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05 Nov 04:14

Friday roundup: No public ballot for Rays stadium, more questions about A’s Vegas move

by Neil deMause

Before we get to the week’s stadium and arena news, let’s pause to appreciate that New York’s nutso mayor Eric Adams‘ campaign staff have been revealed to be under investigation for illegally accepting donations from the government of Turkey. Which I guess sort of qualifies as stadium news given Adams’ boosterism of that NYC F.C. stadium that could cost city taxpayers $800 million in infrastructure spending and tax breaks, but mostly: Yes, Turkey. Also his chief fundraiser and campaign consultant who is at the heart of the investigation is apparently 25 years old? This is going to make a great Netflix documentary in a couple of years.

But enough about my city, how’s yours doing?

  • The St. Petersburg city council voted 5-3 yesterday to hold a public referendum on spending about $600 million on a new Tampa Bay Rays stadium — which means the referendum won’t happen, because the motion required a two-thirds supermajority. Also it would have been only advisory, anyway. Council chair Brandi Gabbard, who opposed the public ballot measure, said she was afraid it wouldn’t be possible to explain the stadium deal in the 75 words available, which is certainly a novel line of reasoning.
  • Former Miami Marlins president David Samson says there is still “a deal to be done to keep the A’s in Oakland” because Las Vegas has “several issues that are not worked out yet” like whether A’s owner John Fisher actually has the money for his share of the project. Meanwhile, former Oakland A’s VP Andy Dolich says it would be a mistake for MLB to approve the relocation of the team from a large market to what would be baseball’s smallest. Not that either of them holds clout with the current crop of MLB owners, or they would still have jobs with them, but it’s keeping hope alive in Oakland, anyway, in advance of a likely vote by owners on relocation sometime this month.
  • Here’s an article about how a special tax district for Indy Eleven‘s new $1 billion stadium wouldn’t really cost taxpayers anything because it would just be a “special tax” that will be levied on soccer fans. And here’s an article explaining that the district would actually divert existing sales and income tax revenues from a large swath of downtown toward the USL team. The city-county council is set to vote on the tax district later this month; let’s hope they’re reading all the news coverage first and not just WRTV’s.
  • The Arizona Diamondbacks just got blown out in the World Series, and former team owner Jerry Colangelo thinks this makes it an excellent time to build them a new or renovated stadium, because “there’s a good vibe.” Gotta capitalize on vibes like this!
  • The Oklahoma City Thunder arena has been “the centerpiece of OKC’s innovative self-help effort, producing energy and economic impact that academic studies cannot predict, but 30 years of OKC success prove,” according to some downtown business development dude who was given a “guest column” in the Oklahoman to make this case. He adds that tearing it down and building a newer one would “create new and currently unimaginable opportunities,” which, that’s certainly an interesting choice of adjectives there.
  • Kansas City Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt says he’s waiting to see what the Royals decide about a new stadium before deciding what to ask for in terms of a new or renovated stadium for his team. “If the Royals do decide to stay in Jackson County, that’s going to be an issue that we’ve got to resolve,” Hunt said, which is maybe a hint that he’s hoping they’ll move to the county next door so he can get all of the future sales tax proceeds? That would have been a good followup question, if the reporters covering this had asked any, oh well.

10 Oct 01:10

Burger King Botched the Curling on an Apostrophe in a TV Commercial and I Am Very Much Here to Shit on Them for Doing So

by John Gruber

John Kelly, writing for The Washington Post:

The ad was for a Whopper Jr. promotion. The conceit was that you could get two of the baby burgers for a mere $5: one for you and one for a friend. But — spoiler alert! — you’d probably want to consume the pair yourself. Or, as the text on the screen put it:

JK YOU
ATE ‘EM
BOTH

I grabbed my remote, rewound, paused and took a photo. This was the Zapruder film to me, even if the JK stood for “Just kidding,” not “John Kelly.”

This must not stand, or — to keep with the theme — it mustn’t stand.

This sort of mistake drives me nuts, and I spot such wrongly-curled apostrophes instantly. To me it’s as glaring a mistake as a misspelled word. So god bless Kelly for griping about it in a column in The Washington Post. (I’d argue that perhaps it’s correct for Burger King to use the wrong apostrophe, as a signifier of the care with which they prepare their food.)

