#critical thinker 0 threat

[startledstars]

Quantum Collapse

(Truth or fear?)

“Everytime we look at something, we collapse the world around us into a single quantum state... Think of the Shrodinger’s cat thought experiment, where there’s a cat in a box. When you open that box, there’s a 50-50 chance that the cat will be killed by a mechanism that may be triggered by you opening the box.

So is the cat alive or dead before the box is opened? Well, it’s both, and it’s called a ‘quantum superposition’ where 0 and 1 exist simultaneously in the same space.

All of reality is essentially like that. Everything around us. Did you exist today? Then you helped collapse reality into one of two states. Bit by bit, we all do this every single day. As we do this, there are less and less undetermined states to collapse, and inevitably, there will eventually be only one outcome...

Before that singular outcome is reached, there will be another milestone. There will be a time where everything is reduced to a single binary. You know what that will look like? It will look like all of us having to make a choice.”

-Faceless Propagandist (a very obscure youtuber)

The full video is here.

I’ve been thinking about how the world seems more black and white (or red and blue) than ever these days.

Right now, there are two types of people: those who are apathetic/hostile towards the truth, and those who are burning with passion for it.

Those who hate the truth are ruled by fear. This group mistakes compliance and conformity for courage, instead of cowardice. They will compromise all that is worth living and dying for, if they believe this compromise will allow them continue to exist. This group wants freedom from independent thought and choice, whether they realize it or not.

The other group is just the opposite, ruled by love of life, and love for human life specifically. Life is more than existence. Life is freedom, possibility, and making meaningful connections. Life is breathing fresh air, giving your grandma a hug, and catching a stranger’s eye across the room to share a smile. Life is the right to earn a living, to move through the world on your own terms, to have goals and the means to work towards them.

Because the second group is less susceptible to fear and thus harder to control, they are labeled as dangerous. They are unpopular; their very existence is perceived as a threat by those in the ‘other’ group. They are critical thinkers, and understand that the right to free speech exists so that ordinary citizens can question and criticize those in positions of authority.

Most people of this world have made their choice. Only a handful are on the fence; the people who want the truth deep down, but have yet to encounter it. These are the people I’m trying to reach. Please wake up and choose.

What do you want? Truth or fear, life or a pale imitation of it, freedom or slavery.

Everything is splitting into a binary as we spiral towards the inevitable conclusion, and eventually, we will reach the point of no return.

If you’re reading this, I don’t want you to take me at my word. I don’t want you to take anyone at their word. I implore you to take a minute now, a few minutes every day, to ask yourself what the truth is. What this world is. What is real, and what’s not. Please just open your eyes and try to think; even just setting an intention, or saying in your own head, “I want the truth,” can change your perspective in rapid and unexpected ways. I speak from experience. If you’re sincere, even an unspoken request for ‘truth’ will manifest as something real, something undeniable.

There is a choice to be made, so choose.

[khalilhumam]

How the murder of musician Hachalu Hundessa incited violence in Ethiopia: Part I

New Post has been published on http://khalilhumam.com/how-the-murder-of-musician-hachalu-hundessa-incited-violence-in-ethiopia-part-i/

How the murder of musician Hachalu Hundessa incited violence in Ethiopia: Part I

Speculation began to fly amid long-standing ethnic and political tensions

Hachalu Hundessa interview with OMN via Firaabeek Entertainment / CC BY 3.0.

< p class="p1">Editor’s note: This is a two-part analysis on Hachalu Hundessa, a popular Oromo musician whose murder incited ethnoreligious violence fueled by disinformation online. Read Part II here.  

Iconic Ethiopian singer Hachalu Hundessa gained prominence for using his creative talent to raise the consciousness of the Oromo people. He was assassinated in the suburb of Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, on June 29.

That night, at 9:30 pm, as Hachalu was exiting his vehicle, a man named Tilahun Yami allegedly walked up to his car and fired a gun into the artist’s chest. He was rushed to the nearest hospital, where he was officially declared dead. It was later determined that the bullet severely damaged his internal organs.

Addis Ababa’s police chief reported two suspects were arrested. After a few days,  government authorities charged an alleged assassin along with two other accomplices.

In the wake of his murder, the country has struggled to come to terms with the violence that followed. The truth of Hachalu's assassination is not yet fully clear, and in its aftermath, speculation began to fly as politicians and activists stoked long-standing tensions between Oromo and Amahara elites, two of Ethiopia's largest ethnic groups.

That day, mourners flooded the streets of Addis Ababa and cities and towns across Oromia state. The next morning, Oromia Media Network (OMN), a satellite TV station on which Hachalu had his last contentious interview, provided online and TV coverage as his casket was transferred from Addis Ababa to Hachalu’s hometown, Ambo.

The slow, televised journey turned into a deadly battle between government authorities and opposition politicians over where Hachalu would be buried, and OMN interrupted its coverage as the hearse was forced to return to Addis Ababa. At least ten people were killed and several were injured in Addis Ababa.

The scuffle led to the arrest of several opposition politicians including Jawar Mohammed, an OMN figurehead, and opposition politician Bekele Gerba, who were both charged with instigating the mayhem.

Confusion swirled after government authorities eventually took Halachu's body back to Ambo by helicopter, where feuding parties continued to clash, denying the bereaved family members a proper burial.

Meanwhile, turmoil and violence ensued. A three-day rampage gripped parts of Oromia and Addis Ababa, at a substantial cost: 239 people were left dead; hundreds of others were injured and more than 7,000 people were arrested for violence and property damage worth millions of Ethiopian birr.

On June 30, the government imposed an internet shutdown to attempt to halt calls for violence circulating on social media that lasted three weeks.

