You can now get a degree in yodelling from a Swiss university

A
German yodeler and his cow on September 27,
1997.
AP Photo/Bernhard
Grossruck

• 
  Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in
  Switzerland will become the first university in Switzerland to
  offer a degree in yodeling.
  


• 
  The university's
  website says studies will begin in the 2018/2019 academic
  year.
  


• 
  Yodeling is a form of singing that involves rapid
  changes in pitch.
  


• 
  The art of yodelling has seen a popular resurgence in
  Switzerland.
  

---

The Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in
Switzerland is trying to preserve the ancient art of yodelling.

The university will become the first in Switzerland to offer a
three-year bachelor's degree and a two-year master's degree on
the techniques and history of yodelling.

The university's
website says studies will begin in the 2018/2019 academic
year and will be taught byNadja Räss, an award-winning Swiss
yodeler with her own academy in Zurich.

According to Räss, yodelling is still lacking well-trained vocal
teachers, Swiss paper
St Galler Tagblatt quoted her as saying.

The yodelling courses would be offered by The Institute for Jazz
and Folk Music at the Lucerne School of Music, and would would
help students master the yodel as their "instrument."

Yodelling is a form of singing that involves rapid changes in
pitch. It has traditionally been used by Swiss herders to
communicate in the mountains, but later became popular with
musicians as a form of entertainment.
According to the Smithsonian, yodelling can also be heard in
Persian classical music, African Pygmy music, and the Mexican son
huasteco

The university has offered folk-music degrees since 2012.
Applications for the yodelling programs will open on February 28
and only three of four students are expected to be chosen.

Michael Kaufmann, head of the university’s music department told
Swiss paper Tribune de Genève, that he had
long wanted to offer yodelling to his students, but could not
find a qualified teacher.

Räss told the paper that classes would expand the tradition of
yodelling in Switzerland, which has seen something of a modern
renaissance. In 2014, the Swiss government said it would
seek Unesco World Heritage status for the singing style.

“As well as having good vocal technique students must be taught
about different styles and voices to expand their repertoire. The
whole yodelling scene will benefit from their new skills,” Räss
told the Tribune.

Some critics have voiced concern that teaching yodelling at a
university will cheapen its legacy.

"University studies have not been necessary to keep the yodel
alive for decades," Karin Niederberger, president of the Federal
Yodeling Association in Switzerland, told the Tribune.

Addressing criticism,Räss told the Tribune: "Our program will
only train a few people out of thousands of yodelers. Yodelling
is a living folklore that must continue to develop."

Here is a song by Franzl Lang, who is well-known for being one of
the best Alpine yodellers in the world.

Source link

Shorten URL's And Earn Money

Conspiracy theorists are already making wild claims about the Amtrak train full of Republican lawmakers that collided with a truck in Virginia

The
Amtrak passenger train carrying Republican members of Congress
from Washington to a retreat in West Virginia is seen after
colliding with a garbage truck in Crozet, Virginia, January 31,
2018.
Justin Ide/Crozet Volunteer Fire
Department

• 
  Conspiracy theories were spread after an Amtrak train
  carrying Republican lawmakers collided with a truck.
  


• 
  The cause of the crash has yet to be determined and the
  scene is still under investigation.
  


• 
  Various social media accounts propagated the conspiracy
  theories Wednesday night, some of which linked them to a secret
  GOP memo on the Russia investigation that is expected to be
  released.
  

---

Following a Wednesday morning train crash that killed one person
and severely injured another in the Washington D.C. area,
conspiracy theorists attempted to commandeer the story on social
media.

The Amtrak train carrying Republican lawmakers and their family
members to an annual retreat struck a garbage truck on its way
from Washington D.C. to West Virginia. The  incident spurred
multiple conspiracy theories in light of heightened partisan
bickering over the Russia probe and accusations of
law-enforcement bias against President Donald Trump.

Some of the conspiracy theories claimed the train incident was
perpetrated by so-called "deep-state" actors — a term used by
fringe right-wing groups to describe rogue government employees
who secretly attempt to manipulate US policy.

"If you think that that truck just stalled there by itself, and
somebody didn't kill that guy and park it up there on the tracks,
that's how they like to do it," InfoWars host Alex Jones said on
Wednesday. "It's a classic CIA tactic too."

