Pelican Press

Health stocks hit after Trump taps RFK Jr for top regulator post Health stocks hit after Trump taps RFK Jr for top regulator post Shares in vaccine makers and healthcare firms around the world slid sharply on Friday, as investors warned that Donald Trump’s choice of Robert F Kennedy Jr as US Health Secretary could pose new challenges to the sector. Kennedy is known as a vaccine sceptic and, if confirmed in the post, has vowed to use it to ****** down on “Big Pharma”. The news prompted a sell-off across the industry. In the US, shares in Pfizer and Moderna sank more than 5% in early trading, while ***-listed firms AstraZeneca and GSK dropped 2% or more. Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said the pick had “spooked” shareholders, despite questions about how the new administration might pursue its threats. “The impact on the sector is hard to judge fully at this stage but, at the very least, it will cause a good deal of uncertainty,” he said. The US health secretary leads a huge agency overseeing everything from food safety to medical research and ******** programmes. Critics of Kennedy, commonly known by his initials RFK Jr, include many public health officials, who have denounced his record of spreading health information that scientists say is false. But the former environmental lawyer has gained a following by tapping into mistrust of those who see US regulators as too deferential to big food and medical companies. Before endorsing Trump, Kennedy had mounted a ******* bid for the presidency himself as a third party candidate. That campaign spotlighted calls for increased restrictions on food chemicals and dyes, cutting ultra-processed foods from school lunches and forcing ***** companies to share more information about vaccines. If his nomination is ratified by the Senate and he is empowered to act on his pledges, it would mark a change in approach, not only from the Biden administration but from Trump’s first term, which saw the government pour money into helping firms develop Covid vaccines, while taking a hands-off approach to regulation. However, Trump also drew alarm in the industry with efforts to lower ***** prices, including by making it easier to import medicine from Canada. In opening trade on Friday, shares in Pfizer and Moderna tumbled more than 5%, accelerating their slide after dropping about 2% on Thursday. In Europe, Danish-listed shares of Ozempic-maker Novo Nordisk were on track to close more than 4% lower, while France’s Sanofi, a leader in flu vaccines, saw its shares in Paris slide more than 3%. In London, shares in GSK slid about 4% and AstraZeneca fell roughly 2.6%. Asked for comment about the pick, Steve Ubl, head of the US trade association for pharmaceutical manufacturers, defended the industry, noting its success fighting ******** such as polio and smallpox and its major role in the economy. “We want to work with the Trump administration to further strengthen our innovation ecosystem and improve healthcare for patients,” he said in a statement, without mentioning Kennedy by name. He called on policymakers to focus on addressing chronic ******** with prevention and reforming America’s complicated health system to make medicine more affordable. Source link #Health #stocks #hit #Trump #taps #RFK #top #regulator #post Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Giants letting Saquon go, Bears keeping Eberflus and more bad decisions costing NFL teams in 2024 Giants letting Saquon go, Bears keeping Eberflus and more bad decisions costing NFL teams in 2024 Just eight weeks remain in the NFL regular season, and while some teams find themselves in the thick of playoff races, hope has begun to fade or has completely faded for others. A whopping 16 teams have losing records, and many of them seem headed for double-digit losses. Plenty of owners, general managers and head coaches are paying the price now for poor decisions during the offseason. Some of those gambles have led to lost seasons and either have or will lead to lost jobs in the near future. Here’s a look at some of the biggest blunders and most regrettable decisions of the 2024 NFL season. Bears keeping Matt Eberflus and hiring Shane Waldron Offensive coordinator Shane Waldron this week became the sacrificial lamb after Chicago dropped its third straight game, mustering a combined 27 points and only one touchdown during this losing streak. Waldron never seemed to have a strong understanding of how to develop and call plays for a rookie quarterback. Aside from a three-game bright spot against the injury-riddled Los Angeles Rams and the atrocious defenses of the Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars, No. 1 pick Caleb Williams has struggled. He ranks 32nd in completion percentage (60.5) and 28th in passer rating (81.0) while handling a far heavier workload than he should. GO DEEPER What the Bears’ switch at play caller means for Caleb Williams with season at crossroads But Waldron’s hiring wasn’t the most costly mistake of the Bears’ offseason. Keeping his boss was. Despite double-digit losses in each of his first two seasons, Matt Eberflus was retained as head coach. Eberflus had already displayed an inability to hire a quality offensive coordinator: Luke Getsy preceded Waldron. Adding insult to injury, Eberflus selected Waldron after interviewing Kliff Kingsbury, Liam Coen and Zac Robinson, who are now directing successful units in Washington, Tampa Bay and Atlanta, respectively. Eberflus also ******* to develop a talented quarterback prospect in Justin Fields. So why would the Bears, with the top pick in the draft, gamble at head coach? General manager Ryan Poles defended the decision to stick with Eberflus this past offseason, saying he valued continuity, stability and Eberflus’ attention to detail and leadership. None of those perceived strengths has translated into a revival for Chicago, which has regressed despite having a more talented roster this season. The Bears are at risk of wasting Williams’ first NFL season and causing real long-term damage to the quarterback. They can only hope that pass-game coordinator Thomas Brown can modify the offense and position Williams for growth in this second half of the season. But chances are, Chicago will find itself in the market for a new coach again this winter. Saints sticking with Dennis Allen New Orleans brass allowed a 4-1 finish last season to influence its decision to stick with Dennis Allen as head coach. This was despite it being clear he had his limitations, and that the Saints had just as many under his direction. After a thunderous 2-0 start to 2024, New Orleans quickly spiraled out of control, losing seven straight, and Allen got the ax last week. Allen left New Orleans with a 18-25 record and an overall head coaching record of 26-53 after a ******* run with the Raiders. He got the Saints’ head coaching job after a successful stint as their defensive coordinator from 2015 to 2021. But that success didn’t translate to head coaching. Allen drew criticism for a lack of intensity, poor attention to detail and poor preparation. An embarrassing loss to the inept Carolina Panthers finally did Allen in. In their first game after his *******, the Saints upset the Falcons. New Orleans ultimately needs a full-on rebuild. That rebuild could have begun this past offseason, but complacency has led to another wasted year. Raiders hiring Luke Getsy as offensive coordinator After replacing the fired Josh McDaniels as interim coach midway through last season, Antonio Pierce ignited a turnaround in Las Vegas and was promoted to the full-time job. This offseason, Pierce and the Raiders needed a new offensive coordinator and pursued Kingsbury, the former Arizona Cardinals head coach. But negotiations broke down and Kingsbury wound up taking Washington’s offensive coordinator job. Pierce, meanwhile, made the curious decision to hire Getsy, even though he had ******* as OC in Chicago. The Raiders opted against trading up to draft a top quarterback this spring, and instead rolled with free-agent addition Gardner Minshew and holdover Aidan O’Connell. Minshew isn’t elite, but he played well enough in Indianapolis last season to go 7-6 and help the Colts nearly make the playoffs. Yet neither Minshew nor O’Connell succeeded under Getsy. (O’Connell suffered a broken thumb in Week 7 and went on injured reserve Oct. 21.) Las Vegas’ offense is one of the NFL’s worst in most major statistical categories, and after a fifth straight loss, Pierce fired Getsy and two other assistants. Meanwhile, Kingsbury is directing one of the NFL’s most prolific offenses this season and has quarterback Jayden Daniels looking like the Rookie of the Year favorite while Washington contends for an NFC East division title. Tua Tagovailoa and the Dolphins have a lot of ground to make up if they are to make the playoffs. (Jasen Vinlove / Imagn Images) Dolphins failing to sign a proven backup QB After an 11-6 campaign in which it made the playoffs for a second straight season and quarterback Tua Tagovailoa led the NFL in passing, Miami aimed for more in 2024. Coach Mike McDaniel changed defensive coordinators, and general manager Chris Grier added pieces intended to upgrade the defense and offensive line, hoping that Miami could once again contend in the AFC East and finally get over the wild-card hump. However, Miami made a huge miscalculation that has largely derailed its season. Grier ******* to secure a competent insurance policy at backup quarterback despite Tagovailoa’s extensive injury history. The Dolphins actually entered the season with the unproven Skylar Thompson (57.1 completion percentage, one touchdown and three interceptions in 2022) as their backup quarterback even though Joe Flacco, Jameis Winston, Ryan Tannehill and Fields, to name a few, were available. The Dolphins paid the price after Tagovailoa suffered his third diagnosed concussion in Week 2 and then spent the next five weeks on injured reserve. Thompson and in-season addition Tyler Huntley both proved largely ineffective. Miami went 1-3 without Tagovailoa, as its once high-powered offense averaged just 10 points and 136.5 passing yards per game. By the time Tagovailoa returned in Week 8, the Dolphins were 2-4. Narrow losses in Weeks 8 and 9 (to Arizona and Buffalo) dropped the Dolphins to 2-6 and a mile behind the Bills (now 8-2) for the AFC East lead. Miami beat the Rams on Monday, but at 3-6, it needs a miraculous finish to return to the postseason. The decision to pass on a proven backup who could have potentially helped the Dolphins split those four games without Tagovailoa will likely haunt them for the rest of the season and into the offseason. Everybody and their brother knew the Dallas Cowboys needed a running back after Tony Pollard left in free agency. They had a chance to land Derrick Henry, one of this generation’s most dominant backs. But Jerry Jones opted against signing the 30-year-old Henry, who had recorded 1,000-yard campaigns in five of the six previous seasons. Jones’ reasoning: “We couldn’t afford Derrick Henry.” He could have if he wanted to. Henry wound up signing a two-year, $16 million deal with Baltimore. It featured a $1.2 million base salary for 2024 and a potential out after this season. Henry has been worth every penny, as the Ravens, who average a league-best 31.8 points and 440.2 yards per game, can attest. He leads the NFL with 1,120 yards and 12 rushing touchdowns. Henry’s presence in Dallas would have done wonders for an offense that ranks 31st with 83.7 rushing yards per game, 29th in time of possession (27:42) and ***** last with just three rushing touchdowns all year. Perhaps Dallas would be contending for an NFC East title instead of a top pick in the draft had it made a different decision with Henry. Saquon Barkley is starring for the Eagles while his former team struggles. (Eric Hartline / Imagn Images) The recipe was simple: A heavy dose of Saquon Barkley with a manageable load for Daniel Jones, and the New York Giants had just enough to ****** their way to a winning record and first postseason berth in six seasons. That was 2022, and those results sparked optimism in East Rutherford. But when it came time to make decisions on those two key players, the Giants gave Jones a four-year, $160 million deal he didn’t deserve and made Barkley play 2023 on a one-year, prove-it contract. Barkley cranked out another 962 yards in 14 games last season, but the contract hesitancy remained for the Giants. And so they let the most important player on their team walk — just down the road to the Philadelphia Eagles, who were thrilled to give him a three-year, $37.75 million contract. GO DEEPER Return of the veteran RB? Derrick Henry, Saquon Barkley and early glimmers of a revival Halfway through the season, not only has Barkley been a difference-maker for the Eagles, but also his absence in New York has triggered continued regression for Jones and the Giants offense. Barkley had rushed for 1,137 yards and eight touchdowns, with 23 catches for 210 yards and two touchdowns through Thursday night’s victory over the Commanders. The Giants, meanwhile, rank last in the NFL in scoring (15.6 points per game) and red-zone efficiency (39.29 percent). At 2-8, they again find themselves headed for a top-10 draft pick while general manager Joe Schoen and coach Brian Daboll face uncertain futures. Barkley and the Eagles, in comparison, are hoping for a deep postseason run. It’s the nightmare Giants owner John Mara greatly feared but ultimately did nothing to stop. Panthers limiting Bryce Young in preseason After a disastrous first season under Frank Reich and his diverse cast of quarterback-focused offensive assistants, Bryce Young was supposed to receive a career reset this year guided by new head coach Dave Canales. The former Seahawks quarterbacks coach and Buccaneers offensive coordinator was supposed to help Young rebound, similar to how he helped Geno Smith and Baker Mayfield. But Canales and the Panthers took a curious approach to preparing Young for his second NFL season. Rather than give him as many reps as possible as he learned a new offense and new terminology, they restricted his preseason action. Young played in just one preseason game, completing six of eight passes for 70 yards and a touchdown. Should it really have come as a surprise when Young struggled to start the regular season? Canales benched Young after just two games in which the quarterback threw for a combined 245 yards, no touchdowns and three interceptions. Canales believed Young could learn by watching veteran Andy Dalton, who the coach said gave the team the best chance to win. But that only further magnifies the illogical decision to rob Young of valuable preseason reps. It also raises the question as to why Young was starting in the first place if the coach didn’t believe he gave the team the best shot at winning. After a 1-4 stretch with Dalton as starter, the Panthers went back to Young, who is showing gradual improvement and just won back-to-back games for the first time in his young career. Maybe, just maybe, more reps and more patience was all the 2023 No. 1 pick needed. The Jets have not gotten a boost with Jeff Ulbrich as interim coach. (Lucas Boland / Imagn Images) The Jets … oh, where to begin? Blunders and regrettable decisions are the annual theme of the New York Jets, the kings of disappointment. Rather than contend for a Super Bowl, the Jets have continued to cripple themselves with poor decisions. Their handling of Robert Saleh, fired after just five weeks this season, ranks high on the list of those blunders. If confidence in him was that low, why did Woody Johnson even bring him back? And given that the Jets did decide to give Saleh a fourth season, why pull the plug with a 2-3 record when all of the team’s goals remained within reach? Why wasn’t relieving Nathaniel Hackett of play-calling duties the first move to see if another offensive mind could spark change while Saleh remained as head coach? That would have allowed Jeff Ulbrich to continue to focus exclusively on the defense. Instead, he’s seemingly in over his head as interim head coach, and the coordinator’s once formidable defense has dramatically regressed. GO DEEPER After blowout loss in Arizona, Jets are out of time and Aaron Rodgers is out of answers The trade for Haason Reddick also looks like a regrettable move. The Jets clearly underestimated how strongly Reddick wanted a contract extension and how intent he was on waging a lengthy holdout to obtain it. Had they fully understood the intentions of the pass rusher, who missed all of training camp, the preseason and seven regular-season games, would they have made the trade? Meanwhile, barring a dramatic turnaround, the trade for Davante Adams also seems deserving of a place on this list. The Jets seemed to think Adams was the missing piece, even though he doesn’t play defense or offensive line. The chemistry between Adams and Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers teammates from 2014 to 2021, has proved difficult to rekindle. Through four games with the Jets, Adams has as many touchdown catches as his team does victories (one). If Rodgers opts against returning in 2025, Adams is expected to orchestrate an exit as well, meaning the Jets will have wasted a third-round pick in their trade for the wide receiver. Scoop City Newsletter Free, daily NFL updates direct to your inbox. Free, daily NFL updates direct to your inbox. Sign Up (Top photos of Matt Eberflus, Derrick Henry and Bryce Young: Kara Durrette, Greg Fiume and Grant Halverson / Getty Images) Source link #Giants #letting #Saquon #Bears #keeping #Eberflus #bad #decisions #costing #NFL #teams Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Nintendo Had To Play Detective To Find An Alleged Switch Pirate Nintendo Had To Play Detective To Find An Alleged Switch Pirate The anonymity of the internet seems to make some people believe that they can get away with almost anything online. But Nintendo may have just given future Switch pirates some reasons to reconsider their actions after tracking down a man by playing detective online. Earlier this year, Nintendo sued James Williams, a moderator for a Switch pirates page on Reddit who posted under the name Archbox. At the time, it wasn’t clear how Nintendo had determined that Williams was the man behind Archbox, but Game File‘s new report details some of Williams’ alleged missteps along the way. Williams’ first apparent mistake was that he posted some genuinely personal intel on Reddit that indicated he had previously attended Midwestern University and currently lived near Phoenix, Arizona. Nintendo didn’t elaborate on how it used that info to narrow down Williams’ identity, but it did note his second mistake: He sent in his Switch to Nintendo for repairs. Once Nintendo identified Williams, the company’s lawyers sent him a cease-and-desist letter directly to his address. According to the report, Williams replied that he would comply with their demand, but denied that he violated Nintendo’s IP. Subsequently, Nintendo notes that Williams stopped replying to the company and didn’t plead his case in court before the scheduled deadlines. Therefore Nintendo has been given a default judgment against Williams. Since Nintendo has accused Williams of selling hardware hacks and offering modified Switch consoles with pirated games, he could be facing a substantial financial penalty. And if Nintendo’s sleuthing activities are any indication, he won’t be the only pirate that the company goes after. Source link #Nintendo #Play #Detective #Find #Alleged #Switch #Pirate Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

