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Showing posts from October, 2018

Joey Bosa: Nick made right decision leaving Ohio State

Nick Bosa surprised the football world when he left Ohio State to recover from a groin injury, but his brother Joey explained why it was the right choice. Sam Fortier of The Athletic passed along the quotes from the older Bosa, who pointed out the difference between having high draft stock and potentially being the No. 1 overall selection. "You have to understand that it is a business and he has to take care of himself, do what’s smart for him. If anyone had the opportunity to hit the lottery tomorrow, would anyone risk that? He has that opportunity." “If it was something else like a broken finger maybe (he could return), but a groin injury after eight weeks and probably not play until the playoffs against an Alabama, it just blows my mind that anyone thinks it’s a good idea.” Nick spent two-plus successful seasons with the Buckeyes, racking up 29 tackles for loss with 17.5 sacks. He earned AP All-America status in 2017. However, a core injury against TCU removed Bosa from th...
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Wolves expected to reveal Prince-themed unis at Paisley Park

The Minnesota Timberwolves have issued a press release announcing that a “major business announcement” will be made on Thursday at Paisley Park. Located in a Twin Cities suburb, Paisley Park is famous for being the longtime home of musical legend and Minnesota icon Prince. Nothing has been confirmed about the announcement, but the Star Tribune’s Michael Rand reports that the event, which is not open to the public, will be used for the official unveiling of a Prince-themed jerseys that will serve as the Timberwolves’ City Edition uniform. Word leaked last week that the Timberwolves would pay tribute to Prince — a longtime fan of the team — with their City Edition jerseys. Images of the uniform,  which pay homage to the lettering style used on the cover of Prince and The Revolution’s groundbreaking 1984 smash album and of course inspired the hit film that won an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score. Paisley Park, as noted, was Prince’s palatial estate in Chanhassen, Minn., wher...
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Run game dominance has Washington atop the NFC East

Under Dan Snyder, Washington has been largely accustomed to inflated expectations. Perhaps the splashy free-agent signings of faded stars that marked Snyder’s first five years or so of ownership became a cheap shot at the franchise that outlived its truthfulness. It was still not uncommon for 'Skins fans to be whipped into a frenzy year after year despite few positive results. This past offseason was decidedly an exception. The inexorable pushing of Kirk Cousins out of town by the front office wearied more than a few fans, especially when his replacement turned out to be 34-year-old Alex Smith, who was being jettisoned by the Chiefs because they had at least an inkling that Pat Mahomes would be as good as he has been this season. Two seasons removed from their last playoff appearance, the most encouraging thing one could say about the 'Skins coming into this season was that they had rotten injury luck in 2017. Perhaps if they got a little better fortune in that regard, they cou...
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Suns to decline Dragan Bender's fourth-year option

The Suns will decline Dragan Bender‘s fourth-year option, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com reports. The move will free Phoenix of Bender’s $5.8M salary that he would have received during the 2019/20 season. “Of course I wish they picked up the option, but I am not going to let this stop me from reaching my goals,” Bender said. “I am 20, and I will keep working to be the best NBA player I can be and make it in this league whether it’s with Phoenix or another team.” Bender was one of the top prospects in the 2016 Draft and one of the most heavily-scouted European prospects in recent memory. He was expected to form a young-and-upcoming one-two frontcourt combo in Phoenix with fellow first-rounder Marquese Chriss. Chriss has since been traded to Houston and Bender has failed to live up to expectations. Phoenix has the ability to re-sign Bender after the season, though they are limited to offering him a starting salary of $5.8M. Woj notes that Bender playing with the Suns beyond...
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Dana White: Mayweather will have to fight Khabib in UFC

Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Khabib Nurmagomedov have been hyping up a potential fight ever since Khabib defeated Conor McGregor earlier this month, but there is one significant obstacle standing in the way of it actually happening — the bout would have to take place in the Octagon. Mayweather insisted recently that the fight is going to happen, but he said it would have to be a boxing match. UFC president Dana White told TMZ this week that that is not going to work for him. “Listen, if Mayweather wants to fight, come fight,” White said. “You fight in the UFC. We’re not boxing again. We did that once. That’s over. … You want to fight, come fight — a real fight.” It was unlikely to begin with that Mayweather and Khabib would actually square off, but it seems virtually impossible if White insists upon an MMA setting. Mayweather is not going to do that at this point in his career, and Khabib is under contract with the UFC. White can basically squash the fight, and it sounds like he has no int...
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Giants interested in Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi

The San Francisco Giants’ GM search has gone slowly so far, and now we may know why that has been the case: The team has had its eye on someone who’s been busy lately. According to MLB Network’s Jon Morosi, the Giants have interest in Los Angeles Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi for a potential president of baseball operations role. Zaidi was hired by the Dodgers ahead of the 2015 season and just completed his fourth season with the team. LA has won the division all four years and reached the World Series in consecutive years despite coming up short. One of the franchise’s big moves under his watch was replacing Don Mattingly with Dave Roberts as manager. The soon-to-be 42-year-old was a member of the Oakland A’s front office prior to being hired by the Dodgers. In LA, he works with Dodgers president Andrew Friedman to help build the team. It’s unclear whether he would consider a move to the rival Giants, for whom he could take on potentially a greater role. Get Articles and ICO whitepapers ...
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What other teams can learn from the Red Sox