"You'll kill somebody, have them in the car, and remote control
it into the next vehicle. That is the standard assassination tool
right now," Jones continued. "This is standard dump truck ...
that is CIA playbook 100%."

Jones' website suggested someone hacked the traffic
controls in the area, prompting the collision.

Others began analyzing images of a damaged train to support a
theory that a truck intentionally rammed the train to derail it.

@jerome_corsi/Twitter

The timing of the crash also raised eyebrows amongst purveyors of
the "deep-state" conspiracy, amid the looming release of a
polarizing House Intelligence Committee memo that claims anti-Trump
bias at the FBI.

@jerome_corsi/Twitter

Conspiracy theorists also drew connections between tweets
allegedly posted by political personalities. A screenshot
purporting to show an ill-timed tweet from the conservative
political analyst Bill Kristol attracted suspicion as well.

"Once we're sure everyone involved is ok, assuming they are, I
hereby give permission to Twitter to indulge in all manner of GOP
train wreck jokes. I do think that by having the train hit...yes,
a garbage truck...the scriptwriters of '2018' jumped the shark,"
the purported tweet read.

The alleged Kristol tweet, as illustrated by the screenshot, had
an 11:07 a.m. time stamp, meaning it would have been sent 13
minutes before the train crash occurred.

@willsommer/Twitter

Meanwhile, the cause of the crash is still under investigation,
Reuters reported.

A search of "GOP train crash" on Twitter yielded results from
users who have made unverified claims about the incident. Top
tweets with the most engagements included posts from users who
amplified the conspiracy theories.

"Isn't it odd that a dump truck was on the tracks of a scheduled
GOP retreat? Are we supposed to believe this was an 'accident'
?," one tweet with over 870 retweets
and 1,700 likes said. "Don't forget when republicans were
targeted by a crazy liberal when they had a baseball game!"

"Wray should be worrying about a truck that just happened to
crash into a GOP train," another user tweeted. "Not covering the
asses of corrupt FBI agents. Wake up!"

The conspiracy claims also spread to Facebook, as posts made by
users not affiliated with news organizations began adding their
own comments to otherwise-reputable news articles, which then
began appearing at the top Facebook's curated news sections.

Facebook responded to the incidents. calling them a "bad
experience" and saying it would "work to fix the product."

"Trending includes a separate section of people's individual
posts related to the news event; it's essentially a comments
section," a Facebook spokesperson said in a Daily Beast report. "We built
this as a way for you to easily see what others are saying around
a topic."

Source link

Shorten URL's And Earn Money

Former Trump legal team spokesman plans to tell Mueller that Hope Hicks hinted at concealing explosive emails about the Trump Tower Russia meeting

Donald Trump Jr. (L) and
Donald Trump (R).
Saul Loeb-Pool/Getty
Images

• 
  President Donald Trump's legal team's former spokesman,
  Mark Corallo, plans to tell special counsel Robert Mueller that
  a key White House aide may have sought to obstruct justice last
  year.
  


• 
  Corallo reportedly spoke to White House communications
  director Hope Hicks on a conference call with Trump last year,
  during which Corallo said Hicks may have hinted at concealing
  crucial emails that are relevant to the Russia probe.
  


• 
  The emails related to a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting,
  between several Russia-linked individuals and members of the
  Trump campaign, that is being heavily scrutinized by Mueller
  and congressional investigators.
  

---

Mark Corallo, the former spokesman for President Donald Trump's
legal team, plans to tell special counsel Robert Mueller that
White House communications director Hope Hicks may have hinted at
concealing crucial emails that were exchanged prior to Donald
Trump Jr.'s meeting in June 2016 with a Kremlin-connected lawyer,
The New York Times reported. 

Corallo was contacted by the special counsel's team last week for
an interview, as Business Insider previously
reported. The interview is set to take place sometime in the
next two weeks. 

Corallo served as the legal team spokesman until July 2017. He
resigned shortly after news of Trump Jr.'s Russia meeting
emerged. According to author Michael Wolff's book, "Fire &
Fury: Inside the Trump White House," Corallo resigned because he
believed that the president's decision to craft a misleading
statement on his son's behalf in response to reports of the
meeting could have represented obstruction of justice.

