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You Can't Lead Effectively Without Trust https://ift.tt/2zgHxXv 6 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. If leaders want to be effective, they must earn the trust of those they lead. Developing trust is essential for your team's success and your success as a leader. According to a recent PwC survey of more than 1,400 CEOs worldwide, 55 percent of respondents believe a lack of trust is a serious threat to the success of their teams and their business. Related: 50 Rules for Being a Great Leader Trust isn't granted by others. Trust is earned through consistency, effective communication and follow-throughs. Leaders must be able to inspire their teams and influence them to act upon what they say. Even though trust takes time to earn, it can be lost very quickly. Here are five do's and don'ts for leaders to build trust: 1. Consistent, effective communication is key.Effective communication is key to earning influence as a leader. To be an effective communicator, you must communicate clearly, concisely and consistently. Priorities and goals must not be repeated continually but instead lived through a leader's actions and decisions. This requires intentional listening skills. Leaders must tune into what their employees are saying, both verbally and nonverbally. They must avoid distraction and listen with intent to hear the entire message. Leaders must commit to the ongoing improvement of their own communication skills. They must be open to letting others know they are always striving for personal development of communication skills. Doing so demonstrates your priority on effective communication skills and will encourage employees to do the same. Don't:
Related: 15 Ways to Lead With Effective Communication 2. Be transparent and trustworthy.Employees recognize lies and withheld truths. It's not appropriate for leaders to share all decisions openly, but leaders must be open and honest about what they can share. When leaders fail to be honest and earn trust, employees become less engaged in the workplace. This behavior creates an atmosphere of suspicion and undermines the relationship. To avoid having employees check out, recognize they are adults and equally invested in the organization's success. Be honest when providing feedback, both positive and negative. Be open about struggles and directional changes necessary to reach goals. When leaders allow employees to engage in conversation and decision-making, it drives loyalty and a deeper understanding. Openness, honesty and transparency are vital to building trustworthy relationships. Don't:
3. Don't play the blame game.Most employees want their organizations to succeed. No one wants to fail, and yet sometimes failure happens. We have all experienced times when great ideas fail to launch, decisions backfire and projects fall short of their objectives. Nevertheless, failure stings. Few things can add insult to injury like a leader who places blame for failure on someone or something. When leaders take a stand for the decision or idea and take responsibility for failure, it creates a deep sense of trust among employees. Additionally, it creates a sense of freedom for employees to think big and create, fully knowing they have a safe place to pursue great ideas. Few things build trust quite like knowing someone has your back and will support you in your actions. When leaders demonstrate faith in their employees and their decisions, employees reciprocate. Don't:
Related: 22 Qualities That Make a Great Leader 4. Create a connection.Leadership is not all about getting the job done. It's also about getting to know on a personal level the people doing the job. When leaders invest time getting to know employees more deeply, they create a genuine connection within the business. Take time to get to know your employees. Understand their interests, long-term professional goals and personal priorities. Understand how you can help them achieve their goals, both inside and outside of the office. Take time to regularly meet with your employees. Get out of your office and walk to their space. Acknowledge that building genuine relationships starts by building trust. When you invest in your employee's success, they'll invest in yours. Don't:
5. Lead by example.Leadership is all about leading by example. Team culture is created by leaders who set the tone based on actions and decisions. When leaders prioritize the need to improve their own communication skills, employees will as well. When leaders are honest and demonstrate transparency in their decision-making, employees will be honest in their actions, successes and failures. When leaders take ownership of bad choices and team failures, employees will work harder to seek success and take personal responsibility for their actions. By striving to develop a genuine connection with employees, team members will work harder to get to know each other, too. When leaders prioritize their team, the team will prioritize the team's success. Don't:
You cannot succeed on your own. Your success depends on your team. To experience success, start by investing in your organization and practicing actions that develop trust. Make your team a priority and commit to being the best leader you can be. Business via Entrepreneur https://ift.tt/1V7CpeP October 31, 2018 at 10:21AM
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The best shaving mirrors you can buy https://www.businessinsider.com/best-shaving-mirror?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=referral The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships, so we get a share of the revenue from your purchase.