No curse was broken. No drought was extinguished. It finished all too predictably, with Boston marching seemingly unstoppably toward victory in a Game 5 that was a bit boring, at least in comparison to what came before. This was not the record-breaking, 18-inning monster of Game 3 or the come-from-behind gem for the ages of Game 4. It was just a dominant team doing what it does. If you’re not a Red Sox fan and the final game of the series seemed more like a period than an exclamation point, it’s worth taking a moment to appreciate Boston's accomplishment for what it was: a truly remarkable achievement by a truly remarkable team. The modern MLB postseason often feels more like a lottery than anything else — one where the reward for nine of the 10 teams that enter it every year is dejection, one where regular-season records seem to matter little. Not so this year. Only one team in the storied halls of MLB history won more games en route to a title, the 1998 Yankees, who won 114 in th...
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10 freshmen to watch in college basketball this season

It looks like another season where freshmen just might dominate the landscape of college basketball. We really should not be surprised, as the perhaps unnecessary one-and-done rule gives some of the game's youngest stars a year of seasoning — whether they feel it's needed or not — before fulfilling their NBA dreams. The national powers are again well stocked with rookie talent. Duke hauled in another stellar class, while North Carolina, Kansas, Indiana and — of course — Kentucky have stars of their own in the making. If anything, it should be fun once again watching all this talent converge — at least for one season. Here's a look at 10 freshmen to keep an eye on for the 2018-19 college basketball season. R.J. Barrett, Forward, Duke Barrett is regarded not only as the best player in this freshmen class, but in the nation. That's a hefty label for the Canadian, but he certainly has the game to live up to the hype. The godson of NBA legend Steve Nash, Barrett is a 6-foot-...
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College football pick-six: Bama-LSU is the game of the century of the week, Penn State-Iowa was a horror show and rankings season is here

Cliched storyline of the week No sport has cornered the market on Games of the Century quite like college football. This is because for the first 145 years of its existence, the sport’s executive cabal refused to accede to the idea that its season should culminate in the radical notion that, you know, the best teams should actually play each other to determine a champion. Maybe that’s why there hasn’t been a Game of the Century since the advent of the playoff era. Maybe that period of college football’s existence is now forever preserved in amber, since the College Football Playoff will automatically produce a Game of the Century, presuming it works out the way we imagine it should. It’s fitting, then, that the most recent — and perhaps the last — Game of the Century ended up meaning absolutely nothing. You may remember LSU’s 9-6 slog of a victory over Alabama in 2011; you may also remember that the teams met again for the BCS national championship, with Alabama winning 21-0. It is wor...
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Westbrook-Beverley bad blood spurs double T's

Tensions between Russell Westbrook and Patrick Beverley, who have a long history, boiled over in the fourth quarter Tuesday night, ultimately resulting in double technical fouls and a flagrant foul 1 on Beverley for diving into Westbrook's knees. Get Articles and ICO whitepapers written by Williams Alfred Onen
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Terps' Durkin reinstated; McNair family outraged

Football coach DJ Durkin met with his Maryland team on Tuesday, and he will coach Saturday against Michigan State, a source told ESPN. Earlier in the day, Maryland's board of regents recommended the school retain Durkin and athletic director Damon Evans. Get Articles and ICO whitepapers written by Williams Alfred Onen
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Brex has partnered with WeWork, AWS and more for its new rewards program

Brex , the corporate card built for startups, unveiled its new rewards program today. The billion-dollar company, which announced its $125 million Series C three weeks ago, has partnered with Amazon Web Services, WeWork, Instacart, Google Ads, SendGrid, Salesforce Essentials, Twilio, Zendesk, Caviar, HubSpot, Orrick, Snap, Clerky and DoorDash to give entrepreneurs the ability to accrue and spend points on services and products they use regularly. Brex is lead by a pair of 22-year-old serial entrepreneurs who are well aware of the costs associated with building a startup. They’ve been carefully crafting Brex’s list of partners over the last year and say their cardholders will earn roughly 20 percent more rewards on Brex than from any competitor program. “We didn’t want it to be something that everyone else was doing so we thought, what’s different about startups compared to traditional small businesses?” Brex co-founder and chief executive officer Henrique Dubugras told TechCrunch....
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The Tissot Seastar 1000 is a low-cost and high-quality Swiss diver