But Kelly doesn’t mention the obvious explanation for how this happens: automatic smart quote algorithms that aren’t smart enough, in the hands of ignorant designers who don’t have an eye for typography. If you type:

'em' dashes and 'en' dashes

you want the apostrophe before em to be an opening single quote, the one shaped like a 6 in most typefaces. But if you type:

screw 'em

you want the apostrophe preceding the em to be a closing single quote, the one shaped like a 9. The various “smart quotes” algorithms you get while typing aren’t smart enough to make this contextual distinction — even very good ones — so you need to do it by hand. Here’s how to type them manually:

Mac Windows Linux
Open single quote: ‘ Option-] Alt-0-1-4-5 Use ASCII
Close single quote: ’ Shift-Option-] Alt-0-1-4-6 Use ASCII
Open double quote: “ Option-[ Alt-0-1-4-7 ✊🍆
Close double quote: ” Shift-Option-[ Alt-0-1-4-8 Shift-✊🍆
06 Aug 23:45

iMessage and the Secret Service

by Jason Snell
Michael

For BIA 3600

I was struck by this section of a report by Politico’s Eric Geller involving the deletion of Secret Service messages related to the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol:

The phone resets occurred as the Secret Service was implementing a new mobile device management (MDM) platform, a technology that employers use to centrally manage and preserve emails, photos and other data stored on employees’ phones. Apple’s iMessages cannot be backed up by this system, because they are encrypted and stored on users’ devices, unlike regular text messages.

This explanation seemed off to me, because while iMessage data is end-to-end encrypted in transmission and not stored by Apple as a part of the transmission process, it’s not actually encrypted on the device itself. Which is why iCloud backups, which are unencrypted, can contain the entire contents of iMessage conversations. (This is a workaround that has been used by law enforcement to obtain iMessage records in numerous occasions.)

Geller goes on:

Because of this issue, the Secret Service couldn’t store iMessages in a central location the way it managed its email system and other technologies. Thus, when individual agents failed to manually back up their data before their phones were erased and reconfigured for the new management system, the only copies of those iMessages were lost.

This portion seems to suggest that this is more an issue about a failure of backing up phones before wiping them, rather than the encrypted nature of iMessage itself. I ran it by Tom Bridge, Principal Product Manager at JumpCloud and co-host of the MacAdmins podcast, in the Six Colors Discord, and here’s what he had to say:

iMessage histories may be device specific and limited, and if they were not utilizing iCloud Backup (for Federal Government Cloud Reasons) it is possible that when the devices were wiped and setup anew with the MDM — so that the devices are supervised by the new MDM — the previous history was lost.

In short, I suspect they were prohibited from using any iCloud service because iCloud isn’t FedRAMP certified for security, and when they wiped the device to set them up with the new MDM service, they could not restore even a local on-disk backup, because those backups would’ve stored the supervision identity and the MDM enrollment from the previous MDM service.

There would be a way to do this, but it would’ve been a pain in the butt to organize because it requires that you swap handsets with your nearest other handset. (Local backups CAN be restored if the device UDID is different, because the supervision identity and MDM enrollment are entangled with the hardware.)

We ran into this with a healthcare startup I used to support. When they swapped MDMs, their text history was not preserved because they did not believe iCloud’s security was adequate for their HIPAA requirements. (They later changed their mind.)

Is it possible that this was, in fact, malicious? 100% yes. Is it possible that this was, actually, unintentionally caused? Also 100% yes.

My thanks to Tom for picking through the technical details of what might have gone on here.

11 Dec 12:10

Amazon reportedly wants to poach the ManningCast for their Thursday Night Football coverage

by Jay Rigdon

The ManningCast has been a relatively unqualified success by just about any measure.

It’s attracted and held an audience, been met with plenty of deserved critical acclaim, and has led to plenty of viral social media moments throughout the inaugural season. It’s gone so well, in fact, that despite not yet completing the first year of a three-year deal with ESPN, there’s already speculation that the entire thing could be poached by another outlet once the ESPN deal expires.

According to Michael McCarthy at Front Office Sports, Amazon is interested in pairing Peyton and Eli with Thursday Night Football, which will be moving exclusively to Amazon in 2022.

Andy Jassy, the new president and chief executive officer of Amazon, is a “huge sports fan” noted one sports TV executive. With 2020 sales of $386 billion, Amazon could pay whatever it takes to land the brothers as it takes over exclusive national coverage of TNF in 2022.

“Amazon could just come in with a ton of money for the show — plus Amazon Prime content deals for Omaha — then move ManningCast over in two years,” said the source.

None of the parties involved commented, as you’d expect, and McCarthy notes that ESPN might have an exclusive negotiating window in place to retain the pr0gram before an outside network/streaming platform could make a run at taking it away.

So, could the ManningCast end up moving to Amazon?