A number of people were shot and killed by government security forces, but several news outlets including Voice of America and Addis Standard reported that angry mobs from the Oromo ethnic group attacked multiethnic, interfaith towns and cities in southeastern Oromia, targeting non-Oromo, non-Muslim families in the region.

Most of the violence fell along ethnic Amahara-Oromo lines, but religion may have played a more central role due to an intricate, localized understanding of ethnicity: The southeast Oromo community’s ethnic identity markers usually combine the religion of Islam and the Afan-Oromo language. A local farmer reportedly said “we thought Hachalu was Oromo” after he watched Hachalu's televised funeral rites that followed the traditions of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.

According to reports, most victims of the most gruesome violence were minority Christian Amharas, Christian Oromos and Gurage people. Eyewitnesses say mobs destroyed and burned property, committed lynching and beheadings and dismembered victims.

A fateful interview

When news of Hachalu’s assassination first hit, Oromo diaspora media outlets zeroed in on Hachalu’s fateful interview with OMN host Guyo Wariyo, that aired the week before Halachu was killed.

During the interview, Guyo repeatedly asked Hachalu provocative questions about his alleged sympathy for the ruling party, interrupting him multiple times to challenge his answers.

Hachalu fiercely denied any sympathies with the ruling party, but also decried the deeply discordant and fractionalized Oromo political parties, demonstrating his staunch independence as a thinker and musician — a quality that made him a target for online abuse until the day of his murder.

At one point, however, Guyo asked Hachalu about the historical injustices allegedly committed against the Oromo people by Menelik II, Ethiopia’s 19th-century emperor who shaped modern Ethiopia.

Hachalu shocked some listeners when he answered that the horse seen immortalized in Menelik’s equestrian statue in Addis Ababa belongs to an Oromo farmer called Sida Debelle, and that Menelik robbed that horse.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERAHOGwogCg?start=1014&feature=oembed&w=650&h=366]

This exchange attracted applause — and criticism — from commentators on Facebook and Twitter.

When Hachalu was killed one week later, many members of the Oromo diaspora community immediately speculated that Hachalu’s criticism of the Menelik II statue infuriated sympathizers of imperial Ethiopia, which may have led to his murder.

On social media, Oromo netizens focused obsessively on Hachalu’s Menelik-related remarks, which led many down a winding path to an insidious disinformation campaign. The rest of the interview contains other loaded issues of divisions and contradictions within the Oromo community.

Throughout the interview, Guyo grilled Hachalu about the country’s ongoing political reforms, stoking anti-government sentiment with questions about Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, himself an Oromo, and whether or not the government had met the demands of the Oromo people after the prime minister came to power in 2018.

Hachalu reiterated his non-involvement in the rabid partisanship of Oromo politics but he did criticize those who question Abiy’s Oromo identity.

He defended his position against top Oromo opposition leaders who sought an alliance with the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), a once-dominant party with historic ties to the now-defunct Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Front (the EPRDF). The TPLF turned into an opposition party after Abiy dismantled the EPRDF.

Hachalu also addressed the political violence in the Oromia region, blaming both government authorities and the militant, splinter right-wing Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) militia group (informally known as OLF-Shane).

Following Hachalu’s murder, the government was able to acquire and release the full 71-minute interview to the public. The missing tape included Hachalu’s accounts of death threats he received from parts of western Oromia, where the radical OLF-Shane militia is active. Hachalu said he believed he would not have been attacked on social media if he had praised OLF-Shane.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQtk3leaC_Q?start=296&feature=oembed&w=650&h=366]

He addressed a direct conflict he had with Getachew Assefa, Ethiopia’s security and intelligence chief during the TPLF period.

Guyo, who promoted this interview on Facebook as “must-see TV” in the days before its broadcast, has since been arrested and the government is investigating the full 71-minutes of interview tape for further clues that may help determine the facts regarding Hachalu's murder.

Read more about the consequences of Hachalu Hundessa's murder in Part II. 

Written by Endalkachew Chala · comments (0) Donate · Share this: twitter facebook reddit

[torentialtribute]

As women’s football searches for a World Cup legacy Arsenal’s Joe Montemurro calls for realism

Joe Montemurro stands in a corner of the training complex of Arsenal in London Colney have his photo taken. & # 39; You look beautiful, & # 39; one of his players says, grinning past.

Montemurro is unabashed. He could be Nice Guy Eddie from Reservoir Dogs, but without the threat. The photographer asks him to rest his chin on the back of his hand. "Ah," Montemurro says, "The Thinker."

The Arsenal manager looks around as the champions enter England. Chairs stand in pairs on the artificial grass, ready for interviews.

Camera crews are in position. Leah Williamson, the English defender who has signed a sponsorship agreement with Swarovski, wanders to the spot where a journalist she knows sits on the floor, lap-top on his knee, and shakes his hand.

Arsenal Ladies boss Joe Montemurro has great ideas for the growth of the sport

Jordan Nobbs, who recovered from the serious knee injury that cost her a place in the English World Cup team last summer, chats animatedly with another writer before they sit down.

Danielle van de Donk Larks around with a photographer camera, photographing Beth Mead while Mead is interviewed for a football magazine.

Outside, in another world, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang glides through the gates of the training grounds in his golden sports car, a symbol of the distance that has grown between fans and playe lol in the men's game. That distance does not exist in women's football. "We can't lose that," says Montemurro, 49.

And yet with the greater reach of the game, the distance craves inwards. It is inevitable. "I still can't get used to the fact that I can no longer just go shopping," said Jackie Groenen, the new signing of Manchester United.

Women's football is on the spit. It has almost reached a turning point where popularity cannot be reversed and where acceptance is no longer requested, but given.