The meeting, as well as Trump's alleged role in it, have been a
source of keen interest for both Mueller's team and congressional
committees investigating Russia's interference in the 2016
election. Trump Jr. said in an initial statement — which The
Washington Post later reported was "dictated" by Trump — that "it
was a short introductory meeting" that focused on Russian
adoptions and did not relate to campaign business. 

But the statement had to be repudiated when it emerged that Trump
Jr. accepted the meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia
Veselnitskaya after he was offered kompromat on then Democratic
candidate Hillary Clinton. Later, The New York Times published a
chain of bombshell emails which showed the meeting was pitched to
Trump Jr. as being "part of Russia and its government's support
for Mr. Trump." 

According to The Times' report on Wednesday, Corallo plans to
tell Mueller that Hicks said during a conference call last July
with Corallo and Trump that the emails "will never get out." The
call reportedly concerned Corallo for several reasons. For one,
Corallo reportedly believed Hicks may have been suggesting that
the emails be concealed. He was also concerned because Hicks had
made the statement without a lawyer present and while the
president was on the call. 

He resigned from his position shortly after the call. 

Pool/Getty
Images

Hicks' attorney pushed back against Corallo's reported account of
the call. "She never said that," her attorney, Robert Trout, told
The Times. "And the idea that Hope Hicks ever suggested that
emails or other documents would be concealed or destroyed is
completely false." 

Hicks is one of several key current and former Trump aides that
the special counsel was interested in speaking to. She
interviewed with Mueller's team in early December.  

Hicks has long been one of Trump's closest confidants, and The
Washington Post reported last year that she was among several
aides who urged Trump aboard Air Force One last summer to release
a truthful statement about the purpose of the Russia meeting so
that it would not have to be amended later. 

The Times reported that Hicks and Trump began strategizing about
the statement shortly after the paper sent a list of 14 questions
about the meeting on July 8, 2017. While they were discussing how
to craft the statement, the report said, Hicks was in frequent
contact with Trump Jr. via text message. 

Neither Corallo nor Trump's personal lawyer at the time, Marc
Kasowitz, were in on the meeting or informed about the statement
until after it was released. 

While Hicks and other close aides were at odds over how truthful
the statement should be, Trump reportedly was adamant that it
should say the purpose of the meeting was to discuss Russian
adoptions.

"We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of
Russian children that was active and popular with American
families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government,
but it was not a campaign issue at that time and there was no
follow up," the final statement read.

Trump Jr. had insisted that the statement include the word,
"primarily," per the report. 

FILE
PHOTO: FBI Director Mueller testifies on Capitol Hill in
Washington
Thomson
Reuters

Trump is a key figure in several threads of the Russia
investigation, and Mueller is said to be building an
obstruction-of-justice case against him based on his decision to
fire FBI director James Comey last May. Comey was overseeing the
Russia investigation at the time, and
Trump told NBC's Lester
Holt that "this Russia thing" had been a
factor in his decision.

Legal experts said Mueller's focus on Trump's involvement in
issuing the statement about the Russia meeting is likely an
attempt to establish a pattern of conduct and
intent, which is critical to proving obstruction of
justice. 

"It also shows that he's interested in attempts to conceal
or shape testimony. The President's actions are under scrutiny,"
former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti wrote on Twitter.

But "even if Trump is not charged with a crime in connection to
the statement, it could be useful to Mueller's team to show
Trump's conduct to a jury that may be considering other charges"
like obstruction of justice, a source told NBC News last year.

It is routine for investigators to revisit individuals with
whom they previously spoke as new information arises, as Mueller
did earlier this month when he recalled for questioning at
least one person who was involved in the June 2016 meeting. That
information can be in the form of statements by others they
interviewed or press accounts.

"Here, it is clear that Mueller still has questions about
how the Administration's statement was crafted aboard Air Force
One," said former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Cramer. "That focus
seems to be on the President and his son."

He added that the statement by itself does not prove
obstruction, and that it is unclear whether Trump intended to
mislead the public and obstruct the investigation, or to avoid
embarrassment. 

"We are, however, seeing a mosaic being constructed which all
point to the President and/or a few around him trying to derail
the investigation," Cramer said.

Source link

Shorten URL's And Earn Money

TOM BRADY: How the greatest quarterback of all time makes and spends his millions

Mike Coppola/Getty Images for People.comTom Brady is the greatest quarterback of all time. 

Brady already has five Super Bowl rings and on Sunday he will go for No. 6. He is also as good as ever at 40 years old, an age when most football players are already retired.

