Baseball and softball players at Westfields Sports High School will have a chance to hone their skills without leaving the campus thanks to a new batting cage at the school.

jaygooby starred dandavison/delta

"The emails provide deeper insight into the agency’s use of Locate X, a powerful surveillance capability that allows law enforcement officials to follow a phone, and person’s, precise movements over time at the click of a mouse." "Locate X is made by a company called Babel Street."

via GitHub Public Timeline Feed https://ift.tt/EHbhjky

via @vapaad@wandering.shop boost of https://mspsocial.net/@bright_helpings/113435299378706993

LLM-powered multiagent persona simulation for imagination enhancement and business insights. - microsoft/TinyTroupe

OpenCoder is an open and reproducible code LLM family which matches the performance of Top-Tier Code LLM. We provide not just the final models, but also the reproducible training data, the complete data processing pipeline, rigorous experimental ablation results, and detailed training protocols for open scientific research.

“O s’abaixen els preus, o vaga de lloguers”. Aquesta és la consigna que han llançat les organitzacions en defensa de l’habitatge en els últims mesos. via Pocket

man pages for UNIX, BSD, Linux, SunOS, HP-UX, AIX, Minux, Ultrix, Plan9, Darwin, XFree86, & Perl Man & Info Pages, plus Application manuals

Americans gave Republicans a mandate to "enact President Trump's agenda," Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) said on Tuesday as he vies for the Senate leadership position.

The post Senate Majority Leader Contender Rick Scott: America Gave Us a Mandate to ‘Enact President Trump’s Agenda’ appeared first on Breitbart.

Dolphins star QB Tua Tagovailoa sent social media users into a frenzy Monday night after the often-concussed player used his head to tackle a defender during an interception return.

The post ‘Dude!’ Oft-Concussed Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa Sparks Social Media Hysteria After Using His Head to Make a Tackle appeared first on Breitbart.

Rob Grabowski and Tom Antonson caught Metallica, Pantera and Mammoth WVH In The Act during the Chicago stop of the M72 Tour at Soldiers Field on August 9th. Check out Rob's photos and Tom's review!

Tom Antonson and Roman Sobus caught Creed, Three Doors Down and Finger 11 In The Act during show at Credit Union 1 in Tinley Park, Il. on August 16, 2024. Check out Roman's photos and Tom's review!

Morgan Clifton and Roman Sobus caught Marilyn Manson In The Act during show at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago on August 17th. Check out Roman's photos and Morgan's review!

Rob Grabowski and Tom Antonson caught Weezer, The Flaming Lips and Dinosaur Jr. In The Act during the Rosemont, Il stop of the Voyage To The Blue Planet Tour on September 6th . Check out Rob's photos and Tom's review!

Something Corporate played to a sold out crowd at the Concord Music Hall in Chicago on September 21st. The show was part of the Riot Fest after shows

Our look at reggae-related fun begins with a taste of some new adult beverages from Seagram's before moving into a new album from Stephen Marley on vinyl and an awesome highly-illustrated book about Bob Marley and the Wailers

With all the costumes and candy and scary good fun, Halloween is one of the most enjoyable holidays. Here are some items that we think will make your spooky parties even more fun, and we begin with a monstrously good soundtrack

Iron Maiden performed on Thursday, Oct. 25, 2024, at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill and Tom Wojcik and Rob Grabowski tell and show us about the legendary band's return to Chicagoland!

It was a special night of songs and storytelling as Debbie Gibson closed out her Acoustic Youth tour in Chicago on Monday, October 28, 2024.

Malachi Scott and his Brock men’s basketball teammates returned to their winning ways with a decisive 78 – 66 victory over Waterloo at the Bob Davis Gymnasium. This win marks Brock’s second victory of the Ontario University Athletics [OUA] season. Scott contributed valuable minutes off the bench, playing 11 minutes and recording four points, four […]

Three Bermudian archers participated in the Amateur League Belgium Icenation online competition, testing their skills in the recurve – 18m distance category. Robin Selley delivered a strong performance, securing first place with a score of 538. Jamie Fraser followed in second place with a score of 472, while Braeden Fraser finished third, recording a score […]

A general spammer that tries to throw in everything he can in one e-mail, from flags and banners and PVC printing to mosquito nets and aluminum fold-away wash lines. This spammer is an electronic convenience store!

