A time of joy and celebration

Laylatul Qadr or ‘Night of Power’ is considered an important date in Ramazan for Muslims

1. Trump’s Cabinet: Here Are His Picks And Finalists For Key Roles—Mike Huckabee, Kristi Noem And More  Forbes
2. Once They Were Neocons. Now Trump’s Foreign Policy Picks Are All ‘America First.’  The New York Times
3. Trump's top team: who's who?  Hindustan Times
4. Tracking Trump’s Cabinet picks  POLITICO

(Telecompaper) Canadian vendor Vecima Networks has announced the successful completion of a first-phase linear ad insertion deployment for US fibre and IPTV carrier Hotwire Communications. The first phase introduces linear parity ad insertion, enabling zonal ad placements in IPTV streams. In the next phase,...

1. Video: Mike Tyson shows he's not your typical 58-year-old during open workout  MMA Junkie
2. Tyson vows to bring 'devil himself' into Paul fight  ESPN
3. Watch 58-Year-Old Mike Tyson Crush Pads Days Away from Jake Paul Fight  Sports Illustrated
4. Mike Tyson-Jake Paul: How to watch the fight, time, odds  The Associated Press
5. The Mike Tyson-Jake Paul boxing match shows streaming is just cable now  The Washington Post

1. Trump names Fox News host Pete Hegseth as defence secretary pick  BBC.com
2. Trump's defense choice stuns the Pentagon and raises questions about the Fox News host's experience  The Associated Press
3. Trump Puts Allies on Alert by Handing Pentagon to Fox News Host Hegseth  Bloomberg
4. How Pete Hegseth went from Fox News host to Trump’s Defense Secretary pick  CNN

Fruit harvesting is one of the trickiest parts of the agricultural spectrum. The fruit not only has to be selected when it’s at the ideal ripeness, but also has to be picked very carefully so it doesn’t bruise or suffer damage. Now Israeli made Tevel fruit harvesting bots promise to revolutionize the process of fruit harvesting in a big way. The technology, which integrates A.I. based computer vision with clever vacuum based drone technology, offers fruit farmers a perfect way...

The post Tevel Autonomous Fruit Harvesting Bots – produce pickers face a fruitless future appeared first on The Red Ferret Journal.

The post What Can Bloggers Learn from Pickleball? appeared first on ProBlogger.

I may be late to the party but I’ve just discovered Pickleball! And after playing almost daily since my first hit, I have to admit I’m a little bit addicted… Pickleball, a sport that combines elements of tennis, badminton, and ping-pong, is not just a pastime with a quirky name—it’s ...more

The post What Can Bloggers Learn from Pickleball? appeared first on ProBlogger.

The post How to Choose a Topic for Your Next Blog Post appeared first on ProBlogger.

Choosing the right topic to write about on your blog is vital if you want to write a post that engages your reader. Rushing the choice of topic can set you off in the wrong direction and end up wasting both your time and that of your reader. While sometimes ...more

The post How to Choose a Topic for Your Next Blog Post appeared first on ProBlogger.

We come to the most sacred and debated words of Christian worship in history: the Epiclesis, the calling down of the Holy Spirit upon the bread and wine to make them into the Body and Blood of Christ. Is the change "real" or is it symbolic? How does the change happen? When does it happen? Are the words just a "hocus pocus" incantation? Can it happen anywhere a priest just speaks the words? Steve and Bill take up the challenge of going three rounds with this theological giant. In the first round they come out hesitant and tentative, dancing around their opponent. In the second and third rounds they get bolder and grapple with the topic but in the end are no match for the great Mystery. The epiclesis wins by a unanimous decision and Steve and Bill go home and hope to recover from their wounds by next week's show.

Dn. Mark explores the issues surrounding putting a loved one in Hospice.

Today, Martha shares why atmosphere is important to a meal, and why a picnic is a great option.

Dr. Rossi interviews Dr. Dan Hinshaw, a surgeon who wrote the book Suffering and the Nature of Healing, published by SVS Press.

Fr. John Parker, Chair of the Dept of Evangelization of the Orthodox Church in America, comments on an Op Ed piece in the New York Times about Russia and the Olympics. An edited version of Fr. John's comments can be found in the The Post and Courier.