Off the field, Brady's life is pretty fabulous also. He's married to the world's most successful supermodel, has an Aston Martin named for him, and once owned a $20 million house with a moat.

Tony Manfred contributed to this report.

Brady was the fifth-highest-paid player in the NFL last season, making $28.8 million.

Andy Lyons/Getty Images

Source: Spotrac

Brady recently signed a 2-year, $41 million extension with the Patriots. A big chunk of his earnings last season came in the form of a $28 million signing bonus. This season he made a relatively modest $1 million salary and no bonuses.

Jim Rogash/Getty Images

Source: Spotrac

Brady is also the third-highest-paid player in NFL history, having already earned $197.2 million in his career.

Darron Cummings/AP

Read more: The 25 highest-paid players in NFL history

Brady also makes about $8 million annually in endorsement deals with companies like Under Armour, Intel, and Shields.

 

Source: Forbes

He also has a partnership with Aston Martin.

 

Aston Martin even produced a limited Tom Brady edition of the Vanquish S Volante. Only 12 were produced and they went for $360,000 each.

Aston Martin

Source: CNN Money

His deal with Uggs was one that confused many since it was not known as a men's brand at the time.

Brady's earnings sound enormous, but it's actually nothing compared to his wife, supermodel Gisele Bündchen.

 

Gisele made $30.5 million last year. She has been the highest-paid model in the world for a decade and is reportedly on pace to make $1 billion in career earnings.

Jamie Squire/Getty Images

Source: Forbes, US Weekly

The couple once owned a custom-built, $20 million mansion in Los Angeles.

Source: Today

It had a moat and a chicken coop so they could eat fresh eggs.

Source: Today

But in 2014, they sold the estate to Dr. Dre for $40 million.

Redfin

Source: LA Times

In 2013 they were reportedly searching for a new apartment in NYC. They were spotted looking at a $11.5 million duplex in Manhattan that spring.

REUTERS/Gretchen Ertl

Source: Trulia

They eventually settled on a glassy skyscraper condo that purchased for $11.7 million

Core

Prior to New York, they lived in a Boston condo, but sold it for $9.2 million in 2012.

Source: CBS

Interestingly, houses are basically Brady's only lavish purchases.

Outside of his Aston Martin, his cars aren't too gaudy. He got in an accident once while driving a regular old Audi.

He told ESPN that he's a homebody, and has to talk to his friends' kids about music so he knows what's popular.

Jared Wickerham/Getty Images

Source: ESPN

He is such a "dad" that he even proudly wears Stephen Curry's widely mocked Under Armour shoes.

 

He even likes to do silly things like welcome a rescue dog to the family with a "Lion King" video on Facebook.

 

Splash Mountain is about as wild as he gets.

He does show up at high society events though, like the Kentucky Derby.

Robin Marchant/Getty Images for Churchill Downs

Or the VIP box at Brazil's famed Carnival.

Or the Met Gala. The power couple were co-chairs of the event in 2017.

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

He also attended the 2014 World Cup with Gisele.

Hassan Ammar/AP

But there are no boats or planes or 20-person entourages with him.

Just a dad making sand castles with his kids.

 

Nowadays it seems like most of his big spending (beyond his housing) is health-based.

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

He even dressed as an avocado for Halloween.

 

Brady also employs a 'body coach' and health guru, Alex Guerrero, who works with Brady at least once every day and whose duties include spiritual guide, counselor, pal, nutrition adviser, trainer, and massage therapist.

Read more: Tom Brady's Facebook documentary gave an inside look at the bizarre massages he says help him keep playing at age 40

He does take offseason vacations with the family to places like Asia (on behalf of his partnership with Under Armour, of course).

 

He even did some sumo wrestling in Tokyo.

 

But mostly, he is the rare athlete who can actually afford to live a megastar lifestyle, but chooses not to.

Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

Source link

Shorten URL's And Earn Money

Betty and Jughead are back together on

Betty and Jughead back in the good old
days.
The CW

Warning: Spoilers ahead for
season two, episode 12 of "Riverdale," titled "The Wicked and the
Divine."

"Riverdale" fans have been
anxiously waiting for the moment when Betty and Jughead got back
together, and it finally happened.