It's not there yet but sponsorship comes in and FIFA recognizes that it can sell the sport without including it as an addition to the men's game. Women's soccer is split.

Montemurro warns that women's football only gets one chance to make itself huge

Montemurro has a wealth of talent in his Arsenal -side, such as the Danielle of the Donk of Holland

[19459002Limitsstillhavetobeexceeded

The Women's Super League season began on Saturday, Arsenal began their defense of their title today with a home game against West Ham and Montemurro, which is admired for the way in which it revived Arsenal's fortunes with an emphasis on smart, creative, passing football, and being respected for its openness and honesty, knows that a search for meaning is on the way.

BBC coverage of the US semi-final defeat by the US in July drew an audience of 11.7 million, a record for women's football, and provided more evidence that the sport is leaving its place in the shadow and mainstream moves. The arrival of the new domestic season will help to gauge the accuracy of that optimism.

The growing popularity of the WSL, which received a huge boost when Barclays paid £ 10 million to be the title sponsor of the competition, is the next important step to be taken so that there is no longer the kind of attention deficit between major tournaments that characterize the way sports like rowing and cycling are treated between the Olympic Games.

The competition started on Saturday with a big statement when 31,213 fans watched Manchester City play their newly promoted Manchester United at Etihad Stadium in the first Manchester derby ever. That was also a record in which the previous highest turnout for a WSL game was broken. Today the Chelsea game against Spurs takes place in Stamford Bridge. A capacity of 41,000 people is expected. There is a heady sense of change.

After decades, when it was banned, underfunded, ridiculed, ridiculed, or simply ignored in various ways, every World Cup takes the sport one step ahead. The quality of football in France in the summer – especially the quarter-final between the US and France – increased the match.

The competition started with a big statement because 31.213 fans played Man City rivals United

saw play

Last week the Finnish Football Association emulated their Norwegian counterpart by announcing that the national women's team would be paid the same as the men. A fight for equal pay, led by articulated, convincing and charismatic players such as Megan Rapinoe, also set the stage for the American triumph cup.

The issue is not only limited to sport, but is often in the sport where it is most visible. Last week, the New York Times accompanied their coverage of US Open tennis with a history of the fight and endorsed it: & # 39; The long fight for equal pay in sport. & # 39;

It all adds to the feeling that women's football in this country is at a critical point. It has made enormous progress since the days when our leading players had to wear men's hand-me-downs for their gear and combine their careers with a part-time job. More and more are able to become professional.

Many players today are still grateful for the opportunity to earn a living by playing the game they love, still grateful for the sacrifices and efforts of those in the generation below

But that gratitude changes into the realization that it is athletes who deserve recognition for their talents, women who are about to become cash registers.

Montemurro, whose team from Arsenal plays their home games at Borehamwood & Meadow Park grounds and other wise voices within the sport such as the English boss Casey Stoney, dampen their own optimism that the competition itself surpasses, but there is still a feeling that this is a sport on the rise.

Part of the reason that there is so much interest in the start of this WSL season is that up to now there has been a disconnection between the interest in the World Cup and the often scarce pressure in the WSL. . The number of visitors has decreased, not increased. Last season, the average turnout of the WSL was 833 compared to 1,128 in 2016 in the aftermath of England that reached the semi-final of the World Cup in Canada the year before.

& # 39; We must be careful in women's football, & # 39; says Montemurro, & # 39; because if we expect Stamford Bridge or the Emirates to be full every week, it won't happen. Once, yes. The derby, yes. But if we expect middle teams to get 30,000 or 40,000 people, this will not happen. We have to be smart with that.

The spotlights were firmly on women's football when the lionesses reached the world cup semis

& # 39; The fact that all the England World Cup matches were free was fantastic. Now there is association with players. The normal fan who is interested in football, but perhaps has no understanding of women's football, can associate with Ellen White or Viv Miedema or Leah Williamson. They know who they are.

"It is the sustainability of the public that interests me. Most that we put games on television, most people will watch it, most people will come, most people will say: "There is a great game around the corner, Arsenal is playing."

& # 39; But we also have to accept that hosting a game in the Emirates is expensive. We do not want a situation where we say that there were only 5000 people and that we have lost "x" pounds.

"We cannot afford that. We cannot afford that in the ladies game. If there is a TV deal that we know has a & # 39; x & # 39; amount in dollars and we can assign seven games to the Emirates because we have the money, then absolutely.

& # 39; But we don't do it right now & # 39; t. So let's fill the stadiums in which we now play. Let's fill Borehamwood. Let's make a statement and say that we get 10,000 or 20,000 requests to come to Borehamwood and then you have a case. But we don't have that at the moment. We must therefore also be realistic and honest. & # 39;

Part of Montemurro's vision for the clubs to play in the purpose-built & # 39; boutique stadiums & # 39 ;, places where fans can enjoy a modern competitive experience without diminishing the sport in the gigantic Premier League arenas. The last time Chelsea's women's side played in Stamford Bridge, the Champions League draw against Wolfsburg in 2016, only 3,783 fans showed up. That can begin to change.

Arsenal currently plays in their modest Borehamwood stadium with a capacity of 4,500

Saturday at the Etihad was a step forward. Later this season, Montemurro & # 39; s Arsenal Spurs will play on White Hart Lane, another that should attract a large crowd. Every WSL match is available via a FA Player service. Visibility, awareness, accessibility is growing.

"We are in an upward curve," says Montemurro. "It's all brand. You get an Arsenal-Barcelona semi-final in the Champions League in women's football, you go get the audience. Specially built boutique stadiums with 10,000 or 15,000 capacities, let's fill them, let's make them attractive.

& # 39; Then the product becomes attractive on television. Viewers see a game in a beautiful little stadium, great football, more attractive, more fans. These athletes are amazing and the growth will happen, but let's grow it organically. Let us not take three or four steps back.