AI isn’t about unleashing our imaginations, it’s about outsourcing them. The real purpose is profit | James Bradley AI isn’t about unleashing our imaginations, it’s about outsourcing them. The real purpose is profit | James Bradley Back in 2022, when ChatGPT arrived, I was part of the first wave of users. Delighted but also a little uncertain what to do with it, I asked the system to generate all kinds of random things. A song about George Floyd in the style of Bob Dylan. A menu for a vegetarian dinner party. A briefing paper about alternative shipping technologies. The quality of what it produced was variable, but it made clear something that is even more apparent now than it was then. That this technology wasn’t just a toy. Instead its arrival is an inflection point in human history. Over coming years and decades, AI will transform every aspect of our lives. But we are also at an inflection point for those of us who make our living with words, and indeed anybody in the creative arts. Whether you’re a writer, an actor, a singer, a film-maker, a painter or a photographer, a machine can now do what you do, instantly and for a fraction of the cost. Perhaps it can’t do it quite as well as you can just yet, but like the Tyrannosaurus rex in the rear vision mirror in the original Jurassic Park, it’s gaining on you, and fast. Faced with the idea of machines that can do everything that human beings can do, some have just given up. Lee Sedol, the Go Grandmaster who was defeated by DeepMind’s AlphaGo system in 2016 retired on the spot, declaring AlphaGo was “an entity that couldn’t be beaten”, and that his “entire world was collapsing”. Others have asserted the innate superiority of art made by humans, effectively circling the wagons around the idea that there is something in the things we make that cannot be replicated by technology. In the words of Nick *****: Songs arise out of suffering … the complex, internal human struggle of creation … [but] algorithms don’t feel. Data doesn’t suffer … What makes a great song great is not its close resemblance to a recognisable work. Writing a good song is not mimicry, or replication, or pastiche, it is the opposite. It is an act of self-******* that destroys all one has strived to produce in the past. It’s an appealing position, and one I’d like to believe – but sadly, I don’t. Because not only does it commit us to a hopelessly simplistic – and, frankly, reactionary – binary, in which the human is intrinsically good, and the artificial is intrinsically bad, it also means the category of creation we’re defending is extremely small. Do we really want to limit the work that we value to those towering works of art wrought out of profound feeling? What about costume design and illustration and book reviews and all the other things people make? Don’t they matter? Perhaps a better place to begin a defence of human creativity might be in the process of creation itself. Because when we make something, the end product isn’t the only thing that matters. In fact it may not even be the thing that matters most. There is also value in the act of making, in the craft and care of it. This value doesn’t inhere in the things we make, but in the creative labour of making them. The interplay between our minds and our bodies and the thing we are making is what brings something new – some understanding or presence – into the world. But the act of making changes us as well. That can be joyous, and at other times it can be frustrating or even painful. Nonetheless it enriches us in ways that simply prompting a machine to generate something for us never will. What’s happening here isn’t about unleashing our imaginations, it’s about outsourcing them. Generative AI strips out part of what makes us human and hands it over to a company so they can sell us a product that claims to do the same thing. In other words the real purpose of these systems isn’t liberation, but profit. Forget the glib marketing slogans about increasing productivity or unleashing our potential. These systems aren’t designed to benefit us as individuals or a society. They’re designed to maximise the ability of tech corporations to extract value by strip-mining the industries they disrupt. This reality is particularly stark in the creative industries. Because the ability of AI systems to magic up stories and images and videos didn’t come out of nowhere. In order to be able to make these things, AIs have to be trained on massive amounts of data. These datasets are generated from publicly available information: books, articles, Wikipedia entries and so on in the case of text; videos and images in the case of visual data. Exactly what these works are is already highly contentious. Some, such as Wikipedia and out-of-copyright books, are in the public domain. But much – and possibly most – of it is not. How could ChatGPT write a song about George Floyd in the style of Bob Dylan without access to Dylan’s songs? The answer is it couldn’t. It could only imitate Dylan because his lyrics formed part of the dataset that was used to train it. AI-generated artworks by Mario Klingemann that were auctioned at Sotheby’s. Photograph: Malcolm Park/Alamy Between the secretiveness of these companies and the fact the systems themselves are effectively ****** boxes, the inner processes of which are opaque even to their creators, it’s difficult to know exactly what has been ingested by any individual AI. What we do know for sure is that vast amounts of copyright material has already been fed into these systems, and is still being fed into them as we speak, all without permission or payment. But AI doesn’t just incrementally erode the rights of authors and other creators. These technologies are designed to replace creative workers altogether. The writer and artist James Bridle has compared this process to the enclosure of the commons, but whichever way you cut it, what we are witnessing isn’t just “systematic theft on a mass scale”, it’s the wilful and deliberate destruction of entire industries and the transfer of their value to shareholders in Silicon Valley. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia’s culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion This unconstrained rapaciousness isn’t new. Despite ad campaigns promising care and connection, the tech industry’s entire model depends upon extraction and exploitation. From publishing to transport, tech companies have employed a model that depends upon inserting themselves into traditional industries and “disrupting” them by sidestepping regulation and riding roughshod over hard-won rights or simply fencing off things that were formerly part of the public sphere. In the same way Google hoovered up creative works to make its libraries, filesharing technologies devastated the music industry, and Uber’s model depends on paying its drivers less than taxi companies, AI maximises its profit by refusing to pay the creators of the material it relies on. Meanwhile the human, environmental and social costs of these technologies are kept carefully out of sight. Interestingly the sense of powerlessness and paralysis many of us feel in the face of the social and cultural transformation unleashed by AI resembles our ******** to respond to climate change. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. With both there is a profound mismatch between the scale of what is taking place and our capacity to conceptualise it. We find it difficult to imagine fundamental change, and when faced with it, tend to either panic or just shut down. But it’s also because, as with climate change, we have been tricked into thinking there are no alternatives, and that the economic systems we inhabit are natural, and arguing with them makes about as much sense as arguing with the wind. In fact the opposite is true. Companies like Meta and Alphabet and, more recently, OpenAI, have only achieved their extraordinary wealth and power because of very specific regulatory and economic conditions. These arrangements can be altered. That is within the power of government, and we should be insisting upon it. There are currently cases before the courts in a number of jurisdictions that seek to frame the massive expropriation of the work of artists and writers by AI companies as a breach of copyright. The outcome of these cases isn’t yet clear, but even if creators lose, that ****** isn’t over. The use of our work to train AIs must be brought under the protection of the copyright system. And we shouldn’t stop there. We should insist upon payment for the work that has been used, payment for all future use and an end to the tech industry practice of taking first and seeking forgiveness later. Their use of copyright material without permission wasn’t accidental. They did it on purpose because they thought they could get away with it. The time has come for them to stop getting away with it. For that to happen we need regulatory structures that ensure transparency about what datasets are being used to train these systems and what is contained in those datasets. And systems of audits to ensure copyright and other forms of intellectual property are not being violated, and that enforce meaningful sanctions if they are. And we need to insist upon international agreements that protect the rights of artists and other creators instead of facilitating the profits of corporations. But most of all, we need to be thinking hard about why what we do as human beings, and as creators and artists in particular, matters. Because it isn’t enough to fret about what is being lost, or to ****** a rearguard action against these technologies. We have to begin to articulate positive arguments for the value of what we do, and of creativity more broadly, and to think about what form that might take in a world where AI is a pervasive reality. This is an edited version of the *********** Society of Authors 2024 Colin Simpson Memorial Keynote lecture, titled ‘Creative Futures: Imagining a place for creativity in a world of artificial intelligence’ Source link #isnt #unleashing #imaginations #outsourcing #real #purpose #profit #James #Bradley Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Germany’s Scholz urges ****** in phone call to open talks with Ukraine Germany’s Scholz urges ****** in phone call to open talks with Ukraine ******* Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD, r) and Russian President Vladimir ****** look up after several hours of one-on-one talks at a ****** press conference. Scholz met the Russian president for talks on the situation on the Ukrainian-Russian border. Kay Nietfeld | picture alliance | Getty Images ******* Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged Russian President Vladimir ****** in a rare phone call on Friday to begin talks with Ukraine that would open the way for a “just and lasting peace.” In a one-hour phone conversation, their first in almost two years, Scholz also demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine and reaffirmed Germany’s continued support for Ukraine, a ******* government spokesman said. The call comes as Ukraine faces increasingly difficult conditions on the battlefield amid shortages of arms and personnel while Russian forces make steady advances. “The Chancellor urged Russia to show willingness to enter talks with Ukraine with the aim of achieving a just and lasting peace,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “He stressed Germany’s unbroken determination to back Ukraine in its defence against Russian aggression for as long as necessary,” the spokesperson added. Scholz spoke with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy ahead of his call with ****** and would brief the Ukrainian leader on the outcome afterwards, the spokesperson said. Germany is Ukraine’s largest financial backer and its largest provider of weapons after the ******* States, whose future support for Kyiv appears uncertain following Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election. Trump has repeatedly criticized the scale of Western financial and military aid to Ukraine and has suggested he can put a swift end to the war, without explaining how. Scholz and ****** last spoke in December 2022, 10 months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, plunging relations with the West into their deepest freeze since the Cold War. Scholz, the most unpopular ******* chancellor on record, is preparing for a national election on Feb. 23 in which his Social Democrats face stiff competition from left-wing and far-right parties that are critical of Germany’s backing for Ukraine. Source link #Germanys #Scholz #urges #****** #phone #call #open #talks #Ukraine Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Lizzie Deignan to retire from cycling after 2025 Lizzie Deignan to retire from cycling after 2025 Deignan has shared the stage with several riders who have set the highest standards on the road, including the Dutch legends Marianne Vos, Annemiek van Vleuten and Anna van der Breggen. But off the bike women have fought in recent years to achieve parity with the men’s side of the sport when it comes to sponsorship deals, salaries and media exposure. At 500,000 euros, the winner of the men’s Tour de France earns 10 times that of the winner of the women’s event. Deignan considers herself fortunate to have the support of her Lidl-Trek team, who embraced her decision to start a family in her prime. “I’m really proud that I was able to prove that becoming a mother isn’t necessarily the end of an athlete’s career – that you are able to come back successfully and as strong as I’ve ever been after having children. “There was an absolute mutual respect [between myself and the team] from the very beginning and because of that I felt very safe and secure in my return. “Our contracts have maternity clauses which they never had before I was pregnant.” Deignan came back from her first maternity leave and won more of the sport’s biggest races, including the 2019 Women’s Tour of Britain, the 2020 La Course by the Tour de France and Liege-Bastogne-Liege the same year. And Deignan acknowledges that her efforts have helped push women’s cycling forward, including a 2012 media conference where she let it be known to cycling’s governing body the UCI that not enough was being done for women in the sport. “Looking back, I think: ‘Wow, that was a bit of a bold move. Could you not have gone a bit easier on yourself, Lizzie?’ But because of my upbringing, because of my family, it never occurred to me that inequality was a thing until I was outside my family, and I wasn’t getting the same opportunities as the men who I had grown up cycling with. “[Women’s cycling] is unrecognisable compared to when I first started. I turned professional 18 seasons ago earning 200 euros a month – there’s now a minimum wage. There are so many different things in our contracts in our World Tour in terms race organizers needing a certain amount of TV coverage, minimum safety guidelines. All these things that we never had – I feel like our sport is at the forefront of equality. I’m really pleased that I’ve been a part of that. “Doing things like having children in the middle of my career, at the height of my career, I think contribute to the fact that women are being taken seriously in the sport. But there is still work to be done.” Source link #Lizzie #Deignan #retire #cycling Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Saquon Barkley, crucial fourth down stop power Eagles to win vs. Commanders: Key takeaways Saquon Barkley, crucial fourth down stop power Eagles to win vs. Commanders: Key takeaways By Ben Standig, Brooks Kubena and Amos Morale III The Philadelphia Eagles picked up their sixth straight victory with a 26-18 win over the Washington Commanders on “Thursday Night Football.” The Eagles trailed 10-6 heading into the fourth quarter but scored three touchdowns in the final frame to secure their eighth win of the season and improve their lead in the NFC East. Running back Saquon Barkley finished with 146 rushing yards and 52 receiving yards to go along with two fourth-quarter touchdown runs of 23 and 39 yards. This is a scheduled Saquon Barkley TD tweet actually @saquon | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/zDRIu7hXsv — Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) November 15, 2024 Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts had the other score, which came via Philadelphia’s signature “tush push.” Baun, Eagles defense step up Linebacker Zack Baun made the play of the game. On fourth-and-2 at the Eagles 26 in a two-point game, Baun stopped Commanders QB Jayden Daniels for no gain. The turnover on downs launched a major swing. The Eagles quickly scored on the following drive on a 23-yard run by Barkley. Philadelphia’s defense played stout all game. Entering that fateful fourth down, the Eagles had held the Commanders to -1 yard on seven short-yardage rush attempts (three yards to go or fewer). Commanders coach Dan Quinn will have to answer for his aggressiveness when the lead was available with a field goal. The Eagles held Daniels to 191 yards passing and 18 yards rushing. Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio fielded yet another game plan that limited an opponent to fewer than 20 points. — Brooks Kubena, Eagles beat writer Kicking a concern? The fourth-down stop covered up an off night for Jake Elliott. The eighth-year veteran and reliable placekicker who signed a four-year, $24 million extension in the offseason, missed a 44-yard field goal, a 51-yard field goal and an extra point — all wide left. The point-after attempt was most egregious. It left the window open for the Commanders to take the lead in a 12-10 game with 12:04 left in the fourth quarter. Elliott has been a safeguard for the Eagles for his entire career. Tonight, the Eagles defense saved him. Elliott has never missed more than five field goals in his career. He’s now missed five through 10 games. — Kubena Barkley covers for sputtering offense The box score will show another mammoth game for Barkley. But the Eagles had a difficult time scoring for most of the game. The Commanders locked down their downfield options in the passing game. Barkley was averaging fewer than four yards per carry entering the fourth quarter. They twice ******* to score touchdowns in the red zone — even when Hurts had A.J. Brown in one-on-one coverage with cornerback Mike Sainristil, who stopped Brown’s route in the end zone on an incomplete pass. Nick Sirianni and Kellen Moore will face questions for a curious trick play call in the first half that lost significant yardage and squandered great field position. But, in the end, the Eagles flexed their star power, and they fielded explosive plays when momentum mattered most. — Kubena Like this if you love Saquon Barkley. RT this if you love Saquon Barkley. Reply that you love Saquon Barkley.