After solving the case of the decapitated bronze statue, Jughead
and Betty go back to Jug's place and talk about investigating
Hiram Lodge and the other issues they have to solve. Jughead
apologizes to Betty for pushing her away. When she says she
should leave, Jughead places his hand on her leg and tells her to
stay. 

She climbs on top of him, he proceeds to unzip her dress, and
they start to kiss. 

Fans were beyond excited.

But things may not stay happy between the couple. 

They finally kissed!
The
CW

Early on the episode, the two are suspended from the newspaper
staff because Hiram Lodge's lawyer called the school and said
they were thinking of pressing defamation charges against the
paper. When Betty and Jughead are discussing the suspension, she
subtly hints at Jughead's close friendship with Toni Topaz.

Toni and Jughead kissed after Betty had Archie break up with
Jug because of the Black Hood. Jughead never told Betty this,
but she says she saw the two of them together and felt like they
were more than just friends. She then asks him if anything
happened between the two of them. 

"Yeah, the night of the gauntlet, after you sent Archie to break
up with me," he says. "Toni stayed over. She gave me a tattoo,
and we did some stuff, but not everything." 

The
two are good at problem solving.
The
CW

Jughead then asks Betty if she had done anything with anyone else
since the break up. 

Betty says no, but fans know this is a lie. 

Betty and Archie kissed the night they (maybe) caught the
Black Hood. Archie was honest with Veronica about it, but
Betty doesn't fess up to Jughead. 

She also hasn't told him about her venture into being a web cam
girl, either. 

Betty and Jughead reunite.
The CW

It looked like she might reveal the truth when the two were
making out. 

"Wait, wait. I need to tell you something," she says as she pulls
away from him. 

But after a few moments, all she says is, "I just want you. I
want all of you tonight." 

If Jughead finds out that she lied to him, he could be hurt and
refuse to trust her again. But that will be determined at a later
date. 

Watch "Riverdale" Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.

Sign up here to get
INSIDER's favorite stories straight to your inbox.

Read the original article on INSIDER. Follow INSIDER on Facebook. Copyright 2018. Follow INSIDER on Twitter.

Source link

Shorten URL's And Earn Money

The FBI agent who sent anti-Trump texts was also behind the reopening of the Clinton email investigation

FBI
Director James Comey.
Kevin
Lamarque/Reuters

• 
  A former FBI official who played a critical role in
  special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation also
  helped relaunch the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's
  private email use as secretary of state, according to
  CNN. 
  


• 
  Peter Strzok, who was removed from Mueller's team last
  summer for making disparaging remarks about President Donald
  Trump, co-wrote the first draft of the letter Comey disclosed
  to the public just 11 days before the 2016
  election. 
  


• 
  Republicans have frequently criticized Strzok for
  exhibiting anti-Trump bias. 
  

---

Peter Strzok, the counterintelligence veteran who has been at the
center of Republicans' claims of bias at the FBI against
President Donald Trump, also played a key role in the FBI's
decision to reopen the investigation into Hillary Clinton's email
use as secretary of state, just 11 days before the 2016 election,
CNN reported Wednesday. 

CNN said Strzok co-wrote the first draft of the letter that
former FBI Director James Comey disclosed to the public in
October 2016, announcing that the FBI had recovered thousands of
Clinton's emails and, as a result, would relaunch the probe into
whether the then-Democratic presidential nominee should be
criminally charged. 

Democrats, including Clinton, criticized Comey at the time
for disclosing the letter
 so close to the
election, arguing that it helped tilt the vote in Trump's
favor. 

Clinton had previously been cleared of any criminal
wrongdoing. In July 2016, Comey announced that the FBI had
concluded its investigation into Clinton's use of a private
email server, adding that while investigators found no evidence
of legal violations, they did find evidence that Clinton was
"extremely careless" in her handling of classified
information.

Coincidentally, Strzok played a key role in the crafting of that
statement as well. The original draft of the July 2016 memo said
that Clinton "was grossly negligent with respect to the handling
of classified information." But Strzok later changed the memo's
language to say Clinton's actions were "extremely careless"
instead of grossly negligent. 

Strzok played a critical role in the Russia probe 

Aaron Bernstein/Reuters

During the same month that the FBI ended  its initial
investigation into Clinton's email use, the agency launched a
separate investigation into Russia's election interference and
possible collusion with the Trump campaign. Strzok was
the FBI agent who signed off on that investigation. 