The Canadian Pharmacy Spammers are at it again, or should we say still at it again.

A fake Facebook message, taking you to some online pharmacy site.

Rosa Daniel wants you to come to Rome to pick up a high priority package.

Malware distributed via Dropbox with the help of fake eFax e-mails

Fax or malware? This is clearly malware.

The most confusing Paypal phishing scam ever!

Ben jij altijd op zoek naar sterke content-ideeën waarmee je jouw socialmedia-kanalen kunt vullen? Dan komt een contentplanning goed van pas. Daarmee kun je vast vooruitkijken en belangrijke themadagen en inhaakmomenten noteren: een fijne leidraad. Of je nu (Belgische of Nederlandse) nationale feestdagen wil uitlichten of minder bekende dagen die goed aansluiten bij jouw product […]

Grote merken, zoals Jack Daniel’s, draaien de diversiteitsklok terug. De anti-woke-trend is tekenend voor de polarisering in de VS, die steeds meer tot uiting komt in reclame en communicatie. Overigens niet alleen voor Marketing the Rainbow, maar ook voor andere vormen van diversiteit. Het ingevoerde beleid na Black Lives Matter wordt hiermee óók deels teruggedraaid. […]

Skiing power couple Mikaela Shiffrin and Aleksander Aamodt Kilde have announced they’re engaged to be married.

When it opens on Sept. 14, Pure Elevations will be among the city’s first public consumption spaces.

Green Dragon, one of Colorado’s largest cannabis companies, is preparing to cease operations.

The first dispensary chain founded by Alex Levine, Andy Levine and Lisa Leder is preparing to cease operations in Colorado, three years after they sold it.

We have listed our RSS feeds on separate page for easy access and subscription to all our feeds. The page also includes easy-to-follow instructions for those who are not familiar with the methods of subscribing to RSS feeds.

By Fran Kritz, NPR

The ancient scourge of tuberculosis for years was the deadliest infectious disease. Then SARS-CoV-2 came along and grabbed the notorious title of #1 killer: In 2020, COVID-19 was responsible for 3.5 million deaths worldwide vs 1.5 million for TB.The 2024 Global Tuberculosis Report, published last week by the World Health Organization, puts TB back in the top slot with 1.25 million deaths in 2023 compared to 320,000 COVID-19 deaths. There's also been an increase of hundreds of thousands of new TB cases in 2023 compared to the year prior.

The 1.25 million TB deaths in 2023 is down from 2022’s number of 1.32 million (which that year was second to the COVID toll). But it's still indefensibly high, say public health leaders.

“The fact that TB still kills and sickens so many people is an outrage, when we have the tools to prevent it, detect it and treat it,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, in a statement issued on October 29.

According to the report, approximately 8.2 million people were newly diagnosed with TB in 2023 — the highest number since WHO began global TB monitoring in 1995 and a “notable increase” from 7.5 million people newly diagnosed in 2022.

TB sleuths are trying to figure out the reasons behind the increase. Anand Date, global TB branch chief at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says population growth may account for the increase in cases last year -- and that it may take until the 2024 to find out if that is so or if the leap in 2023 reflects an undercount of annual TB totals during the pandemic.

“Disruptions to TB programs during the height of the pandemic led to more people going undiagnosed and untreated for TB. [And] guidance to shelter in place may have also limited the spread of TB, says Yogan Pillay, who heads efforts to improve TB program delivery at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (which is a funder of NPR and this blog).

COVID-19 did trigger a new setback in the effort to control TB. But most of the reasons the infection persists are frustratingly well-known, says Lucica Ditiu, executive director of the Stop TB Partnership. There's too little money for research, treatment. and patient care needs. And there's stigma that can keep the most common victims of TB, impoverished people including migrants and sex workers, from seeking help or being offered treatment.