@saquon | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/e4TKKo3rSN — Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) November 15, 2024 Quinn’s gamble busts Washington’s offense labored throughout against Philadelphia and yet had the opportunity for a go-ahead field goal from the Eagles’ 26 with roughly eight minutes remaining. Quinn chose the aggressive route and kept his offense on the field. Maybe the sight of the home team delivering scoring drives of 82 and 74 yards on its two previous possessions spooked the head coach. Then again, the Commanders offensive line wasn’t controlling the line of scrimmage. We’ll never know what happens if Daniels doesn’t bobble the snap. Once he did, the Eagles defenders cut off the quarterback’s outside running lane. The zero-yard carry ended that drive. When they regained possession after Barkley’s first touchdown, the hope of winning was on life support. Letting kicker Zane Gonzalez attempt a go-ahead field goal seemed like the prudent move in a low-scoring game. Instead, Quinn went for the big play on a night Daniels and the line weren’t sharp, and the offense came up small. — Ben Standig, Commanders beat writer Defense falls in final round Don’t put this loss on Washington’s defense, even if the group went from bending to cracking to breaking in the second half. Frankie Luvu (two sacks), Jeremy Chinn and Sainristil were among the players flying around the field in the first half. They hit hard and covered well while holding the Eagles to three points before halftime. But as the game progressed, Philadelphia’s offense began delivering jabs and haymakers. The Commanders stood tall, but eventually, the blows were too much for a unit tasked with being on the field for far too long since the offense finished 3 of 12 on third downs. Instead of keeping Philly’s playmakers mostly in check, Barkley hurt them late. The defenders won’t use tired as an excuse, but the game evolved like a team gasping for breath. — Standig Required reading (Photo: Mitchell Leff / Getty Images) Source link #Saquon #Barkley #crucial #fourth #stop #power #Eagles #win #Commanders #Key #takeaways Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Remedy’s Sam Lake set to receive New York awards show’s top honour Remedy’s Sam Lake set to receive New York awards show’s top honour Remedy creative director Sam Lake has been named the recipient of the 2025 New York Videogame Critics Circle Andrew Yoon Legend Award. The New York Videogame Critics Circle presents the Andrew Yoon Legend Award to “recognize people and organizations that exhibited a significant, sustained body of work that shows exceptional artistic achievement and innovation.” The award is named for Andrew Yoon, a founding member of the New York Videogame Critics Circle. Past award recipients include Neil Druckmann, Reggie Fils-Aimé, Phil Spencer, Tim Schafer, Jerry Lawson, ***** Raymond, Hideo Kojima, and other industry veterans. Lake is best known for his over two-decade career at Remedy Entertainment, where he served as creative director on the Control and Alan Wake franchises. “What an honor it is to celebrate someone of Sam Lake’s caliber during the 14th annual New York Game Awards,” said Harold Goldberg, president and co-founder, NYVGCC. “You know a Remedy game when you see it, largely due to Sam Lake’s impact on the worlds he creates. It’s really cool to see how his 20-year career at Remedy has touched so many of our members and interns at the Circle, and we are thrilled to have him join the roster of esteemed game changers previously recognized with the Andrew Yoon Legend Award.” The 2025 New York Game Awards will take place on January 21 at the SVA Theatre in Manhattan, New York. Ryan O’Callaghan, executive director, NYVGCC said, “It’s not often that you see a video game studio deliver a superb sequel to a title a decade later, but it’s even rarer to see how it resonates with fans and spawns a whole connected universe comprised of its past franchises. “I don’t think anyone expects anything less from someone like Sam Lake. He spoke with some of our students and interns a few weeks ago, and it was insightful to see where he draws his inspiration and the care that goes into crafting a video game. This will be a year to remember at the New York Game Awards.” Source link #Remedys #Sam #Lake #set #receive #York #awards #shows #top #honour Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

‘We don’t go to Ravenholm’: the story behind Half-Life 2’s most iconic level | Games ‘We don’t go to Ravenholm’: the story behind Half-Life 2’s most iconic level | Games At the start of Valve’s Half-Life 2, the seminal first-person shooter game that turns 20 this month, taciturn scientist Gordon Freeman is trapped within a dystopian cityscape. Armed soldiers patrol the streets, and innocent citizens wander around in a daze, bereft of purpose and future. Dr Wallace Breen, Freeman’s former boss at the scientific “research centre” ****** Mesa, looks down from giant video screens, espousing the virtues of humankind’s benefactors, an alien race known as The Combine. As Freeman stumbles through these first few levels of Half-Life 2, the player acclimatises to the horrible future ***** out before them. It’s hardly the most cheerful setting, but there are some friendly faces (security guard Barney, Alyx and Eli Vance) and even moments of humour, as Dr Isaac Kleiner’s ****, a debeaked face-eating alien called Lamarr, runs amok in his laboratory. It feels safe. It feels fun. It feels familiar. There’s even a crowbar! And then, the foreshadowing. “That’s the old passage to Ravenholm,” mutters Alyx Vance during Freeman’s chapter five tour of the ****** Mesa East facility. “We don’t go there any more.” You feel a shiver down your spine; you know you will end up going there. “[Ravenholm] was a totally different environment from what the player had been in until that point,” says Dario Casali, level designer and member of the informal City 17 Cabal, a group within Valve that worked on Half-Life 2’s most famous level. “It was an outlier of a map set that survived from a pretty early build of the game, borne from a need to give the newly introduced Gravity **** a place to shine.” ‘Ravenholm was a totally different environment from what the player had been in until that point.’ Photograph: Valve The absence of ammunition for Freeman’s traditional weapons is the impetus that drives Ravenholm and Half-Life 2 into horror game territory. An old mining town, previously hidden away from the Combine, Ravenholm is now a desolate place, plunged into darkness, its citizens corrupted by an intense bombardment of headcrabs (those face-eating aliens). “We made use of confined spaces so that slow zombies [headcrab-afflicted people] could actually get near you,” reveals Casali. And the player can no longer blast them away with a machine **** or *******; you need to resort to the hefty Gravity ****, picking up whatever you can find around you and flinging it at the monsters bearing down on Freeman. Pots of paint, bits of wood, even ***** bodies became the player’s ammo. Like most of Half-Life 2, Ravenholm is a cinematic experience, taking its cue from horror movies such as Saw and 28 Days Later. When Combine forces ******* ****** Mesa East, Freeman escapes through the dark tunnel that leads to Ravenholm. Instantly, a sharp change of atmosphere descends like a chill upon the player: a grim set of dark buildings, wispy, almost nonexistent music, two crashed headcrab rockets, and something swinging from a barren tree. Closer inspection reveals the lower half of a corpse, pecked at by crows. Headcrab zombies appear out of nowhere, moaning their pained exhortations; but soon these are the least of Freeman’s worries. Designed to fit around the map, Ravenholm’s “fast” zombies climb up drainpipes and scurry across rooftops, leaving little safe haven for the adventurous scientist. Freeman must also contend with hunched creatures that hurl poisonous headcrabs. ‘A desolate place.’ Photograph: EA Fortunately, Freeman is not without help; soon, he encounters Father Grigori, who is responsible for Ravenholm’s Saw-like traps and passionately redeems his “flock” with a shotgun. Casali says: “My take on it was that this guy had slowly lost his mind because of the headcrabs and the conversion of his congregation into zombies. Because Ravenholm was so isolated, I imagined he didn’t even know about the Combine invasion and thought that the ****** had come to town. Father Grigori and his flock of zombies was the perfect excuse to double down on the creepiness.” Freeman follows Grigori throughout Ravenholm until a final climactic battle in (appropriately) a *********. “I thought Ravenholm really needed a fittingly action-packed ending worthy of a horror film,” says Casali, “and what better place to do that than in a graveyard!” While that closing encounter, with Freeman and Grigori besieged by an army of zombies and headcrabs, releases some of the tension built up while exploring the creepy streets of Ravenholm, the level still leaves a lasting impression on anyone who played it, such is the abrupt change of tone and style. The segment endured practically from the start of Half-Life 2’s long development – a version appeared in Valve’s renowned 2003 E3 demo – evolving into the ammo-scarce spook-fest of the final game. As one of the outstanding games of the last 20 years, Half-Life 2 defined the future of video games with its innovative visuals and remarkable physics engine. As a part of the City 17 Cabal, Casali and his colleagues’ work was instrumental. “The ******* to outdo the original Half-Life was so strong, and we were constantly motivated by the quality of work the other teams were doing,” he remembers. “It was magic.” Source link #dont #Ravenholm #story #HalfLife #iconic #level #Games Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Top 3 R&D-Driven Stocks Showing Strong Profit and Momentum Top 3 R&D-Driven Stocks Showing Strong Profit and Momentum When thinking about innovative companies that are trying fervently to stay ahead of the competition, research and development (R&D) spending is a key indicator of this ethos. Often quoted as a percentage of revenue, R&D spending is a driving force for many companies, especially those in the technology sector. Without it, businesses will eventually render their products inadequate as the competition provides greater value to their customers. Strong R&D spending looks even better when combined with a company that is already profitable. It shows that they’re able to make money and invest back into the business at the same time. Together, these two factors have a big influence on the long-term success of a business. Below, I’ll share three companies that are achieving both goals. Also, these stocks have seen recent price upticks, showing some momentum at the companies. 1. Cadence: A Leader in Chip-Making Software (ETR:) Cadence Design Systems (NASDAQ: NASDAQ:) is a maker of electronic design automation (EDA) software. EDA software is one of the most important tools needed to design advanced semiconductors. Without it, making the best chips is essentially impossible. It is a reason why the ******* States has banned U.S. companies from selling EDA software to ******** firms. As the world demands more and more advanced chips to run AI workloads and all the rest, Cadence must continue to make its software better as well. That’s why over the last 12 months, Cadence has spent 35% of its revenue on R&D. However, the company’s margins are also astounding. The company’s ****** margin sits at nearly 88%, higher than 90% of companies in the ******* States. Its operating margin is also massive, coming in at just over 29%. That is higher than 93% of companies in the ******* States technology sector. Shares are on the rise as of late, up 11% over the last three months. 2. Electronic Sports: Outpacing Take-Two With Superior Margins Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: NASDAQ:) is a video game publishing, distribution, and development company. It has become widely known for some of its biggest game releases, including Madden NFL and The Sims. It is the largest video game company in the ******* States when leaving out the broadly diversified Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:). The company dedicates a very large percentage of its revenue to R&D spending at 34%. Customers continually expect better content in video games, especially the graphics. Creating better graphics requires investments in cutting-edge technology and skilled labor. EA’s R&D costs get driven further higher due to the nature of the games it makes. Significant amounts of the company’s revenue come from sports games like Madden EA College Football. Developers must release a new version of these games every year so they can update them with the real-life changes in teams. Luckily for EA, it can support this spending due to its very high margins. Its 79% ****** margin and 21% operating margin put it in an enviable position compared to most stocks in the U.S. communications sector. It is also handily beating out one of its main competitors, Take-Two Interactive Software Inc (NASDAQ:), on both those metrics. Take-Two has seen its operating margin drop to negative over the last few years. Shares of Electronic Arts are up 9% in the past three months. 3. Synopsys (NASDAQ:): Investing 32% in R&D Synopsys (NASDAQ: SNPS), like Cadence, is a maker of EDA software. Together, these companies control around 60% – 70% of the EDA market. Although the competition is much more even than between the two beverage businesses, the duopoly of Synopsys and Cadence pushes both of them to keep innovation at the forefront. The intense competition between these firms is shown in their R&D spending. Synopsys spends 32% of its revenue on R&D. The company’s ****** and operating margins are 81% and 23% over the last 12 months. They’re not as good as Cadence’s, but they are still impressive. This difference is somewhat reflected in the gap between the two firms’ forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratios. The number is at 45x for Cadence, compared to 40x for Synopsys. This signals that investors view Cadence’s earnings as less risky than Synopsys’s, so they are willing to pay more for them. Shares of Synopsys have been up a solid 6% over the past three months. Wall Street sees a decent upside in the stock over the next 12 months. The average price target implies shares could rise 14%. Original Post Source link #Top #RDDriven #Stocks #Showing #Strong #Profit #Momentum Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Wall St drops after Powell urges rate cut caution Wall St drops after Powell urges rate cut caution Wall Street’s main indexes have tumbled after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said there was no need to rush interest-rate cuts, pushing up US Treasury yields and pressuring equities. In a speech on Thursday, Powell pointed to ongoing economic growth, a solid job market, and inflation above the Fed’s two per cent target as reasons the central bank can afford to be careful as they determine the pace and scope of rate cuts going forward. Powell’s comments came after both consumer and producer prices data this week pointed to persistent inflation. On Friday, data showed US retail sales increased slightly more than expected in October, but underlying momentum in consumer spending appeared to slow at the start of the fourth quarter. Traders increased bets that the Fed will keep rates on hold at its December meeting – pricing in a 41.3 per cent chance, compared with 14 per cent a month ago, according to the CME FedWatch tool. “The retail sales number was overall pretty good. That’s exactly what Powell was talking about yesterday, where if the economy continues to be reasonably strong and inflation is approaching our target, they can afford to be patient and go slower with rate cuts than previously thought,” said Mike Dickson, head of research and quantitative strategies at Horizon Investments. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 149.62 points, or 0.34 per cent, to 43,601.24, the S&P 500 lost 40.21 points, or 0.68 per cent, to 5,908.96 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 237.47 points, or 1.24 per cent, to 18,870.18. The small-cap Russell 2000 index was down 0.2 per cent. Higher Treasury yields pressured megacap stocks. Nvidia edged 1.8 per cent lower, Apple dropped one per cent and Microsoft was down 1.7 per cent. The losses pulled down the information technology index by 1.5 per cent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq led declines among the major indexes with an over one per cent loss. The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index slipped 2.2 per cent, bogged down by a 8.8 per cent decline in Applied Materials after it forecast first-quarter revenue below Wall Street estimates on Thursday. All three major US stock indexes were headed for weekly losses as a sharp post-election rally fizzled out and market focus shifted to the state of the economy and potential inflation risks under a new administration. Stocks of vaccine makers dipped after the President-elect selected Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has spread misinformation on vaccines, to head the Department of Health and Human Services. BioNTech dropped five per cent, while Moderna and Novavax fell more than four per cent. Pfizer dipped 4.9 per cent. “We are getting more visibility into who’s going to be surrounding Trump and what their policies represent. And that’s caused a little bit of the pause lately,” said Dickson of Horizon Investments. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway said on Thursday it made new investments in Domino’s Pizza and sold its entire stake in Ulta Beauty. Domino’s shares were up two per cent, while Ulta was down 2.5 per cent. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.06-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.5-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq. The S&P 500 posted 3 new 52-week highs and 8 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 14 new highs and 91 new lows. Source link #Wall #drops #Powell #urges #rate #cut #caution Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Billie Jean King took tennis equity to the top of sport. She never got comfortable there Billie Jean King took tennis equity to the top of sport. She never got comfortable there Billie Jean King is losing patience. Maybe that’s what happens when you’re 80 years old and the actuarial tables say time is running short. King has been advocating for equality for women for more than a half-century now. There has been progress, but not nearly enough, she believes — in life as in tennis. King has pushed into every room she could and tried to work all of them. She has tried to build all kinds of bridges, believing that if she could just talk to people, one-on-one, she could bend their world view a little closer to hers. Sometimes they bend. Others can break. Yet she’s still at it, trying to check the emotions and frustrations that simmer just beneath. The impatience that reveals itself once she gets through some of the happy and vacant baseline exchanges that go with living inside the sport’s establishment as she tries to disrupt it, little by little, again and again. Long ago, King made a cold calculation. She didn’t want to be someone who was “just going out talking, standing on a soapbox,” as she said during an interview last week, conducted over video since she and her partner, Ilana Kloss, have been nursing a respiratory illness. “It’s what you do that matters.” That, she said, required practicality. Practicality comes with a price — but seriously, what the ***** is taking so long? “I have this saying that when you read history, it goes fast, but when you live in it, it goes slowly,” she said. GO DEEPER ‘I think we deserve better’: How and why tennis lets women down King, the 12-time Grand Slam singles champion, a founding leader of the WTA Tour, the slayer of Bobby Riggs in the 1973 Battle of the Sexes showdown, is tennis royalty 365 days a year. That is especially true in late summer, when the U.S. Open happens at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y.. Another reminder comes in the fall, when the finals of the Billie Jean King Cup, the national team competition that bears her name, bring together some of the best women’s players in the world. This year they have come to Malaga, Spain. King has played many roles in the event since winning its first edition as part of Team USA in 1963, when it was known as the Federation Cup. Participant, champion, team captain, namesake, marketing partner, cheerleader in chief. She got annoyed last year that dining for staff and media at the event was slow, getting in the way of their work. She got on those responsible and told them to fix it. In one way, this year’s edition is a breakthrough moment for her. The BJK finals will overlap with the finals of the Davis Cup, the men’s team competition. For some time, she’s been telling anyone who will listen how much better the two events would be together — a kind of tennis world cup. She has similar ideas about the WTA and ATP Tour Finals, presently held thousands of miles apart in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Turin, Italy, respectively. “You have your two big season-ending events for individuals and teams. To really showcase the sport, just like the majors, right? It becomes just like a fifth major.” She says all this with a combination of satisfaction and those why-does-it-take-so-long-for-people-to listen-to-me shakes of the head that punctuate her sentences. She’s got the record to justify them. She convinced the U.S. Open to give equal prize money to men and women in 1973; Wimbledon waited another 34 years. World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka still had to speak on being paid half as much as men’s world No. 1 Jannik Sinner for winning the Cincinnati Open this summer. It is not time to get comfortable. There is more to do. Billie Jean King dances with Arthur Ashe at the Wimbledon Champions’ Ball in 1975. (Smith / Associated Press) At this point, there is no doubt that King has had as much impact on modern sports as anyone during her lifetime. How she accomplished it all provides another object lesson on how to gain influence. As edgy, rebellious and disruptive as she was in her early years, someone who used to rib her good friend Arthur Ashe for not being ******** enough, she decided that the only way she could force change and begin to bend tennis to her will was to do it from the inside. She needed to work her way into the corridors of the rich and powerful and act like she belonged, even if it meant a life lived in discomfort. Now, she regrets not working with Ashe from inside the tennis clubs that were so exclusionary when they were both around. In the 1970s, doing something meant rubbing shoulders with tobacco executives at Philip Morris, who bankrolled women’s tennis. To this day she hobnobs with billionaire corporate leaders despite seriously disagreeing with their politics. She has urged engagement and dealmaking with the rulers of countries that criminalize homosexuality and curtail women’s rights. Nearly every year, she and Kloss sit in Wimbledon’s Royal Box. It doesn’t get much more establishment than that. GO DEEPER Beckham, Guardiola and the Princess of Wales: Welcome to Wimbledon’s Royal Box “I don’t think I was ever comfortable,” she said. “I was never really just like, ‘Ohhhh, relax.’ No, I’m always pretty alert, I think.” Kloss, King’s partner in business and in life, said that they have learned to treat these rooms as opportunities: to learn and build relationships with people who can help them get where they want to go, and where they want sport to go, too. They have invested in baseball through the LA Dodgers and in women’s ice hockey, the Angel City women’s soccer team and media startups. King created the Women’s Sports Foundation in 1974, two years after Title IX banned **** discrimination in schools. “You might not get everything but I think if you know somebody, you feel like there’s a connection,” Kloss said. “In person, building those relationships has served us both incredibly well.” King has caught her share of flak for this approach. At an event celebrating the creation of the WTA on the eve of Wimbledon 2023, she voiced her support for a deal in the tens of millions of dollars to bring the WTA Tour Finals to Saudi Arabia, a country which human rights groups have criticized for its record on freedom of expression, criminalization of same-**** relationships and women’s rights. “I think I would take the money,” she said at the time, reiterating her long-held support of engagement as a vehicle for change. Her fellow figureheads of women’s tennis, Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert, wrote in the Washington Post that engaging as a vehicle for change would mean awarding a marquee event and all its cachet to a kingdom yet to earn it. Chris Evert and Billie Jean King have taken opposing views on staging the WTA Tour Finals in Saudi Arabia. (Ulises Ruiz / AFP via Getty Images) The WTA took the money. Last weekend, Coco Gauff won $4.8 million (£3.8 million) for winning the championship, the biggest check in women’s tennis history. GO DEEPER ‘The same people who allow women to play tennis are also torturing the activists’ Any conversation with King delivers surprises. Recalling the early days of the second-wave feminism movement in the 1970s, she says she felt somewhat shunned by its leaders. She wished those women, including her longtime friend Gloria Steinem, had used her and the other players more. “Jocks were thought of as not too bright, that we didn’t know what we were doing. I used to tell Gloria that we’re not just from the head up. But I think we had a platform,” King said. King is not bitter. She and Steinem had tea recently; they’re fine. Steinem declined to comment. She believes her match with Riggs launched the tennis ***** in the ******* States, especially among women, not some Grand Slam final nor Rod Laver’s famous duel with Ken Rosewall in Texas in 1972, which drew more than 21 million viewers as it stretched into the evening programming hours. Friends have told her that the next day, you couldn’t get on a tennis court. “Everybody was wearing their tennis gear to the grocery store,” she said. Despite her pride at surpassing limits, she’s fully aware she hasn’t done it all. While King was playing — and winning 39 Grand Slam titles (12 singles, 16 women’s doubles, 11 mixed doubles) — and for years after, gay and ********* women in tennis felt they had to hide their sexuality. Now, statistics would suggest that men do, since tennis has yet to have an openly gay male player come out during his career. Brian Vahaly, the ********* former world No. 63, came out after retiring in 2007. Billie Jean King beat retired pro Bobby Riggs 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 in their ‘Battle of the Sexes’ in 1973. (Hutton Archive / Getty Images) Her main hope of the moment is that the competition that bears her name can have some impact beyond the players who play it on and off the court. This year, the event will host a summit on women’s leadership in business and sports on the morning of the final. Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani education advocate who was shot by the Taliban when she was 15, is among the featured guests. Leadership is another current frustration. Each entity with a seat at the table where tennis decisions are made — the tournaments, the tour officials, the leaders of the Grand Slams, the International Tennis Federation, which controls the Billie Jean King Cup — have interests to protect. The net result, she feels, is currently a schedule that burns some players out before the end of the season. That hurts her directly when some of the best players, including Gauff, opt out of the Billie Jean King Cup because they are simply out of gas by mid-November. Instead of shortening the schedule, the ATP and WTA Tours have extended the lengths of their biggest tournaments, the 1,000s — one rung below the Grand Slams. Instead of spacing out the team competitions that many players say give them a break from the eat-what-you-***** nature of the rest of the year, they stick those events at the end of the year. GO DEEPER How the ****** to improve the tennis calendar risks destroying its soul The biased King and Kloss — and plenty of players — would prefer the season ended shortly after the U.S. Open, before pivoting to team competitions and a longer off-season. “It’s really maddening, you know, generation after generation,” she said. “If you don’t put the game first, you’re gonna ****** it up in the end for yourself. It’s so obvious.” This year’s event also has a small circle of life moment for King. She captained for many years a U.S. team that often featured Lindsay Davenport, the former world No. 1. Now Davenport is the U.S. captain. In an interview in Turin on Wednesday, Davenport said King came into her life at a key moment, in 1995. She was 19, floating around the top 20, and unsure of how much further her tennis could take her. King told her she had no limits. The next year, King was coaching Davenport on the U.S. Olympic team in 1996 when she won the gold medal in Atlanta, Ga.. “When you hear it from someone like that, it goes a lot further than just hearing it from, you know, a local pro or your parents,” Davenport said. Billie Jean King (center) with Lindsay Davenport (second from left) after Team USA won the 2000 Federation Cup. (Mike Fiala / AFP via Getty Images) As a captain, King didn’t follow any particular formula. Sometimes she talked a lot, sometimes she was silent. Sometimes the U.S. had four women in the top 10, and King had to manage egos, spread out the playing time, and, as Davenport put it, “teach us that these few weeks out of the year, it was going to be ******* than just yourself. “How can you get your teammate to play better? How can we all work together to have the best end result possible?” Sometimes it would get uncomfortable. That was fine then and it’s fine now. King, who turns 81 on November 22, is not about to change the habit of a lifetime. (Top photos: Getty Images; Design: Dan Goldfarb) Source link #Billie #Jean #King #tennis #equity #top #sport #comfortable Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Not The Illuminate No-Show, Latest Helldivers 2 Controversy That Has Divided us All Needs to Stop Not The Illuminate No-Show, Latest Helldivers 2 Controversy That Has Divided us All Needs to Stop The Helldivers 2 community has always been passionate about their beloved game, sometimes to a fault. While this dedication has helped create one of gaming’s most engaged playerbases, it has also led to a pattern of speculation and expectations that can spiral out of control faster than a misplaced orbital strike. It is “under-construction” no more. | Image Credit: Arrowhead Game Studios With Arrowhead’s latest addition to the game finally going live after months of anticipation, we’re seeing a familiar pattern emerge. The community is once again divided, with some celebrating the new feature while others claim it doesn’t live up to their expectations—expectations that, interestingly enough, were largely self-created. As we dig deeper into this latest controversy, it’s worth examining how we got here, and more importantly, whether all this drama is really necessary. When Speculation Meets Reality in Helldivers 2 The Democracy Space Station (DSS) “gigastructure,” Helldivers 2‘s latest feature, has finally become operational after several Major Orders spanning two months. This massive orbital platform allows players to vote on planetary targets and fund various tactical actions using their accumulated resources. It’s an impressive addition that adds a new layer of strategy to the ongoing galactic war. However, as one frustrated player points out, the community’s reaction hasn’t been entirely positive: The post raises some valid points about how the community often builds up expectations based on speculation rather than official announcements. Arrowhead, known for their measured approach to communication, barely hinted at what the DSS would actually do. Yet somehow, parts of the community had convinced themselves it would be everything from a fully explorable space station to a complete clan system. This disconnect between expectation and reality has led to some rather heated discussions: Comment byu/Fluffy-Ingenuity2536 from discussion inhelldivers2 It’s a fair point—most Helldivers were simply doing what they always do: spreading managed democracy across the galaxy and having fun while doing it. The idea that completing the DSS-related Major Orders was some kind of herculean effort rather than business as usual shows just how far some expectations have drifted from reality. The Pattern of Self-Made Disappointment Many are disappointed that they cannot “walk” inside their new space station. | Image Credit: Arrowhead This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this pattern in the Helldivers 2 community, and it likely won’t be the last. As another player succinctly puts it: Comment byu/Fluffy-Ingenuity2536 from discussion inhelldivers2 The truth is, the DSS is exactly what Arrowhead designed it to be: a strategic tool that gives high-level players something to do with their excess resources while adding a new layer of tactical options to the ongoing war effort. It allows for planetary bombardments, provides passive stratagem support, and even affects liberation rates. These are all meaningful additions to the game’s mechanics. But when players build up elaborate theories and treat them as foregone conclusions, disappointment is almost inevitable. It’s a cycle we’ve seen before, and one that risks overshadowing the actual improvements being made to the game. We’ve seen this same pattern with the long-rumored arrival of the Illuminate. Despite leaked models and endless speculation, the third faction ******** conspicuously absent—and when they do eventually arrive, will they live up to the months of community theorizing and hype? History suggests we might be setting ourselves up for disappointment once again. Perhaps it’s time for us as a community to take a step back and appreciate what we have rather than lamenting what we imagined we might get. After all, Arrowhead has consistently shown they know what they’re doing with Helldivers 2—even if their vision doesn’t always match our speculations. What do you think about the DSS and the community’s reaction to it? Have we become too quick to complain about new features? Share your thoughts in the comments below! Source link #Illuminate #NoShow #Latest #Helldivers #Controversy #Divided #Stop Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Intel doesn’t plan to bring 3D V-Cache-like tech to consumer CPUs for now — next-gen Clearwater Forest Xeon CPUs will feature “Local Cache” in the base tile akin to AMD’s 3D V-Cache Intel doesn’t plan to bring 3D V-Cache-like tech to consumer CPUs for now — next-gen Clearwater Forest Xeon CPUs will feature “Local Cache” in the base tile akin to AMD’s 3D V-Cache Clearwater Forest is turning out to be an entirely different ****** – incorporating not only the latest goods from Intel Foundry – like Foveros Direct 3D, RibbonFET, PowerVia, and EMIB 3.5D – but also 3D cache, which Intel terms as “Local Cache,” per an interview with Intel’s Florian Maislinger conducted by der8auer and Bens Hardware. Furthermore and sadly, Team Blue also says it has no plans to introduce AMD 3D V-cache-esque capabilities in its desktop CPUs. Intel’s next-generation E-Core, only Xeon series codenamed “Clearwater Forest,” will leverage its flagship 18A node—on which Pat Gelsinger has staked the entire company’s future. Clearwater Forest is expected to use Atom Darkmont cores, succeeding the already-fast Skymont featured in Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake CPUs. From an architectural and packaging standpoint, Clearwater Forest uses three “active” Base tiles – each hosting four CPU chiplets or tiles for 12 CPU tiles connected via Hybrid Bonding (Foveros 3D Direct). On the outskirts lie two I/O chiplets – connected to the CPU tiles through EMIB 3.5D. The entire package is expected to feature almost 300 billion transistors. (Image credit: Intel via SemiWiki) Maislinger stated, “But for us, this (gaming) is not an extremely large mass market. You still have to see that we sell a lot of CPUs that are not necessarily used for gaming. We still have it (3D Stacked Cache) technologically. This means that next year there will be a CPU (Clearwater Forest) for the first time that has a cache tile, but not on desktop.” The interview confirms something we’ve missed: how the cache is structured. A quick look at Intel’s white paper clarifies that the SRAM is packaged into the Base tile, which Intel calls “Local Cache.” Until now, even with a disaggregated design, Intel has employed “Compute Tiles” featuring all cores alongside their respective caches linked via the Ring Bus. Clearwater Forest shifts the cache to the Base tile beneath the CPU chiplets, which now only hosts the CPU cores – and the entire assembly acts as a “Compute Module.” However, this is unlike AMD’s X3D approach since the CPU chiplets are mutually dependent on the Base tile. Afterward, Florian Maislinger asserted that Intel’s gaming market is relatively small, and designing an X3D competitor would be pointless if it could not be reused for servers. On a side note, AMD is also looking to introduce 3D V-Cache in Threadrippers. It shows that Intel (or rather Intel Foundry) does have the technology to combat AMD’s 3D V-Cache, Clearwater Forest, but it is not planning to make it mainstream anytime soon. Get Tom’s Hardware’s best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox. Source link #Intel #doesnt #plan #bring #VCachelike #tech #consumer #CPUs #nextgen #Clearwater #Forest #Xeon #CPUs #feature #Local #Cache #base #tile #akin #AMDs #VCache Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