Black lives matter. All lives matter. What should our response be as Christians?

Relive the 2008 Wimbledon men’s singles final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

BBC Sport pays tribute to Rafael Nadal's incredible career and looks back at the 2008 Wimbledon final, after the 22-time Grand Slam winner announced he will be retiring at the end of the season.

Coco Gauff shows supreme determination to come from behind against Zheng Qinwen to win the season-ending WTA Finals.

The decades long battle between a small Scottish community and Donald Trump's golf dream

As the Hong Kong Open begins, BBC Sport looks at squash's latest bid to participate in the Olympics with 2020 the target

As Wales head to Turkey in the Nations League, pick the team and approach you think Craig Bellamy should adopt in Kayseri.

Olympic curling gold medallist Jen Dodds says she has still "got a taste for winning" as she aims to become a European Champion for the second time.

The health secretary says he will come forward before Christmas with measures to aid the hospice sector.

The cottage, located on Mar Lodge Estate near Braemar, was visited by the queen on her trips to Balmoral.

A selection of photographs submitted to BBC Scotland News from around the country this week.

The new procedure will allow members to vote in the NI Assembly without physically being there.

The charity says it is "confident" there will be no gap in the service before its new building is ready.

Showcasing the best images sent to us from around Hampshire & Isle of Wight.

Showcasing the best images sent to us from around Hampshire & Isle of Wight.

John, whose wife Wendy is being cared for at the hospice, said it deserved more government funding.

Counterterrorism police say the officer is suspected of expressing support for the proscribed group online.

Showcasing the best images sent to us from around Berkshire.

Micky Beckett charged £10 a ticket in the raffle for the ILCA 7 dinghy he used to compete.

People across the south of England pay their respects to fallen service men and women.

Showcasing the best images sent to us from around Dorset.

A peek behind the famous concrete walls.

Not an artisan sourdough loaf in sight.

It's a well-known rule in journalism that if the headline asks a question, the answer is invariably "no". So to see the question above on this blog will probably not surprise you.

What might surprise you is to learn it was also the headline of a prominently-featured article on the BBC website yesterday. Of course, as is the current fad, when they say "prostitutes" they mean "trafficking", and vice-versa.

It's been long known that there is no connection between major international sporting events such as the Olympics, the World Cup, and sex trafficking. But don't take my word for it. Take the word of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who hosted a meeting on this very topic earlier this year. Take the word of the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, who produced a must-read report (pdf) on the actual effects of sports events on human trafficking. Go check out Laura Agustin's excellent summary too.

The facts:

• 2010 World Cup, South Africa: the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development did not find a single case of trafficking over the Olympics time period.

• 2010 Olympics, Canada: no evidence of trafficking and sex workers reported a fall in business.

• 2006 World Cup, Germany: 33 cases were referred to the police for further investigation, out of which 5 cases were confirmed to be trafficking (4 women and 1 man). No other cases were found, despite the fact that the police conducted 71 brothel raids (these raids did not identify the 5 confirmed trafficking cases, but did lead to 10 deportations).

• 2004 Olympics, Greece: When trafficking statistics were compared for all of 2004 with all of 2003, there was an increase of 181 trafficking cases (which is a 90% increase). According to both the police and the International Organization for Migration, none of these cases were linked to the Olympics.

• Super Bowls in the USA in 2008-2011: Although law enforcement increased, they made no additional arrests for sex work-related offences during this time.

You might be wondering, and it is a good question, why there isn't sex trafficking during these events. The answer is simple. Criminals may be criminals, but organised crime does not exist for the purpose of being evil. It exists to make loads of tax-free dosh. Does it make financial sense for sex trafficking to occur at these events? With London rents skyrocketing around the venues, with the Home Office plans to tighten border security, with the police already well misinformed about the magnitude of the trafficking problem, you'd have to be mad to pursue this as a business plan.

There was perhaps a time, back in the 90s, when sex trafficking in some parts of Eastern Europe might have netted you some cash if you already had the distribution network, but it's not the case now. Add to that a large native population willing and legally able to exchange money for sex and you'd be laughed out of Dragon's Den for even suggesting it as a goer. I've met a lot of dodgy characters in my day - drug dealers and worse besides - and to a person they were not in it to lose money. In many cases the black marketeers I know were actually better businesspeople than anyone in legit trading.