Well, sure, it’s possible. Amazon is one of the only corporations in the world that can match Disney in terms of spending, after all, and there have been plenty of reports that they very much want to be taken seriously with their Thursday Night Football coverage. McCarthy notes the possible synergy options for Omaha Productions within Amazon as well.

Is it likely?

That’s harder to see. Monday Night Football is still Monday Night Football, and ESPN/Disney have worked very, very hard to shore up their relationship with the NFL. That includes the ManningCast calling a playoff game, and with ABC returning to the Super Bowl rotation in 2026, it’s not hard to see a scenario where Peyton and Eli feature in that coverage in some way, if they’re still interested in doing this for ten weeks a year. Plus, while streaming is probably the future, it’s not immediately going to provide a larger audience than the current linear setup, and that’s likely to be the case for at least as long as Peyton and Eli would want to keep doing this. (And ESPN+ is already soaking up any of that audience migration anyway.) Disney offers just as much if not more synergy for any supplemental production deals.

Putting the speculation cap on, it feels more likely that while, yes, other outlets would want to grab this property (which would basically be plug and play anywhere), it’s easier to see a world in which ESPN moves early to lock things down on a longer-term basis, perhaps with more weeks per season as well. Obviously, as with everything ManningCast related, that’s only if the Mannings want to do it.

They pretty much have all the leverage in this situation, because they’re the entire franchise.

[Front Office Sports]

The post Amazon reportedly wants to poach the ManningCast for their Thursday Night Football coverage appeared first on Awful Announcing.

03 Dec 03:18

Division Links: Jerry Jones pushes DiNucci under the bus; BGN discusses Pederson’s next job; BBV discusses QB depth ahead of Seahawks game

by Bill-in-Bangkok
Dallas Cowboys v Los Angeles Rams
Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images
Blogging the Boys

Cowboys news: Jerry Jones throws Ben DiNucci under the bus

Ben DiNucci’s lone start this year was obviously not very good, as the rookie quarterback hasn’t so much as suited up since then, but Jerry Jones may have overstated the Nooch’s struggles on Tuesday when he compared it to the Broncos’ situation this past week.

In a Tuesday morning interview with 105.3FM the Fan, the Hall of Fame owner used the comparison to crutch a point regarding the integrity of the game, and his belief that competitive disadvantages still exist in a season ravaged by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“I don’t know that Denver had any more of a challenge than we’ve had with [Ben] DiNucci or with the young quarterbacks that we’ve had,” Jones said. “And, by the way, two or three of those [Broncos] quarterbacks will be back from the [COVID/Reserve list].”

It’s a bold comparison, if not a downright inaccurate one that takes a swipe in both directions, seeing as the Broncos wished they had a QB of any sort to take on the Saints, while DiNucci would rather not be compared to a practice squad wide receiver.


Bleeding Green Nation

Weapon X Mailbag: Where is Doug Pederson coaching in 2021?

I’m of the opinion that Doug Pederson won’t be with the Eagles next year, as I’ve written previously here. A split is likely best for both parties (I lean towards thinking the same for Carson Wentz). Whether Howie Roseman is the one overseeing the coaching search is an entirely different matter, but for the sake of this exercise, I’ll say Pederson is fired at the season’s end.

My head immediately went to the Jets given that Adam Gase will be canned once their tankfest for Trevor Lawrence concludes. There’s an obvious connection here given that former Eagles executive Joe Douglas is now the general manager for the Jets. When dealing with maybe the best quarterback prospect in a decade though, I feel as if almost every organization would rather pair him with a young upstart in the Sean McVay mold (your Kliff Kingsburys, your Zac Taylors, etc.) than an older retread like Pederson, so let’s rule that out.

Same thing goes for the Jaguars and their likely draftee Justin Fields. The Jacksonville move feels a tad more intriguing because they need a huge cultural overhaul, but know what other team is in desperate need of that? The Lions. Detroit needs to wash away the stench of the Matt Patricia era. There’s already a great veteran quarterback in place in Matthew Stafford. The organization would drool over his championship and playoff pedigree.


Big Blue View

Giants at Seahawks Week 13 storylines: Quarterback questions, and more

Giants fans should likely prepare to see veteran Colt McCoy, 7-21 in his career as a starter, on Sunday vs. Seattle.

“Look, he’s a vet, he has a lot of experience. He goes out there with a good amount of savvy, can really manage a game,” Judge said. “But we’ll set the game up however we need to, whether it’s Daniel, whether it’s Colt, whether it’s Clayton [Thorson], whoever it ends up being, in terms of working to their strong points.”

Clayton Thorson, who has been on the team’s practice squad since the end of September, is likely to be No. 2 behind McCoy for the Giants vs. Seattle.