A bearish healthcare stocks bet using options as lagging sector hit by RFK scrutiny concerns A bearish healthcare stocks bet using options as lagging sector hit by RFK scrutiny concerns President-elect Donald Trump selected Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Health and Human Services Department, the ******* States’ top health agency. This cabinet appointment has created jitters among various healthcare stocks. I want to find a way to hedge my healthcare exposure and also capitalize on further potential downside in the lagging healthcare sector by using options in Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLV) . XLV SPY YTD mountain Health Care Select SPDR vs SPDR S & P 500 Trust, YTD Despite the mixed year-to-date performance of the top 3 holdings in XLV (which make up nearly 30% of XLV), Eli Lily, UnitedHealthcare, and Johnson & Johnson are names I still like and own. However, I do want to hedge this exposure as uncertainty surrounding policy “shaping” persists. Investors will want better understanding on what companies are potentially in RFK’s crosshairs. The trade I want to buy a put spread to express my short-term bearish view on healthcare. In this trade I bought the higher priced (more expensive) put and sold a lower price (less expensive) strike to help offset the overall expense of this debit spread. Bought XLV $143 12/20/24 put option for $2.00 Sold XLV $136 12/20/24 put option for $0.50 This spread will cost an investor $1.50 per one lot or $150 XLV was trading roughly $143 when this spread was bought DISCLOSURES: (Long LLY, UNH, JNJ , long this put spread in XLV.) All opinions expressed by the CNBC Pro contributors are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC, NBC UNIVERSAL, their parent company or affiliates, and may have been previously disseminated by them on television, radio, internet or another medium. THE ABOVE CONTENT IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY . THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND DOES NOT CONSITUTE FINANCIAL, INVESTMENT, TAX OR LEGAL ADVICE OR A RECOMMENDATION TO BUY ANY SECURITY OR OTHER FINANCIAL ASSET. THE CONTENT IS GENERAL IN NATURE AND DOES NOT REFLECT ANY INDIVIDUAL’S UNIQUE PERSONAL CIRCUMSTANCES. THE ABOVE CONTENT MIGHT NOT BE SUITABLE FOR YOUR PARTICULAR CIRCUMSTANCES. BEFORE MAKING ANY FINANCIAL DECISIONS, YOU SHOULD STRONGLY CONSIDER SEEKING ADVICE FROM YOUR OWN FINANCIAL OR INVESTMENT ADVISOR. Click here for the full disclaimer. Source link #bearish #healthcare #stocks #bet #options #lagging #sector #hit #RFK #scrutiny #concerns Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

What to know about boxing’s controversial ****** between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul What to know about boxing’s controversial ****** between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul Squid Game, Stranger Things and Bridgerton were all Netflix originals — next up for the streaming giant is Mike Tyson versus Jake Paul in the ring. Netflix’s first live boxing event is expected to attract millions of viewers later this week, despite Paul, 27, being a YouTube-sensation-turned-boxer and the fact Tyson, once the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, is 58 years old. While there is a lot of money at stake (the exact details of who is earning what have not been made public), the controversial ****** has been frowned upon by members of the boxing community, with British promoter Eddie Hearn describing it as “disrespectful” to the sport. Purists will regard the card’s co-main event as the truer form of boxing — and the better quality ******. The world’s two best female boxers, Katie Taylor (who Hearn promotes) and Amanda Serrano, meet in a rematch two-and-a-half years after their brutal first bout, with Taylor putting up her IBF, WBC and WBO super-lightweight titles on the line in what has been called the richest ****** to date in women’s boxing. Katie Taylor (left) and challenger Amanda Serrano pose after the final press conference ahead of their upcoming ****** (Ed Mulholland/Getty Images) How to watch As Netflix bids to make a breakthrough in live sport, this will be the streaming giant’s first foray into boxing. The streaming services’s live sports portfolio already includes two NFL games on Christmas Day this year as part of a three-season deal and, from 2025, WWE’s weekly show, Raw. Netflix has over 280 million subscribers in more than 190 countries who can all access the ****** at no extra cost, meaning that, unusually for big boxing events these days, this is not a pay-per-view offering. The action all takes place at the 80,000-capacity AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys, on Friday, November 15. At the time of publication, the event had yet to sell out. Starting from 8pm ET (1am Saturday, *** time), the card consists of four bouts. While there has yet been no official announcement, Tyson and Paul are expected to start their ring walks at approximately 11pm ET (4am ***). What are the rules? The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR), which regulates combat sports in the U.S. state, has sanctioned the bout so it will count on the fighters’ records as a professional match. However, their gloves will weigh four ounces more than those used by professional heavyweights (10oz), offering greater protection, and the eight scheduled rounds will last two minutes each, rather than the traditional three in men’s professional boxing. Is this just a publicity stunt? Mike Tyson, left, and Jake Paul face each other at a press conference on Wednesday (Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images) The ******, originally scheduled for July but postponed because Tyson had a stomach ulcer, has certainly attracted plenty of attention. In one corner is Tyson, widely regarded as one of the greatest heavyweights in history but also one of sport’s most controversial figures. In his boxing prime, the self-styled “baddest man on the planet”, was the undisputed world heavyweight champion from 1987 to 1990, and is still the youngest world heavyweight champion in history, winning the title at 20. Yet, his turbulent life story has a dark side. He was convicted of ***** in 1992 and sentenced to six years in prison, serving three before being released on parole. After his release, he regained the WBA and WBC titles, joining a select few heavyweights, including Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, to win those belts back. In 1997, he was disqualified during his Las Vegas rematch with Evander Holyfield — eight months earlier, he had lost his regained WBA title to his compatriot — for biting his opponent’s ear. He was fined $3million and had his Nevada boxing license revoked for a year. At Wednesday’s pre-****** news conference, Paul jokingly wore ear covers. Now approaching his sixties, Tyson is decades beyond his peak. He was beaten by Irish journeyman Kevin McBride in his last professional bout 19 years ago, while his most recent exhibition ****** in 2020 against Roy Jones Jr ended in an unofficial draw. But at the media session yesterday, Tyson repeatedly said: “I’m ready”. When asked in August why he was getting back in the ring, Tyson responded: “I don’t know, that’s the funny question. Because I can.” “Who else is he going to ****** to make this happen?” added Tyson, remarking at the crowd that had gathered for that press conference. “We’ve got a YouTuber fighting the greatest fighter that ever lived.” This is a bout which taps into different generations and demographics, given Paul’s appeal to younger audiences. But Paul, who has 20 million subscribers on YouTube, also hopes to become a respected boxer. What are their records? Tyson’s professional record is 50-6 with 44 knockouts and two no-contests, while Paul is 10-1 with seven knockouts, though most of his opponents have been former UFC fighters not boxers and also include fellow YouTuber Ali Eson Gib and Nate Robinson, an ex-NBA basketball player. His one loss came last year to fellow novice professional Tommy Fury, who is the half-brother of former world champion heavyweight Tyson Fury and previously appeared on British reality TV show Love Island. But Paul isn’t lacking in confidence and there has been plenty of trash talk over these last few months. “I’m here to make $40million (£31.1m) and knock out a legend,” he said in August. “I’m the anti-hero and people will love me soon enough once they realise what I’ve done for this sport and who I truly am…” he continued. “I’m here to make history.” What are others saying? Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn told the BBC this ****** was “dangerous, irresponsible, and disrespectful to boxing” and said he would leave the arena before the Tyson-Paul ****** starts. Accomplished boxing writer Donald McRae wrote in British newspaper The Guardian: “The idea that he (Paul) should share a ring with the most renowned boxer the world has seen since Muhammad Ali is an embarrassment.” But Tyson Fury told the YouTube channel ProBoxingFans: “Anyone who doesn’t think it’s a fantastic event is jealous.” He added that he “appreciated” Tyson for boxing on at his age and Paul for “bringing so many eyeballs to boxing”. At least there is Taylor-Serrano… Taylor and Serrano trade punches in April 2022 (Sarah Stier/Getty Images) Headlining a sell-out at Madison Square Garden in New York, Taylor retained her world lightweight titles against Serrano in a 2022 ****** considered one of the greatest female bouts ever. Taylor, 38 and from the Republic of Ireland, then lost to England’s light-welterweight champ Chantelle Cameron before winning a rematch this time last year. Serrano, a 36-year-old Puerto Rican, is the unified champion at featherweight (so is stepping up two divisions for this ****** at light-welter, where the weight limit is 14lb higher) and has won five contests at that level since the 2022 loss to Taylor, most recently beating Stevie Morgan with a second-round stoppage. She has held world titles across nine weight classes — a record for a female boxer. “Legacy is very important,” said Serrano at the Wednesday press conference. “But my goal is to motivate and inspire these young ******, the new generation in this sport, that you can do anything you put your mind to. If you believe in yourself, have a great team, you can go far. “When I say how much I make, it’s not bragging, it’s to show these women we can make it, we’re capable of making it, we’re capable of breaking records. Just strive for excellence and you will achieve it.” (Top photo: Timothy A. Clary/ AFP via Getty Images) Source link #boxings #controversial #****** #Mike #Tyson #Jake #Paul Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Super Micro faces deadline to keep Nasdaq listing after 85% plunge Super Micro faces deadline to keep Nasdaq listing after 85% plunge Charles Liang, chief executive officer of Super Micro Computer Inc., during the Computex conference in Taipei, Taiwan, on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. The trade show runs through June 7. Annabelle Chih | Bloomberg | Getty Images Super Micro Computer could be headed down a path to getting kicked off the Nasdaq as soon as Monday. That’s the potential fate for the server company if it fails to file a viable plan for becoming compliant with Nasdaq regulations. Super Micro is late in filing its 2024 year-end report with the SEC, and has yet to replace its accounting firm. Many investors were expecting clarity from Super Micro, when the company reported preliminary quarterly results last week. But they didn’t get it. The primary component of that plan is how and when Super Micro will file its 2024 year-end report with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and why it was late. That report is something many expected would be filed alongside the company’s June fourth-quarter earnings but was not. The Nasdaq delisting process represents a crossroads for Super Micro, which has been one of the primary beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence ***** due to its longstanding relationship with Nvidia and surging demand for the chipmaker’s graphics processing units. The one-time AI darling is reeling after a stretch of bad news. After Super Micro ******* to file its annual report over the summer, activist short seller Hindenburg Research targeted the company in August, alleging accounting ****** and export control issues. The company’s auditor, Ernst & Young, stepped down in October, and Super Micro said last week that it was still trying to find a new one. The stock is getting hammered. After the shares soared more than 14-fold from the end of 2022 to their peak in March of this year, they’ve since plummeted by 85%. Super Micro’s stock is now equal to where it was trading in May 2022, after falling another 11% on Thursday. Getting delisted from the Nasdaq could be next if Super Micro doesn’t file a compliance plan by the Monday deadline or if the exchange rejects the company’s submission. Super Micro could also get an extension from the Nasdaq, giving it months to come into compliance. The company said Thursday that it would provide a plan to the Nasdaq in time. A spokesperson told CNBC the company “intends to take all necessary steps to achieve compliance with the Nasdaq continued listing requirements as soon as possible.” While the delisting issue mainly affects the stock, it could also hurt Super Micro’s reputation and standing with its customers, who may prefer to simply avoid the drama and buy AI servers from rivals such as Dell or HPE. “Given that Super Micro’s accounting concerns have become more acute since Super Micro’s quarter ended, its weakness could ultimately benefit Dell more in the coming quarter,” Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi wrote in a note this week. A representative for the Nasdaq said the exchange doesn’t comment on the delisting process for individual companies, but the rules suggest the process could take about a year before a final decision. A plan of compliance The Nasdaq warned Super Micro on Sept. 17 that it was at risk of being delisted. That gave the company 60 days to submit a plan of compliance to the exchange, and because the deadline falls on a Sunday, the effective date for the submission is Monday. If Super Micro’s plan is acceptable to Nasdaq staff, the company is eligible for an extension of up to 180 days to file its year-end report. The Nasdaq wants to see if Super Micro’s board of directors has investigated the company’s accounting problem, what the exact reason for the late filing was and a timeline of actions taken by the board. The Nasdaq says it looks at several factors when evaluating a plan of compliance, including the reasons for the late filing, upcoming corporate events, the overall financial status of the company and the likelihood of a company filing an audited report within 180 days. The review can also look at information provided by outside auditors, the SEC or other regulators. Last week, Super Micro said it was doing everything it could to remain listed on the Nasdaq, and said a special committee of its board had investigated and found no wrongdoing. Super Micro CEO Charles Liang said the company would receive the board committee’s report as soon as last week. A company spokesperson didn’t respond when asked by CNBC if that report had been received. If the Nasdaq rejects Super Micro’s compliance plan, the company can request a hearing from the exchange’s Hearings Panel to review the decision. Super Micro won’t be immediately kicked off the exchange – the hearing panel request starts a 15-day stay for delisting, and the panel can decide to extend the deadline for up to 180 days. If the panel rejects that request or if Super Micro gets an extension and fails to file the updated financials, the company can still appeal the decision to another Nasdaq body called the Listing Council, which can grant an exception. Ultimately, the Nasdaq says the extensions have a limit: 360 days from when the company’s first late filing was due. A poor track record There’s one factor at play that could hurt Super Micro’s chances of an extension. The exchange considers whether the company has any history of being out of compliance with SEC regulations. Between 2015 and 2017, Super Micro misstated financials and published key filings late, according to the SEC. It was delisted from the Nasdaq in 2017 and was relisted two years later. Super Micro “might have a more difficult time obtaining extensions as the Nasdaq’s literature indicates it will in part ‘consider the company’s specific circumstances, including the company’s past compliance history’ when determining whether an extension is warranted,” Wedbush analyst Matt Bryson wrote in a note earlier this month. He has a neutral rating on the stock. History also reveals just how long the delisting process can take. Charles Liang, chief executive officer of Super Micro Computer Inc., right, and Jensen Huang, co-founder and chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp., during the Computex conference in Taipei, Taiwan, on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. Annabelle Chih | Bloomberg | Getty Images Super Micro missed an annual report filing deadline in June 2017, got an extension to December and finally got a hearing in May 2018, which gave it another extension to August of that year. It was only when it missed that deadline that the stock was delisted. In the short term, the ******* worry for Super Micro is whether customers and suppliers start to bail. Aside from the compliance problems, Super Micro is a fast-growing company making one of the most in-demand products in the technology industry. Sales more than doubled last year to nearly $15 billion, according to unaudited financial reports, and the company has ample cash on its balance sheet, analysts say. Wall Street is expecting even more growth to about $25 billion in sales in its fiscal 2025, according to FactSet. Super Micro said last week that the filing delay has “had a bit of an impact to orders.” In its unaudited September quarter results reported last week, the company showed growth that was slower than Wall Street expected. It also provided light guidance. The company said one reason for its weak results was that it hadn’t yet obtained enough supply of Nvidia’s next-generation chip, called Blackwell, raising questions about Super Micro’s relationship with its most important supplier. “We don’t believe that Super Micro’s issues are a big deal for Nvidia, although it could move some sales around in the near term from one quarter to the next as customers direct orders toward Dell and others,” wrote Melius Research analyst Ben Reitzes in a note this week. Super Micro’s head of corporate development, Michael Staiger, told investors on a call last week that “we’ve spoken to Nvidia and they’ve confirmed they’ve made no changes to allocations. We maintain a strong relationship with them.” Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO Source link #Super #Micro #faces #deadline #Nasdaq #listing #plunge Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Palantir: Consider 3 Moves for Capitalizing on Market Momentum Palantir: Consider 3 Moves for Capitalizing on Market Momentum As soon as trading started on Tuesday, Palantir Technologies Inc (NYSE:) stock price shot up, gaining nearly 20 percent within half a day. The excitement around PLTR was already sparked on Monday evening when CEO Alex Karp not only presented impressive quarterly figures but also made his usual bold statements about the company’s apparent bright future. Palantir raised its profit expectations for the current fiscal year yet again – not a surprising move given the company’s double-digit percentage growth in revenue and net income in just the third quarter. After being added to the in late September, Palantir also has excellent news for its shareholders regarding the coming months. “Palantir is for Winners!” “We absolutely eviscerated this quarter,” Alex Karp proudly stated on Monday evening in the company’s report on the latest business results. He dismissed criticism of Palantir’s business model and surveillance technology, which is used by entities like the ******** and Ukrainian military, leaving no doubt about his staunch US patriotism. Earlier in October, the tech tycoon declared to the media that he had “no problem if our enemies ****,” referring to the ******* States’ geopolitical adversaries. Karp also expressed strong ****** in ********* innovation. According to him, Palantir owes its exceptional quarterly results to a U.S.-driven AI revolution which is now fully underway. Karp’s praises for the ******* States are unsurprising and quite savvy from a business perspective. The US government ******** Palantir’s most important client: out of $726 million in revenue, $320 million came from federal contracts, an increase of 40 percent from the previous year. Karp’s enthusiasm for the leading role of North America in Artificial Intelligence seems sincere, as he believes the US lead will only widen: “The world will be divided between AI haves and have-nots. At Palantir, we plan to power the winners”. A Strong Quarter for Palantir – And Grand Plans Ahead What sparked such enthusiasm among Palantir’s investors, leading to a brief buying frenzy around PLTR on Tuesday? Unlike its peers, Microsoft (NASDAQ:) and Meta (NASDAQ:), whose stock prices fell despite strong earnings, Palantir not only posted excellent quarterly results on Monday but also offered optimistic forecasts for the near future. Between July and September, Palantir generated $726 million in revenue, a 30 percent increase compared to the third quarter of the previous year. The latest forecast for the fourth quarter projects revenues between $767 and $771 million. Previously, analysts expected around $741 million for the winter months. Palantir exceeded expectations not only with its forecast for Q4 but also with the confirmed figures for Q3. Wall Street had expected $0.09 earnings per share, while Palantir delivered $0.10 – a 43 percent increase from the prior year’s quarter. Net income rose by 56 percent to $242 million, surpassing analyst estimates of approximately $222 million. Despite rising income in both the public and private sectors, Palantir faces a minor setback as these two pillars drift further apart. Government business, historically Palantir’s strong segment, grew by a third to $408 million, while private sector revenue, up 27 percent to $317 million, lags slightly. A significant factor for this may be Palantir’s recent seven percent decline in international commercial revenue due to sluggish sales in Europe. “Huge Demand for AI”: Inclusion in the S&P 500 Just the Beginning? After reporting its first adjusted profit in the spring, Palantir now meets the criteria for inclusion in the S&P 500, with its listing finalized on September 23. The software company attributes this success primarily to a strong performance in the U.S. market, which Alex Karp openly admires: “It is the speed with which institutions in the ******* States, in particular, have adopted our platforms and artificial intelligence capabilities more broadly that has been, and we believe will continue to be, the driver of our growth,” he wrote in a letter to investors. And indeed, Palantir’s growth engine seems to be humming strongly. For the current year, the company projects an adjusted operating income of about $1.05 billion, while analysts had previously expected around $980 million. Source link #Palantir #Moves #Capitalizing #Market #Momentum Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Javier Milei visits Trump, Elon Musk as DOGE takes shape Javier Milei visits Trump, Elon Musk as DOGE takes shape President-elect Donald Trump and Argentina’s President Javier Milei at Mar-a-Lago on November 14, 2024 Courtesy presidential office of Argentina Self-described anarcho-capitalist President Javier Milei of Argentina became the first foreign leader to visit President-elect Donald Trump since he won a second term, arriving in Florida on Thursday to attend a gala dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, where Milei was a VIP speaker. “The world is a much better place, and the winds of freedom are blowing much stronger,” now that Trump had been elected, said Milei. He called Trump’s Nov. 5 victory, “The greatest political comeback in all of history, defying the political establishment even at the risk of his own life.” Milei also name-checked another attendee in the gala crowd: Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. “I would like to thank the great Elon Musk for the wonderful job he has been doing to save humanity,” Milei said through an interpreter. Milei’s presence in Florida on Thursday, and his warm words for Trump and Musk, offer a glimpse of what is an evolving, and important, dynamic between the two ********* billionaires and a leader who has promised to save Argentina’s long-struggling economy through “shock therapy” — deep spending cuts and slashing regulations. Musk and Milei are already big fans of each other. They’ve met several times, and Milei has been to the Tesla factory and posted photos of the two together. A photo Milei posted in September shows Musk sporting a “dark MAGA” hat, Trump’s campaign logo written in ****** on ******. Photos from the Thursday gala posted on social media showed Musk, Milei and Trump together, all smiles. Musk has spent the last week at Mar-a-Lago, acting as one of Trump’s closest advisors as the president-elect fills his Cabinet with unexpected picks — several of whom have promised to bring their own kind of shock therapy to the federal agencies they’ve been chosen to lead. Trump has also announced that Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a “Department of Government Efficiency,” that will be dedicated to drastically cutting the federal budget. The announcement fulfilled Trump’s campaign promise to give Musk a major role advising his administration on government spending. Despite the name, the DOGE will not be a federal agency, acting instead as an outside advisory panel to the White House Office of Management and Budget. Still, Musk claims he can cut $2 trillion out of the roughly $6.75 trillion U.S. budget. The only place where cuts on this scale have been implemented in recent years is Argentina, under Milei. “All government spending, it either becomes inflation or direct taxation. The Department of Government Efficiency is going to fix that,” Musk said at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally last month. To understand the origins of Musk’s notion of reducing the federal budget by a third, consider what Milei has accomplished. Since taking office last December, Milei has cut Argentina’s federal spending by 32%, according to the Center for Argentine Political Economy, or CEPA. In a country where annual inflation rates have topped 300% and destabilized the nation, this October, inflation in Argentina hit its lowest level since 2017: 2.7% Read more CNBC politics coverage Much of Milei’s agenda comes down to eliminating federal spending. And according to Milei, Musk has turned to Argentina’s leadership to find out how. “The U.S. has noticed and is following our example,” Milei said at a Meta Day Argentina conference Tuesday in Buenos Aires. “Musk is speaking to [Minister of Deregulation] Federico Sturzenegger about how to deregulate the U.S. economy.” In Argentina, Milei reduced the number of ministries by 13, leaving only nine. More than 30,000 public sector workers were fired. He halted all infrastructure projects. The drastic cuts have had equally drastic consequences, throwing Argentina’s economy into a deep recession. Argentina’s GDP fell by more than 5% in the first quarter of 2024. However, the World Bank estimates that the worst is over, and that by the end of the year, the overall contraction will be roughly 3.5%. The bank also predicts that Argentina’s GDP will grow 5% in 2025. To be sure, cuts of this magnitude would likely be much ******* to ******** in America than they were in Argentina. To start, Argentina’s national budget is much smaller than the U.S. at approximately $101 billion, which is less than the budget of New York City. But unlike Milei, it’s not clear whether ********* voters have given Trump a mandate to cut spending like Argentine voters gave their president. Reducing the federal budget was Milei’s No. 1 campaign promise; he frequently carried a chainsaw around with him on the campaign trail as a symbol of his determination to eliminate bloated government spending. Milei won his election last year by 10 points, suggesting that a significant majority of voters were on board with his plan. Trump, meanwhile, campaigned on securing the border and improving the economy, but mostly through tax cuts and tariffs. Fiscal restraint did not figure prominently into Trump’s campaign platform. This reality has not gone unnoticed by the markets. Since Trump’s election, there’s been a notable rise in long-term U.S. interest rates, suggesting the possible return of the so-called bond vigilantes. Coined by Ed Yardeni of Yardeni Research back in 1983, the phrase “bond vigilantes” refers to the notion that if fiscal and monetary authorities won’t control their spending, the bond market will, by imposing much higher borrowing costs. Correction: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Sylvester Stallone’s name. Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO Source link #Javier #Milei #visits #Trump #Elon #Musk #DOGE #takes #shape Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

The 12 NFL teams that could have new starting quarterbacks in 2025 The 12 NFL teams that could have new starting quarterbacks in 2025 As the 2024 season enters the stretch run, some teams will confront the reality that they might not have a solution at the sport’s most important position: quarterback. It’s not unusual for a handful of teams to make a change behind center during the offseason, but what’s a little different about this upcoming offseason is that the options are not great. There are few viable options set to hit free agency in March, and there is no sure thing in the 2025 draft class. With that in mind, The Athletic’s beat writers for 12 teams potentially contemplating a QB change weighed in on why it might — or might not — happen, and who could be taking the first snaps of the 2025 regular season. Current starting quarterback: Kirk Cousins Potential 2025 starting quarterback: Kirk Cousins Cousins has been everything Atlanta had hoped for when it signed him to a four-year deal worth up to $180 million in the offseason. He’s ninth in EPA per dropback, and the Falcons are top-10 in the league in both EPA (ninth) and offensive DVOA (eighth). The only reason there’s any question about next year’s starter is because Atlanta selected Michael Penix Jr. with the No. 8 pick in the 2024 draft, calling their long-term commitment to Cousins into question — under these circumstances, quarterback is going to be an offseason topic every year in Atlanta. This is not the time to make a change, though. It makes no sense on the field or for the finances, because cutting Cousins after this year would result in a $65 million *****-money hit. — Josh Kendall Current starting quarterback: Bryce Young Potential 2025 starting quarterback: Bryce Young? Andy Dalton? Someone with ties to Dave Canales (i.e. Russell Wilson, Geno Smith)? Considering the Panthers gave up the farm for the No. 1 pick in 2023, you’d think they’d want Young to have every opportunity to prove he can be a franchise QB. But Dave Canales wasn’t in Charlotte when the Panthers drafted Young, and there are signs he’s not sold on him. Canales has already benched Young once and came back to him only after Dalton sprained his thumb in a fender bender. When Young led back-to-back wins over New Orleans and the Giants — matching his win total from his rookie season — Canales declined to immediately name him the starter for the following game. So it wouldn’t be surprising if Dalton is behind center again, with Canales and the other decision-makers gauging whether the 37-year-old could be a bridge in 2025. Canales also has ties to Smith and Wilson if either becomes available. The Panthers could draft Cam Ward, who’s starring for GM Dan Morgan’s alma mater, Miami, and bring in someone like Justin Fields as a bridge. — Joseph Person GO DEEPER NFL Draft 2025 Big Board: Travis Hunter takes No. 1 spot, 4 QBs in updated top 50 Current starting quarterback: Deshaun Watson, with Jameis Winston currently filling in Potential 2025 starting quarterback: Geno Smith? There are as many as 15 candidates who could start for the Browns next season. It won’t be Watson, but that’s only part of the story. Watson is under contract for two more seasons with salary-cap hits of $72.9 million each year that are fully guaranteed. There’s ***** money beyond that, too, that could only be erased if the Browns cut Watson and accelerate the 2025 and ’26 cap hits. Seattle would save $25 million by cutting Smith in early 2025, so maybe the Browns take on Smith as a bridge quarterback and potential lottery ticket. Winston doesn’t have a contract for next year, and second-year backup Dorian Thompson-Robinson is just a backup. If the Browns can’t draft a blue-chip prospect, look for a veteran bridge quarterback to lead the room. Cleveland is likely shopping in the Smith / Daniel Jones / Winston / Drew Lock aisle. — Zac Jackson Current starting quarterback: Anthony Richardson Potential 2025 starting quarterback: Anthony Richardson The Colts aren’t quitting on Richardson. After benching the 22-year-old six starts into this season and turning to 39-year-old Joe Flacco, Indianapolis has once again restored Richardson as their QB1. Colts head coach Shane Steichen said Richardson used his two-week benching to become a better pro and will start the rest of the season. Richardson’s development path hasn’t followed the trajectory the Colts were hoping for through his first 10 starts, but remember, he’s still very young. Steichen said this week that the Colts believe Richardson is “going to be our franchise quarterback.” And even if Steichen and the front office wanted to pivot this upcoming offseason, consider this: The No. 1 QB on Dane Brugler’s latest Big Board is Miami’s Cam Ward, who is three days younger than Richardson. — James Boyd GO DEEPER QB Betrayal Index: Lamar Jackson acing his toughest test; Justin Herbert finally gets a break Current starting quarterback: Gardner Minshew II Potential 2025 starting quarterback: Shedeur Sanders The Raiders signed Minshew this offseason to compete with incumbent starter Aidan O’Connell. While Minshew won the job after a training-camp battle, the results have been disastrous. He’s made seven starts and has been benched in three of them — twice for O’Connell and once for Desmond Ridder. The Raiders were prepared to go back to O’Connell for good in Week 7, but he suffered a broken thumb that has him on injured reserve. It’s highly unlikely that any of Minshew, O’Connell and Ridder emerge as the long-term answer. The Raiders need to find their quarterback of the future next offseason, and the best way to do that is through the draft. — Tashan Reed Current starting quarterback: Matthew Stafford Potential 2025 starting quarterback: Matthew Stafford (if not, it’s really anyone’s guess) Before Rams fans come after me for the suggestion — Stafford did lead the team to a Super Bowl and a better-than-expected 2023 campaign and when he’s on, he’s on — it bears reminding that he will be 37 in February and essentially restructured his contract this summer to reflect a one-year deal with the opportunity to renegotiate after this season. The big question is, will either he or the Rams want to do that? Stafford seems to be aging in reverse, so it’s fair to think he’d still want to play football. But in any financial commitment moving forward — to any veteran player currently on their roster — the Rams also will have one eye fixed on upcoming contracts for homegrown ascending stars in the coming years. Puka Nacua, Steve Avila, Kobie Turner and Byron Young are all potential candidates for early contract extensions (after the 2025 season). Could the Rams operate year-to-year with Stafford understanding the potential of a healthy roster with him at quarterback, and think cheaper after 2025? Possibly. It will be an interesting spring. — Jourdan Rodrigue GO DEEPER NFL head coach candidates 2025: Bill Belichick, Mike Vrabel, Deion Sanders top star-studded list Current starting quarterback: Sam Darnold Potential 2025 starting quarterback: J.J. McCarthy The Vikings signed