In the pantheon of watches there are a few that stand out. Looking for your first automatic watch? Pick up a Seiko Orange Monster. Looking for a piece with a little history? The Omega Speedmaster is your man. Looking for an entry-level Swiss diver that won’t break the bank? Tissot’s Seastar has always had you covered. The latest version of the Seastar is an interesting catch. A few years ago – circa 2010 – the pieces were all black with bold hands and a more staid case style. Now Tissot, a Swatch Group brand, has turned the Seastar into a chunkier diver with massive bar hands and case that looks like a steel sandwich. The $695 Seastar 1000 contains a Powermatic 80/ETA C07.111 movement with an eighty hour power reserve which means the watch contains a massive mainspring that keeps things going for most of three days without winding. The Seastar is also water resistant to 1000 feet thanks to a huge screw down crown and thick casing. The new model has an exhibition back where you ca...
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As stock rises on a slim earnings beat, eBay tells analysts to focus on payments and ads

Despite increasing competition from traditional retailers like Walmart and Target, which have invested heavily in e-commerce, and the whupping it’s routinely taking from Amazon among pure e-commerce companies, eBay the 20-year-old lumbering Pez dispenser of an e-tailer, keeps plugging along. Now, as it manages to eke out another earnings win by matching analysts’ expectations, the company is telling the bankers that watch it to look to advertising and payments for its future growth. The company met analysts’ estimates of revenue totaling $2.65 billion, up from $2.41 billion in the year-ago period. That amounts to adjusted earnings of 56 cents per share, up from 48 cents per share in the year-ago period and beating analyst estimates of 54 cents per share. Profits for the company hit $720 million for the quarter. The news sent shares up over 4 percent in trading after the market closed on Tuesday. But more interesting than the the tepid results was its outlook for the future. Right...
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Facebook bans the Proud Boys, cutting the group off from its main recruitment platform

Facebook is moving to ban the Proud Boys , a far-right men’s organization with ties to white supremacist groups. Business Insider first reported the decision. Facebook confirmed the decision to ban the Proud Boys from Facebook and Instagram to TechCrunch, indicating that the group (and presumably its leader Gavin McInnes) now meet the company’s definition of a hate organization or figure. Facebook provided the following statement: “Our team continues to study trends in organized hate and hate speech and works with partners to better understand hate organizations as they evolve. We ban these organizations and individuals from our platforms and also remove all praise and support when we become aware of it. We will continue to review content, Pages, and people that violate our policies, take action against hate speech and hate organizations to help keep our community safe.” Facebook’s policy on white supremacy plays right into a racist agenda Even compared to other groups on ...
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Siri Shortcuts app gets updated with weather, alarms, timers and more

Alongside today’s announcements of new iPads and Mac, Apple also rolled out an updated version of its Siri Shortcuts app. The app, first introduced at WWDC , arrived with iOS 12 as a way to unlock Siri’s potential by allowing users to create their own custom voice commands and workflows. Now, it can do a few new things, too – including setting alarms and timers, getting the latest weather, and more. The weather actions should be especially useful for those who have created custom morning routines with Siri Shortcuts, as you’ll now be able to use the latest weather in your shortcuts with the new “Get Current Weather” and “Get Weather Forecast” actions. Being able to ask for this sort of information is already among the top use cases for voice assistants, like Alexa and Google Assistant, so it makes sense to offer these sorts of commands to Siri Shortcuts users, as well. With these options, you can now ask for current conditions, forecasts (hourly, daily or 10 days out), or for any s...
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Monzo, the U.K. challenger bank, raises £85M Series E at a £1B pre-money valuation

Monzo , the U.K. challenger bank that now boasts more than a million customers, has raised £85 million in Series E funding. The round is led by U.S. venture capital firm General Catalyst, and Accel. Existing backers Passion Capital, Goodwater, Thrive Capital, Orange Digital Ventures, and Stripe also participated. The latest funding was at a pre-money valuation of £1 billion (~$1.27b), meaning that Monzo is now a bonafide member of the U.K. fintech unicorn club, joining recent entrant Revolut. Meanwhile, the bank upstart is also planning to launch a large crowdfunding round later this year. Like a lot of other fintechs — and before it was fashionable — Monzo has historically opened up its fundraising to its passionate community and other armchair investors. In a brief call earlier today with Monzo co-founder and CEO Tom Blomfield, he told me the new funding will be primarily used for increasing headcount to further develop the Monzo product line and to cover other operational cost...
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Alphabet exec Richard DeVaul is reportedly out after sexual harassment story

As Axios first reported, Richard DeVaul, a director at the entity formerly known as Google X, has left the company. An incident involving DeVaul behaving inappropriately toward a Google interviewee was cited in a New York Times report  centered on the sexual misconduct of Andy Rubin last week. Google confirmed that DeVaul had resigned and will not receive an exit package. The story recounts a 2013 incident during which DeVaul brought up his own polyamory in an interview with Star Simpson, a female hardware engineer. DeVaul reportedly invited Simpson to Burning Man. When she attended, DeVaul asked her to remove her shirt so that he could give her a massage. Simpson was not hired at Google. Google has faced wide criticism of its decision to give Rubin a $90 million exit package in spite of an investigation finding the claims against him credible. Axios reports that DeVaul did not receive an exit package, consistent with Sundar Pichai’s recent claim that the company had fired 48 i...
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