Interestingly, the Giants reportedly have a pair of journeyman backup quarterbacks — Alex Tanney and Joe Webb — going through COVID-19 testing protocols right now. That could mean that the Giants, with what happened to Denver when the Broncos lost all four quarterbacks due to COVID-19 for last Sunday’s game against the New Orleans Saints, might add both Tanney and Webb.


Blogging the Boys

The Cowboys will have an elite offensive line in 2021

The Great Wall of Dallas could be making a comeback.

To say this line has been decimated in 2020 would be an understatement. Back in October, we pointed out how offensive line coach Joe Philbin was doing a phenomenal job of handling all these changes to his line, and that’s still true today. While this line has fallen apart plenty of times recently, they currently rank ninth in adjusted line yards, tenth in power success rate, and eighth in adjusted sack rate. While their pass block win rate of 53% ranks them near the bottom of the league, this line is actually fifth in the NFL in run block win rate.

[T]he Cowboys have three top-ten run blockers on the interior of their line right now, with one of them also being an elite pass blocker. And next year they’ll be getting their two tackles back, both of whom are among the very best at their respective positions, which should help turn this offensive line into a juggernaut once again. The season obviously isn’t over, although there are plenty of fans who are already looking to next year. To those who are, the future is very bright in the trenches for Dallas.


02 Jul 21:11

June 2017 U.S. Auto Sales Likely Slid for a Sixth Consecutive Month As Incentives and Transaction Prices Rise

by Timothy Cain

Automakers likely sold fewer than 1.5 million new vehicles in the United States in June 2017, a modest decrease of around 2 percent compared with June 2016. While auto sales remain high by historic standards — 1.48 million sales would still make June 2017 more than 15-percent better than the 1.33 million June average from 2011-2015 […]

The post June 2017 U.S. Auto Sales Likely Slid for a Sixth Consecutive Month As Incentives and Transaction Prices Rise appeared first on The Truth About Cars.

31 Oct 01:31

Fan Who Gave Double Bird to Russell Westbrook Claims He Was Provoked by a Comment About His Weight

by Kyle Koster

The Philadelphia 76ers fan who gave angry double birds to Russell Westbrook on Wednesday has apologized for his actions while suggesting he was provoked by the Oklahoma City guard.

Richard Harkaway, a practicing urologist who moonlights as a comedian, became an internet sensation after showing both of his middle fingers to Westbrook. He was escorted from his seat by security and roasted by ESPN’s Jeff Gundy on the television broadcast.

“As a part-time comedian I realize that my words and actions are sometimes inappropriate,” Harkaway said in a statement to Philly.com issued by a personal representative. “In this instance, after standing up to boo and being provoked by Russell Westbrook calling attention to my being overweight, my action in response was clearly inexcusable and I am embarrassed.  I sincerely apologize to my fellow Sixers fans, the Sixers organization, my colleagues and patients, and to Mr. Westbrook for my behavior.”

Give credit to Harkaway for accepting responsibility but his statement is definitely the first thing we’ve ever read containing the phrase “as a part-time comedian.” It’s truly an attention-grabber perfect for best man speeches or awards banquets.

While we haven’t had the privilege of catching any of Harkaway’s sets, it’s being reported that he routinely makes light of his weight.

A nation won’t be satisfied until we get the isolated audio of Westbrook yelling at the crowd. This is a scandal that deserves all of our attention until we learn what really happened.

[Philly.com]

07 Oct 02:22

This newspaper headline is… something

by Alex Putterman
myles jack

Newspaper editors have hard jobs. They often log long, late hours, reading thousands of words a day, and their work gets seen and criticized by thousands of people.

Oof.

Before internet, this headline would have drawn snickers from a few people in Jacksonville, who would have then been embarrassed at their own immaturity and moved on to the next thing.

But if there’s one thing people on the internet love, it’s people messing up. And if there’s another thing people on the internet love, it might be masturbation jokes. So naturally, Thursday has been full of tweets declaring this the headline of the year; comparisons to other infamous headlines (Bernie Chokes on Kokk); wonderful headlines about the headline, such as, “A Newspaper Made An Unintentionally Hilarious Masturbatory Headline About Miles Jack“; and whatever the hell this is from Uproxx.

If you’re wondering, the online version of the Times-Tribune story currently bears the headline, “Myles Jack makes most of first NFL start.”

No matter what else happened to you today, always remember October 6, 2016 as the day a newspaper headline was described as “masturbatory.”

Here’s to you, weary newspaper editor. Get a good night’s sleep tonight.