Darnold to a one-year, $10 million contract for a reason — they viewed him as a quarterback with upside, capable of bridging the transition from Cousins to the rookie McCarthy. McCarthy’s torn meniscus provided Darnold with a full season to prove his worth as a starter. Nine games in, the results are about what you’d expect. Darnold’s arm talent and athleticism have led to highs, but his turnover tendency has brought lows, too. The Vikings would not be 7-2 without him, but their ceiling might be higher with a quicker processor and better decision-maker. Another team’s willingness to take a flier on Darnold in 2025 as a starter, plus the Vikings’ ******* to see McCarthy in action, makes a change here probable. — Alec Lewis Current starting quarterback: Daniel Jones Potential 2025 starting quarterback: Cam Ward It’s over for Jones in New York. The Giants will bench him soon and then cut ties with him at the end of the season. The Giants tried to draft his replacement this past offseason but couldn’t move up and decided against selecting the likes of Michael Penix Jr., J.J. McCarthy or Bo Nix, all of whom were still on the board when New York picked wide receiver Malik Nabers at No. 6. Right or wrong, the Giants now have no choice but to draft a quarterback, and at the moment, they are in prime position to do it. At 2-8, New York has a great chance of landing a top-three pick in the 2025 draft. —Dan Duggan GO DEEPER 2025 NFL Draft: Projection model ranks 5 teams most likely to pick No. 1 Current starting quarterback: Aaron Rodgers Potential 2025 starting quarterback: Aaron Rodgers Rodgers returning is far from a lock — I’m not even sure I would put it at 50 percent at the moment. But there are a few unknown factors at play here: Who the Jets’ GM will be, who the head coach will be, and whether owner Woody Johnson takes a role in the Trump administration again, leaving his brother Christopher Johnson to run the show. About that last part, If Christopher Johnson is running things it increases the odds that Rodgers would be willing to return since they are very close. Though that will also depend on what the likely new GM wants to do; running it back with a 41–year-old in decline, and the circus that comes with Rodgers, isn’t very appealing for many. Earlier this week Rodgers alluded to wanting to play in 2025, though it was more of a tepid statement than a full-on guarantee. If not Rodgers, my prediction would be Tyrod Taylor or a 2025 rookie. — Zack Rosenblatt Current starting quarterback: Russell Wilson Potential 2025 starting quarterback: Russell Wilson The Steelers created one of the most unique quarterback rooms in the league last offseason when they signed Wilson, traded Kenny Pickett and acquired Justin Fields. What comes next may be even more significant. Getting Wilson for just $1.2 million and Fields for only a conditional sixth-round pick made both additions low-risk, low-cost investments. However, both quarterbacks will be free agents at season’s end. The Steelers will need to decide, long-term, which quarterback they believe in and how far they’re willing to go to make him the future of the franchise. While Wilson is playing on the veteran minimum in Pittsburgh, he’s still making $39 million this year due to contract guarantees from the Denver Broncos. Wilson, who turns 36 later this month, has also said he wants to play another five or six seasons. Will he be willing to accept far less than the $40 million he made in 2024? Will he take a short-term deal or look for one last big contract? And ultimately, what will his market be? From the team’s perspective, it is possible the Steelers saw enough from Fields during his 4-2 start to the season to think they can be the team to unlock the potential of the 2021 first-round pick, who will be 26 next season. — Mike DeFabo Current starting quarterback: Geno Smith Potential 2025 starting quarterback: Geno Smith Smith’s agent tried to engage the Seahawks in extension talks this offseason, with no success. Smith’s deal expires after 2025 and his cap hit in what will be his age-35 season is scheduled to be $38.5 million. Quarterback play is low on the list of reasons the Seahawks are not projected to make the playoffs, but if they fall short, general manager John Schneider and coach Mike Macdonald will put all options on the table, including a signal caller change. But the reason Smith projects as the 2025 starter is due to an underwhelming free agent class, Sam Howell (Smith’s current backup) not being very good, and the Seahawks likely falling outside the top 10 of the draft’s first round (our model predicts a 7-10 record). It’s unclear whether Seattle would extend Smith in the offseason, but as this exercise illustrates, there will likely be a lot of QB-needy teams ahead of Seattle in the draft, which limits the team’s options. — Michael-Shawn Dugar Scoop City Newsletter Free, daily NFL updates direct to your inbox. Free, daily NFL updates direct to your inbox. Sign Up Current starting quarterback: Will Levis Potential 2025 starting quarterback: Cam Ward Levis shouldn’t be ruled out as some kind of factor in 2025, perhaps as part of a competition with a rookie, but this season of discovery hasn’t gone well for him. Levis doesn’t protect the ball (or himself) well enough, he sees too many things late and misses too many that he does see on time. Barring a late-season surge — which Levis will get every opportunity to manufacture — the Titans need to pivot. Does GM Ran Carthon feel urgency to land a veteran after taking Levis in 2023, and after heavy losing in his first two seasons on the job? The Titans have to get it right, they’re going to pick very high and the veteran pool is underwhelming. The guess here is a dip into a QB draft class that, as The Athletic analyst Dane Brugler has noted, is less than stellar. — Joe Rexrode (Top photo: Illustration by Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic, photos by Doug Murray / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images, Chris Unger / Getty Images, Mitchell Leff / Getty Images) Source link #NFL #teams #starting #quarterbacks Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Amazon drops the price of the Ninja Creami ice cream maker ahead of ****** Friday Amazon drops the price of the Ninja Creami ice cream maker ahead of ****** Friday ****** Friday deals offer opportunities to pick up holiday gifts for less but also treat-yourself items you’ve been eyeing. One of our favorite gadgets that falls under that category is the Ninja Creami, a favorite kitchen gadget of ours that scored a 90 in our review. Ninja ****** Friday deals seem to already be in full swing because you can grab the ice cream maker for $50 off right now, for a final price of $180. That’s not too far away from its record low price, making it a solid deal. While it isn’t quite the season for ice cream in North America, there’s never truly a bad time to enjoy it. Ninja Our favorite ice cream maker is back on ***** for ****** Friday. The Ninia Creami is as easy to use as a food processor, and it can be yours for $180. $180 at Amazon This is a more compact ice cream machine than many other household models. The Ninja Creami is very easy to use as well, since it operates in a similar way to a food processor. You’ll need to make a liquid ice cream base and then freeze it, ideally for 24 hours. You can then use the machine to blend in flavors. Cleaning up is a cinch if you have a dishwasher, since everything aside from the machine component is safe to place alongside your dishes on the racks. On the downside, it is a rather noisy machine. We estimate that the volume is somewhere between that of a food processor and a countertop blender running at full speed. It’s fairly tall too at 16 inches, so you’ll want to make sure you have enough space for the Ninja Creami before buying it. Otherwise, we have no major complaints, other than the design not being overly attractive. As such, we gave it a score of 90 in our review. The Ninja Creami has seven one-touch programs, but if you’d prefer an 11-in-1 deluxe model, you’re in luck: that’s on ***** too. At $220, it’s $30 off. It supports 24 oz tubs that hold 50 percent more ice cream than those in the original Ninja Creami. The Deluxe model also has a dual processing feature. This allows you to add two different mix-in flavors to the same base. So you can, for instance, add sprinkles to the top part and cookies to the bottom. Check out all of the latest ****** Friday and Cyber Monday deals here. Source link #Amazon #drops #price #Ninja #Creami #ice #cream #maker #ahead #****** #Friday Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

‘A fork in the road’: laundry-sorting ****** spurs AI hopes and fears at Europe’s biggest tech event | Artificial intelligence (AI) ‘A fork in the road’: laundry-sorting ****** spurs AI hopes and fears at Europe’s biggest tech event | Artificial intelligence (AI) This year’s Web Summit, in Lisbon, was all about artificial intelligence – and a ****** sorting laundry. Digit, a humanoid built by the US firm Agility Robotics, demonstrated how far AI has come in a few years by responding to voice commands – filtered through Google’s Gemini AI model – to sift through a pile of ********* T-shirts and place them in a basket. It wasn’t a seamless demonstration but the enthusiastic response, nearly two years on from the launch of ChatGPT, reflected the excitement about all things AI that pervaded Europe’s biggest annual tech conference. Talk of a bust in the AI ***** could not be heard over the shouts of encouragement for Digit as it pondered different shades of garment. Nonetheless, the voices of caution were there, discussing familiar themes such as safety, jobs and the climate, as AI comes to influence a huge range of industries. Here are some of the event’s discussion points about AI. Job security A key debate was: if millions of jobs are going to be displaced by AI, will they be replaced by new roles for humans as the technology creates fresh opportunities? The possibility of entry-level jobs becoming casualties of displacement was raised a lot. Speakers talked about these jobs being affected in professional industries such as law, finance and even tech because AI tools, particularly AI “agents” that can carry out tasks autonomously, will be able to do relatively simple work, such as initial checking of contracts or handling queries from potential clients. Sarah Franklin, the chief executive of Lattice, a US tech firm that provides a platform for company HR departments, said the shape of workforces would change as a result. Entry-level jobs formed the base of a workforce that narrowed as people filtered upwards into management and executive roles, she said. “AI can make this more of a diamond shape, where the entry levels are ******* to get.” She added: “The pace of innovation is outpacing education. That is a dangerous future if we don’t rapidly invest in ensuring that everyone is proficient with AI, especially entry-level workers.” And then there is the question of replacing those eliminated jobs. Digit is being used in warehouses by GXO, a US logistics company, to lift boxes and place them on conveyor belts. According to the chief executive of Agility Robotics, Peggy Johnson, a new role could be created managing teams of Digits doing physical work. “Employees who were previously doing this physical work, appreciate the fact that they can hand that off to Digit,” she said. “Then it allows them to do a number of other things, one of which is to be a ****** manager.” The climate AI’s impact on the climate, most notably through the energy-hungry datacentres used to train and operate AI models, prompted warnings that competition for energy supply could pit tech firms against communities. “I think there are real concerns to be raised about the implications for the climate and the implications for local communities that are also dependent on these energy infrastructures,” said Sarah Myers West of the AI Now Institute, which produces AI policy research. She added that coal plants were being kept open to meet energy demand for datacentres in the US, while renewable energy resources could be diverted to AI firms and related infrastructure rather than for broader public use. Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, acknowledged the issue in a keynote speech. “We can’t afford to just build datacentres and consume electricity without regard for what it means for a local community or for a country or for planet Earth,” he said. Microsoft admitted this year that energy use related to its datacentres was endangering its “moonshot” target of being carbon negative by 2030. Startups were a feature of the summit and climate-oriented investors regard the AI ***** as a source of demand. Shawn Xu, a partner at the US-based Lowercarbon Capital, a venture capital fund that invests in companies combating the climate crisis, said datacentres were “an opportunity to expand clean energy”. Lowercarbon’s investments include the *** business InRange, which connects rooftop solar sites to datacentres. Edith Yeung, a general partner at the US VC firm Race Capital, said energy would be a focus of investment next year. “For 2025, AI strategy is energy strategy. It is a very critical pillar for AI infrastructure.” skip past newsletter promotion A weekly ***** in to how technology is shaping our lives Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion Safety For all the AI boosterism, the event gave prominence to Prof Max Tegmark, a leading voice in the warnings about unrestrained development of the technology. Tegmark, an AI specialist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told a sizeable crowd that the industry was at a “fork in the road” where it could develop artificial general intelligence – AI systems that match or exceed human intelligence – that resulted in a “reasonable chance we’ll all be ***** in 10 years” or living in a “dystopia” where humans are totally disempowered. Will AI replace the creators? The Peaky Blinders creator, Steven Knight, said creative professionals would be at the “forefront” of a battle between AI and humanity. However, computers would lose because they could not create the unexpected, he said. The issue was highlighted last month when it emerged the *** broadcaster ITV was advertising for a £95,000-a-year job involving the use of AI to “shape the future of content creation”. Knight described AI’s approach to creative work as “taking previous experience, precedent, and presenting it in a different way”, and said the human approach to art souunded similar, but was “more than that”. “When a creative human being creates something new, the reason it works is because it’s not expected.” Knight was speaking alongside Marco Bassetti, the chief executive of the TV production group Banijay, which has launched a creative fund for ideas using AI. “There are a lot of things that AI can do in order to improve creativity. It can cut a lot of time in finding an idea,” he told the Guardian. However, he added, humans still had the edge, and compared AI to a tool that helps make the finished product. “If you have a brush, it doesn’t mean you are able to do a painting.” However, one experienced creative figure pointed to the emergence of AI products, such as Runway, that can generate convincing video images quickly. “I think you’re going to see an enormous negative impact on the WPPs of the world and the big [advertising] holding companies. It’s not that they haven’t understood what’s going to happen, but would your start point really be: ‘I’ve got 100,000 employees who have no experience in AI’? No, it wouldn’t be,” said David Jones, the chief executive of Brandtech Group, an advertising startup using generative AI to create marketing campaigns. Where next for the *****? There was talk of the race to ever-more-powerful AI slowing, after reports that initial tests of unreleased models have been underperforming relative to expectations. The recent breakthroughs have been more than enough to spur the launch of new companies, such as the British biotech startup Healx, which uses AI to search for cures for rare *********, and Luminance, another *** firm, that offers companies a tailored AI model to do legal work. Kanu Gulati, a partner at Khosla Ventures, a California VC firm whose investments include the ChatGPT developer OpenAI, said companies were emerging that, even if they didn’t build the models, were taking advantage of them. This was a key – and necessary – development for investors and tech firms looking for a return on their multibillion dollar investments in AI breakthroughs. “New business models can now get created,” Gulati said. Source link #fork #road #laundrysorting #****** #spurs #hopes #fears #Europes #biggest #tech #event #Artificial #intelligence Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Warren Buffett’s New Focus: 4 Stocks Now Form 64% of Portfolio Warren Buffett’s New Focus: 4 Stocks Now Form 64% of Portfolio Berkshire Hathaway’s (NYSE:) investment portfolio underwent significant changes in the third quarter of 2024, with Warren Buffett’s conglomerate reducing its exposure to major tech and banking stocks while reinforcing its position in traditional consumer businesses. The company’s latest 13F filing reveals a $13.6 billion decrease in total portfolio value to $266.38 billion, marking a notable shift in investment strategy amid evolving market conditions. Berkshire Portfolio Adjustments and Holdings The Omaha-based investment giant made several strategic moves during the quarter, most notably reducing its Apple (NASDAQ:) stake by 25%, selling 100 million shares of the tech giant. Despite this reduction, Apple ******** Berkshire’s largest holding, anchoring a concentrated portfolio where the top four positions – Apple, ********* Express (NYSE:), Bank of America (NYSE:), and Coca-Cola (NYSE:) – represent 64% of total investments. The company also significantly trimmed its Bank of America position by approximately 235 million shares, while maintaining steady positions in ********* Express and Coca-Cola. New additions to the portfolio included Domino’s Pizza (NYSE:) and Pool Corporation (NASDAQ:), signaling a strategic pivot toward established consumer businesses. Berkshire’s portfolio adjustments suggest a more defensive investment stance, with a noticeable shift away from technology and traditional banking exposure. The decision to maintain positions in consumer staples and consumer financial services, while reducing stakes in tech and traditional banking, indicates a careful rebalancing of risk in response to market conditions. This repositioning appears to reflect concerns about tech sector valuations and traditional banking fundamentals. Berkshire’s Value-Oriented Approach Continues The latest moves reflect Berkshire’s renewed emphasis on value investing principles, favoring companies with strong cash