller may coordinate cleanliness settings for multiple sootblowers and/or across a plurality of heat zones in the boiler.

A reconfigurable fixed position suspension and support structure attached to the trailer body using a locking device consisting of pins, bolts and/or other fastening devices. The support structure has a removable locking device that when attached to the support structure locks the support structure and suspension into a fixed position relative to the trailer body. When the trailer is not in operation, the locking device can be removed allowing the suspension group to be reconfigured, and each suspension to be repositioned relative to the trailer body. The removable locking device is then reattached to the suspension support structure locking the support structure and suspension into a new fixed position relative to the trailer body.

The present invention discloses a device and method for wireless communication between a paintball marker or gun and it's associated paintball loading device. This wireless communication, whether bidirectional or unidirectional, allows for the transmission of “load” commands and various other useful information between the paintball marker and the paintball feeding device. When the “load” command, which is much more responsive than the “passive” communication found in the prior art, is wirelessly received by the paintball feeding device, the paintball feeding device loads a singular or plurality of paintballs into the paintball marker of appropriate conduit.

Methods, apparatus, systems, and kits for loading paintballs into a feed tube of a paintball gun are disclosed. A loader includes a chamber for holding paintballs, a feed mechanism having a rotational feeder within the chamber that feeds paintballs from the chamber along a feed channel when rotating to fill the feed tube, and a drive mechanism that drives the rotational feeder of the feed mechanism, ceases to drive the rotational feeder responsive to stoppage of the rotational feeder, and periodically attempts to rotate the stopped rotational feeder. Paintballs are loaded from a loader into a feed tube of a paintball gun by driving a rotational feeder within the loader, the rotational feeder configured within the loader to feed paintballs into the feed tube when rotating, ceasing to drive the rotational feeder responsive to stoppage of the rotational feeder, and periodically attempting to rotate the stopped rotational feeder.

A football passing machine is configured to eject a prolate-spheroid-shaped football. The football passing machine includes a frame member, an adjustable launch surface mounted to the frame member, a ball magazine positioned above the adjustable launch surface that is configured to contain a plurality of footballs, a moveable escapement arm that is configured to successively dispense footballs that are contained within the ball magazine onto the launch surface, a moveable ball carriage configured to move a football between a first point on the launch surface that is located directly beneath the ball magazine and a second point on the launch surface that is adjacent a football launch mechanism that is configured to eject a football from the football passing machine. An orientation of the adjustable launch surface is configured to be adjusted to change a launch angle of a football while the frame member and the ball magazine remain stationary.

A web assembly can be used for making and maintaining a contour of a baseball or softball glove. The web assembly comprises a plurality of horizontal straps comprising a top strap and a bottom strap mechanically coupled to a plurality of vertical straps comprising a left strap and a right strap. A right durable strap and left durable strap are mechanically coupled to at least one horizontal strap where the at least one horizontal strap is further mechanically coupled to the right strap and the left strap. In this manner, a user can wrap the web assembly around the glove and affix the right durable strap to the left durable strap with a hook and loop fastener, and allowing for the straps to deform slightly to make and maintain the contour of the glove.

The present invention relates to a pocketbook system that allows to easily mix and match how many pocketbooks, other carriers, and/or straps will suffice for that day or evenings' use while this pocketbook system is easy to use and inexpensive to manufacture. More particularly, the pocketbook system has a primary pocketbook for carrying contents, one or more removably attached secondary carrier for carrying contents, a device(s) for removably attaching the secondary carrier(s) to the inside or outside of the primary pocketbook, or for attaching the primary pocketbook and secondary carrier together, and preferably has at least one removable flexible strap(s) and a device(s) for removably attaching the strap(s) to the primary pocketbook and/or secondary carrier. The user makes use of the pocketbook system by attaching, detaching, re-attaching, exchanging, and switching different parts and/or elements to form a suitable pocketbook structure for a particular use at a particular time.

A mobile platform has a separate and independent linear actuator pivotally connected near each opposite end of the platform where there is a contact limit switch that when triggered by contact with the side of a flatbed, stops movement of the actuator, and thus stops movement of the platform, toward the side of the flatbed. Because each of the two actuators is pivotally connected to its respective end of the platform and moves independently of the other, each end of the platform can stop moving toward the flatbed before or after, depending on how the flatbed is misaligned, the other end of the platform stops moving toward the flatbed. In this way the platform self-aligns to the alignment of the flatbed and avoids the need to reposition a flatbed that is not precisely aligned parallel to the central axis of the loading bay.

Self adjusting and/or locking buckle tongue assemblies for use with occupant restraint systems in vehicles are described herein. In one embodiment, a buckle tongue assembly includes a plate having a tongue portion configured to cooperatively engage a corresponding buckle assembly. The buckle tongue assembly of this embodiment can further include first and second web gripping portions carried by the plate. The second web gripping portion is configured to move relative to the first web gripping portion between a first position in which the web gripping portions are spaced apart to permit movement of a web therebetween, and a second position in which the web gripping portions are engaged or interlocked to clamp the web therebetween.

A network connection framework for connecting a dartboard to a portable device includes: a cloud server; a communication device communicating with the cloud server via a communication network; a dartboard including a dartboard unit, a sensing unit and a dartboard wireless communication unit which connects the dartboard to the cloud server via wireless signal, the dartboard wireless communication unit serves to receive and transmit the score signal to the could server; and a portable device with a portable device wireless communication device which connects the portable device to the cloud server via wireless signal. When the user registration information is inputted in the portable device, the score corresponding to the score signal will be displayed. Therefore, the dart game can be played by players in different venues, and consequently is not restricted by the number of the players and the size and location of the venue.