More and more men are discovering the simple joy of the wet shave, but even if you use a cartridge or electric razor, at some point. you've performed your morning shave only to later discover upon closer inspection that some sneaky whiskers escaped your blade. If this has happened to you, then your razor might not be the problem — It could be your mirror. It's very easy to miss some whiskers on your neck or elsewhere on your face if the mirror in your bathroom isn't clear, large, or well-lit enough. If this is the case for you, or if you just want a fogless mirror you can use to shave in the shower so you can save a few minutes in the morning, then it may be time to add a dedicated shaving mirror to your kit. There are several different types of shaving mirrors, but they all share a few primary qualities. A shaving mirror needs to be large enough to use but not so bulky that it's awkward to mount in the shower or on a bathroom counter, it should be easy to securely install, and — if you're using it in the shower — it must resist fogging up due to steam. Additional features that offer some added convenience include lighting, angle adjustments, magnification, or a caddy for hanging things like razors and other accessories. Whether you want a shaving mirror that you can set up on your countertop, mount to your wall, hang in the shower, or take with you on the road, we've got you covered. We've rounded up the best shaving mirrors to suit just about any need, so read on to find the right one for your daily routine. Here are the best shaving mirrors you can buy:
Read on in the slides below to check out our top picks.The best shaving mirror overallToiletTeeeWhy you'll love it: Durable, fogless, affordable, and with features not found on other shaving mirrors, the ToiletTree shaving mirror is the best you can buy.
When shopping for a shaving mirror online, you'll encounter a number of different features designed to prevent the mirror's surface from fogging up in the shower. These typically include some sort of anti-fog coating, while other more minimalist designs require you to heat up the mirror itself to ward off condensation. One design stands head and shoulders above the rest, however, making it our top pick for the best shaving mirror that you can buy. The ToiletTree shower mirror features a unique reservoir made to hold hot water, keeping the mirror at a similar temperature to the steamy air in your shower. Condensation occurs when the hot, steamy air comes in contact with a cooler surface — The mirror on your bathroom wall likely fogs up when you take a hot shower, so you can imagine that a mirror in the shower will do the same. The ToiletTree shaving mirror's reservoir takes a few seconds to fill up, but it works brilliantly and is easy to use. Just pop the mirror off of its mounting bracket, fill the reservoir with hot water from the shower head or bath faucet, and snap everything back into place. The mirror itself tilts upwards or downwards and features a handy razor caddy. This caddy also holds a removable squeegee that you can use to quickly wipe down the surface of the mirror if you need to. Another nice touch with the ToiletTree shaving mirror is its mounting system: The mirror housing adheres to your shower wall with waterproof double-sided tape. We find this to be a superior mounting method than the suction cups you'll see on other shaving mirrors, as there is little to no real risk of the mirror tumbling off the wall. There are three variants of the ToiletTree shaving mirror. The standard model for $28, a larger option at $33, and a lighted version that rings in at $40. All have the same solid build quality, tilting design, razor caddy (the large model can actually hold two razors), and hot water reservoir, so which one you pick is up to you and your needs. Pros: Hot water reservoir wards off fog and out-performs other designs, secure adhesive mounting system, can be tilted up and down, available in larger and lighted models, and features a handy razor caddy Cons: The tilting mechanism can weaken over time if used frequently Buy the ToiletTree fogless shaving mirror on Amazon for $28 to $40The best lighted and magnified shaving mirrorElfinaWhy you'll love it: If your eyes need more help hunting down stray whiskers than a regular mirror can offer, then the Elfina's lighted bezel and 10x magnification can make it easier to achieve a perfect shave every time.