"We don't get many chances in women's football. We only get one chance to demonstrate and make it right and it must work. If this is not the case, go back to the dark ages and we cannot afford it.

"Let's make it targeted. There will be select games such as the North London derby in larger stadiums, but we have to grow carefully and grow smart. & # 39;

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[zambianobserver]

God Is Punishing Zambians For Accusing #satan For Their Failures - Mr Mindset

GOD IS PUNISHING ZAMBIANS FOR ACCUSING #SATAN FOR THEIR FAILURES.YOU CAN’T STOP THINKING, REASONING & DEVELOP A NATION THROUGH DECLARATIONS IN JESUS NAME.

The power of REASONING,CRITICAL THINKING and UNDERSTANDING how wealth is created is completely lost and REPLACED with FAITH. ( PRAYER ) How do you develop as a Nation?

Zambians have become Robotic Thinkers waiting for commands and control from…

[terabitweb]

Original Post from SC Magazine Author: Doug Olenick

SC Media is issuing a call for nominations for its annual Reboot Leadership Awards, designed to further advance the acknowledgement of cybersecurity luminaries. 

Three years ago SC Media launched the Reboot Leadership Awards to give us a platform to recognize the professionals who work tirelessly day in and day out to improve our industry and cybersecurity in general. The Reboot Leadership Awards are an adjunct to our annual Reboot coverage that takes place each December when SC calls out the best and the brightest cybersecurity luminaries and organizations in a special website section and end-of-the-year print edition. The Reboot Leadership Awards are offered similar accolades. The winners are named in August and honored with a special section on SC’s website and then included in our December Reboot edition.

For more details on SC Media’a Reboot Leadership Awards and how to nominate a colleague or yourself please click here. Please see below for our revamped list of categories:

Advocates: These C-level executives or board members evangelize or promote cybersecurity awareness within their organizations and help marshal the resources to implement security policies, secure data and create a cybersecurity culture.

Chief Information Officers: The CISO and CIO often work hand in hand. The CIO’s support is often critical for the IT professionals to get the resources and the budget they need to move forward with cybersecurity initiatives.

Non-Profit Founders: From policies to certification to lobbying, non-profits fill in the gaps, raise awareness and advocate for cybersecurity. These pros stand out for the non-profit organizations they created.

Influencers: From policy makers to politicians to technologists, these nominees have influenced and shaped cybersecurity. They’ve helped move cyber beyond being just a vision to reality. These pros have undertaken projects or initiatives alone or with a group that impacts a wider segment of the cybersecurity industry beyond their own organization’s and/or affects other business, government or other markets in a positive way.

Innovators: These genius inventors create products and services that help make the vision of a secure computing world a reality and help solve the thorniest cybersecurity challenges.

Outstanding Educator As cybersecurity moves to the mainstream and the skills gap widens, training the next generation of CISOs is critical. Academians lead the way as these folks head both undergraduate and graduate programs at universities, professional organizations, state economic boards and non-profits. Leading the charge in teaching future generations of CISOs never has been so critical.

Outstanding Freshmen: Top-notch security isn’t just the mileu of the seasoned professional. Students and other junior members of the cybersecurity community have distinguished themselves as well.

Privacy Leads/Data Protection Experts: Privacy and security often are cast as at odds with each other when in reality they are two sides of the same coin. These professionals have excelled in imposing privacy controls while supporting and adhering to the tenets of cybersecurity within their organizations.

Rising Stars: These nominees and their accomplishments caught the attention of the industry and are ones to watch going forward.

Thought Leaders: What would cybersecurity – or any segment of IT – be without the vision of those who mull problems and issues, initiate conversation and thinking about solutions, policies, programs, best practices and more. These team players are not only thinkers, but doers who have created solutions, helped to establish standards, initiated best practices or otherwise have undertaken other initiatives that have contributed greatly the cybersecurity industry as a whole.

Threat Seekers: These innovative, bright and adventurous denizens of cybersecurity dash around the globe from behind their keyboards, chasing down and uncovering threats, vulnerabilities and bugs that left unchecked could bring organizations – public and private – to their knees.

Top Managers: These superstars of management have taken the principles of security and translated them into business objectives. They lead by example and set the tone for the companies that they head up.

The post SC Media Reboot Leadership Awards announces its call for nominations appeared first on SC Media.

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Go to Source Author: Doug Olenick SC Media Reboot Leadership Awards announces its call for nominations Original Post from SC Magazine Author: Doug Olenick SC Media is issuing a call for nominations for its annual…

[freebestbettingtips]

Serie A 2018/19: Inter v Udinese: Tactical Analysis & Statistics

New Post has been published on https://bestfreebettingtips.com/serie-a-2018-19-inter-v-udinese-tactical-analysis-statistics/

Serie A 2018/19: Inter v Udinese: Tactical Analysis & Statistics

Artwork by @chapulana

An unexpected and disappointing exit from the UEFA Champions League in midweek after failure to beat PSV Eindhoven at home left Inter fans pointing fingers at manager Luciano Spalletti and his players. A drop to 14 points off Serie A table-toppers Juventus in recent weeks has also rendered any hopes of a Scudetto challenge from Spalletti’s side this season as fanciful. Having begun with such promise, the Nerazzurri’s recent results have left their season in limbo, neither successful nor completely disastrous, yet.

No better way then, to respond to recent criticisms and get their season back on track than at home game against relegation-threatened Udinese. The Bianconeri Friuliani from the northeast province of Udine have had a fairly tumultuous 2018, currently on their fourth manager this calendar year.