In addition, health conditions like malnutrition, diabetes and smoking that can exacerbate TB and keep medications from being fully effective, says Luke Davis, a TB and HIV specialist at the Yale School of Public Health. “TB is unusual,” says Davis, in that most people who are exposed to the bacteria won’t progress to infectious TB. Only about 10% do, and they are usually among the world’s poorest people often with poor health to begin with, which exacerbates their condition.”

So what's the solution?

And that brings us to the Tedros point. The world knows how to vanquish TB — but is not doing a good job.

Money reigns as perhaps the biggest obstacle to conquering tuberculosis. A spokesperson for WHO tells NPR: “Compared with global funding targets for TB set at the 2023 U.N. high-level meeting on TB, there are large funding shortfalls for TB research as well as prevention, detection and treatment services. To close these gaps, more funding is needed from both domestic sources in the countries most impacted by TB and from international donors.”

Global funding for TB prevention and care decreased in 2023 from $6 billion in the three previous years to $5.7 billion and remains far below the yearly target of $22 billion, according to WHO.

What would more money bring? WHO cites expanded rapid diagnostic testing as critical. Then treatment can start sooner. And people wouldn’t have to travel long distances to a clinic then wait for days for the results.

Increased funding would also help reimburse families for lost wages and food and travel expenses incurred as they go for treatment. Those costs keep some patients and their families from seeking care.

The WHO report and other investigations also say that countries burdened by TB also have to step up and spend more money on prevention, diagnosis and treatment. A report by MSF/Doctors Without Borders published last month, for example, found that, only 5 out of 14 countries have adapted their guidelines — based on WHO recommendations -- to initiate TB treatment in children when symptoms strongly indicate TB disease, even if bacteriological tests are negative.

And increased funding would speed up the pace of research says the CDC’s Date. Funding for TB research has stagnated at around $1 billion per year, constraining progress, according to WHO. The target at the U.N. meeting: $5 billion per year by 2027. “The world also has the most promising R&D pipeline of new TB tools in decades,” says Pillay. “What’s needed now is greater investment to deliver on the promise of that pipeline and ensure patients and those at risk of TB have affordable and equitable access to these tools when they are available.”

Vaccines in the works

Pillay says there are more than a dozen TB vaccine candidates in clinical trials, including one whose late stage (stage 3) clinical trial is sponsored by the Gates Medical Research Institute. The trial began recruiting patients last March. That vaccine candidate is called M72/AS01E and if proven effective would be the first new TB vaccine in 100 years. The lone TB vaccine available now is not predictably effective in adults, and can cause a false positive result on TB skin tests.

But even an effective vaccine won’t do that much good if there aren’t funds to purchase it for countries impacted by TB. Janeen Madan Keller, deputy director of the Global Health Policy Program at the Center for Global Development, based in Washington, D.C., says that while Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, pays for [a variety of] vaccines in some of the poorest countries such as Afghanistan, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, some countries with high rates of TB are middle income countries, like Indonesia, and no longer eligible for support. Ahead of a TB vaccine’s approval, says Keller, there needs to be a better match of policy and funding.

“Often it seems that when we find a way to help vanquish TB,” says Lucica Ditiu, “we also find another barrier.”

Fran Kritz is a health policy reporter based in Washington, D.C., and a regular contributor to NPR. She also reports for the Washington Post and Verywell Health. Find her on X: @fkritz

Dear Eric: I am newly in love and engaged. My fiancé and I are both in our early 70s. Quite a few of my friends (not my close friends but others) have responded to the news with: how cute! Somehow the fact that we have fallen in love and plan to marry is "cute."

Marek Janowski guest conducts Mendelssohn, Bruch and Wagner.

Tune in at 8pm tp hear an At The Opera debut of Ottorino Respighi's Belfagor staring Sylvia Sass.

"The communities I identify with still struggle with the aftermath of historical events."

According to Forbes, the Rockies rank 20th in MLB with an evaluation of $1.48 billion.

Freddie Freeman homered for the third straight game and Walker Buehler pitched another World Series gem as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the New York Yankees 4-2 on Monday night for a 3-0 lead in the Fall Classic.

At 23 years and 60 days, Tovar is the youngest shortstop to win the Gold Glove Award in NL history, and the second-youngest player in franchise history to win the honor behind Nolan Arenado in 2013 (22 years, 167 days).