Many guys buy shaving mirrors for use in the shower in order to shave some time off of their morning grooming routine and to more easily keep the hair and shaving cream mess contained. Others, however, simply need more help with hunting down those tricky stray whiskers than regular mirrors can provide. Enter the magnified mirror. Magnified mirrors are popular among women for applying makeup, but men are also discovering their utility for shaving, too, as the growing popularity of magnified shaving mirrors shows. This magnification typically runs from 3x to 8x, but our pick, the Elfina shaving mirror, offers an impressive 10x magnification power. The Elfina shaving mirror also boasts an LED-lighted bezel surrounding the entire mirror's surface, which is sufficiently bright without being distracting or headache-inducing. Also unique about the mirror is its mounting system. It features a base with an attached suction cup that lets you mount it right onto your bathroom mirror, and a locking mechanism lets you tighten it down securely to ensure that it won't loosen and fall off over time. This mirror is not meant for use in the shower, but the flip-side of this is that the locking suction mount is very secure as it's not getting wet. The mirror itself also rotates 360 degrees on its base thanks to its ball socket connection so you can position and adjust it however you need to. At $26, the lighted and magnified Elfina shaving mirror offers a lot of utility for the money. Pros: Securely mounts to glass or tile thanks to its locking suction cup mechanism, 10x magnification shows everything in close detail, rotates 360 degrees on its base, 16 LED lights provide excellent lighting when needed, and it's a great value for its features Cons: The suction cup mount only works on smooth surfaces like glass or tile, and it's not made to be used in the shower Buy the Elfina lighted and magnified shaving mirror on Amazon for $26The best countertop shaving mirrorHamilton HillsWhy you'll love it: With a functional no-nonsense design paired with a sleek polished steel aesthetic, the hotel-quality Hamilton Hills countertop shaving mirror offers nice low-powered magnification.
Shower mirrors are great, but they're not for everybody. If you do a traditional wet shave, for instance, then it may be a hassle to lug your shaving tackle — brush, razor, soap, mug, etc. — into the shower every morning. But if your bathroom's wall mirror isn't doing the trick, then a good countertop mirror with some magnification, like this great-looking example from Hamilton Hills, is a fine solution. The Hamilton Hills shaving mirror has a sturdy stainless steel base with a polished chrome-like surface that lends it an elegant and luxurious appearance. In fact, if you frequent hotels, then this aesthetic might look familiar. For decades, Hamilton Hills has supplied mirrors (including this one) to top-rated hotel chains around the world. This countertop mirror measures in at 11 inches tall in total, with a 7-inch wide circular reflective surface that rotates 360 degrees on its ball socket base attachment. The stainless steel base itself is five inches wide and features rubber feet on the bottom to keep it securely in place. All in all, the metal construction feels weighty and sturdy for all its sleekness, and doesn't feel like it will easily tip over or get knocked off a bathroom counter. Also notable about the Hamilton Hills countertop shaving mirror is that it has a subtle 3x magnification, which is a nice "sweet spot" that shows things in finer detail without blowing up your reflection too much. If the 10x magnification of the Elfina mirror to be overkill for your needs but you still want something magnified, then you'll find this to be a happy medium. Although the countertop design is our favorite, the Hamilton Hills shaving mirror comes in another wall-mounted rectangular variant as well. This is also high-quality (and looks just as great), but to see our favorite wall-mounted shaving mirror, read on for our next pick. Pros: A sturdy yet sleek countertop base, 3x magnification enhances detail without blowing things up too much, the mirror can rotate and swivel 360 degrees, and it has a great-looking and elegant polished steel design Cons: It's not suitable for shower use Buy the Hamilton Hills magnified shaving mirror on Amazon for $30 to $50See the rest of the story at Business Insider See Also:
Business via Business Insider https://ift.tt/1IpULic October 31, 2018 at 10:21AM
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University of Maryland reinstates football coach following following investigation into death of a player during practice https://www.businessinsider.com/maryland-football-dj-durkin-2018-10?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=referral Rob Carr/Getty Images