The man in the hot seat since mid-November is Davide Nicola, whose last managerial post saw him keep newly promoted Crotone from relegation in the 2016/17 Serie A season. Udinese finished 14th in Italy’s top flight last season and survival in Serie A is the remit for Nicola, whose side currently sit 17th in the table.

Team News

4-3-3 v 5-3-2, one formation set to play with width and control, the other built to play narrow and frustrate.

The home side typically favours a 4-2-3-1 but have made the 4-3-3 a regular setup in recent games and so it was for this match. Mauro Icardi would take up his usual position as the #9, flanked by Keita Balde left and Matteo Politano right. Brozovic would stabilise the midfield in the #6 pivot role while João Mário and Borja Valero would do the legwork in midfield. Centre-backs Stefan De Vrij and Milan Škriniar are very comfortable in possession and were flanked by left-back Kwadwo Asamoah and right-back Šime Vrsaljko, #1 goalkeeper Samir Handanović would play between the sticks.

Defence first was the idea for Udinese, their 5-3-2 setup is built to frustrate and perhaps look to nick a chance or two through their forward duo, Rodrigo De Paul and Ignacio Pussetto. The experienced Valon Behrami would play in a holding midfield role, flanked by the athletic Rolando Mandragora and Seko Fofana. The back five was comprised of three centre-backs and a right-back, completed by a winger, Marco D’Alessandro, at left-wing-back.

Good shapes, bad moves

Inter’s spacing during their patient build-up was well executed. Spalletti’s side moved the ball around the Udinese block and into the final third with precision and tempo but often looked hesitant in the final third. The patient build-up looked designed to dominate the ball, push Udinese back into their own half and look to create chances against the deep block.

From the first minute of play, Inter spaced themselves well in their build up. They were patient and precise, attempting to push the Udinese block back into their own defensive third.

Midfielders Mário and Valero pushed forward to support Inter’s attacking trio which at times created a 5v5 situation with Udinese’s backline. The full-backs, Asamoah and Vrsaljko only really pushing forward when the ball was in the final third, perhaps wary of the threat of the two Udinese strikers. But frustratingly for Inter fans, there was space in wide areas to be taken, their team looked cautious with a bit of a minimal risk approach.

Brozovic’s pass dissects the Udinese midfield where Valero and Mário have found space, pinning the Udinese back 5 and causing them to narrow. The width this created, however, was not exploited well enough by either full-back, both naturally forward thinking players.

The full-backs did get forward to provide width in the final third, Brozovic was very active as the pivot and Borja Valero and João Mário looked to receive in the half-spaces beyond the Udinese midfield. Keita Baldé and Matteo Politano tucked inwardly when the ball was moved high enough, to support Mauro Icardi, leaving the three centre-backs of Udinese to deal with three Inter forwards.

Leaving Icardi to face three centre-backs on his own would be fruitless. Inter flowed between having their wingers push inside or their midfielders push up, attempting to pin the three centre-backs.

The Nerazzurri, perhaps showing their caution again, also lacked in penetrating passes to trouble the Udinese defence. Mauro Icardi dropped quite deep in search of a pass to feet and nobody made consistent moves to get beyond the Bianconeri backline. Udinese were happy to keep the ball in front of them and watch as Inter’s full-backs attempted cross after cross, Inter did not have a significant presence to compete aerially.

Little forward movement is made into open spaces by Inter players and Icardi is dropping deep unnecessarily.

Inter dominated possession but many passes were safe, sideways and backward. Very few passes dissected the Udinese backline.

As the half wore on, Inter’s quality improved and they began to create a few decent opportunities. It felt as though the win would come, if Inter could be patient and relentless, much like rivals Juventus do consistently in Serie A games, they could come away with a tight but well-earned win. It was 0-0 at the break but patience seemed warranted, Inter were dominating and the chances were beginning to come.

Change of approach

What wasn’t warranted was a drop in intensity, a goal seemed certain to come if Inter continued their first-half level of control. But at the start of the second half, Udinese confirmed any fears that Spalletti may have had about his team’s confidence. The bianconeri midfield pushed forward in transition and took advantage of the spaces left by Inter’s positional play build up, creating one glorious chance in the 51st minute when Seko Fofana squared a pass to Rolando Mandragora on the other side of the box who skied the ball way over Handanović’s goal.

Udinese looked threatening early in the second half. Midfielders Fofana and Mandragora pushed forward and should have combined for the opening goal of the game here.

Having seen enough, Spalletti made a change. In the 55th minute, Lautaro Martínez came on to replace Borja Valero, a striker on for a midfielder. Martínez, as his squad number would allude to, played in the #10 role, dropping deeper than Icardi who could now focus on playing between and beyond the centre-backs. Inter now had more of a 4-2-3-1 shape and opened up the game a little more for both sides.

Inter looked to be playing with a front 4 at times after the introduction of Martínez.

No longer so patient, with quicker moves forward and Brozovic controlling the game’s tempo, Inter began to look a bit like themselves again. Their crosses were a little more threatening and no more so than when Mauro Icardi, of all people, missed a header from point-blank range in the 65th minute, after great work and delivery on the left wing from Keita Baldé Diao.

The Senegalese winger was substituted just after for Ivan Perišić and the Inter onslaught continued, Udinese’s defence looking a bit weary. A corner kick in the 73rd minute was cut out at the near post and after much protest from a few Inter players, VAR intervened and awarded a penalty to the home side, Seko Fofana deemed to have handled the cross away.

Up stepped Nerazzurri Captain, Mauro Icardi. The Argentine is a lethal finisher and a cool-headed thinker, showing his nerves of steel as he stroked the ball home with a Panenka penalty attempt, nonchalantly chipping the ball into the middle of the net having sent the goalkeeper to the ground.