But Strzok's role in the Russia investigation would end
about a year later, in August 2017, when the special counsel
Robert Mueller removed him from the
investigative team following revelations that Strzok made
disparaging remarks about Trump in text messages exchanged with
FBI lawyer Lisa Page. 

When the news of Strzok's firing surfaced last month, some
Republicans called for an investigation into what they
characterized as anti-Trump bias at the FBI and the Department of
Justice. Those calls intensified when Stephen Boyd, the assistant
attorney general for legislative affairs at the DOJ, said the
FBI's system was not able to preserve thousands of text messages
exchanged between Strzok and Page because of a technical glitch
with Samsung phones.

"Where are the 50,000 important text messages between FBI
lovers Lisa Page and Peter Strzok? Blaming Samsung!"
Trump tweeted
on January 23. 

A day later, the DOJ's Inspector General Michael Horowitz
announced that his office had
recovered those texts. 

Source link

Shorten URL's And Earn Money

The history of the

Tom Brady on the cover of "Madden NFL 18."EA SportsIn May it was announced that Tom Brady would be on the cover of EA Sports' "Madden NFL 18," the latest version of the popular video-game franchise. 

Much like the popular Sports Illustrated-cover curse, the Madden video game has its own eyebrow-raising history: the "Madden Curse."

Ever since athletes began appearing on the cover of Madden in the late '90s, they seem to almost immediately lose significant amounts of playing time because of injuries, run-ins with the law, or other reasons.

Below we document the long history of the "Madden Curse," with some help from NFL.com and DigitalTrends.com.

Early years of the Madden video-game franchise

EA Sports

In the early years of the Madden franchise, players occasionally appeared on the cover with John Madden, typically in the background. However, more often, Madden appeared on the cover by himself.

Madden 99 — Garrison Hearst

EA Sports

EA Sports tried something new for Madden 99 (released in 1998). While John Madden appeared on covers in North America, Garrison Hearst of the San Francisco 49ers appeared on the cover of the PAL version released in other parts of the world. In 1998, Hearst had his best season as a pro, rushing for 1,570 yards. However, on his first carry of the divisional playoff game against the Atlanta Falcons, he severely broke his ankle and he would miss the next two seasons. This is considered the beginning of the curse.

Madden 2000 — Barry Sanders

EA Sports

Barry Sanders is not always considered part of the curse, but we include him here for you to decide. Shortly after it was announced that he would be on the cover (behind John Madden in the background), he announced he was retiring from the NFL and would never play again. 

Madden 2001 — Eddie George

EA Sports

Eddie George is another one that is debated. George had career highs of 1,509 yards and 16 touchdowns during the 2000 season when the game was released. However, he severely injured his toe the following year and only played four more seasons.

Source: SI.com

Madden 2002 — Daunte Culpepper

EA Sports

Culpepper stormed onto the scene the year before with an NFL-best 33 touchdown passes. But in 2001 (the year the game was released), Culpepper injured his knee and missed the final five games of the season. 

Source: ESPN

Madden 2003 — Marshall Faulk

EA Sports

Faulk was coming off four straight seasons of at least 1,300 yards rushing and at least 2,000 yards from scrimmage. During the 2002 season, Faulk missed two games with an injury and was limited in several others. He finished with 953 yards rushing and played just three more seasons.

Madden 2004 — Michael Vick

EA Sports

Vick missed the first 11 games of the 2003 season with a broken leg he suffered on a scramble during a preseason game. The Falcons went 5-11 and missed the playoffs.

Source: SI.com

Madden 06 — Donovan McNabb

EA Sports

After the Philadelphia Eagles went to the Super Bowl the season before, McNabb suffered a sports hernia during the 2005 season. He tried to play through it, but eventually needed surgery and missed the final six weeks. The Eagles went 6-10.

Source: ESPN

Madden 07 — Shaun Alexander

EA Sports

In the season prior to being on the cover, Alexander rushed for 1,880 yards and set an NFL record with 28 touchdowns. However, in the 2006 season, Alexander broke a bone in his foot and missed six games. He rushed for just 896 yards and would only play two more seasons.

Source: Washington Post

Madden 08 — Vince Young

EA Sports

In the second season of what was a promising start to his career, Young strained his quadriceps and missed one game. He would only start 22 more games in his career and was out of the NFL five seasons later.