McNair collapsed after running sprints at a team workout on May 29 and was later hospitalized with heatstroke. He died two weeks later. The decision to bring Durkin back was announced by the University System of Maryland board of regents, who were investigating McNair's death and the team's football program. "We believe that Coach Durkin has been unfairly blamed for the dysfunction in the athletic department," USM board chair James T. Brady said after the announcement. "While he bears some responsibility, it is not fair to place all of it at his feet." In a statement, Durkin said he was proud of his team. "Our thoughts have and will continue to be with Jordan's family," Durkin said. "I am proud that the team has remained united and represented themselves and the University well during this difficult time." Many people close with the program are disappointed with the decision. According to ESPN's Heather Dinich and Adam Rittenberg, several players, including starters, walked out of the meeting where the news was announced to the team. McNair's family also expressed disgust with the decision. "How can a student-athlete be called a p---y as he is in the early stages of death, dying before their eyes, with no action taken, and yet no one be held accountable?" asked Hassan Murphy, the attorney representing the McNair family. Several of McNair's teammates posted of their disappointment with the decision as well. According to Dinich and Rittenberg, reinstating Durkin was of high priority to the USM board, which could not directly make hiring and firing decisions regarding the coach. However, according to ESPN, they put pressure on the school's president Wallace Loh to retain the coach. "Because they can't hire and fire anybody, which they finally realized, they told Wallace Loh that they wanted him to bring DJ back, and the clear message was that if Loh was not willing to bring DJ back right away they would fire [Loh] immediately and then see who the acting president was and get that person to [retain Durkin]." The investigation was prompted in part by an earlier ESPN report that uncovered a "toxic culture" within the Maryland football program fostered under Durkin. "It shows a cultural problem that Jordan knew that if he stopped, they would challenge his manhood, he would be targeted," one of McNair's teammates told ESPN at the time. "He had to go until he couldn't." NOW WATCH: What marijuana looks like under the microscope See Also:
SEE ALSO: Only 12 schools still have a legit shot to make the College Football Playoff Business via Business Insider https://ift.tt/1IpULic October 31, 2018 at 10:21AM
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Money troubles, feuding heirs, and Netflix: Inside the 40-year journey to finish Orson Welles' last movie https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-orson-welles-final-movie-the-other-side-of-the-wind-on-netflix-2018-10?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=referral Netflix
42 years after Orson Welles was finally finished with his movie, “The Other Side of the Wind” (which took him 6 years to complete principal photography on), Netflix will release it on its streaming service Friday. For movie lovers, it’s the ultimate “lost movie,” a work that the iconic director toiled over until his death on October 5, 1985, but never completed. For Welles fans, it’s a glimpse into the evolution of their maestro. He will always be known for making “Citizen Kane,” which many still regard as the greatest movie ever made, yet with this movie he proved he could make something as edgy and forward-thinking as the up-and-comers of the era like Dennis Hopper, Francis Ford Coppola, and William Friedkin. But for those who have spent years (and in some cases decades) trying to get Welles’ final film to the public, this weekend marks the time they can finally take a giant exhale. “I’m thrilled to be done,” producer Frank Marshall (behind the Indiana Jones and “Jurassic Park” franchises) told Business Insider with a laugh. He was also a production manager on “The Other Side of the Wind” when he was 25. “It was a long and tortured road, at times,” producer Filip Jan Rymsza said looking back. He worked the last nine and a half years trying to settle the copyright issues surrounding the movie. In many ways, the story of how “The Other Side of the Wind” finally made it to audiences is as epic as Welles’ ambitions for the movie itself. 6 years of 'the poor man's process'In 1970, Welles was back in Los Angeles after living in self-exile in Europe for more than a decade. Sensing the independent film wave that was building in America following the success of Dennis Hopper’s “Easy Rider,” Welles was ready for a comeback, and the project that would bring the auteur back into the zeitgeist would be the strangely titled “The Other Side of the Wind.” It’s a tale that feels as if Welles bottled everything that happened to him in the latter half of his life and spilled it into a script — though he always claimed the movie wasn't autobiographical. You can be the judge. The movie follows the final day in the life of famed director Jake Hannaford (played by a famed director, John Huston). Celebrating his 70th birthday, Hannaford is trying to get the finishing funds to complete his comeback movie after being in Europe for years. Told mostly using handheld, faux-documentary footage (some in color, some in black-and-white), the bulk of the movie takes place at his birthday party, where Hannaford has brought financiers, critics, filmmakers, and film students to come and see the footage of his movie (which is shot on pristine high-quality film). Welles cast the party with real film students, real filmmakers (Dennis Hopper, Henry Jaglom, and Paul