A ‘panenka’ penalty is one where the shooter chips the ball lazily at the goal having (hopefully) sent the goalkeeper to the ground with a deceiving run up to the ball. Icardi executed perfectly under a lot of pressure.

Udinese felt a bit aggrieved and their aggression was focused. They pressed and harried Inter higher up the pitch, stretching the game in the search for an equaliser. Chances came at both ends in the final 10 minutes of play. Pussetto had a decent attempt on the turn from the edge of the box which flashed just wide but not before Icardi had the ball in the net again in stoppage time, although this one was correctly ruled offside and 1-0 it would finish.

Conclusion

In the end, Inter’s blushes were saved by their captain, Mauro Icardi showed the calmness and confidence that makes him a leader of this Nerazzurri side. Fresh from embarrassment in midweek and keen to make amends, Inter looked cautious in the first half and although they made chances, felt very frustrated in their efforts.

The introduction of Martínez changed the flow of the game and perhaps showed a bit of bravery from Spalletti, willing to gamble with an attacking substitute with half an hour left on the clock. But a dogged and resolute display from the visitors made life hard for the Nerazzurri, even if the game always looked winnable throughout. Davide Nicola can be proud of his side’s performance from a defensive standpoint, they frustrated their hosts and restricted them to hopeful crossing opportunities and long-range efforts.

Who knows what may have transpired in the latter stages of the game had a penalty not been awarded for one of the deadliest strikers in Europe to take. For Udinese, an expected loss but a spiriting performance from which Nicola can take a lot of positives. For Inter, a win was all that mattered as they look to shake their European disappointments off and get their season back on track.

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[tekmodetech]

ICO-lateral damage | TechCrunch

The ICO regulators are right here, they usually’re carrying big sticks. (PDF) “Cash or different digital property issued on a blockchain could also be securities beneath the federal securities legal guidelines… tokens have been securities as outlined by Part 2(a)(1) of the Securities Act as a result of they have been funding contracts … An funding contract is an funding of cash in a typical enterprise with an affordable expectation of earnings to be derived from the entrepreneurial or managerial efforts of others.”

What does this imply, precisely? I’ll let individuals who have really handed the bar decode it for you. Right here’s a thread from Marco Santori, fintech group chief of Cooley Regulation:

1/ OK HERE WE GO. Right this moment, the SEC as we speak confirmed a few of our suspicions about utility tokens. I’ll summarize right here on this thread. https://t.co/MI66jV4g27

— Marco Santori (@msantoriESQ) December 11, 2017

And, as you may count on, most of the critical thinkers within the blockchain house (sure, they exist) have greeted this governmental intrusion with … really … cautious reduction. OK, you won’t have anticipated that, but it surely’s true. Everyone saw it coming, so it’s a reduction to lastly get it over with; and the ICO house has change into such a get-rich-quick shitshow, so filled with empty guarantees, that precipitating what John Biggs calls “the approaching avalanche of ICO failures,” whereas attaining some authorized readability, looks as if a good-case state of affairs.

That is reportedly much more true in China, which has banned ICOs ouright — and according to Emily Parker, “everybody I spoke to in China’s cryptocurrency neighborhood supported, or was not less than sympathetic to, the ICO ban. I repeatedly heard that 90 % of Chinese language ICOs have been scams. The entire mannequin, wherein you purchase tokens to make use of on a platform that doesn’t but exist, may by no means exist, or could possibly be a complete flop, generally is a magnet for fraudsters.”

That’s no much less true exterior of China. However pointing accusatory fingers at risible ICOs is nearly too apparent, and too simple, and there are too many to select from. Let’s not dwell on silly greed or grasping stupidity or valuations. The blockchain revolution was not presupposed to be about getting wealthy. Cease laughing. I’m not kidding. And neither is wunderkind Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin, reflecting on what he has wrought (click on by way of to learn the entire thread):

So complete cryptocoin market cap simply hit $zero.5T as we speak. However have we *earned* it?

— Vitalik Buterin (@VitalikButerin) December 13, 2017

or Courageous engineer Yan Zhu:

most of those individuals are too technologically myopic to think about one thing higher than each BTC & conventional foreign money. individuals used to care about cryptocurrency as a result of they needed to unravel issues that could not be solved by present programs, now they only need to earn a living. https://t.co/znp8ufM93R

— yan (@bcrypt) December 9, 2017

Wasn’t the concept to decentralize the ability of networked expertise, and programmable cash, from banks and governments to the ignored lots — relatively than including perhaps a few thousand people to the world’s Very Wealthy Listing? In case your ICO goes to make a handful of individuals wealthy, then it’s not really very decentralized, is it? That’s not a part of any form of courageous new world. That’s really extremely boring.

That is all a moot level for as we speak, although. The actual motive that the SEC is correct to control ICOs as securities is that, with only a few exceptions, as we speak’s ICO tokens are virtually definitionally speculative … as a result of public decentralized blockchain expertise shouldn’t be but prepared for prime time for something aside from low-volume transfers of worth, with some programmatic management.

It’s technically and socially and economically completely fascinating, don’t get me unsuitable, and it has a really bright future; and, positive, cryptocurrencies are having a surreal / spectacular run as a retailer of imputed worth, i.e. the factor blockchains are presently good at. However we aren’t going to see any big-money fat-protocol purposes, or any decentralized individuals’s revolution both, till and except the expertise will get a lot simpler and cheaper to make use of — for each finish customers and builders like me.

It’s fairly exceptional that folks have imputed tens of billions of of worth to a technical ecosystem so immature that it will possibly’t deal with capabilities which return arrays of structs. https://t.co/Xt5y1WNRzf

— Jon Evans (@rezendi) December 15, 2017

That may occur. However not straight away. And within the interim, individuals are making big bets on total courses of expertise that carry an actual threat of being obsoleted earlier than they’re a lot as alpha launched, if they ever alpha launch, a lot much less earlier than strange customers ever even strive them in actual numbers.