flows and established market positions over high-growth technology stocks. New investments in Domino’s Pizza and Pool Corporation, combined with maintained positions in consumer staples, demonstrate a preference for businesses with predictable revenue streams and robust market presence. This strategic shift suggests a more cautious outlook on market conditions and a return to Berkshire’s traditional value-oriented investment philosophy. The reduction in major tech holdings, coupled with selective exposure to financial services and increased investment in consumer businesses, also suggests a strategic repositioning for an uncertain economic environment. Berkshire’s moves could influence other institutional investors’ strategies and market sentiment, particularly regarding tech valuations and the banking sector’s outlook. ****** Neither the author, Tim Fries, nor this website, The Tokenist, provide financial advice. Please consult our website policy prior to making financial decisions. This article was originally published on The Tokenist. Check out The Tokenist’s free newsletter, Five Minute Finance, for weekly analysis of the biggest trends in finance and technology. Source link #Warren #Buffetts #Focus #Stocks #Form #Portfolio Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Super Micro faces deadline to keep Nasdaq listing after 85% plunge Super Micro faces deadline to keep Nasdaq listing after 85% plunge Charles Liang, chief executive officer of Super Micro Computer Inc., during the Computex conference in Taipei, Taiwan, on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. The trade show runs through June 7. Annabelle Chih | Bloomberg | Getty Images Super Micro Computer could be headed down a path to getting kicked off the Nasdaq as soon as Monday. That’s the potential fate for the server company if it fails to file a viable plan for becoming compliant with Nasdaq regulations. Super Micro is late in filing its 2024 year-end report with the SEC, and has yet to replace its accounting firm. Many investors were expecting clarity from Super Micro, when the company reported preliminary quarterly results last week. But they didn’t get it. The primary component of that plan is how and when Super Micro will file its 2024 year-end report with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and why it was late. That report is something many expected would be filed alongside the company’s June fourth-quarter earnings but was not. The Nasdaq delisting process represents a crossroads for Super Micro, which has been one of the primary beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence ***** due to its longstanding relationship with Nvidia and surging demand for the chipmaker’s graphics processing units. The one-time AI darling is reeling after a stretch of bad news. After Super Micro ******* to file its annual report over the summer, activist short seller Hindenburg Research targeted the company in August, alleging accounting ****** and export control issues. The company’s auditor, Ernst & Young, stepped down in October, and Super Micro said last week that it was still trying to find a new one. The stock is getting hammered. After the shares soared more than 14-fold from the end of 2022 to their peak in March of this year, they’ve since plummeted by 85%. Super Micro’s stock is now equal to where it was trading in May 2022, after falling another 11% on Thursday. Getting delisted from the Nasdaq could be next if Super Micro doesn’t file a compliance plan by the Monday deadline or if the exchange rejects the company’s submission. Super Micro could also get an extension from the Nasdaq, giving it months to come into compliance. The company said Thursday that it would provide a plan to the Nasdaq in time. A spokesperson told CNBC the company “intends to take all necessary steps to achieve compliance with the Nasdaq continued listing requirements as soon as possible.” While the delisting issue mainly affects the stock, it could also hurt Super Micro’s reputation and standing with its customers, who may prefer to simply avoid the drama and buy AI servers from rivals such as Dell or HPE. “Given that Super Micro’s accounting concerns have become more acute since Super Micro’s quarter ended, its weakness could ultimately benefit Dell more in the coming quarter,” Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi wrote in a note this week. A representative for the Nasdaq said the exchange doesn’t comment on the delisting process for individual companies, but the rules suggest the process could take about a year before a final decision. A plan of compliance The Nasdaq warned Super Micro on Sept. 17 that it was at risk of being delisted. That gave the company 60 days to submit a plan of compliance to the exchange, and because the deadline falls on a Sunday, the effective date for the submission is Monday. If Super Micro’s plan is acceptable to Nasdaq staff, the company is eligible for an extension of up to 180 days to file its year-end report. The Nasdaq wants to see if Super Micro’s board of directors has investigated the company’s accounting problem, what the exact reason for the late filing was and a timeline of actions taken by the board. The Nasdaq says it looks at several factors when evaluating a plan of compliance, including the reasons for the late filing, upcoming corporate events, the overall financial status of the company and the likelihood of a company filing an audited report within 180 days. The review can also look at information provided by outside auditors, the SEC or other regulators. Last week, Super Micro said it was doing everything it could to remain listed on the Nasdaq, and said a special committee of its board had investigated and found no wrongdoing. Super Micro CEO Charles Liang said the company would receive the board committee’s report as soon as last week. A company spokesperson didn’t respond when asked by CNBC if that report had been received. If the Nasdaq rejects Super Micro’s compliance plan, the company can request a hearing from the exchange’s Hearings Panel to review the decision. Super Micro won’t be immediately kicked off the exchange – the hearing panel request starts a 15-day stay for delisting, and the panel can decide to extend the deadline for up to 180 days. If the panel rejects that request or if Super Micro gets an extension and fails to file the updated financials, the company can still appeal the decision to another Nasdaq body called the Listing Council, which can grant an exception. Ultimately, the Nasdaq says the extensions have a limit: 360 days from when the company’s first late filing was due. A poor track record There’s one factor at play that could hurt Super Micro’s chances of an extension. The exchange considers whether the company has any history of being out of compliance with SEC regulations. Between 2015 and 2017, Super Micro misstated financials and published key filings late, according to the SEC. It was delisted from the Nasdaq in 2017 and was relisted two years later. Super Micro “might have a more difficult time obtaining extensions as the Nasdaq’s literature indicates it will in part ‘consider the company’s specific circumstances, including the company’s past compliance history’ when determining whether an extension is warranted,” Wedbush analyst Matt Bryson wrote in a note earlier this month. He has a neutral rating on the stock. History also reveals just how long the delisting process can take. Charles Liang, chief executive officer of Super Micro Computer Inc., right, and Jensen Huang, co-founder and chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp., during the Computex conference in Taipei, Taiwan, on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. Annabelle Chih | Bloomberg | Getty Images Super Micro missed an annual report filing deadline in June 2017, got an extension to December and finally got a hearing in May 2018, which gave it another extension to August of that year. It was only when it missed that deadline that the stock was delisted. In the short term, the ******* worry for Super Micro is whether customers and suppliers start to bail. Aside from the compliance problems, Super Micro is a fast-growing company making one of the most in-demand products in the technology industry. Sales more than doubled last year to nearly $15 billion, according to unaudited financial reports, and the company has ample cash on its balance sheet, analysts say. Wall Street is expecting even more growth to about $25 billion in sales in its fiscal 2025, according to FactSet. Super Micro said last week that the filing delay has “had a bit of an impact to orders.” In its unaudited September quarter results reported last week, the company showed growth that was slower than Wall Street expected. It also provided light guidance. The company said one reason for its weak results was that it hadn’t yet obtained enough supply of Nvidia’s next-generation chip, called Blackwell, raising questions about Super Micro’s relationship with its most important supplier. “We don’t believe that Super Micro’s issues are a big deal for Nvidia, although it could move some sales around in the near term from one quarter to the next as customers direct orders toward Dell and others,” wrote Melius Research analyst Ben Reitzes in a note this week. Super Micro’s head of corporate development, Michael Staiger, told investors on a call last week that “we’ve spoken to Nvidia and they’ve confirmed they’ve made no changes to allocations. We maintain a strong relationship with them.” Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO Source link #Super #Micro #faces #deadline #Nasdaq #listing #plunge Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]

Week 12’s top 10 college football games: Tennessee-Georgia showdown, Playoff implications abound Week 12’s top 10 college football games: Tennessee-Georgia showdown, Playoff implications abound One of the more fascinating subplots in the first year of the 12-team College Football Playoff is how all of these realigned and suddenly crowded conference races are factoring into that Playoff picture. Sure, Tennessee–Georgia is a massive game for the 12-team bracket, but so is LSU–Florida. And Arizona State–Kansas State. And Clemson–Pitt. And a number of other matchups up and down the schedule. So let’s rank the top 10 games of Week 12, starting with honorable mentions and counting down. Honorable Mention: UCLA at Washington (Fri.), No. 25 Tulane at Navy, Virginia at No. 8 Notre Dame, Boston College at No. 14 SMU, Nebraska at USC, Cincinnati at Iowa State, No. 18 Washington State at New Mexico (All point spreads come from BetMGM; click here for live odds. All kickoff times are Eastern and on Saturday unless otherwise noted.) 10. No. 23 Missouri (7-2) at No. 21 South Carolina (6-3), 4:15 p.m., SEC Network One of only two ranked matchups this week, though oddly this one won’t have much impact on the SEC or CFP races, despite Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz’s message following last week’s wild win over Oklahoma. Eli Drinkwitz on miraculous win over Oklahoma: “This keeps us in the Playoff hunt. “That’s right, I said it, Playoff hunt!” pic.twitter.com/CxB1WzfL6y — SEC Mike (@MichaelWBratton) November 10, 2024 The Athletic’s Playoff projection model gives both teams a less than 1 percent chance of winning the conference or reaching the CFP, but each is still battling to stay ranked, which could impact others. The Ole Miss and LSU resumes would benefit from a South Carolina victory, while Texas A&M is rooting for Mizzou. The only guaranteed winner is Alabama, which beat both of these teams. Line: South Carolina -14 9. No. 20 Clemson (7-2) at Pitt (7-2), noon, ESPN A few weeks ago this looked like it would be a showdown of ACC contenders. Then Clemson lost to Louisville and Pitt dropped two in a row, the Panthers crashing out of the CFP rankings in the process. Now both teams are fighting just to stay in the ACC picture, and neither has a Top-25 win on the resume. Clemson is tied with Miami with one conference loss, but if both teams win out, the Hurricanes would have the tiebreaker. The Tigers can boost their overall resume with a rivalry win over currently ranked South Carolina in the regular-season finale but will still need help to make the ACC title game. Pitt needs an upset over Clemson to avoid a three-game skid after a 7-0 start. Line: Clemson -11.5 8. No. 13 Boise State (8-1) at San Jose State (6-3), 7 p.m., CBS Sports Network Boise State is still on track to win the Mountain West and claim one of the five automatic Playoff bids, and running back Ashton Jeanty is on pace to finish the regular season with the second-most rushing yards in a single season, behind only Barry Sanders in 1988. Jeanty had 209 rushing yards and three touchdowns in last week’s win over Nevada, adding to his FBS-leading total of 23 rushing touchdowns. The Broncos face a San Jose State team in its first year under Ken Niumatalolo and in second in the Mountain West in yards per game allowed. San Jose State is fresh off an impressive win over Oregon State. Line: Boise State -14 7. Arizona State (7-2) at No. 16 Kansas State (7-2), 7 p.m., ESPN Kansas State is ahead of No. 17 Colorado in the CFP rankings thanks to a narrow head-to-head win in October, but the Wildcats are a game behind the Buffs in the Big 12 standings after suffering a second league loss against Houston a couple of weeks ago. Even if K-State gets the help it would need elsewhere to reach the Big 12 championship, the rest of the schedule is a challenge: Arizona State, Cincinnati and at Iowa State, all three of which enter this weekend with winning records. The Sun Devils expect to get stud running back Cam Skattebo back from injury after he missed the win over UCF. The senior is eighth in the FBS at 125.4 rushing yards per game. Line: Kansas State -7.5 6. No. 22 LSU (6-3) at Florida (4-5), 3:30 p.m., ABC If you’re wondering why this game, between two teams that got thumped last week, is this high on the list, it’s because there ******** a rather plausible roadmap by which LSU can still make the SEC Championship Game. But that would require the Tigers to win out the rest of the regular season, starting with a trip to Gainesville. Florida hopes to have freshman quarterback DJ Lagway back from injury, and LSU is in need of serious defensive soul-searching after getting diced up by mobile quarterbacks Marcel Reed and Jalen Milroe in back-to-back losses, allowing a combined 80 points and 11 rushing touchdowns to Texas A&M and Alabama. Line: LSU -4 5. No. 1 Oregon (10-0) at Wisconsin (5-4), 7:30 p.m., NBC The Ducks beat Idaho by 10 and Boise State by 3 on a last-second field goal to start the season. Since then, aside from the 1-point win over Ohio State, Oregon’s seven other victories have all been by at least 21 points — which is why it’s surprising this spread is only 13.5. The Badgers, coming off an idle week, have lost two in a row, including a 32-point loss to Iowa. Oregon has a chance to start 11-0 for only the second time in program history and first since 2010 when the Ducks reached the national championship and lost to Auburn. That was also the same season Wisconsin defeated No. 1 Ohio State. Line: Oregon -13.5 4. Kansas (3-6) at No. 6 BYU (9-0), 10:15 p.m., ESPN BYU’s dream season continued with an incredible comeback win over Utah in the Holy War rivalry last Saturday, followed by a three-spot climb up the CFP rankings Tuesday. The Cougars are one of four remaining undefeated teams in the FBS and alone atop the Big 12 standings. They meet a Kansas team that has disappointed this season but looked much improved in recent weeks. The Jayhawks, winners of two of their last three, scored 45 points in a win over then-ranked Iowa State last weekend and can continue to play spoiler with BYU and Colorado up next. Line: BYU -2.5 3. Utah (4-5) at No. 17 Colorado (7-2), noon, Fox A year after dominating headlines as a 4-8 team that finished last in the Pac-12, Colorado is a top-20 team with a Heisman Trophy favorite in two-way star Travis Hunter, as well as a clear path to win the Big 12 and reach the Playoff. The Buffs are still commanding plenty of attention (including Deion Sanders co-hosting a new talk show!), but they’ve earned it with their play. It’s created an ideal scenario thus far for the Big 12: unbeaten BYU and media darling Colorado at the top of the standings, with the potential for a conference-championship clash and possibly even room for both to reach the Playoff, if things break right. That starts with the Buffs hosting a 10 a.m. local time kickoff against a Utah team coming off that devastating and contentious rivalry loss to BYU. Line: Colorado -11.5 GO DEEPER It’s on college football’s adults to tone down rising tide of officiating call-outs 2. No. 3 Texas (8-1) at Arkansas (5-4), noon, ABC Texas is up to No. 3 in the CFP rankings largely on the strength of a one-loss record. The Longhorns have mostly passed the eye test, like last week’s blowout win over Florida, but have zero Top-25 wins, with their best victory coming on the road at Vanderbilt. Still, quarterback Quinn Ewers looked healthy and sharp against the Gators, and Texas controls its own destiny in the SEC and will reach the league championship if it wins out, starting with Saturday’s road trip against a pesky, humbled and well-rested Arkansas. The Hogs are coming off an idle week following an embarrassing home loss to Ole Miss and expect to have dynamic quarterback Taylen Green healthy. A victory for Texas won’t change the resume criticism, but that won’t matter if it keeps stacking wins. Line: Texas -12.5 1. No. 7 Tennessee (8-1) at No. 12 Georgia (7-2), 7:30 p.m., ABC This is an elimination game for Georgia, which dropped out of the Playoff field in Tuesday’s rankings and would surely be cooked with three losses. However, a win by the Dawgs — who are double-digit favorites — drags the Vols down to the quagmire of two-loss teams in SEC play, setting the table for some title-game tiebreaker nightmares. Among the eight teams entering the weekend with either one or two losses in the SEC standings, there are only two games remaining that pit those teams against one another: this one, and Texas at Texas A&M on Nov. 30. A lot could change before that, but Saturday’s result will be impactful. Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava is questionable, with ESPN’s Pete Thamel reporting that Iamaleava is in concussion protocol after leaving last week’s win against Mississippi State. Georgia quarterback Carson Beck has had his own non-injury issues, throwing 12 interceptions over his past six games. Line: Georgia -9.5 (Photo of Georgia’s Cash Jones and Ole Miss’ Jared Ivey: Justin Ford / Getty Images) Source link #Week #12s #top #college #football #games #TennesseeGeorgia #showdown #Playoff #implications #abound Pelican News View the full article at [Hidden Content]