Mazurksy all appear chatting about the craft), as well as his good friend and fellow filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich in the role of Brooks Otterlake, a rising-star director who owes his career to Hannaford. This very much mirrored the real-life relationship Welles had with Bogdanovich. In fact, during the making of the movie, Bogdanovich went and made "The Last Picture Show," which would give him auteur status like his mentor. NetflixAs depicted in Josh Karp’s book, “Orson Welles’s Last Movie: The Making of the Other Side of the Wind,” the six-year process to make “The Other Side of the Wind” was filled with many starts and stops as Welles constantly was looking for enough money to continue shooting. The script was changed almost daily by Welles, location shoots were often done without proper permits (a lot of it was shot at Bogdanovich’s home during the years Welles lived there), and scenes were pulled off in low-budget ways. Read more: This book on iconic filmmaker Orson Welles looks at his infamous final movie Take, for instance, one of the movie’s most memorable scenes: the sex scene inside a car featuring Welles’ collaborator and mistress Oja Kodar as the rain is pouring outside. “It was the poor man’s process,” Marshall said of the scene, which he was on set for the shooting of. “We were just shaking the car to make it look like it was moving, would walk by with lights so it looked like cars were passing by, and had a garden hose for the rain.” With Welles pinching pennies to get the movie finished, it was impossible to fathom how he’d find the money for post production. Let's make a dealFor years, Welles was very much like Hannaford, searching for deep pockets to finish his movie. Even when Welles was honored with the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award in 1975, a portion of his acceptance speech was him pitching “The Other Side of the Wind.” Sadly, by the time of his death, Welles only had a 40-minute cut of the movie to show for the six years of effort he put into making it. Left behind, along with the cut, were hours of footage, notes on how to shape it all into a feature film, and mass confusion about who really owned it all. When Welles died in 1985, he left many of his assets to his estranged wife, Paola Mori, and following her death a year later, they were inherited by their daughter, Beatrice Welles. But Welles also left assets, like “The Other Side of the Wind” and other unfinished projects, to Kodar. Then there was a third party who claimed ownership, Mehdi Bushehri, the brother-in-law of the Shah of Iran. In Welles’ search for self financing on “The Other Side of the Wind,” which gave him the artistic control he craved, the director found a French-based Iranian group headed by Bushehri. Through years of tension between Welles and Bushehri’s company during production, things only got worse when funding became non-existent after the Shah was overthrown in 1979. However, Bushehri continued to have an ownership stake in the movie. This was the mess Marshall found himself in starting in the 1990s, when he tried to help Bogdanovich and others finish what Welles started. Though there was the 40-minute Welles cut they could show potential investors, most of the movie was locked away in a Paris vault. Getty“I kept meeting with financiers — people from Canada, people from Europe, people from Malibu,” Marshall said. “They all had an idea of how to do this and the more we talked about it the more riskier it got for them. And then they would not come back.” Then, when it seemed someone could pull it off and get the money needed, the three parties that needed to agree — Beatrice Welles, Oja Kodar, and Mehdi Bushehri — couldn’t. “Everyone wanted the film to be completed,” Rymsza said, “they just wanted it done on their own terms. It was a minefield. And if you made an enemy with this group you made an enemy for life, so that was the tricky part.” And as more and more potential financiers went to the wayside, the legend of “The Other Side of the Wind” only grew. While writing the book, Karp was told stories of footage from the movie having been seen all over the world. The movie’s cinematographer, Gary Graver, kept footage of the movie in his refrigerator. Karp even remembers one of the directors who made a cameo in the movie, Paul Mazurksy, telling him that one day at a farmers’ market someone walked up to him and whispered, “Hey, you ever seen ‘The Other Side of the Wind?'” and that he was given an address and a time to see it. “The stories were just crazy,” Karp said. “There was also stories of this mythical three-hour cut of the movie that people told me they saw that Welles was very close to completing.” However, Karp could never prove that such a print existed. It's just another story that elevated the myth of “The Other Side of the Wind.” Thanks Netflix, now open the vaultWhat finally led to the vault in Paris being opened so the movie could be completed and released was Netflix. One of the biggest challenges a potential investor had to take, outside of the cost for the rights all three parties would agree on, was the unknown price tag for competing the movie. Both Marshall and Rymsza said they drew up separate budgets for the cost to complete post production, but