Everybody loves evaluating blockchain protocols to the early days of computing and the Web, so right here’s one other analogy: as we speak’s ICO traders are bidding billions to personal items of gopher, FTP, and X.400. Which is okay — even admirable, in a means — so long as the craze to get wealthy now doesn’t get in the best way of cooler heads inventing/upgrading to HTTP and SMTP over the subsequent few years. Right here’s hoping.

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[junker-town]

The Chiefs are good enough to give Andy Reid the Super Bowl he deserves

Andy Reid and the Chiefs look like the best team in the NFL right now, and I’m so here for it.

There are seven NFL teams sitting at 2-0, and none of them have looked as good as the Kansas City Chiefs. This is weird.

Not that the Chiefs being good is weird. The Chiefs have had a winning record each season and missed the playoffs just once in four years under Andy Reid.

But for the Chiefs to look utterly dominant is something else. Under Reid, the Chiefs have become the sort of high-floor, low-ceiling team that you wouldn’t really expect to see in the Super Bowl. They’ve gone down swinging (read: painfully, excruciatingly) in all three of their playoff losses under Reid, and have yet to get past the Divisonal round. They could be counted on to be pretty good in all phases — to rush better than most teams, to be frustrating to score on, and to not cough up the ball — but fall short when games are tight and matter most.

In two games against two very good opponents this season — the Eagles finished last season fifth in DVOA, the Patriots were first and, like, won a Super Bowl — the Chiefs have scored 69 points and given up 47, rushed for 331 yards, passed for 519, and generally look like an enhanced version of the team we’ve come to know. A rising tide lifts all boats — or in this case, a rejuvenated Alex Smith makes the Chiefs a helluva lot harder to deal with. He has been spectacular through two games, throwing for 619 yards at 9.8 yards per attempt, and a 134 passer rating.

With not even two weeks completed in the season, we only have enough data to overreact to what we see. That said, the Chiefs seem worth overreacting to. They have always been good. The idea that they may be great isn’t at all farfetched. They have been building towards this for years. On its current trajectory, this would be one of Reid’s finest teams ever — and oh, its bucking NFL conventions along the way which is always good and never bad.

This is basically a college team

The axiom goes that champions are built through the NFL Draft. By my count, the Chiefs are starting 16 players who they drafted, with just one of those players — veteran linebacker Derrick Johnson — having been on the roster longer than Reid.

This team has been built in Reid’s image, particularly on offense where the Chiefs have finally stockpiled a critical mass of squat, fast-twitch, space-destroyers to hornswoggle the league.

The most shocking thing about the Chiefs’ season-opening win over the Patriots was that they did it while running what looked like a college offense. Early in the game Smith, Tyreek Hill, and Travis Kelce formed a backfield, and Kelce stepped up to take the snap and ran the option.

And it worked! So the Chiefs kept running it all night, sometimes throwing three backs and two tight ends on the field to complete their Navy impression.

A rookie — running back Kareem Hunt — was maybe the most important player on the field. He finished with 148 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries, and looked explosive, and tough, and remarkably balanced in the process. The circumstances of GM John Dorsey’s firing this offseason are somewhat cloudy, but he gave the cash-strapped Chiefs an incredible parting gift in the third-rounder.

Hunt and the running game opened up the downfield passing game, and Smith cleaned up, throwing for 178 yards on just three deep balls. He had two more deep passes for 79 yards against the Eagles, which is good for anyone and outstanding for a notorious dink-and-dunker. Smith looks like a brand new quarterback this season.

Alex Smith is playing with cuss

After rookie backup Pat Mahomes unleashed a series of spectacular passes in the Chiefs’ final preseason game, Smith was spotted on the sideline looking ... not enthused. The moment recalled his body language in the midst of losing his starting job to Colin Kaepernick with the 49ers.

Smith never got his starting job back in San Francisco. So far after stepping back into the Chiefs’ lineup, he has not only played well, but so unlike himself.

Smith is averaging 6.8 yards per attempt over his career, which is paltry given he’s completing 62 percent of his passes. Last season, just 8.16 percent of his passes traveled more than 20 yards through the air, according to Cian Fahey’s Pre-Snap Reads Quarterback Catalogue, fewer than every qualified quarterback except Sam Bradford and Jared Goff.

This season, Smith has attempted seven passes longer than 20 yards, roughly 11 percent of his attempts, and complete five of them. One of his best was a dime he dropped to a covered Chris Conley on the Chiefs’ final touchdown drive against the Eagles for a 35-yard gain.

Maybe it took a much younger, rocket-armed existential threat to draw out this new, aggressive Alex Smith, or maybe it’s the fact that he’s finally playing in an offense that he’s truly comfortable in ...

“One of the things we did when Alex came here was we went back and kind of looked at some of the stuff he had done in college and was familiar with,” Reid said, referring to what would become part of the base offense.

Whatever the case, the Chiefs’ offense is well-positioned to go much farther than it has in years.

And yet there are two things that could bring the Chiefs to a screeching halt

The first: The Chiefs lost Eric Berry for the season to a non-contact Achilles injury in the season opener. Perhaps no defensive position is as heaped with responsibility as safety in today’s NFL, and Berry plays it as instinctually and beautifully as anyone in the league.

He was a big reason why Rob Gronkowski couldn’t get open against the Chiefs’ secondary. Should they face the Patriots again this season, Berry’s absence could be costly.

The second: This is still an Andy Reid team, and for all that good that means — his teams are as consistent and well-balanced as they come — the Chiefs will be hamstrung in late-game situations.