In spite of all this, we are still treated - almost daily now in the run-up to London 2012 - with the same old guff such as stories that sex trafficking 'almost doubled' during the Athens Olympics.

In this particular case, 'almost doubled' means that the number of reported incidents was 181, a 90% increase over the previous year. So yes, they did 'almost double'.

However if you too are underwhelmed by that number, it's with good reason. Applying all the usual disclaimers - any instance of forced sex trafficking is abhorrent and should be prosecuted vigorously, this is an argument about best use of police time, tax money and other resources - what does the reported change from just-shy-of-100 people to 181 actually represent?

Prostitution is legal and regulated in Greece, however, not everyone works legally and not everyone registers, because hello, do you want your name on the Greek government's hooker list? Probably not. Anyway, estimates put the number at about 1,000 legal prostitutes and 20,000 illegal ones. Given that these numbers are the ones put about by the US State Department which does not have a great track record on accuracy, it's a little suspect. But let's say for the sake of saying that represents some kind of starting ballpark figure and probably even an overestimate. The 21,000 total gives us about 1 in every 250 women in Greece working as a prostitute - actually a realistic enough proportion for Europe.

In the year before the Athens Olympics, the reports of sex trafficking at 95 represented 0.45% of all prostitution in Greece. And after the Olympics? 0.86%. Less than 1% of prostitutes in Greece were trafficked both before and after the Olympics.

There is no particular evidence, statistical or otherwise, to suggest that the fluctuation in this rather small number was due to the Olympics per se. In fact it is certainly within the bounds of what we call the 'law of small numbers' which dictates that they can and do fluctuate in a way that represents a high percentage of the values themselves, but given the rarity of the events involved, this is expected and not necessarily significant.

Here's an example. Let's say in the year 2008, there was 1 death in all of Scotland from a vending machine falling on someone. Then let's say a year later, in 2009, there were 2 such deaths. While it would be technically true to say that the number of vending machine accidental deaths 'doubled', is this a fair representation of the data? Is this a significant trend that is likely to continue? (Which would mean that by 2032, there would be 8.38 million such deaths in Scotland, or approximately... er, 150% of the population). No, obviously not. The change from 1 to 2 in a given year seems clearly attributable to chance. You'd be silly to conclude the change from one small number to another "means" very much without a lot of additional evidence.

If you've read my paper on the effects of lap dancing on sexual violence in London, you'll already be aware of how over time these small numbers fluctuate wildly. For context, the UNHCR gives the number of trafficked persons for Greece as 137 in 2005, 83 in 2006, 100 in 2007, 162 in 2008, 125 in 2009, 92 in 2010.

Now if these things had no knock-on effect, and if police resources and tax money were infinite, then sure, why not go after human trafficking even if it's only a very tiny proportion of all sex work in Greece - or in the more immediate case, London? But alas, it is not a matter of infinite police time and tax money. And it is definitely not a matter of no knock-on effects.

According to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, "Police crackdowns and brothel closures tend to displace sex workers from flats and saunas to less safe work venues, including the street, and make them wary of all authorities so they are less likely to access services or to report episodes of violence or crime to the police."

Given that the anti-sex lobby are so dead keen to keep claiming that all sex workers are inevitably the victims of violent and sex crimes, that seems like it's going to affect a hell of a lot more than a couple hundred people, no? Why does a small number of people matter to them more than a potentially far larger pool of people? Is it because that's where the grant money and column inches are at?

Not only is this increased danger the outcome in previous incidents of trafficking panic, it's happening right now in London. The Moratorium 2012 campaign, organised by x:talk, confirms:

Stop the Arrests Campaign is aware of ‘clean up efforts’ already underway in London, particularly east London, in the run-up to the Olympics ... Last December in Barking and Dagenham a violent gang carried out a series of robberies on brothels at knife point. Sex workers were deterred from pursuing the attacks after police threatened them with prosecution. Thus many more were attacked and one woman was raped.

