Lay your money down Court says states can OK sports betting
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for states coast to coast to legalize betting on sports, breaking a longtime ban and creating a potential financial boon for states and the gambling industry. The first bets could be placed within weeks.Despite opposition from the major sports leagues and the Trump administration, the high court struck down a federal law that had barred betting on football, basketball, baseball and other sports in most states. States that want to take advantage of the ruling now will generally have to pass legislation to allow sports books to open. Some, including New Jersey, which brought the case to the Supreme Court, have a head start.Sports leagues had expressed concerns about any expansion of sports gambling. Their huge businesses could be badly harmed if people thought the outcome of games could be altered by someone who had wagered money on a certain result.However, the ruling also could be seen as merely bringing an activity out of the shadows that many people already see as a mainstream hobby. Americans wager about $150 billion on sports each year illegally, according to the American Gaming Association. The law the justices struck down forbade state-authorized sports gambling with some exceptions and made Nevada the only state where a person could wager on the results of a single game.Stock prices for casino operators and equipment makers surged after the ruling was announced.Gambling on sports could quickly become widely available, with one research firm estimating that 32 states would likely offer sports betting within five years.The ruling “opens up the floodgates” for sports gambling in any state that wants to have it, said Daniel Wallach, a sports law expert in Florida.The decision had been eagerly anticipated by gamblers and also states that hope their cut of legalized sports betting can help solve budget problems. States that have already laid the legal groundwork include New Jersey, where one racetrack said it would begin taking bets within two weeks. Mississippi and West Virginia have also been preparing for sports betting, and gamblers there could be placing bets as early as this summer and certainly before the NFL season starts in September.Delaware, too, could quickly expand beyond certain bets currently offered at its casinos. Pennsylvania and New York have also made moves to begin sports gambling. However, other states that want to allow sports betting could still see several Super Bowls come and go before people there can place a legal bet close to home.The Trump administration had urged the high court to uphold the law, surprising perhaps because the president is the former owner of a New Jersey casino, the Trump Taj Mahal, now being remade into a Hard Rock casino resort. All four major U.S. professional sports leagues and the NCAA also had urged the court to uphold the federal law, saying a gambling expansion would hurt the integrity of their games. They also said that with legal sports betting in the United States, they’d have to spend a lot more money monitoring betting patterns and investigating suspicious activity.Sports gambling proponents argued that the leagues already do that work and that legal sports betting will make enforcement easier than it is now, when most bets in the U.S. are made illegally. They say state regulators are capable of monitoring suspicious bets, as is done in Nevada.On Monday, NBA commissioner Adam Silver and Major League Baseball issued statements saying the “integrity” of their games would remain a priority. Representatives of the National Hockey League, National Football League and NCAA said they were reviewing the court’s decision.Some saw other concerns, including for some gamblers. The ruling “will likely increase gambling participation and gambling problems unless steps are taken to minimize harm,” said Marlene Warner, the president of the National Council on Problem Gambling’s board of directors. The council said any government body or sports league that receives a direct percentage or portion of sports betting revenue should dedicate some of it to treat gambling problems.The law the justices struck down was passed by Congress in 1992 and called the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act.Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the court, “The legalization of sports gambling requires an important policy choice, but the choice is not ours to make.” The court’s “job is to interpret the law Congress has enacted and decide whether it is consistent with the Constitution,” he wrote. “PASPA is not.”Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor dissented. Ginsburg wrote for the three that when a portion of a law violates the Constitution, the court “ordinarily engages in a salvage rather than a demolition operation,” preserving what it can. She said that instead of using a “scalpel to trim the statute” her colleagues used “an axe.” Breyer agreed with the majority that part of the law must be struck down but said that should not have doomed the rest of the law.Congress could try to step in again. Sen. Orrin Hatch said he would soon introduce legislation to set national standards for sports betting, but It is unclear whether the rest of Congress will want to join him.The ruling was a particular victory for New Jersey, which has fought for years to legalize gambling on sports at casinos and racetracks. Former Republican Gov. Chris Christie tweeted that it was a “great day for the rights of states and their people to make their own decisions.” The state’s current governor, Democrat Phil Murphy, said he was “thrilled” to see the high court strike down the “arbitrary ban.” Several hours after the Supreme Court ruled, New Jersey lawmakers introduced new legislation that would regulate and tax sports gambling in the state.Casinos and racetracks in the state are also moving quickly. Monmouth Park, a racetrack at the Jersey Shore, has already set up a sports book operation and said Monday it plans to start taking bets within two weeks “unless someone stops us.” And Tony Rodio, president of Tropicana Entertainment, said his Atlantic City casino will offer sports betting once it can get it up and running.“It’s been a long time coming,” he said.___Parry reported from Atlantic City, New Jersey. Associated Press reporters Michael Catalini in Oceanport, New Jersey; Ben Nuckols in Washington and Steve Megargee in Knoxville, Tennessee, contributed reporting.___Follow Jessica Gresko on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jessicagresko
The company says in a release that bird deterrents used on tailings ponds weren’t in place for smaller bodies of water.It says those ponds are now included in its waterfowl protection plan.In 2010, Syncrude was fined $3 million after more than 1,600 ducks died when they landed on a tailings pond.That same year, more than 550 birds had to be killed when an early winter storm forced them to land on waste ponds belonging to Syncrude and Suncor Energy. FORT MCMURRAY, A.B. – Syncrude has agreed to plead guilty and pay $2.75 million in fines over the deaths of 31 great blue herons at an Alberta oilsands mine.The birds were found dead or dying in 2015 at an abandoned sump pond at Syncrude’s Mildred Lake mine north of Fort McMurray.Syncrude subsequently faced charges of failing to properly store a hazardous substance under Alberta legislation as well as federal charges under the Migratory Birds Act.
FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. – Stage North is looking for show submissions for their next season to be submitted before their Board Meeting on May 7th, 2019.The Theatre Society shares the call is open to the public to submit and if your play is accepted you would be asked to register as a member of Stage North. Available show slots include October, December, February, and April.To submit a show for consideration, the Board will need the following; A show title and authorThe synopsis of the showA DirectorA ProducerA Stage ManagerA budgetShow submissions need to be received Tuesday, May 7th at the Society’s Board Meeting at 6:30 PM, held at the Stage North rehearsal space. Located at 11520 East Bypass Rd.If you are unable to attend the Board Meeting or have further questions email; stagenorth@stagenorth.ca
Wales have announced that Aaron Ramsey will miss their Uefa Nations League clash with the Republic of Ireland due to “family reasons”The loss of the Arsenal midfielder will come as another blow for head coach Ryan Giggs after Gareth Bale returned to Real Madrid.Wales were handed a 4-1 thrashing by Spain at Cardiff on Friday after a brace from forward Paco Alcacer, along with goals from defensive duo Sergio Ramos and Marc Bartra.Ramsey, whose Arsenal future remains increasingly uncertain, played the full 90 minutes of the loss but could not make an impact with Sam Vokes grabbing an 89th-minute consolation goal.Now the 27-year-old will be replaced by Swansea City’s Daniel James for Tuesday’s game in Dublin.
Daniel James impresses Patrice Evra Manuel R. Medina – September 12, 2019 The Manchester United legend gave Daniel James a passionate speech after the youngster was voted Player of the Month for August.“Daniel James has been called up to the senior team from the under 21’s this morning. Aaron Ramsey will no longer travel with the squad to Dublin due to family reasons,” read a statement on the Wales FA Twitter.SQUAD UPDATE | DIWEDDARIAD CARFANDaniel James has been called up to the senior team from the under 21’s this morning. Aaron Ramsey will no longer travel with the squad to Dublin due to family reasons.#TogetherStronger pic.twitter.com/lYWOUUrI5M— Wales 🏴 (@Cymru) October 15, 2018
The 19-year-old has donated a minibus to his former Escola de Futebol O Fintas in Braga, where he was developed as a footballer.Full-back Diogo Dalot moved from Porto in the Portuguese First Division to Manchester United in the English Premier League in the summer of 2018.He had barely spent one season as a professional with his club, debuting in 2017.But the 19-year-old doesn’t forget where he comes from, and he just donated a minibus to his Escola de Futebol O Fintas in Braga.“I wanted to give them something because they didn’t get anything for my transfer to here and I’m aware of their difficulties,” Dalot told the Manchester United official website.“I needed to help – it’s my job. I didn’t do it for the press. I did it because I wanted to and they’ve helped me get here.”“I think we [as footballers] can all help in some way. I don’t think it’s just all about the money, but I tried to help in this way and I think it was good for them,” he added.“I remember the days when my dad had to drive my friends and I [to matches] because they didn’t have a van for the players.””I will try and help more if I can. I gave them a shirt too and they thought it was just the shirt, so they were very surprised [about the minibus],” he continued.“I Facetimed them when I was traveling to a United game, so it was a good moment to see.”
Lukaku backed to beat Ronaldo in Serie A scoring charts Andrew Smyth – September 14, 2019 Former Inter Milan star Andy van der Meyde is confident Romelu Lukaku will outscore Cristiano Ronaldo in this season’s Serie A.The Red Devils will pay Crystal Palace a visit tonight, as part of the Premier League Matchday 28.“I think when we play them at [their] home it’s always a tough game,” he said.“Of course we have a few injuries so we need to stick together as always, but this time more than ever. I think we’re going to be ready for it.”“In the last game, Crystal Palace did well, but we just need to keep focusing on ourselves first and, of course, be ready for the dangers,” Dalot recalled.“I think we’ve had some very good games. The away games have been incredible. I think we are keeping the team solid and playing good football and the away games, for me, have been a good experience to be a part of.”Next up for #MUFC:🆚 Crystal Palace📆 Wednesday 27 February⏰ 20:00 GMT🏟 Selhurst Park🏆 #PL pic.twitter.com/qr00vzO854— Manchester United (@ManUtd) February 25, 2019
Additional beds available for homeless due to rainy weather in San Diego KUSI Newsroom Posted: February 26, 2018 February 26, 2018 SAN DIEGO (KUSI) — The Inclement Weather Shelter Program at Father Joe’s Villages and Connections Housing Downtown for homeless San Diegans has been activated by the San Diego Housing Commission in partnership with the City of San Diego.Shelter nights are provided when the temperature is 50 degrees or below and there is a 40 percent chance of rain, or in exceptional weather conditions, such as one or more inches of rain within 24 hours and sustained winds of over 25 MPH.The date(s) is listed below:Monday, February 26Father Joe’s Villages Shelter — up to 250 individualsCheck-In: 4 p.m. — Throughout the nightCheck-Out: 5 a.m.Meal provided1501 Imperial Ave, San Diego, CA 92101The City of San Diego funds the Inclement Weather Shelter Program at Father Joe’s Villages.PATH San Diego/Connections Housing Downtown Shelter – Up to 30 individualsCheck-In: 5 p.m. – 7 p.m.Check-Out: 7 a.m.Meal provided1250 6th Ave, San Diego, CA 92101The San Diego Housing Commission funds the Inclement Weather Shelter Program at PATH San Diego/Connections Housing.Inclement Weather Shelter Program–Downtown San Diego Area The Inclement Weather Shelter Program in the city’s downtown area is a partnership of the San Diego Housing Commission, City of San Diego, Father Joe’s Villages, PATH San Diego/Connections Housing Downtown and 2-1-1 San Diego. For more information about this shelter program or other county-wide shelter programs, dial 2-1-1, or visit www.211sandiego.org KUSI Newsroom, Categories: Local San Diego News Tags: Father Joe’s Villages, Weather FacebookTwitter
Bradley Elliott, 57, of Sterling, worked for the district as a junior varsity hockey coach at Kenai Central High School for the 2005-06 school year. He was also involved with the hockey program at Soldotna High School for three seasons, from 2007 to 2010. The victims that filed the suit are “seeking damages in excess of $100,000 from the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District, the Kenai Peninsula Hockey Association and former hockey coach”, according to court documents. Elliott faces 62 years and 240 days in prison, with 42 years suspended and a $300,000 fine. A status hearing is scheduled for December 18, according to Courtview. Facebook0TwitterEmailPrintFriendly分享A former hockey coach on the Kenai Peninsula was sentenced on Monday to 62 years in prison for sexual abuse of six minors and possession of child pornography. According to charging documents, Elliott plead guilty to a total of 15 charges, including six charges of 2nd-degree sexual abuse of a minor, one charge of possession of child pornography and eight charges of indecent photography. A suit was filed against the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District and the Kenai Peninsula Hockey Association in February claims the two organizations failed to “warn students” and alleges negligent hiring, training and supervision practices. The damages sought in excess of $100,000 were listed in court documents for “psychological and counseling expenses, rehabilitation expenses, physical injury, emotional distress, pain and suffering, inconvenience and loss of enjoyment of life.”
ESPN The Magazine in Mexicowill have an initial print run of between 20,000 and 30,000, according to anESPN spokesperson. The majority of ads will come from the local Mexican market,the spokesperson says.ESPN also publishes ESPN Deportes La Revista, aSpanish-language sports magazine in the U.S.,and launched ESPN The Magazine in Chinain October 2004. ESPN Publishing is expected to announce a partnership today with aMexican publishing company to launch ESPN The Magazine in Mexico.ESPN’s Spanish-language edition, the company’s secondinternational launch, will be Mexico’sonly monthly general sports magazine, the publisher says. Editorial contentwill be managed by Mexican publisher Grupo GW and will include what ESPN calls”locally relevant content.””A Spanish-language edition of ESPN The Magazine in Mexicois a natural extension of our efforts to serve sports fans in the country andit compliments our other ESPN-branded initiatives, including television, radio,Internet and broadband,” executive vice president and ESPN Internationalmanaging director Russell Wolff said in a statement.
WILMINGTON, MA — Below are some of the newest job openings in Wilmington:Full-Time (Contract) Flatbed Truck Contract Carrier at XPO LogisticsFull-Time Lawn Care Technician at Garrick-Santo LandscapeFull-Time Crew Members at Garrick-Santo LandscapePart-Time/Full-Time Gardeners & Horticulturalists at Garrick-Santo LandscapePart-Time/Full-Time Pizza Counter/Register Help at Wilmington House of PizzaFull-Time Manufacturing Manager at Xenon CorporationPart-Time MARCOM Assistant at Xenon CorporationPart-Time Delivery Driver at Optima ShippingFull-Time Water Mitigation Technician at Response Team 1Full-Time Movers & Drivers at Two Men And A Truck(NOTE: Wilmington businesses — Feel free to send me your job postings at wilmingtonapple@gmail.com.)Like Wilmington Apple on Facebook. Follow Wilmington Apple on Twitter. Follow Wilmington Apple on Instagram. Subscribe to Wilmington Apple’s daily email newsletter HERE. Got a comment, question, photo, press release, or news tip? Email wilmingtonapple@gmail.com.Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:Like Loading… RelatedNOW HIRING: 10 New Job Openings In WilmingtonIn “Business”NOW HIRING: 10 New Job Openings In WilmingtonIn “Business”NOW HIRING: 50 New Job Openings In Wilmington (Week of March 10, 2019)In “Business”
WILMINGTON, MA — Below are some of the newest job openings in Wilmington:Full-Time Product Specialist at Scully Signal CompanyPart-Time Nanny For 1 Wilmington ChildPart-Time Security Guard at Allied UniversalPart-Time Yard Person at Garrick-Santo Landscape Co.Full-Time/Part-Time Delivery Courier Driver at OptimaPart-Time Cargo Van Delivery Driver at OptimaFull-Time Mill Metal Worker at TecometFull-Time CNC Machinist at TecometFull-Time Mechanical Engineering Technician at SymboticFull-Time Staff Accountant at UniFirst(NOTE: Wilmington businesses — Feel free to send me your job postings at wilmingtonapple@gmail.com.)Like Wilmington Apple on Facebook. Follow Wilmington Apple on Twitter. Follow Wilmington Apple on Instagram. Subscribe to Wilmington Apple’s daily email newsletter HERE. Got a comment, question, photo, press release, or news tip? Email wilmingtonapple@gmail.com.Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:Like Loading… RelatedNOW HIRING: 10 New Job Openings In WilmingtonIn “Business”NOW HIRING: 10 New Job Openings In WilmingtonIn “Business”NOW HIRING: 10 New Job Openings In WilmingtonIn “Business”
US homeland security secretary Kirsten Nielsen (C) speaks during a press briefing on national security with Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats (L), FBI director Christopher Wray (2nd R) and Gen. Paul Nakasone (R), commander of the US Cyber Command (R) at the White House in Washington, DC, on 2 August. Photo: AFPThe US government on Thursday accused Russia of carrying out a “pervasive” campaign to influence public opinion and elections, in a warning just months before crucial legislative polls.“We continue to see a pervasive messaging campaign from Russia to try to weaken and divide the United States,” said Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence.A slew of top US officials including Coats, FBI director Christopher Wray and Homeland Security chief Kirstjen Nielsen vowed to investigate and prosecute those who were trying to sway US opinion or carrying out what Wray described as “information warfare.”“Our democracy itself is in the crosshairs,” Nielsen said in an unusually stark warning.“This is not just an election cycle threat,” Wray said. “Our adversaries are trying to undermine our country on a persistent and regular basis, whether it’s election season or not.”The comments came in jarring contrast to the positions of president Donald Trump, but the two men dismissed suggestions the president-who has repeatedly denied Russia moved to tilt the election in his favour-is not taking the issue seriously.In a letter to Congress, national security advisor John Bolton said the administration had taken “extensive, historic action” to stop the threat.Trump has mulled easing sanctions against Moscow, held warm meetings with Russian president Vladimir Putin and refused to criticize him over the meddling in the 2016 election.He has also repeatedly called for an end to the investigation into Moscow’s meddling, which has seen more than 20 Russians indicted so far.Asked whether the American people could trust the administration to do its job, Wray responded: “I can assure the American people that the men and the women of the FBI, from the director all the way on down, are going to follow our oaths and do our jobs.”
Daniel Vettori became the first New Zealand bowler to take 300 one-day international wickets as the Black Caps made short work of Afghanistan to remain unbeaten after five World Cup matches on Sunday. Left-arm spinner Vettori scythed through the Afghanistan top order, using his guile on a pitch producing no turn, to finish with the remarkable figures of four for 18 in 10 overs as Afghanistan were dismissed for 186. Along the way he became the 12th player, and only the fifth spinner, to take 300 ODI wickets. Also Read – Khel Ratna for Deepa and Bajrang, Arjuna for JadejaOn a run-laden McLean Park pitch in Napier, New Zealand needed only 36.1 overs to overhaul Afghanistan’s total. New Zealand, who had already qualified for the quarter-finals, have yet to be taken the distance in the field and the 47.4 overs bowled to Afghanistan is the most they have sent down in any match in the tournament. But the result was never in doubt when Brendon McCullum, with his trademark aggressive approach, blazed away at the top of the New Zealand innings slamming 42 off 19 deliveries to get the chase off to a rollicking start. Also Read – Endeavour is to facilitate smooth transition: ShastriWhen he was bowled by Mohammad Nabi, trying to belt his opposing captain out of the ground, New Zealand were already a quarter of the way to their target after fewer than six overs. The pace slowed from nine to 5.19 runs an over after McCullum’s dismissal as New Zealand coasted to victory with their middle-to-lower order not getting the lengthy time at the crease they wanted before the knockout phase.Kane Williamson, in his understated manner, contributed 33, Martin Guptill reached 57, his highest score of the campaign, and Grant Elliott made 19. Guptill and Elliott were both needlessly run out when time and runs were not an issue, leaving Ross Taylor (24 not out) and Corey Anderson (seven not out) to see New Zealand home. It wasn’t easy for Afghanistan who were already jet-lagged having crossed the Tasman Sea twice in the week to meet their gruelling World Cup schedule ahead of this game.BRIEFSCORES NZL 188/4 (Guptill 57, McCullum 42) beat AFG 186 (Najibullah 56, Vettori 4-18, Boult 3-34) by six wickets.
Kolkata: The man, who got arrested on Wednesday for slapping his own father, got bail after his father appealed before the magistrate. On Thursday, the accused Pradip Biswas was produced before Barasat Court.When the magistrate was hearing the matter, surprisingly Pradip’s father Maniklal stood up appealed to the magistrate if he could grant his son bail. He also stated that he did wrong by offering sweets to his wife. The magistrate later granted Pradip bail. Replying to the questions by the media persons, Maniklal said: “He is my only son. Though he did wrong, he will not do it again. If he does not get bail, then I will commit suicide.” Also Read – Rain batters Kolkata, cripples normal lifeOn Friday, Pradip repeatedly slapped Maniklal for giving a bite of sweet to his wife. Pradip became furious on seeing his father offering sweets to his mother as she has high blood sugar and needs to refrain from sweets. He immediately dragged his father out of the room and started slapping him. A neighbour of Pradip heard loud screams and sneaked over the wall and saw him slapping his father. He made a video and posted it on Facebook. As it went viral, someone tagged Kolkata Police. Kolkata Police later informed Barasat District Police and Pradip got arrested.
With smartphone owners now downloading more than 2 billion mobile applications every month, the app store gold rush is in full swing. But precious few software developers are striking it rich. As of late last year, developers had published close to a million apps optimized for devices running Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android–but for every juggernaut, like Angry Birds, there are a multitude of mobile games that earn only a few thousand dollars over the course of their life cycle.The problem is that consumers love playing mobile games, not paying for them. App search engine Chomp reports premium applications made up just 27 percent of Apple’s App Store downloads in November 2011 and a mere 3 percent of downloads from Google’s Android Market. That’s why so many mobile developers are turning to in-game purchases–like virtual currency and weapons–to boost their fortunes. Others are relying on revenue derived via in-game banner ads.Brian Wong believes there’s a better way. Kiip, the San Francisco-based company the 20-year-old co-founded in 2010, eschews conventional mobile advertising formats in favor of offering real-world rewards for virtual achievements. For example, a gamer who successfully advances to the next level of play is rewarded with coupons and freebies from Kiip partners like Dr Pepper, Carl’s Jr., 1-800-Flowers and Sephora. The solution also allows developers and advertisers to match higher-value rewards to higher-difficulty achievements, driving gamer engagement.”Traditional advertising has always had a bad rap. If you offer users something for free, they think, What’s the catch?” says Wong, who launched Kiip after a brief stint heading business development at social news website Digg. “Our message is about retention. We’re helping developers keep their user base engaged and happy. When I ask developers, ‘How are you thanking players?’ they get stumped. The answer is that you do that through rewards.”Kiip applies a complex system of algorithms, tags and consumer data to determine not only the optimal juncture to deliver rewards but also what kinds of prizes to offer, and how often. “We extract value from the moment,” Wong says. “[Rewards] depend on the game itself, along with other environmental factors, like where are you, what kind of gamer are you and who are you.”Advertisers pay Kiip only when a consumer accepts a reward offer, with fees ranging from 25 cents to $3 per interaction. The firm splits revenue 50-50 with the game’s developer. As of late 2011, Kiip had integrated into about 60 iOS and Android titles with a combined user base of more than 35 million. According to Wong, between 30 and 40 percent of gamers engage with Kiip reward offers, with an average of 1.7 million rewards delivered each month.”We help developers build a business around user retention and engagement,” Wong says. “Rewards help guarantee that people come back to the game and play it more often.”Look for the number of developers embracing Kiip to grow significantly in the months ahead: During the waning days of 2011, the startup inked a deal with GameSalad, a mobile-game development platform provider, to integrate its rewards network into GameSalad’s Creator authoring toolset. More than 200,000 developers have leveraged GameSalad solutions to build roughly 20,000 titles.Wong is already mulling over how to expand the Kiip model beyond gaming into other mobile-app categories and digital channels. “There’s applicability across different types of mobile apps, e-commerce and entertainment,” he says. “Say you’re running with the Nike+ app and you beat your last run time, so here’s a coupon for a free vitaminwater.”Even if you’re not a mobile-game developer–heck, even if you don’t know how to send a text message–Kiip is a company worth watching. Wong plans to simplify marketer access to the Kiip network during the months ahead, enabling local and national brands to automatically set up their own rewards campaigns.”All apps are location-aware. Location is a given now,” Wong says. “My goal is to offer rewards from businesses in your immediate area that are coming to you as a result of your actions within an app. You shouldn’t have to go into a store or check in, you just have to be in a contextually relevant location. Our rewards platform can exist anywhere there is an action–that’s why we’ve never had the words play or games in our name or our slogans. ‘Kiip them happy,’ that’s our tagline.” Free Webinar | Sept. 9: The Entrepreneur’s Playbook for Going Global 4 min read Register Now » March 9, 2012 Growing a business sometimes requires thinking outside the box. This story appears in the March 2012 issue of . Subscribe »
After deep learning, reinforcement Learning (RL), the hottest branch of Artificial Intelligence that is finding speedy adoption in tech-driven companies. Simply put, reinforcement learning is all about algorithms tracking previous actions or behaviour and providing optimized decisions using trial-and-error principle. Read How Reinforcement Learning works to know more. It might sound theoretical but gigantic firms like Google and Uber have tested out this exceptional mechanism and have been highly successful in cutting edge applied robotics fields such as self driving vehicles. Other top giants including Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft have centralized their innovations around deep reinforcement learning across Automotive, Supply Chain, Networking, Finance and Robotics. With such humongous achievement, reinforcement learning libraries has caught the Artificial Intelligence developer communities’ eye and have gained prime interest for training agents and reinforcing the behavior of the trained agents. In fact, researchers believe in the tremendous potential of reinforcement learning to address unsolved real world challenges like material discovery, space exploration, drug discovery etc and build much smarter artificial intelligence solutions. In this article, we will have a look at the most promising open source tools and libraries to start building your reinforcement learning projects on. OpenAI Gym OpenAI Gym, the most popular environment for developing and comparing reinforcement learning models, is completely compatible with high computational libraries like TensorFlow. The Python based rich AI simulation environment offers support for training agents on classic games like Atari as well as for other branches of science like robotics and physics such as Gazebo simulator and MuJoCo simulator. The Gym environment also offers APIs which facilitate feeding observations along with rewards back to agents. OpenAI has also recently released a new platform, Gym Retro made up of 58 varied and specific scenarios from Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and Sonic 3 games. Reinforcement learning enthusiasts and AI game developers can register for this competition. Read: How to build a cartpole game using OpenAI Gym TensorFlow This is an another well-known open-source library by Google followed by more than 95,000 developers everyday in areas of natural language processing, intelligent chatbots, robotics, and more. The TensorFlow community has developed an extended version called TensorLayer providing popular RL modules that can be easily customized and assembled for tackling real-world machine learning challenges. The TensorFlow community allows for the framework development in most popular languages such as Python, C, Java, JavaScript and Go. Google & its TensorFlow team are in the process of coming up with a Swift-compatible version to enable machine learning on Apple environment. Read How to implement Reinforcement Learning with TensorFlow Keras Keras presents simplicity in implementing neural networks with just a few lines of codes with faster execution. It provides senior developers and principal scientists with a high-level interface to high tensor computation framework, TensorFlow and centralizes on the model architecture. So, if you have any existing RL models written in TensorFlow, just pick the Keras framework and you can transfer the learning to the related machine learning problem. DeepMind Lab DeepMind Lab is a Google 3D platform with customization for agent-based AI research. It is utilized to understand how self-sufficient artificial agents learn complicated tasks in large, partially observed environments. With the victory of its AlphaGo program against go players, in early 2016, DeepMind captured the public’s attention. With its three hubs spread across London, Canada and France, the DeepMind team is focussing on core AI fundamentals which includes building a single AI system backed by state-of-the-art methods and distributional reinforcement learning. To know more about how DeepMind Lab works, read How Google’s DeepMind is creating images with artificial intelligence. Pytorch Pytorch, open sourced by Facebook, is another well-known deep learning library adopted by many reinforcement learning researchers. It was recent preferred almost unanimously by top 10 finishers in Kaggle competition. With dynamic neural networks and strong GPU acceleration, Rl practitioners use it extensively to conduct experiments on implementing policy-based agent and to create new adventures. One crazy research project is Playing GridWorld, where Pytorch unchained its capabilities with renowned RL algorithms like policy gradient and simplified Actor-Critic method. Summing It Up There you have it, the top tools and libraries for reinforcement learning. The list doesn’t end here, as there is a lot of work happening in developing platforms and libraries for scaling reinforcement learning. Frameworks like RL4J, RLlib are already in development and very soon would be full-fledged available for developers to simulate their models in their preferred coding language.
For a change, overnight activity in the Far East in both gold and silver showed some real signs of life.It was a very slow day in the gold world on Wednesday…and most of gold’s price movements, such as they were, were most likely currency related. Gold closed at $1,693.40 spot…down $2.80 from Tuesday. Volume, most of it of the high-frequency trading variety, was decent at around 113,000 contracts.Silver’s price pattern was similar…and the price briefly dipped below $32.00 spot before recovering as the dollar index headed south. Silver closed at $32.70 spot…down 9 cents on the day. Net volume was average…whatever that means these days…at around 33,000 contracts.All the ‘action’ yesterday was in the dollar index. It opened at 81.34 at 6:00 p.m. in New York on Tuesday night…and by 9:30 a.m. in London the next day, it had hit its zenith at around 81.65. From there it went into a decline that bottomed out at 81.14 shortly after 11:00 a.m. in New York. It recovered a hair from that low…closing at 81.20…down a whole 14 basis points when all was said and done.Both the gold and silver charts show this currency move pretty clearly.The gold stocks started in the red, but finally got into positive territory…and then mostly stayed there for the rest of the trading day. The HUI closed up 0.45%.The silver equities were mixed yesterday…and gave back a bit of their Monday and Tuesday gains, as Nick Laird’s Silver Sentiment Index closed down 0.45%.(Click on image to enlarge)For a change, the CME’s Daily Delivery Report was much more interesting. They reported that 16 gold and 485 silver contracts were posted for delivery within the Comex-approved depositories on Friday. Jefferies was the short/issuer de jour, posting 476 contracts…and it should come as no surprise to anyone that the big long/stopper was JPMorgan…with 253 contracts in its client account and 186 contracts in its proprietary [in house] account. The Issuers and Stoppers Report is definitely worth checking out…and the link is here.There were no reported changes in GLD yesterday…but after a big withdrawal from SLV on Tuesday, there was an even bigger addition on Wednesday, as an authorized participant[s] added 2,934,108 troy ounces.The U.S. Mint had another smallish sales report yesterday. They sold 4,500 ounces of gold eagles…and another 125,000 silver eagles.It was another very busy day over at the Comex-approved depositories on Tuesday. They reported receiving 602,812 troy ounces of silver…and shipped 1,558,280 troy ounces out the door.While on the subject of the Comex-approved depositories, I noticed something different about the CME’s web page when I clicked on it early yesterday evening…but I didn’t investigate any further. It took an e-mail from Nick Laird very late last night that pointed out the difference. There’s a new depository added to the list. It’s called CNT Depository…and a Google search revealed this.I’ll be very interested in seeing how they fit into the grand scheme of things…and just how much metal they accumulate on behalf of their clientele. According to Nick, they reported receiving 631,389 troy ounces on Tuesday…the first day they showed up as a depository.In the same e-mail, Nick sent along this chart entitled “Comex Depository Warehouse Silver Stocks” that goes back about 41 years…and here it is.(Click on image to enlarge)I have the usual number of stories today…and I hope you have time to read the ones that interest you the most.It was a nothing sort of day in the precious metal markets yesterday…another day off the calendar as Ted Butler would say…so I’ll just move along to other things.Tomorrow we get the latest Commitment of Traders Report…and as you are already aware, I’m more than interested in what’s in it.For a change, overnight activity in the Far East in both gold and silver showed some real signs of life. After rallying a bit in early morning trading, a more substantial rally began around 2:30 p.m. Hong Kong time…and is continuing into early London trading as well. The rally in silver is even more impressive.However, the volume in gold is getting way up there…35,000 contracts. And silver’s volume is already an eye-watering 12,300 contracts as I hit the ‘send’ button at 5:13 a.m. Eastern time. The dollar index is comatose.These are not short covering rallies by any stretch of the imagination, but new long positions being established and, without doubt, it’s JPMorgan et al going short against all comers. Unfortunately none of this data will be in tomorrow’s COT report. We’ll have to wait until next Friday…and in the current environment, that’s a lifetime away.It remains to be seen whether these rallies continue in London…or get stepped on before New York opens, as the similar rallies that developed in both platinum and palladium earlier today, have already met that fate.Here are the current gold and silver charts as of 4:53 a.m. Eastern time. 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Considering the start to the Thursday trading session in both the Far East and London…it could be a wild one in New York today…and I’m looking forward to the 8:20 a.m. Eastern time Comex open with more than the usual amount of interest.Before hitting the ‘send’ button on today’s column, I want to bring this Casey Research offer to your attention ONE LAST TIME…as you’ve only got THREE DAYS LEFT TO ACT. As you probably already know, the September 7th Casey Research/Sprott Inc. Summit: Navigating the Politicized Economy, will be held in Carlsbad, CA. If you’re not registered to attend, you may want to purchase the complete audio collection (available in a 20-CD set and/or MP3 downloads) to listen to at home.The faculty presenting includes David Walker, former US Comptroller General, Dr. Lacy Hunt, former Senior Economist, Dallas Fed; Executive VP, HIMCO, Don Coxe, Global Strategy Advisor, BMO Financial Group, David Webb, hedge fund phenomenon, Origin Investments, AB, Dr. Thomas M. Barnett, former Senior Advisor, Office of the Secretary of Defense, G. Edward Griffin, author, The Creature from Jekyll Island, Bob Hoye, Chief Financial Strategist, Institutional Advisors, Peter Schweizer, Hoover Institute, author of Throw Them All Out, Doug Casey, contrarian speculator, Eric Sprott, Chairman, Sprott Asset Management, and 18 other financial luminaries.These are top-drawer speakers…and the ladies at Casey Research in Stowe, Vermont are telling me if you order before the summit ends on September 9th, you’ll save $100. To learn more about the 28 financial experts and what they are presenting, please click here…and it doesn’t cost a dime to look!See you on Friday…Saturday west of the International Date Line.
As you also already know, supply/demand fundamentals mean nothing It was a volatile trading session for gold yesterday, but it all happened within a very tight price range—and appeared to center around the $1,200 price mark. The high tick came at exactly 9 a.m. Hong Kong time on their Tuesday morning—and the low tick came at the London afternoon gold fix—and the subsequent rally got hammered flat during the next two hours of trading. Then, starting a minute or so after 12 o’clock noon in New York, the gold price rallied back towards the $1,200 spot price mark—and made it shortly after the COMEX trading session ended. From there, the price traded basically flat into the close. The CME Group recorded the high and low ticks as $1,204.40 and $1,190.00 in the April contracts. Gold finished the Tuesday session in New York at $1,201.30 spot, down 50 cents from Monday’s close. Net volume checked in around 105,000 contracts—about the same daily volume it has been for last five trading days or so. Not surprisingly, the gold stocks hit their high at the same time as the metal itself, which was shortly before 11 a.m. EST. From there they chopped lower—and never got a sniff of positive territory after that, even though the gold price recovered to virtually unchanged. The HUI closed down 0.56 percent—and as you can tell, there was a problem with the main data feed—and the chart is not “all there” so to speak. Nick Laird’s HUI chart looked the same, or I would have posted that in lieu of. By the way, if you’re not up on your Grand Canyon statistics, I found this excellent Reader’s Digest version of the whole place linked here. The dollar index closed late on Monday afternoon in New York at 94.55—and continued on with the rally that it was currently in. That rally developed even more momentum starting about 3 p.m. Hong Kong time, which was an hour before the London open. The 94.86 high tick came at the 10:30 a.m. GMT London a.m. gold fix—and then the index chopped lower in a very wide range, closing at 94.47—which was down 8 basis points from Monday’s close. Here’s the 5-minute gold chart courtesy of Brad Robertson—and as you can tell, almost all yesterday’s volume occurred between the London afternoon gold fix—and 11:45 a.m. EST. Before and after, there was there was virtually no volume worth mentioning. Don’t forget to add two hours for EST—and the ‘click to enlarge’ feature really helps with this chart. Platinum’s chart was a mini version of both the gold and silver charts. Platinum closed at $1,163 spot, up two bucks on the day. The silver chart looked very similar, with the high tick coming in morning trading in Hong Kong. But the low tick of the day came a few moments after 12 o’clock noon in New York. From there it chopped quietly higher and, like gold, closed almost unchanged. The high and lows were reported as $16.04 and $16.455 in the March contract. Silver closed yesterday at $16.31 spot, down a penny. Net volume was only 16,000 contracts, but gross volume was, not surprisingly, very high as traders continue to roll out of the March contract and into future months.
The silver equities spiked well into positive territory, but fell back to unchanged as the not-for-profit sellers took the price to its noon low tick. From there they traded in a tight range either side of unchanged, closing down 0.06 percent. The CME Daily Delivery Report showed that 266 gold and 9 silver contracts were posted for delivery within the COMEX-approved depositories on Thursday. The big short/issuer sitting in the bushes until the last day turned out to be none other than HSBC USA with 255 contracts. JPMorgan stopped 261 contracts in its client account. The nine contracts in silver were issued by Jefferies and stopped by Canada’s Scotiabank. The link to yesterday’s Issuers and Stoppers Report is here. The CME’s Preliminary Report for the Tuesday trading session showed that February open interest was unchanged from Monday at 362 contracts minus, of course, the 266 contracts posted for delivery tomorrow. The remaining gold contracts for February delivery will be posted in tomorrow’s column. In silver, there are still 12 contracts outstanding, minus the 9 posted above. The remaining 3 will be in tomorrow’s Preliminary report. There were no reported changes in GLD—and as of 9:46 p.m. EST yesterday evening, there were no changes in SLV, either. The U.S. Mint had another sales report. They sold 1,500 troy ounces of gold eagles—500 one-ounce 24K gold buffaloes—and another 253,500 silver eagles. There was very little gold activity over at the COMEX-approved depositories on Monday, as only 643.000 troy ounces were reported received—and 128.600 were shipped out. That’s 20 kilobars and 4 kilobars respectively. As always, it was a pretty big day in silver, as 886,249 troy ounces were shipped in, but only 20,180 were shipped out the door. The link to the silver activity is here. Once again I have a very decent number of stories for you today—and I hope you find some in here that are of interest to you. Even though the headline number of the total commercial net short position [in silver in last Friday’s COT Report] has declined by nearly 14,000 contracts since January 27, the concentrated net short position of the eight largest shorts has hardly budged—and remains over 65,000 contracts. This is still a manipulative position on its face since it represents more than 325 million ounces and 40% of world annual production, an amount unequalled among all commodities. Reviewing the dismal earnings reports by those companies that mine silver, I have uncovered not a one holding any of the 325 million oz held short by the 8 crooked COMEX shorts. Excepting JPMorgan, I doubt any of the other seven big shorts own much real silver, even though the concentrated short position represents more than 30% of all the silver bullion in the world. This is simply preposterous and illegal. – Silver analyst Ted Butler: 21 February 2015 I’m not sure what, if anything should be read into yesterday’s gold price action because, once again, there wasn’t a lot of volume—and there was little net volume in silver, although roll-over activity was very high, of course. But, whatever action there was will be in Friday’s Commitment of Traders Report, as yesterday at the close of COMEX trading was the cut-off. Here are the 6-month charts for all four precious metals updated with Tuesday’s price/volume action. Freegold Ventures Limited is a North American gold exploration company with three gold projects in Alaska. Current projects include Golden Summit, Vinasale and Rob. Both Vinasale and Golden Summit host NI 43-101 Compliant Resource Calculations. An updated NI 43-101 resource was calculated on Golden Summit in October 2012 and using 0.3 g/t cutoff the current resource is 73,580,000 tonnes grading 0.67 g/t Au for total of 1,576,000 contained ounces in the indicated category, and 223,300,000 tonnes grading 0.62 g/t Au for a total of 4,437,000 contained ounces in the inferred category. In addition to the Golden Summit Project the Vinasale also hosts a NI 43-101 resource calculation which was updated in March 2013. Indicated resources are 3.41 million tonnes averaging 1.48 g/t Au for 162,000 ounces, and Inferred resources are 53.25 million tonnes averaging 1.05 g/t Au for 1,799,000 ounces of gold utilizing a cutoff value of 0.5 grams/tonne (g/t) as a possible open pit cutoff. Please send us an email for more information, ir@freegoldventures.com These photos were taken on Day 2 at Grand Canyon—January 11. It’s not raining or snowing—and cloud base has lifted by a couple of hundred feet and is more well defined. You can’t see the North Rim, which is about 10 miles/16 kilometers away, because it’s about 1,000 feet/330 meters higher than than the South Rim, so it’s buried in cloud/fog. These are just general canyon shots along the trail. You’ll need to use the ‘click to enlarge’ feature to see the people in photo #2—and that gives you some idea of scale. I cropped the last photo in order to enhance the sense of danger, which is all too real. There’s nothing below her but air for many thousands of feet. Palladium, as usual, was trading in a world all its own, closing at $792 spot, up another 7 dollars from Monday’s close—and heading back to the $800 spot mark. Will it be allowed to get there? And as I write this paragraph, the London open is about forty-five minutes away—and there certainly has been some rather interesting price activity in Far East trading on their Wednesday. I’m guessing that the Chinese New Year holiday has come to an end—and that traders are back at their desks over there. Right out of the chute at 6 p.m. EST yesterday evening, all four precious metals powered higher, particularly silver, which I thought very unusual. Depending on which metal you’re looking at, the fun ended by 9 or 10 a.m. Hong Kong time—but started again with somewhat less enthusiasm in early afternoon trading. Gold volume is very chunky at 25,000 contracts net, so this rally obviously ran into ferocious opposition by JPMorgan et al—but silver’s net volume is only 2,870 contracts. Gross volume is north of 10,500 contracts, so roll-over activity is already way up there, as the large traders have to be out by the end of COMEX trading today—and the rest of the traders tomorrow. Thinking about that silver rally last night I’m wondering if it involved a decent amount of short covering, as the net volume is very light. But there’s no way of knowing for sure, because all the price/volume activity occurred after the cut-off for the COT Report on Friday—and by the time the next report is available, this trading action will be buried. And as I send this off to Stowe, Vermont at 4:50 a.m. EST, I note that the tiny rallies in all four precious metals in early afternoon trading in the Far East, ended at 3 p.m. Hong Kong time, which was an hour before the London open. And, with the exception of palladium, which is knocking on the $800 price door once again, the other three precious metals are heading quietly lower, but on such light volume, the price trend hardly matters. Net gold volume is up to a bit over 31,000 contracts, an increase of only 6,000 contracts from two and a half hours ago—and silver’s net volume is only 3,340 contracts, up only 500 contracts in the same time period. There’s nothing going on—and nothing to see at the moment. The dollar index is now down 32 basis points—and coming awfully close to the 94.00 level once more. It will be interesting to see if “gentle hands” put in an appearance once again. That’s all I have for today which, once again, is more than enough—and I look forward to the rest of Wednesday’s trading activity with more than the usual amount of interest. See you tomorrow.
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Disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) across Greater Manchester have been given the chance to take part in a pioneering new partnership with local government.Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, is funding a new Disabled People’s Panel (DPP) that will work with him and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) he chairs.The authority – whose other 10 members are the leaders of Greater Manchester’s 10 borough councils – has commissioned Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People (GMCDP) to set up the panel.The panel will aim to shape, challenge and influence policy affecting disabled people across Greater Manchester, by advising and consulting with GMCA.The panel’s members will be local disability organisations drawn from across Greater Manchester’s 10 boroughs, with most of them likely to be DPOs committed to the social model of disability, with strong engagement with their local community, and successful representation of diverse groups, including LGBT and black and minority ethnic communities.Those taking part will receive an involvement fee from the mayor’s office, while two GMCDP staff are being paid to set up the panel, keep it running and help it liaise with local authorities across Greater Manchester.Manchester has become the first city region in the UK to introduce a disabled people’s panel that will be involved in such a senior level of strategic policy-making.It is a significant success for GMCDP, which said before Burnham’s election as Greater Manchester’s first elected mayor in 2017 that it hoped to persuade the successful mayoral candidate to make the region a trailblazer for disability rights in England and “develop ground-breaking initiatives to tackle disability”.Rick Burgess, the newly-appointed outreach and panel development worker at GMCDP, said: “It’s an experiment and it’s an adventure because it’s never been done before, and it’s always worth trying a new way of interfacing with power to make things better for disabled people.“The long-term aim is to have an ongoing engagement between disabled people across Manchester and the organisations that make policy across Manchester.“Because of devolution, there are opportunities to do things differently from Westminster.“Central government in Westminster has been condemned by the UN for how they treat disabled people. In Greater Manchester we can certainly do better than that.“Some of what we can do is mitigation or harm reduction when there are bad policies nationally.“I would hope we can find ways to lessen their harmful impact on people.”The mayor’s office has agreed that the organisations appointed to the panel will receive an involvement fee and training, in contrast to the unpaid chairs and members of the Regional Stakeholder Network being set up by the government’s Office for Disability Issues.Burgess said: “Fair play to Andy Burnham and the combined authority. They have thought to themselves: we don’t know everything, maybe we need to listen to the people who are experts in their own lives on how we make policy and stuff.“It is democracy in action. We are looking to gather up the views of disabled people throughout Greater Manchester and affect policy-making at the highest level.”Although some of the panel members may not be organisations led and controlled by disabled people, Burgess hopes and expects that most of them will be.He said: “This is for disabled people to change the policies that affect them, so it is primarily about disabled people forming the panel.”He stressed that the panel would decide its own priorities, but issues that are consistently coming up in discussion with disabled people in Greater Manchester are transport, housing, social care and benefits, and then accessibility and employment, he said.As well as a panel of probably between 15 and 20 members, organisations will also be able to ask to be associate members, so they can contribute and be kept informed of its work.Burgess said GMCDP was keen to spread the idea of the DPP to other parts of the country if it is successful, providing an “incredibly representative engagement between power and disabled people so eventually power becomes less ableist and more inclusive and removes those barriers we are always talking about”.The deadline for applications to join the panel is 28 May.Picture: A meeting in 2017 between Andy Burnham and disability groups which discussed the idea of the panelA note from the editor:Please consider making a voluntary financial contribution to support the work of DNS and allow it to continue producing independent, carefully-researched news stories that focus on the lives and rights of disabled people and their user-led organisations. Please do not contribute if you cannot afford to do so, and please note that DNS is not a charity. It is run and owned by disabled journalist John Pring and has been from its launch in April 2009. Thank you for anything you can do to support the work of DNS…