The post This newspaper headline is… something appeared first on Awful Announcing.

13 Sep 00:39

Which true freshmen are still on track for a redshirt after week two?

by Wes Crochet

We saw a few more freshmen hit the field this week.

Partly due to injuries across the depth chart, we saw a few more true freshmen get on to the field this week against UTEP.

Freshmen who’ve seen playing time through week two (14)

(If they have recorded stats, I’ve listed those next to their names as well)

  • QB Shane Buechele - 35 of 53, 524 yards, 6 TD’s, 1 INT (plus 1 rushing TD)
  • RB Kyle Porter - 8 carries, 35 yards, 2 KR for 29 yards
  • WR Collin Johnson - 1 rec, 6 yards
  • WR Devin Duvernay
  • WR Lil’Jordan Humphrey - 1 rec, 7 yards
  • C Zach Shackelford
  • OL Jean Delance
  • OL Denzel Okafor
  • DE Malcolm Roach - 4 TT, 1 TFL, 1 sack
  • DT D’Andre Christmas - 1 TT
  • DT Gerald Wilbon
  • DL Jordan Elliott - 2 TT, 1 TFL
  • LB Jeffery McCulloch - 1 TT
  • S Brandon Jones - 1 PR for 14 yards, 1 blocked punt

Week two, we saw the four freshmen that were on the depth chart but didn’t play against Notre Dame (Humphrey, Delance, Okafor, and Christmas) get in the game against UTEP.

There was still no sign of DE/OLB Erick Fowler this week. And we haven’t really heard much on that front in general. So at this point, we probably could expect a redshirt unless something changes sooner than later.

Below are the remaining freshmen that are still eligible for a redshirt (14)

  • WR Davion Curtis
  • WR Reggie Hemphill-Mapps
  • TE Peyton Aucion
  • OL Tope Imade
  • OL J.P. Uriquidez
  • OL Patrick Hudson
  • DL Marcel Southall
  • DL Chris Daniels
  • DE Andrew Fitzgerald
  • DE/OLB Erick Fowler
  • LB Demarco Boyd
  • DB Chris Brown
  • DB Eric Cuffee
  • DB Donovan Duvernay

By this point, I would have thought both Devin Duvernay and Collin Johnson would have been bigger factors on offense. But Jerrod Heard moving to receiver has seemingly taken snaps away from Duvernay. And in some regards, I see Jacorey Warrick and Jake Oliver as two guys taking snaps away from Johnson and Humphrey (we could even throw in Dorian Leonard into that mix as well - he scored a long 46-yard touchdown against UTEP).

Maybe we’ll see the freshmen wide outs get in there more as the season progresses. So far, Texas has been just fine with using its older players though. Depth is deep at wide receiver, as we all know by now.

As for the defense, Malcolm Roach will be a name to watch as a pass-rusher on the outside. He’s been holding his own and the position needs him for depth too. But in general, the freshmen on defense are being utilized as key reserves and depth.

We’ll check back in on this report next week after the Cal game.

09 Jun 13:58

Video: When a Bugatti Veyron drag races against a Koenigsegg Agera S Hundra, we all win

by Jeremy Korzeniewski

Filed under: Motorsports, Coupe, Performance, Videos, Bugatti, Specialty, Koenigsegg

Koenigsegg Agera S Hundra races Bugatti Veyron

Want to watch two of the fastest production automobiles in the world line up on an open runway to race? Want to see it happen a whole bunch of times?

We thought so. Featuring the well-known Bugatti Veyron in one lane and the less-well-known but just as impressive Koenigsegg Agera S Hundra - which is powered by the same 1,040-horsepower twin-turbo 5.0-liter V8 engine as other Agera S models, but with some extra lightweight bits along with lots and lots of gold - in the other, you can rest assured that the video down below is full of carbon fiber, booming exhaust notes, turbo whine and asinine acceleration. And, though we won't spoil the results, we think it may be full of surprising victories for those who don't keep tabs on such important figures as power-to-weight ratios and the like...

Now for the disclaimers. Are both drivers aware of how to extract maximum performance from their machines? Are they both in perfect states of tune? Would the result be different from a standing start? Was the fact that the video was shot at Koenigsegg's home track a display of favoritism? Was there a full moon the night before? We have no idea. That said, watching well over 2,000 horsepower line up for a race is nearly always worth watching. So, without further ado, we present the video below.

Continue reading When a Bugatti Veyron drag races against a Koenigsegg Agera S Hundra, we all win

When a Bugatti Veyron drag races against a Koenigsegg Agera S Hundra, we all win originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 03 Jun 2013 19:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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