without seeing the footage and its condition, they had one hand tied behind their backs. “I didn't know it would be 100 hours of material,” Rymsza said. “I had done a paper inventory and so I knew the amount of film elements but it’s difficult to foresee how much material there is and a lot of these factors would drive the cost of post.” NetflixRymsza would not divulge how much his original budget was, only saying it was a “significant price tag” and that they did go over budget to complete the movie. Netflix announced in August it would give the funds needed to compete the movie (it also greenlit the documentary, “They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead,” in which director Morgan Neville looks back on the making of the movie). Along with a score being made for the movie, and special effects done to complete the drive-in movie scenes, there wasn’t any sound for three weeks of shooting, so that was a major undertaking. Also, a team of negative cutters had to come in to reconstruct the original negative of the movie, which took months. However, Netflix never wavered in backing the project. So what is the movie really about?“The Other Side of the Wind” is a fascinating look at a legend trying to get back on top. But is it autobiographical? It’s hard to not come to that conclusion after watching the movie, which seems to also explore Welles' complicated relationship with Bogdanovich. The most compelling moments of the movie are when Hannaford and Otterlake are having conversations about their work and their friendship. And on set, it was more than obvious to those who were there that Welles was putting his relationship with Bogdanovich on screen. Take, for example, at the end of the movie in the drive-in, when Otterlake is speaking to Hannaford and at one point says to his mentor, “What did I do wrong, Daddy?” “Huston wasn't there that day for that scene,” Marshall recalled. “Peter was playing it to Orson. Orson was also directing him and his direction to Peter for that scene was, ‘It's us.’” NetflixBogdanovich didn’t just drop everything to be in “The Other Side of the Wind” whenever he was called upon by Welles, or let him live in his home with his then-wife Cybill Shepherd, he also invested money in the movie to keep it going. Welles was grateful, but had a weird way of showing it sometimes, like the time he went on “The Tonight Show” and made fun of Bogdanovich with guest host Burt Reynolds. But despite all that, Bogdanovich has never faltered in trying to accomplish his mentor’s final request: finish “The Other Side of the Wind” if he died. “Peter became a much more heroic figure to me in just how much he cared about Orson,” Karp, who is also a producer on the documentary, said about talking to Bogdanovich for the book. “Welles took a lot from Peter and Peter got a lot from Welles. Welles truly loved him but in a way that probably didn’t feel like he was being very appreciated at the time. But Peter is a true believer, and there’s a lot to be said about that.” “The Other Side of the Wind” and “They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead” are both available Friday on Netflix. NOW WATCH: How 'The Price Is Right' is made See Also:
Business via Business Insider https://ift.tt/1IpULic October 31, 2018 at 10:15AM
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FedEx has ended its NRA deal after months of pressure from anti-gun groups, but says it's just about business (FDX) https://www.businessinsider.com/fedex-ends-nra-deal-discounts-2018-10?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=referral Spencer Platt / Getty Images
FedEx will no longer offer special discounts to members of the National Rifle Association. The New York Times reported on Tuesday that a company spokesperson said the decision had nothing to do with the recent mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue, which left 11 people dead. Rather, the FedEx spokesperson said that a review prompted the company to revoke discounts from over 100 companies that did not "bring in enough shipping volume" to justify the program. But FedEx has long been under scrutiny over its ties with the gun-rights organization, as gun-control activists have increasingly pressured businesses to cut ties with the NRA. Read more: How Americans really feel about gun control The shipping company previously told Business Insider in February that "the NRA uses UPS and not FedEx" for shipping from its online store. UPS subsequently countered that it did not offer NRA members discounts. FedEx is now following in the footsteps of a whole slew of companies that have already pulled the plug on NRA-related benefits, including Delta Airlines, Hertz, MetLife, and Best Western. While the company says its decision was purely financially motivated, Parkland shooting survivor and gun-control activist David Hogg tweeted his support for FedEx's move: NOW WATCH: HENRY BLODGET: The NRA's extremism hurts gun owners, NRA members, and America See Also:
SEE ALSO: As America becomes more polarized, private companies are getting pushed into the political spotlight DON'T FORGET: Google reveals how America really feels about guns in two maps Business via Business Insider https://ift.tt/1IpULic October 31, 2018 at 10:15AM