Got that? Send the police after non-existent sex trafficking, and they end up cracking down on non-trafficked sex workers. When that happens, people in sex work are put in more danger. No one is made safer by doing this. No one is saved. Moratorium 2012 is calling on an end to the pointless and dangerous harassment. Please, sign the petition.

1. Bev Priestman out at Canada Soccer in wake of Olympic drone-spying scandal  CTV News
2. Canada Soccer’s drone-spying redactions tell us a whole lot of nothing while it waits out the rage clock  The Globe and Mail
3. Key findings from Sonia Regenbogen's independent review into Olympic drone-spying  CP24
4. What comes next in Canada Soccer drone-scandal investigation?  Sportsnet.ca

This paper contributes to the limited research on roles ICT can play in impression-management strategies and is based on case studies done in the Swedish Police. It also gives a theoretical contribution by adopting a holistic approach to explain how ICT can contribute to giving a misleading picture of conditions. Output generated by ICT has nowadays a central role in follow-up activities and decision-making. Even if this type of output, often in colourful, presentable, graphical arrangements, gives the impression of being accurate and reliable there is a risk of defective data quality. The phenomena can be described as a process divided into five steps. The first step is about how the data is generated and/or collected. The second step is linked to how the data is registered. The third step is about the output generated from the ICT-systems. The fourth step is how the output of ICT is selected for presentation. The fifth step concerns how output generated by ICT is interpreted. This paper shows that ICT can easily be used in impression-management strategies. For example, that personnel take shortcuts to affect the statistics rather than applying methods that may give the desired effects.

Aim/Purpose: In this study, we aim to investigate the impact of an important characteristic of textual reviews – the diversity of the review content on review helpfulness. Background: Consumer-generated reviews are an essential format of online Word-of-Month that help customers reduce uncertainty and information asymmetry. However, not all reviews are equally helpful as reflected by the varying number of helpfulness votes received by reviews. From consumers’ perspective, what kind of content is more effective and useful for making purchase decisions is unclear. Methodology: We use a data set consisting of consumer reviews for laptop products on Amazon from 2014 to 2018. A topic modeling technique is implemented to unveil the hidden topics embedded in the reviews. Based on the extracted topics, we compute the text diversity score of each review. The diversity score measures how diverse the content in a review is compared to other reviews. Contribution: In the literature, studies have examined various factors that can influence review helpfulness. However, studies that emphasized the information value of textual reviews are limited. Our study contributes to the extant literature of online word-of-mouth by establishing the connection between the diversity of the review content and consumer perceived helpfulness. Findings: Empirical results show that text diversity plays an important role in consumers’ evaluation of whether the review is helpful. Reviews that contain more diverse content tend to be more helpful to consumers. Moreover, we find a negative interaction effect between text diversity and the text depth. This result suggests that text depth and text diversity have a substitution effect. When a review contains more in-depth content, the impact of text diversity is weakened. Recommendations for Practitioners: For consumers to quickly find the informative reviews, platforms should incorporate measures such as text diversity in the ranking algorithms to rank consumer reviews. Future Research: Future study can extend the current research by examine the impact of text diversity for experienced goods and compare the results with search goods.

Competitive dynamics theory overlooks an entire class of attackers who pose a serious threat to commercial firms—nonmarket players (NMPs) such as activists, environmentalists, social entrepreneurs, and NGOs. Using an institutional perspective, this conceptual manuscript advances competitive dynamics theory by developing a framework of organizational hostility. The framework profiles NMPs according to their propensity to engage firms; it also classifies firms based on their vulnerability and initial reaction to NMP attacks. Corroborated with a mathematical model (Appendix), the conceptual framework explains which NMPs are most hostile to firms; why some NMPs issue threats whereas others quickly strike commercial firms; and which firms are most vulnerable to such hostility.

Hegseth, who is also a former soldier without political experience, will lead the world's most powerful military.

For now, there are several good choices for gun owners that DeWine can make, a few problematic ones, and one that’s completely unacceptable, his previous pick Dolan.

Australian NBA star Ben Simmons’ expiring salary was floated by veteran sports journalist Bill Simmons of The Ringer as one of the trade chips for the Brooklyn Nets in the potential Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes.