#I work on these between waiting for feedback on commissioners so I have a while to go

[hajihiko]

more kofi stuff while I also work on the donation ones

CelestiaxKyoko and CelestiaxKirumi for Sam

Taka and Kimbolton in a field (not quite frolicking sorry) for Churro

Hajime giving Fuyuhiko a "little" kiss on the nape for Whiteheart7 (messed up the little part oops)

TsumugixMiu for Kro

[slapshot-to-the-heart]

Flatbush & Atlantic: part ii

Here’s part ii! Please reblog and send your thoughts, I love hearing feedback! I was doing a ton of research on American immigration law, and it doesn’t look like Canadians technically need a visa for most work circumstances, but I’m taking it as a matter of artistic license.

https://slapshot-to-the-heart.tumblr.com/post/615257287896989696/flatbush-atlantic-part-i

part ii

October 5

“Mat, I’m in the middle of a meeting,” Chris said, glancing up at him with a bemused-yet-slightly-annoyed look on his face. 

Mat looked over at Cass, ducking his head and sheepishly tucking his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “Oh, yeah. For sure. I’m sorry, I should have knocked, but I got this letter, and. Yeah. I shouldn’t have interrupted, that was rude. I’m sorry.” Cass couldn’t help but let out a snicker at his rambling, and Mat turned to look at her with a raised eyebrow. He held out his hand. She took it. “Sorry about that.” His cheeks colored. “I keep apologizing. I’m Mat Barzal.”

“Cass Cabrera Shaw,” she replied. 

“Cass is our new intern, so you’ll be seeing each other around. Hopefully not too often.” Chris said, nodding to where she sat in front of him. 

“I got the job?” Cass asked, her head jerking back to look at Chris. 

Chris nodded like it should have been obvious. “Cassidy. You’re more than qualified, you know the sport, you understand the responsibilities. You go to a top 5 law school. Yeah, you’re hired.” She blinked, still trying to take it all in. Chris turned to Mat. “Okay, Barzal, you’re up. What’s wrong?”

Mat scratched his neck. “Okay, so I know I should have looked into it sooner and taken responsibility for it. And I do, I mean, take responsibility for it. It’s just, I was in Vancouver for the summer and then vacation and then training camp and—”

Chris cut him off. “Barzal. What is it?”

“I missed the deadline for my visa renewal.” That sounds familiar, Cass thought ruefully. At least she wouldn’t be alone in her dumbassery.

Chris put his head in his hands.

Mat held up a hand. “Wait, it’s not as bad as it seems, I promise.”

“Try me.”

“I called whoever’s in charge, they left a number on the letter—”

“State Department,” Cass said, tucking a stray piece of hair behind her hair when Mat looked back at her, a hint of a smile on his face. 

He nodded. “Thanks. Yeah, them. I called them and explained the situation, and they agreed to give me an extension.”

Chris cleared his throat. “And by ‘the situation,’ you mean…” He trailed off. 

“That I was an NHL player who wasn’t in the country when they sent reminder letters. I might have used the Commissioner’s name once or twice.” Mat said sheepishly. 

“And we all know how much weight Gary Bettman’s name carries with American immigration policy,” Chris deadpanned. “Okay, give me a second to think how we’re going to get this done. How much of the forms have you filled out?”

Mat flipped open the folder he had brought, scanning the pages. “Most of it.” At least he’s not entirely hopeless. “There were a couple things I wasn’t sure about, and some new stuff that I don’t remember from last time. I figured it was better to bring it in than try to submit it on my own and get it all horribly wrong.”

“Thank God for that,” Chris said, giving a half-smile. After another minute or so of thinking, he raised his head and looked to where Cassidy was still sitting, straight across the desk. “I saw on your transcript that you’ve taken several immigration law classes. Any fieldwork?” Chris asked. 

Cass nodded. “Yeah, there was a clinic run by the school that reviewed visa applications and other paperwork for recent immigrants, I volunteered there for a few months.”

“Good. How familiar are you with O1 visas?” He asked, looking in between Cassidy and Mat. 

“For extraordinary capability? I’ve studied them a little, I know that’s the kind that most NHL players are obviously on but I’m not an expert by any means,” she said.

Chris tapped his fingers on the desk, seemingly lost in thought, before his eyes flickered between her and Mat. “Okay. You’ll be running point on Mat’s visa renewal.” Cassidy’s face blanched. “It’s mostly done so it shouldn’t be too hard. But between you and me,” he paused, raising an eyebrow at Mat, “I wouldn’t trust this boy to fill out the paperwork to adopt a goldfish, so make sure you double-check everything he wrote in. Come to me or Richard with any questions, but I really do think you’ll be fine. Got it?”

Cass jerkily nodded her head, still trying to fully process. In the span of the last ten minutes, she had gotten a job that she thought she had no chance for and had been put in charge of a very delicate, very expensive, very important set of immigration paperwork for Mat Barzal. Mat Barzal, the 2018 Calder Trophy winner. Mathew Barzal, the future of the Islanders. No pressure. 

“I should probably give you my number,” Mat said, pulling out his phone and holding it out to her. She looked at him with confusion, head tilted to one side. Mat’s face flushed and he rushed to clarify. “Like for the work stuff. In case I have questions about the visa or you need me to translate my chicken scratch for you.”

Now it was Cass’ turn to blush, gently taking his phone out of his hands and navigating to the messages. “I’ll text myself, that way you’ll have my number too. For questions,” she paused briefly, “or anything else.” Cass was typically never that bold, but there was something about the way Mat cracked a smile that made her sure she had made the right decision.

Chris coughed, bringing their attention back to the desk and the issue at hand. “I’ll go and make a copy of these for your records, Mat,” he said, standing up and reaching over the desk for the file with the visa forms, “and Cass, you’ll be working off of the originals.” He glanced between the pair. “Don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone.” 

Chris closed the door behind him, and Mat leaned up against one of the filing cabinets. “So, you’re working for the team now?”

“Yeah.” Cass nodded. “I’m excited, it seems like it’ll be a great position, but I think the prospect of my betrayal might be too much for my poor dad. Working for the enemy and all.”

Mat let out a laugh. “Rangers fan?”

“Big one. I’m from Connecticut so he grew up with the Whalers mostly, but when they folded the family allegiance switched. And when Mike Shaw is in on something, he’s all in. I’m fearing for my well being,” she joked dryly, the corner of her mouth twitching up. 

“I think you’ll be fine,” he said, looking up at her. “Tell your dad that I promise we’re not as bad as we seem. Tito, maybe,” he added, wiggling his hand. “But I’m a good guy, as long as you promise not to sell off our training secrets and pass formations to the highest bidder.”

Cass held up three fingers. “I give you my word as a former Girl Scout that I won’t leak the absolute mountains of information I have access to.”

“Pinky promise?” Mat asked, holding out his hand. 

It was Cass’ turn to laugh, and she stood up from her chair, leaning over and interlocking their fingers. “Pinky promise.”

Chris chose that particular moment to walk back in, raising his eyebrows briefly. “What’s going on here?”

Mat cleared his throat. “It took a lot of convincing, but I got Cass to pinky promise me that she won’t sell us out to the Rangers.”

“I’m glad to hear it. Apparently there was a rash of double-crossing by interns that I wasn’t aware of,” Chris said, handing over the sheaf of copies to Mat. “And Cassidy, I’ll see you tomorrow at 10?” Cass internally groaned, knowing that it would take well over an hour on the train. Still, she nodded curtly. “Of course.”

He smiled, reaching over the desk and shaking her hand. “I’ll put these,” he said, gesturing to the forms, “in your desk tomorrow. You’ll be working out in the main area, we’ll get you set up when you come in. Other than that, you’re good to go. Glad to have you on board. Genuinely.” 

Cass leaned down to pick up her backpack, walking out the door and into the elevator with Mat by her side. “So, I’ll call you if I’ve got questions on any of this, right?” He asked, folding the papers and tucking them into his inside jacket pocket. 

She nodded. “Yeah. This one is a little different but I’ve done a lot of filling out forms and revision for this before, so I don’t think it’ll be too much of an issue. If I don’t know the answer to something, I can find it for you. I might have some questions tomorrow, you guys have a game, right?” Cass asked. Mat nodded. “So obviously I know you’ll have morning skate and be by the arena most of the day, but try to have your phone with you when you can so we don’t have to play phone tag, y’know?”

He smiled, holding the front door open for her as they existed onto the busy street. “I’ll do my best, Cass. See you soon.”

As promised, as soon as Mat had turned the corner, Cass pulled out her phone, clicking on Samaira’s contact. She picked up on the first ring. “Samaira, you’re not going to believe what my afternoon has been like.” 

She headed straight to her room after getting home, managing to squeeze in a few hours of reading before getting started on dinner. Pasta was easy to make for everyone; Alicia was lactose intolerant and Stella kept kosher, so simplicity was often key in group meals. Sautéeing some collard greens with onions and garlic, she turned her head towards the rooms and hollered to the rest of the apartment. “DINNER’S ALMOST READY!”

Much to her chagrin, Cass got up bright and early the next day, shoveling down a bowl of cereal before grabbing her bag and heading out the door.

October 12 (fri)

The Islanders had a weeklong road trip, so Cass had been reassigned to contract review since she was all but done with Mat’s visa renewal. She glanced at her watch, seeing that it was nearly noon. Nearly noon meant nearly lunchtime. She hadn’t figured out what she wanted to have for lunch quite yet, but food carts in New York were a dime a dozen; while she wasn’t being paid for the internship, she was given a stipend for lunch and travel expenses that she took full advantage of. Just as she flipped the page over, the office door opened. Assuming that it was some assistant coming for Chris or one of the other lawyers returning from a different office, she didn’t pay it too much mind. That was, however, until the figure stopped by her desk, coughing to get her attention. “Yeah?” She questioned, looking up and tilting her head in confusion when she saw that it was Mat. 

“I had a question about one of the employment history sections, and the office said you’d be here today. I brought food,” he said, holding up a paper back emblazoned with the name of a local Chinese restaurant. 

“Oh God, bless your heart,” she said, pulling over another chair. “I’m starving. Sit down, walk me through it. What’s got you confused?” It didn’t occur to Cass that he could have easily asked her over text.

October 17 (tues)

Sitting at her desk, Cass was trying (and failing) to finish her notes before midnight when her phone lit up with a text. And then another one. And then another. Rolling her eyes, she picked it up, expecting something from one of her younger siblings or a friend from back home. Instead, it was Mat. Hew brow instantly furrowed, swiping up to see what was the matter. He had sent two pictures, both screenshots from newspapers. Florida Man Arrested for Throwing Gator at Mother-in-Law, the first one read. Florida Man Charged with Reckless Endangerment for Filling Nursing Home Koi Pond with Baby Gators, said the other. Do u think it’s the same guy? He asked. 

Rolling her eyes, Cass wrote out a reply. No doubt. Criminals have patterns. 

So do u think all Florida men are obsessed with gators or just this one?

Gator cult. She tapped send, picking it back up almost immediately. Obviously. 

October 21 (sat)

The plane back from Montréal is about to leave. Any album recs?

Mat and Cass had been texting back-and-forth for the past few days, so it wasn’t exactly a surprise that he asked her. 

Wasteland, Baby - Hozier, Electric Light - James Bay. Amidst the Chaos - Sara Bareilles if ya wanna get a little spicy. I’m mostly an indie kinda girl, give me a sec and I’ll send you my playlist. 

Can’t wait, Mat responded. Cass loved music, and always found it to be something intensely personal. So what was it about Mat that made her so willing to share?

October 23 (mon)

Cass hated getting up early, but there were some things better than sleep. You wanna get coffee before your classes? Mat had texted the night before. Coffee was one of them. Grabbing her backpack and tugging on her favorite pair of ankle boots, she headed out the door at 7:02. 

“Where are you headed this early?” Alicia asked quizzically, her own tote slung over one shoulder. Ryanne almost always left the earliest, usually having to get to her rounds well before anyone else had woken up. 

“Mat and I are going out for coffee,” she said, picking up her keys from the nail by the door. 

Alicia wiggled her eyebrows. “Oooooh, Cass has a daaaateee,” she said in a sing-song voice. 

Cass’s cheeks burned. “It’s not a date, I’m just helping him out with some paperwork. He’s asking me out as a friend. Just because he’s cute—”

Alicia cut her off. “AHA! So you DO admit that you think he’s cute?”

Cass groaned. “Yeah, okay, he’s cute. You happy?” Alicia nodded. “But just because I think he’s attractive doesn’t mean that this is going to be anything other than friends getting together before work, okay?” 

Her friend shrugged. “Whatever you say, Cass. Have fun, be safe! Use prot—” Cass closed the door as quickly as she could without slamming it. Forty minutes later, she was walking up to the coffee shop, greeting Mat with a hug. 

“Sorry if I kept you waiting,” Cass said. 

Mat shook his head. “You didn’t, don’t apologize.” He opened the door for her, hand ghosting over the small of her back as he followed her in line. A few minutes later, Mat was at the register, ordering a cappuccino. He turned to her. “What do you want, Cass?” 

“Mat, you don’t have to pay for me,” Cass said, pulling out her wallet. 

Mat gently pushed her hand down. “I was the one who suggested it, Cass. I’m paying the bill.” He handed over his card to the barista, turning back to her with a smile. “You can get it next time.” She laughed. 

“Fine, you win. Coconut milk latté.”

Oct 25 (wed)

“Afternoon pick-me-up?” Cass looked up from her desk, confused but excited to see Mat in front of her desk. 

“Huh?”

He held up a coffee cup, a speckled white-and-blue reusable. “You mentioned something about needing me to sign the last page or something? I brought you coffee, the cup’s for you too. Place says you’ll save 25¢ whenever you use it.” 

“Yeah,” Cass said slowly, “and you faxed it over, right? Kristie said they got it in this morning.” Kristie was the office assistant, and had handed the page to Cass right as she had walked in the door half an hour prior.

“Oh, uh, yeah,” Mat said, seemingly flustered. “I was worried I might have made a mistake on it, so I thought I’d come over and double-check.”

“You’re worried you made a mistake signing your own name?” Cass didn’t quite understand it, but there was something really endearing about him wanting to come down and check it himself rather than just calling her or emailing Chris. “Okay then,” she said, leaning over her laptop to grab the folder. She traded it for the coffee in Mat’s hand, the Post-it note on the side of the cup catching her eye. Coconut milk latté. He remembered. 

Oct 26 (thurs)

What are your thoughts on sushi? Cass got a text from Mat as she was about to get out of her environmental law lecture. The professor had already started packing up her things, so she risked a message back. 

As a concept or as a food?

The food haha

All positive, love sushi!

I know this great place in Chelsea, want to grab dinner later?

You don’t have a late practice or anything with the guys? From what she had gathered, even when it wasn’t a game day, Mat would usually get an extra workout in after practice or go out with Tito and some of the rest of the team.

Nope :) Nothing after 2

Cass bit her lip, weighing her options as she shut her laptop and exited the lecture hall. She wasn’t reading too much into it, was she? Friends got dinner together all the time, it wasn’t weird for him to have asked her. It was normal. Typical friend stuff. Sure, she liked him. She liked him a lot. But it wasn’t worth jeopardizing her career and reputation to try and fabricate something that probably wasn’t even there. Sounds good! I should be able to get there 6ish if that works for you?

Perfect! He wrote back, I’ll send you the address.

Les and Fiona caught up to her that afternoon after she practically ran out of their review session the second it was done. “Woah woah woah,” Fiona asked, catching Cass just as she was about to exit the library. “Where are you headed off to so quick?”

Cass tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, scrunching up her nose. “Getting dinner with Mat.” 

Les wiggled his eyebrows. “Ooooh, your man?”

Cass went red. “He’s not my man! He just asked if I wanted to get sushi. And I’m hungry, and he said he’s paying. So I said yes.”

“But you like him,” Les said, as if he was stating the obvious. Which, in a way, he was?

She shrugged her shoulders. “Yeah. It’s hard not to. But he asked me out as friends. It’s not a date. If it was a date, he would have said so? Right?” She was starting to ramble.

Fiona reached out to touch her shoulder, rubbing her thumb back and forth. “Maybe. But maybe not. It’s possible that he is into you, but you and I both know that’s a question best answered by someone other than us,” she pointed at her and Les. “And even if he doesn’t, it’s still a free dinner.” 

Cass let out a small smile. “You’re right.” She glanced at her watch. “I told him I’d be there by 6, so I probably should get going if I want to catch the train in time.” She gave each of them a brief hug. “See you next week!”

“GOOD LUCK!” Tyler hollered as she turned the corner. Cass’ cheeks burned, and she was beginning to realize why.

---

Cass got home from the restaurant just after 9, trying desperately to make sense of the past few weeks. Getting ahead of herself had never led to anything good, and much though she wanted to, Cass wasn’t about to put words in Mat’s mouth. But he had been the one to suggest dinner, and he had picked up the tab again. “You’re in law school,” Mat had said with a shrug when the check came. “I’m not about to make you pay for your own food when you don’t have to.” Shaking her head and pulling out the kettle to make a cup of tea, she tried again to rationalize everything. “We’re friends. I’m doing him a solid by helping him out with this paperwork, he’s just trying to be nice and pay me back. Which he doesn’t need to do, because it’s my job. But he’s nice, so he’s doing it anyway. Because we’re friends.” Frustrated, she grabbed her mug, walking back to her bedroom and barely paying any mind to the splashes of near-boiling water that hit the ground. 

Oct. 27 (fri)

It was a quarter to 6, and Cass couldn’t wait to get out of the office. It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy her job. It was incredible and she was so thankful for the opportunity. It was the fact that Mat fucking Barzal had been on her mind all day and she had been finding it so damn hard to concentrate on research and contracts and precedent when she was busy trying to sift through her own feelings. Cass wasn’t a particularly insecure person; like anyone else, she had those days, but it wasn’t really a matter of her thinking he was “out of her league” or that she wasn’t good enough for him. She knew that the whole concept of “leagues” was dumb and classist, but there was something about the whole dynamic that she couldn’t quite shake, and couldn’t quite tell if it was something good or not. It was five minutes to six, and she couldn’t stop her fingers tapping on her desk, waiting to be set free. Waiting for her mind to stop racing. Waiting for her heart to stop pounding.

She spent the next five minutes trying in vain to get through a paper Chris had sent her — she had even broken out her neon highlighters — but nothing was working. Thankfully, Chris chose that moment to stick his head out of his office and call to her. “Cass?” Her head perked up. “I’ve got some files to email you, mind coming in for a sec before you leave?” She nodded, pushing out of her chair and crossing the room. 

“How was your day?” Chris asked, pulling up the files to email her. 

“Uh, pretty good!” Cass said. “Fridays are relatively light for me, I had a morning meeting with the law review and then headed over here. Mat and I got sushi last night, so that was nice.”

Chris looked up over his laptop. “You and Mat?”

Cass nodded, brows furrowing. “Yeah. Is that an issue?” It was never something she had bothered considering, but — 

“Not that I can think of, no,” he said, shaking his head. “You’re spending a lot of time together, though, have you noticed that?” 

“Yeah, I mean, we’re friends, but I didn’t think that was a problem—” Chris held up a hand, cutting her off with a smile. 

“I’m not so sure that what Mat wants is a friendship, Cassidy.” He paused. “My son’s about his age, and please feel free to stop me if you’d like, but this is exactly how he acted when he met Iris.” 

“Iris?” Cass questioned. 

“His fiancée. If I’m reading the situation right, and I think I am, the poor boy’s head over heels for you, Cass.” He clicked his mousepad. “Just sent them over, try to go through them by Monday.”

She nodded, seemingly in a daze as she picked up her bag and walked out of the office, pulling out her phone. 

To: Mat

Are you free later?

Oct 28. (sat)

Tapping her foot nervously, Cass fiddled with her phone just to give her hands something to do. They had grabbed breakfast before she had to head to the office and he had to go to morning skate, and she had stolen the check while he was in the bathroom. But she still hadn’t brought up what Chris had said, or for that matter what Les or Samaira or Alicia had been pestering her about for the better part of the past month. 

Mat returned to the table, snapping Cass out of her thoughts. “You ready to head out?” It was only just past nine, so the plan had been to take a walk around Prospect Park before they had to take off. Cass nodded awkwardly, grabbing her coat and scarf from the back of the chair and looping it around her neck. Mat’s brow furrowed in confusion, but if he suspected anything, he didn’t say so. He walked a few steps ahead of Cass, holding the door open for her. They walked in silence for a block or two; not an awkward silence and not a comfortable one, but some kind of strange liminal space in between the two where it was clear that neither of them was really able to read the room. Mat’s knuckles brushed up against her own.

As they crossed the street into the gardens, Cass took a deep breath and looked up at him. It’s now or never. “What are we doing?” She breathed, so softly that Mat wouldn’t have heard if he hadn’t been standing scarcely a foot away. 

“We’re going to a park?” Mat questioned. 

She wrung her hands, trying to avoid looking at him. “I mean, what are we doing. You and I.” She ran a hand through her hair. “I don’t want you to think that I’m reading too much into things, or that I haven’t enjoyed getting to know you and spend time with you because I have, but I just need to know what there is going on between us. If there is anything going on between us.”

Mat shoved his hands into his pockets, leaning up against a lamppost. “I mean, I’d like there to be. I’m into you, Cass, I thought I had made that clear,” he added with a single laugh. Cass gave him a quizzical look. “Do you think I actually needed to come into the office every time I dropped in on you? That I’d ask just anyone for music recs? That I asked you out to coffee or dinner just as friends? Cassidy,” he said, standing upright and taking a tentative step towards her, “I don’t even know Tito’s coffee order. But I know yours.” He took another step forwards when she didn’t move back, faces so close that their noses were almost touching. “I wouldn’t ever want to push you into something you weren’t ready for. But Cass,” he tilted her chin up with his hand, “I’m all in if you are.”

She took a shaky breath, willing the voices inside of her head to still themselves for just one moment so she could gather her thoughts. “Mat, I want this,” Cass said, gesturing between the two of them with one hand, the other wound with frustration in her curls. “You have no idea how much I want this. But I work for the team. We both do. And I can’t have anyone thinking that I’m here for anything but the job, that I’m a puck bunny or will be distracted from my work and go run off with my boyfriend or whatever you are—” She cut herself off abruptly. “Trotz might get mad at you, sure. I don’t think it would really matter on your end, though. You wouldn’t face any actual consequences. I’m expendable to this team. You’re not.”

 Mat’s hand came up to cup her cheek, one thumb swiping away a tear gently, so gently, that she hadn’t even realized had leaked out of her eye. “You’re not expendable, Cass. Not to me, not to the team, not to anyone who’s ever bothered getting to know you. You are such an incredible woman and I know you know it, but sometimes it doesn’t seem like you really believe it. If this is scary for me, and it is, I know it must be downright terrifying for you. And I know you’re worried how it would look, us being together, what the team or Chris or whoever would think, but you need to remember to let your talent speak for itself. If I have a shitty game, miss an easy shot or whatever, there’s always the people who say that Trotz should move me down a line, or that I should be traded, or whatever. And there’s always going to be those people. But if you keep your head in the game—”

“Alright, Troy Bolton,” Cass said, finally giving him a watery smile. 

“You realize that if I’m Troy, you’re Gabriella?” Mat asked, raising one eyebrow, hand still on her cheek as the other perched on her waist. Cass leaned into his touch, wrinkling her nose. “Maybe that was a bad metaphor, but Cass, you’re brilliant. You’re such a good student and you’re so dedicated at work. You’re going to make an incredible lawyer. Everyone sees that. And I absolutely respect that you’re worried about what our relationship might do for your career,” He swallowed hard, skating his hand down her arm to hold her hand. “And I’m not sure what else I could say other than what I already have. But you’re good, so good, and they’d be idiots for letting you go over something like this.”

Cass swallowed. “They say some things are worth the risk.”

“Are we gonna do this?” Mat’s hand moved to the small of her back, leaning down so their lips were almost touching, barely, not quite. 

“We’re gonna do this.” Cass closed the gap. 

[gstqaobc]

CBC NEWS The Royal Fascinator Feb. 7, 2020 Hello, royal watchers and all those intrigued by what’s going on inside the House of Windsor. This is your biweekly dose of royal news and analysis. Reading this online? Sign up here to get this delivered to your inbox. Janet Davison Janet Davison Royal Expert

Who will step up for Meghan and Harry?

(Lefteris Pitarakis/The Associated Press)

It was a striking image that day in June of 2012 — just six people on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, sending a signal widely interpreted to foreshadow a slimmed-down future for the House of Windsor.

It was the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee marking her 60 years as monarch, and joining her on the balcony were her eldest son and heir, Prince Charles; his wife, Camilla; Charles’s two sons, Princes William and Harry; and William’s wife, Kate. (The Queen’s husband, Prince Philip, was in hospital at the time and it would be four years before Harry met his wife, Meghan.)

Charles has long been thought to favour a core group of senior family members to carry the House of Windsor forward in the next reign.

But Harry and Meghan’s departure from the upper echelons of the family leaves a big hole in that plan.

"I think [Charles] envisaged having Harry as part of that,” Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine, said via email.

Seward said that along with William and Kate, Charles saw his sister, Princess Anne, and his brother, Prince Edward, as part of the plan.

Harry’s departure “really blows a hole into Charles’s well-thought-out plan for a slimmed-down monarchy based on the core family,” royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith

told Vanity Fair

.

Even though Harry is now down to sixth in the line of succession, he would still have been expected to carry out more senior duties for several years because numbers three, four and five in the succession (William and Kate’s young children, George, Charlotte and Louis) are up to two decades away from being active royals.

“So Charles and William have been counting on Harry to be, in effect, third in line to the throne and that’s all out the window, too,” said Bedell Smith.

Harry and Meghan have been staying out of sight for the past couple of weeks and are thought to be on Vancouver Island, where they were over Christmas before making their seismic departure announcement.

In the meantime in the U.K., it’s been royal business as usual for everyone from the Queen on down. Elizabeth was out and about twice this week —

and reminisced about her father and his corgis

— as her regular winter stay at her Sandringham estate, north of London, draws to a close.

Charles and Camilla were at a reception for the British Asian Trust and other engagements. William, who has a new role as Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and Kate were at the British version of the Oscars and did a day trip to Wales.

Observers have been trying to figure out whether there’s any evidence of Harry and Meghan’s departure affecting what other senior members of the family are doing.

But in many ways, that seems to be a stretch — at least for now.

“As official engagements are usually fixed some months in advance and Harry and Meghan’s official departure is not until the spring, I don’t think we have yet seen much direct evidence,” Seward said.

“The crux will come on family occasions and none are scheduled in the immediate future. The future of Harry’s military appointments is obviously under consideration and will be announced as soon as it is decided.”

Still, it all leaves many open questions about how other members of the family may step up their roles. One person seen by many as likely to gain more prominence is Edward’s wife, Sophie, the Countess of Wessex.

“I think Sophie will take on a lot more royal duties and patronages,” said Seward.

And then there are Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, daughters of Prince Andrew, who has stepped down from public duties in the wake of fallout from his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and a disastrous BBC interview related to that.

“I am not sure about Beatrice and Eugenie,” Seward said. “Before all this happened, I know Andrew was keen for them both to have royal roles, but Charles was not.”

Another spring wedding

One thing that is sure for Beatrice — she has a confirmed wedding date and venue. Buckingham Palace said this morning she and fiancé Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi will marry May 29 at the Chapel Royal at St. James’s Palace in central London. The Queen will host a reception just up the road, in the gardens behind Buckingham Palace. After a flurry of royal weddings in Windsor over the past couple of years, this promises to be a lower-profile, smaller and more intimate affair — perhaps not surprising given the controversy surrounding Beatrice’s father, Andrew. St. James’s Palace does, however, have a rich royal history. Other weddings that have taken place there include that of Queen Victoria in 1840. It’s also been the scene of several christenings, including Beatrice herself in December 1988, and more recently Prince George in 2013 and Prince Louis in 2018. Andrew and the FBI — what's going on? Prince Andrew was the focus of more attention recently after the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York told a news conference held outside Epstein’s former mansion that Andrew had given “zero co-operation” to the inquiry into the convicted sex offender.Immediately after that, sources close to Andrew were reported as saying he was angry and “bewildered” by the claims he had been unco-operative, and that he hadn’t received any request to speak to the FBI.A lawyer for a victim of Epstein also urged Andrew to co-operate with the FBI.Seward said until an approach is made by the FBI through official channels, “nothing will happen.”“This doesn’t lessen the potential wrong, but he can’t answer anything until his lawyers are contacted, and then they don’t have to answer straight away,” Seward said. “I think he will help the investigation, but has probably been advised to wait until such time as all the necessary evidence as to where he was and what he was doing has been gathered.”Andrew has said he did not see or suspect any sex crimes during the time he spent with Epstein. He has also denied any inappropriate relations with a woman who has said she was forced to have sex with him three times between 1999 and 2002. Andrew has said he has no recollection of meeting her..

Royal angst — beyond the House of WindsorOther royal families have also seen their share of controversy and high-profile headlines in the last little while.The public prosecutor in Luxembourg has launched a probe after reports of physical violence toward staff who work for the tiny European country’s royal family.It was only the latest headline there, coming about a week after Grand Duke Henri issued a statement to defend his wife, Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, against allegations of a “hostile working environment” at the palace.“Why attack a woman? A woman who speaks up for other women? A woman who is not even being given the right to defend herself?” Henri said in his statement.Next door, in Belgium, former King Albert II admitted he fathered a child during an extramarital affair half a century ago.The acknowledgement came after a court-ordered DNA test found that the 85-year-old, who abdicated in 2013, is Delphine Boël’s biological father.Boël had been engaged in a longstanding court fight to prove that she is his biological daughter.

Royally quotable

"Yet in 2020, and not for the first time in the last few years, we find ourselves talking again about the need to do more to ensure diversity in the sector and in the awards process – [a lack of diversity] simply cannot be right in this day and age."

—  Prince William

speaks during the British Academy Film Awards

.

Fans of the Netflix drama The Crown will have to content themselves with just five seasons, rather than the six everyone had been expecting. Creator Peter Morgan had said he’d planned on six seasons of the show focusing on Queen Elizabeth’s reign, but the other day he nixed that idea and said five seems like the “perfect time and place to stop.” The way the series is going, that should take viewers up to around the year 2000. Given some of the higher-profile royal controversies of late, perhaps it’s understandable why Morgan is content to stop at that point. “I think there’s concerns the closer you get to the present day, in terms of how much dramatic licence can you ethically take about events that are unfolding,” said Toronto-based royal historian and author Carolyn Harris. “And also, the show would become more controversial if it was speaking about events that are in many ways still unfolding at this time, and imagining conversations behind palace doors.” Season 5 will see another actor take on the role of Elizabeth. Imelda Staunton, who’d long been rumoured for the part, will follow Claire Foy (seasons 1 and 2) and Olivia Colman (seasons 3 and 4).

Royal reads

1. A century before Harry and Meghan, an Italian noble family

sought refuge in B.C. — and stayed

. [CBC]

2. The RCMP and U.K. security officials are

discussing how best to protect Harry and Meghan

while they are in Canada, and who will ultimately pay for their security. [CBC]

3. Harry

lost a press complaint

he filed against a newspaper over a story it published about photos of African wildlife he has posted on Instagram. [BBC]

4. To mark the 200th anniversary of King George III’s death, his

massive collection of military maps

has been made available online, offering insight into global conflicts from the 16th to 18th centuries. Also going back in time,

a vest worn by Charles I at his execution

is going on display.  [The Guardian, BBC]  

Cheers!

I’m always happy to hear from you. Send your ideas, comments, feedback and notes to

royalfascinator@cbc.ca

. Problems with the newsletter? Please let me know about any typos, errors or glitches.

GOOD MORNING ALL, I THOUGHT I WOULD SHARE THE MOST RECENT NEWSLETTER. I HAVENT HAD A CHANCE TO READ IT YET BECAUSE I WANTED TO GETBIT OUT TO THOSE WHO DONT HAVE IT OR KNOW ABOUT IT. GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦🇬🇧🇦🇺🇳🇿  💜💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻PG🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜💜

[your-dietician]

How do college football players feel about Playoff expansion? Past, present voices on more games, the same grind – The Athletic

New Post has been published on https://tattlepress.com/ncaa-football/how-do-college-football-players-feel-about-playoff-expansion-past-present-voices-on-more-games-the-same-grind-the-athletic/

How do college football players feel about Playoff expansion? Past, present voices on more games, the same grind – The Athletic

— This story was written by Nicole Auerbach, Tyson Alger, Scott Dochterman, Jason Kersey and Chris Vannini.

Raekwon McMillan knows what it’s like to play more games than ever before. As a freshman linebacker at Ohio State in 2014, he played in the Buckeyes’ first-ever 15-game season, ending in the inaugural College Football Playoff with a national championship. The victory was sweet, but the adjustments the Buckeyes had to make for an additional game were very real. From shifting strength and conditioning strategies to adding rest and recovery time, it was a new experience.

Now, as college football heads toward a 12-team Playoff model that opens up the possibility of a 17-game season for those who take a certain path through the postseason, McMillan thinks back to the additional grind he had to go through. His Buckeyes played in 14 games when they reached the CFP semis in 2016, too.

“Ohio State did a great job of taking care of players … but during the second run, I felt like my body was breaking down toward the end, kind of like at the end of an NFL season,” McMillan said. “And that was with a month break between our last game and when the Playoff started (in 2016). That window (between games) will have to go down. I don’t really understand how it will work with the new structure of the Playoff.”

McMillan, who was drafted in the second round in 2017 and now plays for the New England Patriots, said the later the season went, the longer his recovery time after games would be. He wasn’t ever injured, but “it was little things here and there — ankle started feeling tight, knees, shoulders, head, neck.”

Last week in Dallas the CFP’s Board of Managers, a group of 11 university presidents representing all 10 Football Bowl Subdivision leagues and Notre Dame, discussed the new 12-team proposal and greenlit it for further discussion. CFP leadership will spend the summer meeting with bowl and television partners to determine the feasibility of the new model and how soon it can take effect.

Commissioners and presidents have said they want to get feedback from current and former players about the additional wear and tear that would come with extending their season — a listening process that’s only happening after the favored Playoff model has been selected. College athletes often have little to no say in what happens in their sport, and they have so far been absent in the expansion conversation. What will they have to say about this in the coming months? Don’t expect a consensus. The Athletic spoke with several current and former players to see what they think right now. Some aren’t concerned about playing more games, while others seriously question if it’s too much.

Oklahoma redshirt senior H-back Jeremiah Hall said he’s “not really” worried about potentially playing more games in an expanded Playoff because every other level of football requires multiple rounds of games in its postseason format.

“In high school, you have a series of four to six rounds, depending on your state,” Hall said. “If you think about it, after the Big 12 championship, we’re really waiting and sitting around Norman for two or three weeks, especially when we’ve made it to the Playoff. We’re not really doing too much. A week off between whatever championship game you may have in your conference, and then maybe go two weeks on for the playoff games and then a week off, then your national championship — I think that’d be fair. We’ve been doing the same thing since high school. I don’t think it would be any worse.”

“I can wrap my head around adding games,” former Ohio State linebacker Joshua Perry said. “But where the issue comes for me is when we talk about ‘student-athletes.’ … As long as we keep using the terminology of ‘student-athlete,’ we have to think about how that actually impacts the student side.”

Conference championship games already often fall during finals week in early December. If the College Football Playoff pushes the postseason’s end point further into January, players could also be juggling the start of a new semester with the preparation for the biggest games of their season. “How can you manage a course load and be the type of student that a program would expect you to be when now the whole year, basically, you’re spending preparing for games?” Perry said. “We have to stop with this idea of student-athlete.

“But in terms of body management, they’ll figure that out. Sports science is evolving rapidly.”

A longer college football season would prepare future pros for the grind of a long NFL season, Hall said. (McMillan pointed out that it will also shorten the time some potential pros have to decide whether or not they want to declare for the NFL Draft, if the customary mid-January decision deadline does not change.) For those who aren’t headed to the NFL, it still creates more excitement. “The more football, the better,” Hall said. But Perry speculates that load management could come to college football, with star players opting not to play certain games in November if their team has already all but locked up a Playoff spot.

“Or if you’re one of the last teams to get in, does somebody make a decision like, ‘Hey, I don’t know what our chances are in this game, but I don’t necessarily want to risk this when I know I’m staring at a $30 million contract in just a matter of months.’” Perry said.

McMillan believes his CFP experience was well worth it because of the magnitude of the games and the opportunity to compete for a national championship. It certainly helped, too, “how many coaches at the next level were able to see those games,” he said. “It was beneficial in many ways, but you will have to watch and see how it affects the players. What is the benefit for players who are not going to the NFL? What extra benefit do they get?”

It’s clear that the programs that can better weather the extra practices and games — and keep players engaged — will be best positioned for success late in the long season. “That’s the game, staying healthy and being the strongest, most physical team,” Iowa junior wide receiver Nico Ragaini said. To him, this is just a natural extension of what already happens in the regular season.

The path to 17 games in a 12-team Playoff world is not necessarily likely to happen on an annual basis: A team would need to play a standard 12-game regular season, reachits conference championship game, make the Playoff as a No. 5-12 seed and then advance through all three rounds to the national title game. The CFP’s Management Committee has stressed that in most years the title game’s most likely participants will come from the top four Power 5 conference champions who earned a first-round bye and would play a total of 16 games, including the national championship game. The losing teams in the new first round of the Playoff will not play in bowl games later in December, either. According to Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick, because of those parameters, a third of the teams involved in the CFP would play the same number of games they would in a normal year with a bowl trip.

“The route to get to 17 in this model isn’t impossible, but there have been a lot of things built in to make that highly unlikely,” said Swarbrick, who was part of the CFP’s four-member working group that proposed the 12-team model.

“For the vast majority of the field, at best there would be a one-game expansion,” said MAC commissioner Jon Steinbrecher, a member of the CFP Management Committee. “For many, it would be the same or less, depending on if you’re in a conference championship game or not. We have to take a look at all of that. We need to look at the construct of college football from a total-year process.

“It’s the one sport in the NCAA where we literally have a calendar that accounts for every day, whether it’s recruiting, in-season, out-of-season workouts, access to things. We need to go back and look at that. Is how we’re laying this out the appropriate way to do so, or is there another way?”

Commissioners and presidents will spend the next few weeks and months talking to athletes with a range of experiences, and it’ll be important for them to talk to those who still feel the long-term effects of pushing through a season. Take former Oregon linebacker Tyson Coleman, for example. He started 15 games in 2014, when the Ducks made the Playoff, beat Florida State in the Rose Bowl to reach the national title game and then lost to McMillan and Ohio State. Coleman started 13 games the following season, too. He said it’s important to understand both the physical and mental toll that an extended season will have on 18- to 22-year-olds.

“My last two years at Oregon I had bulging discs in my back and neck that were kind of undiagnosed, so those seasons were miserable for me,” Coleman said. “Those added extra weeks, I know for guys in my similar position, it wasn’t ideal. It was really cool to play in the Rose Bowl and the first College Football Playoff ever, but it wasn’t great on our bodies.”

Coleman said he didn’t practice much during the second half of either season; he’d do walkthroughs and jog around.

“Before games I would take Toradol,” he said. “I’d take it 30 minutes before the game, my muscles would loosen up and then I would go run into people. A lot of guys will do that, you know, being held out of practice all week just so they can get through four quarters of a game, and that’s in a normal season.”

Coleman had to have a disc replaced in his neck eight months ago, after being in so much pain one night that his mother and father had to help carry him to the emergency room because he couldn’t walk. He underwent surgery a week later and came away with a $10,000 hospital bill that his insurance didn’t cover. Coleman’s experience has impacted how he views college football and the way it’s run.

“This is nothing specific to Oregon. It’s part of the business and the issue with the NCAA,” Coleman said. “I played in four or five of the most-watched games in history, contributed to billions of dollars coming into our school and the NCAA, but I can’t get $10,000 to get my neck back in the position it was before I started playing.”

Coleman believes the athletes who play in the games deserve compensation. Like all players, he understands that an expanded CFP will mean even more money. The initial four-team field was worth about $470 million annually from ESPN, and that was for only four teams and three games. The 12-team proposal triples the amount of teams and adds eight more postseason games.

“From a player’s perspective, I think the Playoff is cool. I think the system is awesome. But the toll on the body? I don’t know if it’s worth your scholarship.”

(Photo: Jamie Schwaberow / NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

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[jrmartindesigns]

Millions of Americans can’t get broadband

hen Kathi Shorey moved to a rural region of western Maine about 40 years ago, she knew she was giving up some comforts of life in the Boston suburbs. Her new home of Sweden, located 47 miles from Portland, didn’t have big box retailers or major universities, and its population of about 400 people could all fit into a single city apartment building. 

Shorey never anticipated that decades later, her chosen home would make it impossible for her to work remotely and stay connected during a global pandemic — all because her internet service is too slow to reliably get online. 

“Never did I think the digital divide would be so unfair,” Shorey said during a conversation on her landline phone, the only reliable way for her to communicate when she’s at home.

The registered nurse, who now teaches a nurse’s aid class, gets, at best, 3 Mbps download speeds through her service, far below the FCC’s broadband definition of 25 Mbps — a level itself that’s viewed as outdated and inadequate for today’s needs. Shorey can’t watch Netflix, and her internet is too slow for her to take classes to maintain her nursing license. Even more worrisome is Shorey’s inability to broadcast video to her nurse’s aid students while the novel coronavirus pandemic forces classes to take place remotely over Zoom.

“The issues I’m having are pretty horrific for this century,” Shorey said. “I can’t show students any video, and they have to turn off their video to hear me. I run around my house and shut off the two phones we have, and my iPad and my home computer … just so I can get a connection.”

For Shorey, the problem goes beyond just lack of internet. Inaccurate information about what service is available at her address limits the public funding providers can receive to improve their networks in her area. According to the US Federal Communications Commission’s national broadband map, which tracks internet availability, Charter Communications could provide nearly gig-speed internet access at Shorey’s home, while Consolidated Communications — her current provider — and satellite companies ViaSat and Hughes Network Systems could supply access at about broadband speeds. That conclusion is riddled with inaccuracies.

“I can’t get anything more than 3 Mbps whether I want to pay for it or not,” Shorey said. 

Her story isn’t rare. Millions of Americans around the country lack access to fast internet at home, a need that’s become especially critical over the past year as the COVID-19 pandemic forced everything from family gatherings to classes and business meetings to go online. But even as President Joe Biden pushes an ambitious $20 billion plan on top of billions of dollars in funding already earmarked for unserved communities, a fundamental flaw remains in not knowing where the problems lie. The faulty FCC national broadband map has essentially made millions of Americans without fast internet “invisible,” as Microsoft put it, and unless the data improve, they’re likely to remain so. 

“You cannot manage what you do not measure,” acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said in late January. “But for too long, the FCC has lacked the data it needs about precisely where service is and is not throughout the country.”

Why millions of Americans still lack broadband at a time when it’s no longer optional16:00 WATCH NOW

There’s reason to be hopeful. Thanks to $65 million in funding from Congress in December, the FCC now will require internet service providers to share more detailed data, giving a better picture of what areas are unserved by broadband. It will also have to open the map to public feedback, letting people flag when something is wrong and providing more data points on gaps. On Wednesday at the agency’s monthly meeting, Rosenworcel launched a new task force to fix the data, saying “it’s no secret that the FCC’s existing broadband maps leave a lot to be desired.”

But some experts say the new mapping parameters still aren’t granular enough, and the new maps almost certainly will arrive too late to help people during the pandemic. The updated data likely won’t be available until at least next year, the Broadband Data Task Force’s chair, Jean Kiddoo, acknowledged Wednesday. Many regions of the US can’t wait that long.

“Nobody wants to overbuild, and everybody only wants to serve the unserved,” says Peggy Schaffer, director of the ConnectMaine Authority, the state’s effort to bridge its digital divide. “But we, quite frankly, have no idea who they are.”

Unwilling to wait for the federal government, Maine, Pennsylvania, Georgia and other states have set out to build their own maps, drawing on speed test data, specific information from ISPs about what homes they serve, and other resources to find out where their gaps are. 

The FCC’s effort is, however, a step in the right direction in addressing a problem that has grown in severity over the last quarter century. 

Faulty maps

The broadband mapping problem goes back to the early days of the internet, when the Telecommunications Act of 1996 required the FCC to collect semiannual data from providers about which ZIP codes they serviced. But the agency didn’t publicly disclose the internet service providers in each area. 

Thirteen years later, the government tried to make the information more transparent. A provision of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, signed by President Barack Obama, mandated the development of a National Broadband Plan and the creation of a US broadband map by mid-February 2011. 

To build the map, internet service providers twice a year give the FCC what’s called Form 477 data that details coverage areas and speeds. But the FCC doesn’t check the data; it just relies on the ISPs to report accurate information. And the speeds that service providers list are what their advertised maximum speeds are, not necessarily the everyday reality. Pricing data is kept confidential, which means broadband speeds may be available but at very high rates.

The FCC’s broadband map overstates the number of Americans with fast internet at home.  FCC

An even bigger issue: If even one home in a census block — the smallest geographic area used by the US Census Bureau — can get broadband service, the entire area is considered served. In rural areas, that home may be the only place with internet service for miles around. And the data only shows places service providers could provide broadband within 10 business days of a request, not areas that are actually connected. As of the 2010 census, there were 11.2 million census blocks in the US. By comparison, there are an estimated 150 million parcels — the way land is divided for taxes — in the country. 

“Census blocks in America are highly irregular in terms of size and shape,” said Tyler Cooper, editor-in-chief of internet service data tracker BroadbandNow. “It could be a single city block in urban areas or dozens of square miles in a rural area. … You have this vast issue of overreporting happening.”

Accepting an ISP’s data without checking it can be problematic. Barrier Communications, a New York-based ISP that does business as BarrierFree, submitted data for 2019’s broadband report that said it provided speedy internet coverage for nearly 20% of the US population. That would make it the fourth largest US service provider in terms of people covered despite being in business only about six months. The FCC accepted that information without checking it. It was only after nonprofit Free Press pointed out the “implausible” nature of the claims that the FCC revised its figures on the number of Americans covered by broadband. 

The flawed maps have presented a big problem as governments try to distribute broadband funding. If a census block is considered covered by the FCC map, it’s not eligible for federal assistance. That’s particularly worrisome as the US distributes billions through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund, which the FCC has called its “largest investment ever to close [the] digital divide.”https://ift.tt/3pKlkJy

A year ago, the FCC approved the disbursement of $20.4 billion to ensure that residents in rural areas of the US have access to broadband internet connections. The funding will be allocated over the next 10 years to broadband providers, cable providers, wireless companies and electric co-ops to build access to unserved Americans. At the time, two of the five agency commissioners, including Rosenworcel, dissented in part to the plan because it relies on what they and many others in the country have determined to be faulty data. Those bad maps have led to issues with RDOF. 

“We shouldn’t be surprised, in some ways, that parties are already raising some instances where mapping related problems are arising in RDOF in the phase one results,” FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks said Wednesday. 

There’s also a massive lag between when the data is submitted and when the public sees it. The latest FCC data, published the day before Biden’s inauguration, compiles data provided through the end of 2019. It found that fewer than 14.5 million Americans — or 4.4% of the population — lack access to fixed broadband, which is defined as download speeds of 25 Mbps and upload speeds of 3 Mbps. The previous year, 18.1 million Americans didn’t have access to broadband at home. 

“Since 2016, the number of Americans living in rural areas lacking access to 25/3 Mbps service has fallen more than 46%,” the FCC said in its report. “As a result, the rural-urban divide is rapidly closing.”

The FCC also said the entire US population has access to broadband internet when satellite service is included — an idea that broadband experts describe as laughable. 

In reality, the FCC has been dramatically underestimating the number of people without broadband access for years, something Congress and even the FCC itself have acknowledged time and time again.

SEE ALSO

School is starting — and the broadband gap will be a massive problem

In remote Alaska, broadband for all remains a dream. So a school district got creative

As COVID-19 ravages the world, closing the digital divide is more critical than ever

How faster internet is being blocked by politics and poverty throughout the eastern US

Microsoft over the past couple of years has looked at how quickly people across the US download its software and security updates as a way to quantify how many have speedy internet access. In December, it said that about 157.3 million people in the US, or 48% of the population, don’t use the internet at broadband speeds. And BroadbandNow, which tracks internet service and pricing by combining Form 477 data with other sources, a year ago estimated that at least 42 million, or 13% of the population, didn’t have broadband at all, double the FCC’s declaration at the time.  

“Right now we’re in this bizarre situation where even though we know — we know — that there’s something dreadfully awry with our broadband [data collection], as a matter of national policy dating back 15 years, we simply refuse to collect the information that would explicate that,” said Sascha Meinrath, a broadband data expert who serves as director of X-Lab, a future-focused technology policy and innovation think tank, and holds the endowed Palmer Chair in Telecommunications at Penn State University. 

Getting more granular 

In August 2019, the FCC adopted rules for collecting more detailed information on where ISPs provide coverage and where they do not as part of its Digital Opportunity Data Collection process. But it wasn’t moving fast enough for Congress — or the constituents who have complained loudly and frequently. Nearly a year later, President Donald Trump signed the Broadband DATA Act to order the FCC to collect the more “granular, precise coverage data.” Still, the data collection process faced even more delays, largely because then-Chairman Ajit Pai said the FCC didn’t have the funds to carry out the act. Congress finally allocated $65 million for mapping as part of December’s COVID-19 relief bill. 

What the FCC now will do is require more precise data from broadband service providers in the form of “shapefiles.” Instead of giving information at the census block level, the ISPs will give more detailed measurements through “polygons” that are overlaid on census blocks to depict the areas where broadband-capable networks exist. 

“We will no longer count everyone in the census block as served if just one person is served,” Pai said when unveiling the new mapping plan in August 2019.The states are the ones who are innovating on this. We know we can’t wait for the feds to fix it. We waited, we’re done, so we’re moving. Peggy Schaffer, director of the ConnectMaine Authority, the state’s effort to bridge its digital divide

The shapefile plan is something that ISPs championed, and it solves the problem of overstating coverage, said Steven Morris, vice president and deputy general counsel at NCTA-The Internet & Television Association. The group, formerly known as the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, represents the country’s biggest cable providers like Comcast and programmers like AMC Networks, and it’s one of the most influential lobbying groups in America. 

While the shapefiles will be more granular, they’re still not down to the address level. The FCC proposed that before, but it’s something ISPs have successfully fought. In 2017, the NCTA said providing street address-level data would cause its members to incur “significant costs,” while Verizon argued it would create “large and unjustified burdens” on providers. This time around, ISPs can share address-level data with the FCC, but it’s not a requirement. 

“It’s hard to do in a way that’s as accurate as doing the shapefile,” Morris said. If a provider is greatly expanding its network, it could inadvertently undercount the addresses it serves, he said, while construction of new homes could also impact the accuracy.

Along with more granular data, the FCC also must create a way to gather public feedback on whether their homes and businesses are covered or not. Today, consumers have no official recourse when their homes are listed as covered but actually aren’t. The new crowdsourcing method is expected to help check the data given by ISPs. 

“It’s not just relying on what industry tells it,” said Gigi Sohn, an FCC staffer from 2013 to 2016 under Chairman Tom Wheeler and current distinguished fellow at Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy. A common criticism about the new plan is that it still relies too much on what ISPs are willing to give, instead of requiring even more granular information and data about pricing.

Problems remain

While the maps may be better than what came before, they likely will still not be enough to truly give an accurate picture of where broadband exists, experts say.  

The FCC still hasn’t “gotten rid of the ‘could provide service’ versus ‘does provide service,'” Sohn said. That hides areas where people may be disconnected for affordability reasons or other factors that contribute to the digital divide. 

Under the new rules, ISPs can only count an area as covered if it could set up a connection within 10 business days of a customer’s request and without requiring resources or construction costs higher than an ordinary service activation fee. In the previous rules, a service provider could — and did — charge people thousands of dollars to extend service to their homes, even if the official broadband map showed service was available there. 

Steve Alexander’s vacation home in Maryland lacked broadband internet — until he and a colleague paid to wire their homes.  Getty Images

That happened to Annapolis, Maryland-based Steve Alexander in the early days of the pandemic. The chief technology officer of Ciena, a telecom equipment and software provider, wanted to spend more time at his vacation home on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, but there was just one problem —  internet was virtually nonexistent, despite the FCC data saying broadband was available. Alexander’s DSL connection was too slow for him and a colleague who lived nearby to work from home, and a local ISP said it would cost $25,000 to $30,000 to extend service to their addresses. 

Alexander ended up lucking out when a local power company dug trenches to make repairs. He convinced it to dig to his location and that of his colleague, which allowed the cable company to install fiber. But none of that was free. It still cost them both about $5,000 to $7,000 apiece, Alexander said.

“I never felt the maps were accurate in terms of real availability,” he said. “Would a normal homeowner be able to order a service based on that map and be guaranteed to get delivery? The answer is no.”

At the same time, the FCC is only requiring information about broadband availability at homes and businesses, not anchor institutions like schools, libraries, health care facilities, public housing community centers and houses of worship. While the FCC in 2010 issued a goal for all anchor institutions to have gigabit-speed connectivity by 2020, the country fell short of that goal, said John Windhausen Jr., executive director of the Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition, a public interest group. 

“Even worse, we don’t even know how far away from the goal we are,” he said. “We’re not collecting the info that would tell us how fast we have to go and how much investment we need to make to get gigabit connectivity.” The new mapping plan doesn’t change that. Never did I think the digital divide would be so unfair. Kathi Shorey, a registered nurse and nurse’s aid instructor living without broadband internet in Maine

Still, the polygon shapefiles could give a better view of connectivity in agricultural areas, says Dan Leibfried, director of automation and autonomy at Deere and a member of the FCC’s task force for precision agriculture connectivity. That will be key as farming becomes even more technology- and data- driven than it is today. 

“If you really want the world’s leading agricultural industry, you have to solve for this digital divide … to give customers the best opportunity to make decisions in real time,” he said. “I would love to see it solved yesterday.”

Getting even better data

While nearly everyone agrees the FCC’s current maps are bad, some researchers have tried to quantify just how inaccurate they can be. Meinrath and a team sought to show the gaps in Pennsylvania using speed tests. Along with his role at the university, Meinrath is also co-founder of Measurement Labs, an open-source network performance project. When someone Googles “speed test,” the testing box that appears at the top of the results is powered by M-Lab technology. 

While FCC maps in 2017 showed Pennsylvania was blanketed with broadband, over 11 million speed tests conducted by Meinrath and his team in 2018 found no county where at least 50% of the population had access to broadband. Because FCC maps rely on ISPs to self-report their coverage areas, there’s often overreporting. 

“I want to force the ISPs to be accountable for what they themselves are reporting to the FCC,” he said. “That has to be the next step.” 

Pennsylvania ended up putting together its own statewide map — taking into account ISP-provided data, FCC information and speed tests — to help providers apply for RDOF funding last year. 

Pennsylvania built a detailed broadband map to identify where to steer funding for better coverage. Screenshot by Shara Tibken/CNET

Another group of academic researchers sought to quantify just how inaccurate FCC maps can sometimes be by looking at 4G LTE coverage in New Mexico, many parts of which are rural or include tribal lands. And they wanted to determine what data could be useful for figuring out gaps. 

Instead of running speed tests, they partnered with Skyhook, a location data company, for what they called “incidental” data on where there was coverage and what the strength of the signal was. Skyhook’s technology runs in the background of popular apps — it doesn’t specify which ones but says they include programs like social media and location services — and measures where people are accessing those apps while going about their daily lives. It doesn’t track a connection’s speed but helps researchers know if a location has a 4G LTE signal at all.

“That’s really powerful because those are actual measurements,” said Elizabeth M. Belding, a computer science professor at the University of California in Santa Barbara and one of the authors of a new report on the findings.  

The researchers compared the FCC’s data with that from Skyhook and then actually went to parts of New Mexico in May 2019 to run their own speed tests and see for themselves what the coverage is like. What they found is FCC data diverged from Skyhook information the most in rural and tribal areas, and the on-the-ground measurement also varied in some cases. In one example, FCC T-Mobile data showed coverage in 92% of tribal rural blocks, but Skyhook showed coverage in only 63% of the blocks, the researchers said in their report.

“The takeaway is that the quality of the data is very variable,” said Morgan Vigil-Hayes, an assistant professor of computer science at Northern Arizona University and one of the report’s authors. “They all have different benefits. … What we’ve shown is we can take [the FCC’s map] and use it as a starting point in combination with other data sets to be able to really identify where much more high-quality measurement needs to happen.”

Georgia turned to a different methodology to build a map that broadband expert Sohn called “the most granular in the nation.” After passing a law to keep ISP data confidential, it worked to gather information from the providers about the exact addresses they serve. But just having the ISP data of served locations and a list of all the other Enhanced 911 addresses wasn’t enough. 

Georgia has built its own broadband maps using service provider data and address information from a real estate data company. The dark orange areas have broadband internet, the beige are unserved and gray areas are where there are no locations. Along with the full state view, Georgia offers a county broadband map.  Screenshot by Shara Tibken/CNET

Georgia needed some way to know what unserved addresses were actually homes or businesses, not barns or other structures that didn’t need broadband. For that, the state worked with LightBox, a commercial real estate data provider that has information on all addresses in the US. ISPs provided Georgia with data on the locations they served, and the state then matched that with LightBox’s data to identify homes and businesses that didn’t have broadband. 

“In order to get it at a granular level like we did, you do have to do this location-level approach,” said Deana Perry, executive director of the Georgia Broadband Deployment Initiative.

What Georgia ultimately found was that 507,000 locations, or 10% of homes and businesses, lack access to broadband, and in rural areas, about 30% of locations are unserved. The FCC, in its most recent report in January, said only 6.2% of Georgia locations didn’t have fixed broadband. 

LightBox, meanwhile, has looked for ways to replicate Georgia’s granular map without getting data directly from service providers, CEO Eric Frank said. One method involved collecting telemetry data from cellphones to see if that could identify coverage gaps. While the information helped approximate broad coverage, “it’s not going to give you the precision” that you get by collecting address data directly from ISPs, Frank said. 

“The most comprehensive way to do that is … somebody could say to an ISP, send us everything you’ve got, every address that you have in the United States,” he said. “It’s easy for us to take that file and load it into the system, then take the files from the other ISPs. … We can solve the United States in one shot.”

Holding out hope

Maine is counting on speed test data to pinpoint its unserved areas and allow it to direct funding to providers there. The week of Thanksgiving, it launched its statewide effort, encouraging consumers to run M-Lab speed tests from their homes as often as possible. Since then, nearly 17,000 people have taken its speed tests from over 13,000 unique locations. 

Speed tests aren’t always useful for address-specific data but paint a picture of what an area looks like. The more tests, the better. Maine’s newest grants for unserved areas will be based on its new mapping effort. One of the four possible ways to determine if an area can get funding is if speed tests show it doesn’t have broadband. 

Maine is using speed test data to figure out where gaps exist in its broadband coverage. Since the week of Thanksgiving, residents of the state — population 1.3 million — have taken nearly 17,000 tests. Screenshot by Shara Tibken/CNET

While it knows speed tests aren’t perfect, the data’s still better than what the FCC provides, said Schaffer, the head of Maine’s broadband efforts. 

“The states are the ones who are innovating on this,” she says. “We know we can’t wait for the feds to fix it. We waited, we’re done, so we’re moving.”

As for Shorey, she’s anticipating her next call from Charter’s Spectrum, urging her to install its internet service at her home before it realizes she actually can’t. Her research into SpaceX’s Starlink service, which some believe can help connect remote parts of the US, hasn’t been reassuring so far. Connectivity through the low Earth orbit satellites costs $500 for equipment and $99 a month for the beta tests. Registering doesn’t guarantee service. 

For now, Shorey’s best hope is for Consolidated to use Rural Digital Opportunity Fund money to upgrade the connectivity in her neighborhood.

Mike Schultz, senior vice president of regulatory affairs for Consolidated, said his company already has updated 760,000 rural locations to multi-gig fiber over the past few years. Consolidated now plans to upgrade another 1.6 million customer addresses in the US, or about 70% of its service area, and is counting on federal funding for assistance. 

“We’re hopeful that the next phase of RDOF will help areas just like Sweden, Maine,” Schultz said in a statement.

For some of Consolidated’s customers, getting fiber could take five years. Maybe by then, the maps will catch up. 

“I’ve been waiting 20 years for something to happen, and nothing has really happened,” Shorey said. “It’s not fair. It’s not OK to live in a place that doesn’t have adequate communication.”

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Im gonna ramble on for a bit, so gonna put this under a Read More.

TL/DR: I find it real hard to find any time to draw recently, and Id like to apologize to all the people who support me, either through social media, Patreon or commissions, for not putting out enough content. Ill try to change that, and put out more furry stuff on your timelines and dashes.

I have not been putting out as enough content as I would like to. That wouldnt usually matter to most people, “oh ill just draw when i get the chance”, “well at least its just a hobby so it doesnt matter if i dont do it” and all that.

However, now I feel a certain sense of responsibility. Earlier this year I launched my Patreon so that if people wanted to support me with any ammount they wanted each month, they could, while I could repay their kindness with temporarily exclusive art. I also made it so that it would keep me motivated to keep drawing more, specially by making polls for patreon supporters for getting feedback on who or what should I draw next. 

Thats why I didnt put any specific reward tier for it other than “$1 a month for all exclusive content”, so that if anyone wanted to pitch in they could. I considered making more tiers further down the line once I got used to working on it or enough people seemed interested. However things started going downwards from there.

I launched my Patreon on January, a few weeks before the end of winter break. I fooled myself thinking Id have enough time to put out rewards on a decent schedule because the very first picture I did, I did in one night. I was probably just motivated cause I had been drawing a lot around that time, but I did it quickly, and in my opinion it was very good, so its not like I was sacrificing quality over doing it quickly. So I thought “hell yeah I can do this” and launched the Patreon.

However I eventually had to go back to school. Im a college student, and Im getting close to finishing my way through college (currently on my 8th out of 9 semesters), which means I keep getting busier and busier doing school work, attending classes, working on projects, and everything in between. Add all that to the housework I gotta do in the room I rent, plus all the traveling I have to do when visiting my parents, and that leaves me with almost no time for art.

Now you may think “ok but you gotta have SOME free time. Yes, but after all the stress and all the stuff I have to deal with its really hard to just come home and be like “now I feel like I could draw for several hours!”. Most of the time I just nap because Im so physically or emotionally exhausted, or just take some time to play videogames to de-stress. Heck, even during spring break I was like “hell yeah Im gonna have a full week to get caught up on my art” and my computer started having issues that i spent more than half of the week fixing.

So I feel like Im letting my Patreons down. Having long periods without time to draw was always a possibility I considered, but since its pretty much “donate what you want” I didnt worry too much about it, cause its not like Im asking for $10 out of everyone and not delivering on anything. However since the Patreon had enough success I was really happy with all the support, Id just check Patreon all the time and be amazed and happy at how much people wanted to support me for drawing dumb hunky animals.

That all changed though. Because Im not putting out art, people have been removing their pledges. Which is like, SUPER undestandable. Youre not gonna pay me for not doing anything. But like, its been so many, it really kicks off my anxiety. Now I cant check Patreon unless I have to, because doing so makes me legitimately super anxious.

The thing is its not only Patreon. Ive been taking sketchmmissions, which means Ive had some long overdue things to draw for people, and I feel a bit of a “need” to put out Shark Dude and other free content as well. Heck, most of the time I just look at other peoples art and I feel really disappointed that I havent had time to draw and it makes me pretty sad. 

Even when I do have free time for art, its a bit of a struggle: I have to choose what to prioritize, do I draw something for the Patreon cause I had no rewards this month? Or do I draw something for the commissioner who is paying more for just the one picture? Or do I draw something quick and free, that most people will enjoy, but also Im not working on the things that people actually give me money for?

So, this is an official apology to everyone.

To my Patreons, Im so sorry if Ive made you feel like youre wasting your money. I gotta find some way to fix up a schedule, or change the way of how I deal with the rewards. Maybe post more sketches instead of just finished pictures? Do the Image Pack thing? I dunno, Ill figure something out.

To my Commissioners, Ill get to your commissions as soon as I can, and Ill try to deliver something worth your wait. For anyone who wants to commission me in the future though, I might cut down on opening commissions until I can have more free time. Like, only open them until summer break and that kind of stuff. I originally wanted to do at LEAST 5 sketchmmissions a month this year, but boy that aint happening huh.

To everyone else, who may support me with retweets, reblogs, sharing, likes, comments, replies, and everything in between, Ill try to get more content done in general. Commissions is a thing you guys can enjoy when Im done with that, but patreon exclusives are different. I wanted to share Patreon stuff as soon as like 2 months after but since Im not making enough rewards I wanna keep them exclusive for a bit longer to justify the lack of exclusives. Ill try to make more Shark Dude stuff as well too.

But above all of that, to every one of you: Thank you, for putting up with me, and enjoying my art.

[afrolatinxsunited]

News & interesting information on POS and POS System Equipment.

The National Football League can’t quit the Dallas Cowboys. It’s a relationship built on one of the world’s most reliable aphrodisiacs: money.

Aren’t sappy love stories the best?

The league and this franchise have been joined at the hip over the last four decades because the Cowboys have consistently delivered monster television ratings, compelling story lines, and star power. Think Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin, Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett, Tom Landry and Jimmy Johnson.

We’re not sure Dak Prescott is going to be great. But because he’s the Cowboys quarterback, he’s one of the NFL’s most marketable players. As an athlete, coach, or front-office executive, to be associated with the Cowboys is to achieve an elevated status amid the NFL’s already rarefied air. Name another team whose owner is as famous as any of its players. That’s the magic of the Cowboys.

Like him or not, you have to tip your cap to Jerry Jones, the rascal in chief who took over a great brand in 1989 and made it even stronger and more resilient. They’ve won only four playoff games in the past 24 seasons, but the Cowboys’ mystique is based on more than the mere winning and losing of football games.

So it should come as no surprise that the NFL chose to pencil in Dallas for the 2021 regular-season opener on September 9, pitting the Cowboys against the defending Super Bowl champions, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and quarterback Tom Brady. The game is sure to be a textbook example of NFL excess in all its extravagant, prime-time glory—patriotism, celebrity, music, parades.

Roll your eyes if you like. Swear you’ve had it with Jerry and his handling of the Cowboys’ roster. Countless fans have done the same throughout Jones’s three-decade reign over “America’s Team.”

But once you’ve blown off that steam, you start thinking about Prescott’s return from injury and all the offensive talent the Cowboys surround him with. Then you start talking yourself into new defensive coordinator Dan Quinn as a smart coaching hire, and the notion that Jerry shored up some of the team’s weaknesses through the NFL draft and free agency creeps into your head.

That’s all it takes—you’re hooked! Now, you’re counting down the days to Cowboys-Bucs in the fall.

The NFL had other options for the opener. It could have gone with Tampa Bay at New England—Brady’s first trip back to Gillette Stadium and the most interesting game of the 2021 season. (Instead, that one’s on the books for October 3). But the NFL chose to come out swinging with the Cowboys, a team that went 6–10 in 2020—and to anyone who follows football, the decision makes all the sense in the world.

Opening night won’t be the last you’ll see of the Cowboys. They’re one of ten NFL franchises scheduled to play five prime-time games in 2021, with the San Francisco 49ers being the only other that didn’t make the playoffs last year.

If you’re looking for contrast between Texas’s two NFL franchises, start here: while every fan in the state keeps an eye on the Cowboys, the Houston Texans couldn’t operate in more anonymity if they tried.

This isn’t about winning and losing, either. In the past ten seasons, the Texans have had seven winning records and made six playoff appearances, compared with four winning records and three playoff appearances for the Cowboys. Over the same stretch, the Texans have six division championships and the Cowboys have three.

Still, you care more about the Cowboys because your dad cared, your grandfather cared, your best friend cared. Fifty years ago, you watched your dad in his Sunday best twisting a television antenna to find a station in Waco or Texarkana carrying the game. And if you’re too young to remember that, you remember your parents telling you about it.

Sure, the Cowboys and the NFL have had their share of lovers’ spats over issues like revenue sharing, corporate sponsorships, and a contract extension for commissioner Roger Goodell (which Jerry once tried to block). In the end, they’ve always worked things out and continued making the NFL our national pastime.

And the Cowboys have reasons to feel optimistic about 2021. NBC’s latest power rankings place them smack-dab in the middle of the league at number 16 overall. But at least Dallas is ranked higher than the rest of the NFC East teams, with Washington, Philadelphia, and New York clocking in at numbers 20, 28, and 29 among the NFL’s 32 teams.

Hope springs? Last year, Prescott’s gruesome ankle injury in week five ended his season and whatever hope the Cowboys had in 2020. But so far, he has passed every off-season test we know of and his recovery appears to be on track.

The Cowboys’ offensive line, which was all but wiped out by injuries last season, also appears to be nearing full strength heading into the fall. Prolific wideouts CeeDee Lamb and Amari Cooper are expected to ease the pressure on running back Ezekiel Elliott, who looked worn down last season while averaging a career-low 4.0 yards per carry.

As for the Dallas defense—who knows? Quinn’s hiring garnered favorable reviews from Hall of Famer Troy Aikman and others around the league. Then Jerry used his first six draft choices—and eight of eleven overall picks—on defensive players, including Penn State linebacker Micah Parsons and Kentucky cornerback Kelvin Joseph, both of whom could start immediately. Others—UCLA tackle Osa Odighizuwa and LSU linebacker Jabril Cox—are expected to help improve the Cowboys’ defense.

The team also added an assortment of mid-level defensive talent in free agency, but the bottom line is that Prescott’s return is the biggest reason the Cowboys will be better in 2021.

Now, remember those NBC power rankings? The Texans are number 32—dead last in the NFL and starting over after a string of bad trades by former coach and general manager Bill O’Brien, plus the apparent loss of quarterback Deshaun Watson, who was demanding a trade before he was sued by 22 women accusing him of sexual assault and harassment.

The Texans’ new general manager, Nick Caserio, is stripping the franchise down to its studs and beginning a reconstruction that’s likely to take at least two years. The Texans didn’t have a first- or second-round pick this year, but Caserio has added dozens of players via free agency, trades, and the draft. There aren’t any stars among that group, and given the franchise’s state of disrepair, Caserio probably wasn’t looking to sign splashy, big-name players. Instead, he added depth at every position, a ploy to create a competitive training-camp atmosphere that might help the Texans uncover diamonds in the rough. John McClain of the Houston Chronicle estimates that Houston could see 70 percent roster turnover by the season opener.

That trial-and-error philosophy was evident when Caserio traded for quarterback Ryan Finley, then released him two months later, days after signing a different veteran QB, Jeff Driskel.

Watson’s future hangs over every move the Texans make. The three-time Pro Bowler will be traded eventually, but fans could find themselves waiting the entire 2021 season for a deal. The NFL is still investigating Watson, with a potential punishment from the league looming as the civil lawsuits against him make their way through the court system, and the uncertainty over Watson’s future will hamper the Texans’ attempts to move him.

When they do trade Watson, the Texans hope to land multiple first-round picks in the swap, because Watson is talented enough to turn the right team into a Super Bowl contender. But that’s presuming the “right team” would be willing to place its future in the hands of a player whose behavior appears to have been, at best, horrific, and at worst, criminal.

In the end, the 2021 Houston Texans could turn out even worse than last season’s four-win team, but the franchise’s decision to embrace a rebuild provides fans some peace of mind. At least their team has a strategy.

Into this situation steps first-year head coach David Culley, who, despite never having held a coordinator position, won over Caserio with his passion, football acumen, and communication skills. In a perfect world, Caserio and Culley will ride out the tough times together, build a winning team, and have a great run.

Until then, the Texans are trying to build a team that competes hard and occasionally offers a glimpse of better days ahead. Maybe, someday down the road, they’ll even field a team worthy of a prime-time date with the Dallas Cowboys.

The above post was first published on this site.

I trust you found the post above useful and/or interesting. You can find similar content on our blog here: www.easttxpointofsale.com Please let me have your feedback in the comments section below. Let us know which topics we should cover for you in future.

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You’re probably asking yourself, “What the heck is Persistence Resistance?” Is it another trendy syndrome? The answer is NO. It’s a question you need to ask yourself about how you plan to live your life. What are the driving forces in your business or profession, personal relationships, or physical fitness? Do you have a Burning Desire, or a Wishful Thinking attitude about what you want to achieve in life? Are you living your life with organized planning, solid goals, determination, persistence and definiteness of purpose? Or, are you just sliding by hoping that someday things will get better? Do you have a poverty consciousness or an abundance consciousness?

These are among many questions you must ask yourself, in order to know where you are in your life and where you plan on going. Do you have a road map, an established set of goals? Do you say daily affirmations that move you toward the successful person you deserve to be? What is your persistence aptitude? Do you easily quit when things get a little tough? Are you resistant to persistence?

How does this apply to Network Marketing? The going can get a little challenging at times when you are working in our business. It does for EVERYONE in Network Marketing. So what are the differences between those who succeed and those who drop out? The difference is Persistence. It is that quality that everyone who has EVER succeeded at anything possesses. The business of Network Marketing is no different than any other business where you are self-employed. It can feel lonely and isolated at times. You must then seek out a support system.

Besides finding a legitimate, 5 Pillars, well compensating company, you need to surround yourself with positive, supportive people, such as a Master Mind Group. A Master Mind Group is a group of people who are understanding, encouraging and will give you honest feedback. They will help you brainstorm ideas. They will tell you when you are off-track and help you get back on-track. They will help you increase your self-confidence and self-understanding. They will help you stay persistent.

I am a member of such a Master Mind Group and we are studying Napoleon Hill’s classic, “Think and Grow Rich”. In it he details 13 steps to success. They are:

1. Desire: The Starting Point of All Achievement

2. Faith: Visualization of, and Belief in Attainment of Desire

3. Auto-suggestion: The Medium for Influencing the Subconscious Mind

4. Specialized Knowledge: Personal Experience or Observations

5. Imagination: The Workshop of the Mind

6. Organized Planning: The Crystallization of Desire Into Action

7. Decision: The Mastery of Procrastination

8. Persistence: The Sustained Effort Necessary to Induce Faith

9. Power of the Master Mind: The Driving Force

10. The Mystery of Sex Transmutation

11. The Subconscious Mind: The Connecting Link

12. The Brain: A Broadcasting and Receiving Station for Thought

13. The Sixth Sense: The Door To The Temple of Wisdom

Persistence is one of the essential keys to success. It is so vitally important, that without it you cannot achieve what you set out to do. Success is not a straight path from your goal to completion of the task. One thing you can count on in life is that there will always be obstacles and hurdles you have to jump in order to attain your goals. Persistence is what separates the achievers from the want to be’s. Every person in the world, who has ever achieved greatness, has accomplished it through persistence. In reading their stories, you will find many, many difficulties they had to overcome.

Abraham Lincoln is the personification of persistence. His life is the embodiment of overcoming impediments.

Abraham Lincoln’s Path To Success – A Study in Persistence

Born in a one room log cabin in Kentucky (a state that permitted slavery) – 1809

Worked to support his family after they were forced out of their home – 1816

Death of his Mother – 1818

Lost his job – 1831

He was defeated for his election to the legislature for the State of Illinois – 1832

Lost his job and was not accepted into law school – 1832

Went into business with a friend who died and left him penniless and bankrupt. It took him 17 years to pay off the debt – 1833

Ran for and won a seat in the Illinois Legislature – serving 4 years – 1834

While engaged, his fiancé (Ann Rutledge) died and he was devastated – 1835

Elected for 2nd term in the Illinois House of Representatives – 1836

Nominated by the Whig caucus as Speaker of the House but failed to get enough votes – 1838

Chosen as Presidential elector for the Whig Party – 1839

Re-elected to Illinois State Legislature – 1840

Married Mary Todd Edwards – 1842

Wanted to run for Congress but for the sake of Whig party unity, agreed to wait until 1846 – 1843

Ran for the U.S. Congress and won – 1846

Was turned down as Congressional candidate for the Whig Party – 1848

Applied for the job of Commissioner of General Land Office and was denied that position – 1848

Elected to the Illinois State Legislature but declined the seat in order to run for U.S. Senate – 1854

Ran for U.S. Senate, but as a political move for the well being of the Whig Party, deferred his votes to allow Trumbull to win – 1855

Received votes in the Philadelphia Republican convention for the Vice-Presidency, but decided not to run – 1856

Ran for the U.S. Senate, won the popular vote, but the election was overthrown in the Illinois State Legislature, thus losing the race – 1858

Elected 16th President of the United States – 1860

His is an amazing study of persistence. Moving from the humblest of beginnings to leader of United States during its most difficult time in history, Lincoln persevered.

How can you apply Lincoln’s tenacity to your business, profession or life in general? Follow in his path. Work on the following system, taken from Napoleon Hill’s teachings: Have a dream, set written goals, have a definite, organized plan for achieving those goals, develop a burning desire, give yourself positive self-talk many times a day through written affirmations, and above all, be PERSISTENT. Your path will be winding, but you will always be able to continue your forward momentum if you follow this system.

How are YOU working on your Network Marketing business? Are you working half-heartedly with no sense of direction? Are you in a company that is setting you up for failure, but you take no action to find a better company? Do you think that some day you’ll just get lucky and everything will fall into place? After all, all those successful people in Network Marketing must have gotten where they are by luck, right? Not so. Their success is directly related to their amount of planning, determination and persistence.

So I end this as I started it, with a question. Are you courageous and perseverant or are YOU Resistant to Persistence?

The following are quotes on Persistence:

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

Calvin Coolidge

Persistence is attitude. It’s knowing what you want, focusing on the goal, and going for it with everything you’ve got. Some of the world’s greatest achievers simply had the persistence to reach their dreams in spite of their failures.

Theodore Roosevelt

Energy and persistence conquer all things.

Benjamin Franklin

That which we persist in doing becomes easier, not that the task itself has become easier, but that our ability to perform it has improved.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

We are made to persist. That’s how we find out who we are.

Tobias Wolff “In Pharaoh’s Army”

Erving is a Professional Network Marketer, Father of 5, Grandfather of 13, and Great Grandfather 1 single. Erving believes if you want to become successful in Network Marketing you can. It is her goal to give you the right knowledge, skills, and abilities to be successful through a PROVEN duplicatable system, of good leadership and supportive mentoring. You CAN be successful.

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A flaw-by-flaw guide to Facebook’s new GDPR privacy changes

A flaw-by-flaw guide to Facebook’s new GDPR privacy changes

Facebook is about to start pushing European users to speed through giving consent for its new GDPR privacy law compliance changes. It will ask people to review how Facebook applies data from web to target them with ads, and surface the sensitive profile info they share. Facebook will also allow European and Canadian users to turn on facial recognition after six years of the feature being blocked there. But with a design that encourages rapidly hitting the “Agree” button, a lack of granular controls, a laughably cheatable parental consent request for teens, and an aesthetic overhaul of Download Your Information that doesn’t make it any easier to switch social networks, Facebook shows it’s still hungry for your data.

The new privacy change and terms of service consent flow will appear starting this week to European users, though they’ll be able to dismiss it for now, though the May 25th GDPR compliance deadline Facebook vowed to uphold in Europe is looming. Meanwhile, Facebook says it will roll out the changes and consent flow globally over the coming weeks and months with some slight regional differences. And finally, all teens worldwide that share sensitive info will have to go through the weak new parental consent flow.

Facebook brought a group of reporters to the new Building 23 at its Menlo Park headquarters to preview the changes today. But feedback was heavily critical as journalists grilled Facebook’s deputy chief privacy officer Rob Sherman. Questions centered around how Facebook makes accepting the updates much easier than reviewing or changing them, but Sherman stuck to talking points about how important it was to give users choice and information.

“Trust is really important and it’s clear that we have a lot of work to do to regain the trust of people on our service” he said, giving us deja vu about Mark Zuckerberg’s testimonies before congress. “We know that people won’t be comfortable using facebook if they don’t feel that their information is protected.”

Trouble At Each Step Of Facebook’s Privacy Consent Flow

There are a ton of small changes so we’ll lay out each with our criticisms.

Facebook’s consent flow starts well enough with the screen above offering a solid overview of why it’s making changes for GDPR and what you’ll be reviewing. But with just an ‘X’ up top to back out, it’s already training users to speed through by hitting that big blue button at the bottom.

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Sensitive Info

First up is control of your sensitive profile information, specifically your sexual preference, religious views, and political views. As you’ll see at each step, you can hit the pretty blue “Accept And Continue” button regardless of whether you’ve scrolled through the information. If you hit the ugly grey “Manage Settings” button, you have to go through an interstitial where Facebook makes it’s argument trying to deter you from removing the info before letting you make and save your choice. It feels obviously designed to get users to breeze through it by offering no resistance to continue, but friction if you want to make changes.

Facebook doesn’t let advertisers target you based on this sensitive info, which is good. The only exception is that in the US, political views alongside political Pages and Events you interact with impact your overarching personality categories that can be targeted with ads. You can opt out of being targeted by those too. But your only option here is either to remove any info you’ve shared in these categories so friends can’t see it, or allow Facebook to use it to personalize the site. There’s no option to keep this stuff on your profile but not let Facebook use it.

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Facial Recognition

Facebook is bringing facial recognition back to Europe and Canada. The Irish Data Protection commissioner who oversees the EU banned it there in 2012. Users in these countries will get a chance to turn it on, which is the default if they speed through. It’s a useful feature that can make sure people know about the photos of them floating around. But here the lack of granularity is concerning. Users might want to see warnings about possible impersonators using their face in their profile pics, but not be suggested as someone to tag in their friends’ photos. Unfortunately, it’s all or nothing. While Facebook is right to make it simple to turn on or off completely, granular controls that unfold for those that want them would be much more empowering.

[Update: This article has been update to reflect that Facebook indeed can offer facial recognition in Europe and Canada.]

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Data Collection Across The Web

A major concern that’s arisen in the wake of Zuckerberg’s testimonies is how Facebook uses data collected about you from around the web to target users with ads and optimize its service. While Sherman echoed Zuckerberg in saying that users tell the company they prefer relevant ads, and that this data can help thwart hackers and scrapers, many users are unsettled by the offsite collection practices. Here, Facebook lets you block it from targeting you with ads based on data about your browsing behavior on sites that show its Like and share buttons, conversion Pixel, or Audience Network ads. The issue is that there’s no way to stop Facebook from using that data from personalizing your News Feed or optimizing other parts of its service.

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New Terms Of Service

Facebook recently rewrote its Terms Of Service and Data Use Policy to be more explicit and easy to read. It didn’t make any significant changes other than noting the policy now applies to its subsidiaries like Instagram and Messenger. [Correction: But WhatsApp and Oculus have their own data policies.] That’s all clearly explained here, which is nice.

But the fact that the button to reject the new Terms Of Service isn’t even a button, it’s a tiny ‘see your options’ hyperlink shows how badly Facebook wants to avoid you closing your account. When Facebook’s product designer for the GDPR flow was asked if she thought this hyperlink was the best way to present the alternative to the big ‘I Accept’ button, she disingenuously said yes, eliciting scoffs from the room of reporters. It seems obvious that Facebook is trying to minimize the visibility of the path to account deletion rather than making it an obvious course of action if you don’t agree to its terms.

I requested Facebook actually show us what was on the other side of that tiny ‘see my options’ link and this is what we got. First, Facebook doesn’t mention its temporary deactivation option, just the scary permanent delete option. Facebook recommends downloading your data before deleting your account, which you should. But the fact that you’ll have to wait (often a few hours) before you can download your data could push users to delay deletion and perhaps never resume. And only if you keep scrolling do you get to another tiny “I’m ready to delete my account” hyperlink instead of a real button.

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Parental Consent

GDPR also implements new regulation about how teens are treated, specifically users between the ages of 13 (the minimum age required to sign up for Facebook) and 15. If users in this age range have shared their religious views, political views, or sexual preference, Facebook requires them to either remove it or get parental consent to keep it. They also need permission to be targeted with ads based on data from Facebook’s partners. Without that permission, they’ll see a less personalized version of Facebook. But the system for attaining and verifying that parental consent is a joke.

Users merely select one of their Facebook friends or enter an email address, and that person is asked to give consent for their ‘child’ to share sensitive info. But Facebook blindly trusts that they’ve actually selected their parent or guardian, even though it has a feature for users to designate who their family is, and the kid could put anyone in the email field, including an alternate address they control. Sherman says Facebook is “not seeking to collect additional information” to verify parental consent, so it seems Facebook is happy to let teens easily bypass the checkup.

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Privacy Shortcuts

To keep all users abreast of their privacy settings, Facebook has redesigned its Privacy Shortcuts in a colorful format that sticks out from the rest of the site. No complaints here.

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Download Your Information

Facebook has completely redesigned its Download Your Information tool after keeping it basically the same for the past 8 years. You can now view your content and data in different categories without downloading it, which alongside the new privacy shortcuts is perhaps the only unequivocally positive and unproblematic change amidst today’s announcements.

And Facebook now lets you select certain categories of data, date ranges, JSON or HTML format, and image quality to download. That could make it quicker and easier if you just need a copy of a certain type of content but don’t need to export all your photos and videos for example. Thankfully, Facebook says you’ll now be able to download your media in a higher resolution than the old tool allowed.

But the big problem here was the subject of my feature piece this week about Facebook’s lack of data portability. The Download Your Information tool is supposed to let you take your data and go to a different social network. But it only exports your social graph aka your friends as a text list of names. There are no links, usernames, or other unique identifiers unless friends opt into let you export their email or phone number (only 4% of my friends do), so good luck finding the right John Smith on another app. The new version of Download Your Information exports the same old list of names, rather than offering any interoperable format that would let you find your friends elsewhere.

A Higher Standard

Overall, it seems like Facebook is complying with the letter of GDPR law, but with questionable spirit. Sure, privacy is boring to a lot of people. Too little info and they feel confused and scared. Too many choices and screens and they feel overwhelmed and annoyed. Facebook struck the right balance in some places here. But the subtly pushy designs seem intended to steer people away from changing their defaults in ways that could hamper Facebook’s mission and business.

Making the choices equal in visible weight, rather than burying the ways to make changes in grayed-out buttons and tiny links, would have been more fair. And it would have shown that Facebook has faith in the value it provides, such that users would stick around and leave features enabled if they truly wanted to.

When questioned about this, Sherman pointed the finger at other tech companies, saying he thought Facebook was more upfront with users. Asked to clarify if he thought Facebook’s approach was “better”, he said “I think that’s right”. But Facebook isn’t being judged by the industry standard because it’s not a standard company. It’s built its purpose and its business on top of our private data, and touted itself as a boon to the world. But when asked to clear a higher bar for privacy, Facebook delved into design tricks to keep from losing our data.