Source: ESPN.com

Madden 09 — Brett Favre

EA Sports

Favre had announced his retirement following the 2007 season. However he changed his mind. The Packers had already committed to Aaron Rodgers, so Favre was traded to the New York Jets. He didn't miss any time, but he did have to play for the Jets and the Packers would win another Super Bowl two years later.

Source: ESPN.com

Madden 10 — Troy Polamalu

EA Sports

After helping the Steelers win the Super Bowl in 2008, Polamalu missed 11 games because of an injured knee ligament. The Steelers missed the playoffs.

Source: ESPN.com

Madden 11 — Drew Brees

EA Sports

Drew Brees did not miss a game during the 2010 season. However, there were reports that he was hiding a broken bone in his leg. To add insult to injury (literally), the Saints would go on to lose to the 7-9 Seattle Seahawks in the playoffs, the first sub-.500 playoff team ever.

Madden 12 — Peyton Hillis

EA Sports

Hillis rushed for nearly 1,200 yards the year before appearing on the cover. He missed six games because of various injuries during the 2011 season and rushed for just 587 yards. He played just three more seasons and rushed for just 671 more yards in his career.

Madden 25 — Adrian Peterson

EA Sports

Peterson played in just one game during the 2014 season after he was charged with abusing his son with tree branch. After playing opening weekend, Peterson was ruled ineligible and later suspended by the NFL for the rest of the season.

Madden 18 — Tom Brady

EA

With only the Super Bowl left in the 2018 season, it appears that Brady has avoided the curse — knock on wood — even at 40 years old. The Patriots even traded both of Brady's backups, Jimmy Garoppolo and Jacoby Brissett. So maybe the curse is just a bunch of coincidences in a violent sport.

As for Brady, he doesn't believe in curses.

"I'm not one to believe in curses," Brady said after the cover was announced. "So I'm ready to take the challenge head on like always."

Now check out how the GOAT lives his life off the field.

Mike Coppola/Getty Images for People.com

Source link

Shorten URL's And Earn Money

A crypto company touted by rapper The Game just got hit with a lawsuit from investors who want their money back

Twitter

• 
  A cryptocurrency project looking to transform the pot
  industry with blockchain is facing a lawsuit, according to a
  Bloomberg Law report.
  


• 
  The suit claims that the offering was not registered
  with authorities and that investors want their money
  back.
  


• 
  Paragon first drew attention to its initial coin
  offering when it got the celebrity endorsement of rapper the
  Game. 
  

---

 

A cryptocurrency company looking to use blockchain technology to
transform the pot industry has been hit with a lawsuit, according
to a Bloomberg Law report. 

Paragon, the blockchain company founded by former Miss Iowa
Jessica Versteeg, did not register its initial coin
offering with the regulators, according to a suit filed with a
district court in California. 

The startup raised more than $70 million in its ICO, a
cryptocurrency fundraising method, "which investors now want
back, according to the complaint," Bloomberg Law reported.

"This suit is one of several brought by unhappy investors
against ICOs in the last few months, although no federal court
has yet held that ICOs are subject to securities laws," the
report adds.

A media contact who represented Versteeg in August did not
immediately respond to Business Insider's request for
comment. 

When Business Insider first reported on Paragon in August prior
to its ICO, Versteeg said the firm would address "real
problems in the cannabis industry."

"This isn't another Potcoin," she said referring to another
weed-focused cryptocurrency. "People will be pleasantly surprised
with what we are doing."

Celebrities such as rapper The Game drew attention to the ICO
when they endorsed it over social media. 

Regulators have been paying closer attention to the ICO market,
which is known for its fair share or big dreams and fraud. 

In December, SEC Chairman Jay Clayton had harsh words for ICOs
after the agency shut down an offering. Clayton
said in a blog post that despite claims of not being subject to
regulation, many of the digital coins were in fact securities and
thus subject to the agency’s authority.

"I believe that initial coin offerings – whether they
represent offerings of securities or not – can be effective ways
for entrepreneurs and others to raise funding, including for
innovative projects," he said.

"However, any such activity that involves an offering of
securities must be accompanied by the important disclosures,
processes and other investor protections that our securities laws
require."

The regulator's concern is that ICOs provide a way for companies
to solicit money from small-time investors without properly
disclosing risk.