This is the Reid Paradox: He is somehow both the best and worst thing to happen to NFL teams. There is nothing more to do than to point at the team’s last two playoff losses. Reid is hardwired to make egregious game management mistakes. And yet, it’s not like we ever see him panic. You get the sense that Reid is a laborious thinker who is uncomfortable being sped up. At some point this season, the Chiefs will enter the final minutes of the fourth quarter with either too many timeouts or not enough, and when they lose by one score, Reid will be the only person who isn’t miffed.

I can’t help but make this personal: I love Andy Reid

I love that his players love him, I love that he loves Hawaiian shirts, and I love how he tweaks the game. He and Bill Belichick are perhaps the only two NFL head coaches who you can count on to truly innovate a game plan rather than simply iterate on a few guiding principles. Every week, they’ll do something that no other NFL team is doing, and it’ll work. And unlike Belichick, Reid is a person. Bill Belichick has never looked this happy.

I’m a Lions fan, so every year I pick another team I want to win a Super Bowl since mine won’t. I am so here for a Chiefs title run. Innovation deserves to be rewarded. Time — not just Reid’s near-20 seasons, but Smith’s quest to be deemed worthy, and Berry’s constant battle against his body — deserves to be rewarded. Fun deserves to be rewarded, and it’s been so long since that has felt like the case in the Super Bowl.

This is a team in Reid’s image. It is quirky, and disciplined, and unassuming for how good it has been. This is what his tenure in Kansas City has been building up to. The roster is of the team’s own design, and now it’s up to Reid to guide it. He is the biggest reason why this might the Chiefs’ year, but he’ll be the biggest reason if it’s not.

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Lloyd Marcus -> Jeff Sessions: Finally, A Reasonable Adult heading the DOJ

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  Jeff Sessions: Finally, A Reasonable Adult heading the DOJ

Folks, I gotta tell ya: my heart leaped with joy hearing Jeff Sessions give his opening statement at his confirmation hearing for attorney general.  I thought, “Thank you, God!  Finally – an America-loving adult running our DOJ.  What a concept.” 

First Obama gave us Eric Holder, a black A.G. with a chip on his shoulder against whites and America.  Out of the box, Holder accused Americans of being racists afraid to honestly discuss racial issues.  To racist leftists like Holder, an honest discussion means white America admitting that they are eternal racist plotting 24/7 to keep minorities down.

Holder sued Arizona, calling them racist for seeking to enforce immigration law.  He sued Texas to block their law requiring ID to vote.  He refused to prosecute the New Black Panthers because they’re “his people” – black like him.

Talk about cojones – after Holder’s in-your-face arrogant racism, how can Democrats use drummed up claims of racism to oppose the confirmation of Sessions?  Answer: The Dems know they have the mainstream media securely in their pocket to promote their lies about Sessions.

After Holder, Obama gave us Loretta Lynch as A.G.  In response to Islamic terrorists murdering innocent Americans on U.S. soil, Lynch immediately threatened to jail anyone speaking badly about Islam.  Because the Obama administration is obsessed with allowing dudes in restrooms with little girls, DOJ head Lynch filed a lawsuit against North Carolina for righteously saying, “No.”

Shamefully, Obama politicized the DOJ.  Lynch teamed with Obama’s adviser Al Sharpton to brand America’s police racist to justify the DOJ taking control of all police departments.  Thus far, about 30 police departments have been taken over by the DOJ.

Unbelievably, Lynch seeks to prosecute and criminalize disagreeing with the left’s narrative regarding climate change.

Do you see why a commonsense thinker like Jeff Sessions as A.G. heading the DOJ is such a breath of fresh air?

Sessions vowed to turn back the negative undeserved branding of our brave men and women in blue.

Regarding law enforcement, Sessions said:

They are the ones on the front lines.  They are better educated, trained, and equipped than ever before.  They are the ones who we rely on to keep our neighborhoods and playgrounds and schools safe.  But in the last several years, law enforcement as a whole has been unfairly maligned and blamed for the actions of a few bad actors and for allegations about police that were not true.  They believe the political leadership of this country abandoned them.  They felt they had become targets.  Morale has suffered.  And last year, while under intense public criticism, the number of police officers killed in the line of duty increased ten percent over 2015.  This is a wake-up call.  This must not continue.

By the way, Hillary vowed to intensify Al Sharpton’s and Black Lives Matter’s war on cops, purposely demonizing police.  Thank God for Trump.

Keeping my article concise, I will not go through the long list of Islamic terrorist attacks that Obama’s DOJ refused to admit were Islamic terrorist attacks.  It was exciting hearing Sessions publicly name those seeking our demise: radical Islamic terrorists.

In recent years, our law enforcement officers also have been called upon to protect our country from the rising threat of terrorism that has reached our shores.  If I am confirmed, protecting the American people from the scourge of radical Islamic terrorism will continue to be a top priority of the Department of Justice.  We will work diligently to respond to threats, using all lawful means to keep the American people safe from our nation’s enemies.

Folks, isn’t this a far cry from Obama’s DOJ refusing to name our enemies and threatening to jail anyone who speaks badly about them?  Praise the Lord!

Jeff Sessions is a great pick for attorney general – a man of character who loves God and country, committed to equal justice for all Americans.  Sessions will be confirmed – another step on the yellow brick road toward making America great again.

Lloyd Marcus, The Unhyphenated American Chairman: The Conservative Campaign Committee http://www.lloydmarcus.com/

Lloyd Marcus -> Jeff Sessions: Finally, A Reasonable Adult heading the DOJ Lloyd Marcus -> Jeff Sessions: Finally, A Reasonable Adult heading the DOJ LLOYD MARCUS Deltona, FL…