Graham Rapier contributed reporting. 

Source link

Shorten URL's And Earn Money

In reversal, FEMA says it is not

EUTERS/Alvin Baez

The lights are still out for nearly half a million Puerto Ricans.

After Hurricane Maria struck the US territory on September 20, a crippling blackout descended over its 3.4 million residents, cutting communication between loved ones, spoiling food and life-saving medications, and nixing access to banks and clean water.

The death toll, initially estimated at 64, is now thought to be at least 1,000, according to a recent New York Times analysis. Earlier this week, FEMA told NPR is was "officially shutting off" aid to the US territory on January 31, but on Wednesday the agency reversed course and said an end date for support was not yet set.

Nearly four months after the storm, more than 450,000 Puerto Ricans remain without power, and thousands have no clean water.

It's the result of an abused electric grid left to rot — and what's happening in Puerto Rico could happen in many other parts of America. Here's what it looks like on the ground.

Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017. Nearly four months later, more than 450,000 Puerto Ricans are still living in a blackout.

The storm didn't just damage the island's already-fragile power supply. It also shredded flattened buildings, and leveled cars. Ernestina Lebron, a resident of Maunabo, still has no roof.

Life has not gotten back to normal. Hurricane Maria's death toll on the island is now thought to be closer to 1,052, according to a recent New York Times analysis.

REUTERS/Alvin Baez

Source: The New York Times

Puerto Rico's power grid is more of a patchwork than a unified network. The majority of its large power plants lie on its southern coast, but most of its people live in the north, beyond mountainous terrain that makes distributing power difficult.

Power plants owned by the US territory's bankrupt government-owned power authority, Prepa, are an average of 40 years old. In some areas, the only houses that are lit are being run by generators.

REUTERS/Alvin Baez

FEMA said it administered 30 million gallons of potable water, almost 60 million meals, $500 million of public assistance, and $3.2 million in unemployment to those affected in Puerto Rico.

In Humacao, a man rides a bicycle past downed cables and a partially collapsed utility pole. The sign reads: "Equestrian agency Tiki-Tiki."EUTERS/Alvin Baez

Source: NPR

One of the most challenging aspects of the storm was what residents described to Business Insider as a complete communication breakdown. Maritza Stanchich, a professor of Caribbean studies at the University of Puerto Rico, said she and her neighbors went almost a week with no news after the storm.

REUTERS/Alvin Baez

"There's an information shortage and a telecommunications collapse," Stanchich told Business Insider shortly after Maria struck in September. "That part is worse than not having water and electricity."

There was also sizable damage to medical facilities. Many hospitals were without power for days and hundreds of medications that required refrigeration spoiled.

Paula Feliciano talks on her mobile phone as her ailing husband Severo Cruz rests in bed in Naguabo.REUTERS/Alvin Baez

Today, all of Puerto Rico's hospitals have power, but several hundred Puerto Ricans may have died after Maria cut off emergency services and aid to the elderly and other at-risk populations.

In Humacao, a blacked-out province where people were using bacteria-infested streams for washing and laundry after Maria hit, the damage remains visible.

Across the island, utility poles are still down.

REUTERS/Alvin Baez

Thousands of homes have yet to be restored. Some still lack walls.

Many homes are still windowless; others have no power or water.

REUTERS/Alvin Baez

Nevertheless, people are making repairs where they can. Here, Lourdes Rodriguez cleans while her husband repairs the roof.

In a house nearby, Angel Morales and his wife Carmen Martinez board a window.

Still, some see a potential for hope in the destruction of an already-ailing grid.

REUTERS/Alvin Baez

The week after Hurricane Maria slammed Puerto Rico, Blake Richetta, the senior vice president of a renewable-energy company called Sonnen, boarded a plane bound for the island.

Sonnen makes solar batteries designed to supply homes with an independent source of energy, similar to the Powerwall systems built by Tesla.

Sonnen, Tesla, and a handful of other renewable energy companies are experimenting with providing power to the island using solar grids that do not rely on larger grid infrastructure.

"This is a time where we could help Puerto Rico take a major level jump," Richetta told Business Insider. "It's a humanitarian crisis, but it's also a huge opportunity for growth."

As FEMA ends official aid, much of the island is still reeling.

REUTERS/Alvin Baez

Source link

Shorten URL's And Earn Money