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Labour Brexiteers will 'reconsider' their support for Theresa May's Brexit deal https://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonnell-labour-brexiters-will-vote-down-theresa-may-deal-to-bring-down-government-2018-10?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=referral Simon Dawson / Reuters
LONDON — Labour Brexiteers will ultimately drop their support for Theresa May's Brexit plans and vote down any deal she brings back from Brussels, the Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has claimed. May's government is reportedly hoping up to 30 Labour MPs will join with the prime minister and back her Brexit deal. However, speaking to reporters on Wednesday morning, the Shadow Chancellor predicted that Labour's Brexit rebels would, in the end, reverse their support for May's deal. McDonnell claimed that Labour's staunch pro-Brexit MPs have told him they would consider voting against May's Brexit deal in order to bring down the Conservatives and install a Labour government. "Last time [MPs voted on Brexit legislation] there was Kelvin [Hopkins], Graham Stringer, Kate Hoey and Frank Field, [who voted with May]" McDonnell said. "I had a chat with them while the division bells were going on but Graham Stringer, in particular, said 'I can't vote with you this time John but this government will fall apart in the autumn and I'll reconsider.' He added: "So some of them might reconsider. There'll be small numbers." With May facing the prospect of Conservative and DUP MPs voting against a Brexit deal this winter, the prime minister may have to rely on support from Labour MPs to get an agreement with the EU through Parliament. Downing Street briefed last month that it had spoken to up to 30 Labour MPs who said they were considering voting with the government, including Remain-voting MPs like Lisa Nandy, Caroline Flint and Gareth Snell. However, all of the Labour MPs reputed to be on the list told Business Insider that they hadn't even been approached by the government. Sources within the People's Vote campaign have told BI that they expect an "absolute maximum of 15" to vote in favour of the deal. 'If they can't get a deal, move alongside and we'll negotiate'Leon Neal/Getty ImagesSpeaking at a post-budget briefing, McDonnell said business figures had expressed their concern about the state of Brexit negotiations. "The big issue today is Brexit and where we are going from here," he said. "We were here to say to people that we are just as worried as they are about the uncertainty and lack of assurance from the government about getting a deal. We are really worried about the role that Philip Hammond is playing. "On one hand, at times he reverts to his Singapore tax haven island off the coast of continental Europe and other times warning about no deal. I keep saying to him, he's got to stand up in Cabinet and say there has to be a deal." He dodged BI's question on whether Labour would set aside money for no deal Brexit preparations, saying: "We've said to them [the government] get on with the deal and if they can't get a deal, move alongside and we'll negotiate. "No deal would be pretty catastrophic and we are convinced there's a deal to be had. They know that. We'll support a deal if it protects jobs and the economy." NOW WATCH: Here's what caffeine does to your body and brain See Also:
DON'T MISS: Britain risks a long Brexit recession as negotiators struggle to secure a deal Business via Business Insider https://ift.tt/1IpULic October 31, 2018 at 10:15AM
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These are the 20 safest and most crime-free countries in the world https://www.businessinsider.com/these-are-the-20-safest-and-most-crime-free-countries-in-the-world-2018-10?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=referral Jon Connell/Flickr/Attribution license Economics and security are closely connected; a strong economy and safe citizenry each enable the improvement of the other. The World Economic Forum takes a nation's security into account for its annual Global Competitiveness Report, focusing on the threats that organized crime, terrorism, homicide rates, and reliability of its police force can pose to a nation's place in the global economy. The US ranks as the 56th most secure country in the world, falling just short of China at 55. Here are the top 20 safest countries in the world, according to the forum's Oct. 16, 2018 report: 20. Canadatuchodi/Flickr/Attribution license19. BahrainLisa Ferdinando/DoD photo18. SpainGregorio Puga Bailon/Flickr/Attribution licenseSee the rest of the story at Business Insider See Also:
Business via Business Insider https://ift.tt/1IpULic October 31, 2018 at 10:15AM
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iRobot partners with Google to improve smart home devices with indoor maps https://ift.tt/2Ddk5il Robot vacuums’ floor maps might one day be used for more than navigating furniture and forgotten piles of laundry, if Google and iRobot have their way. Today, the two firms announced a strategic partnership to improve smart home devices using spatial data collected by iRobot’s robot vacuum cleaners. “iRobot is delivering products that help people keep a cleaner and smarter home,” Colin Angle, chairman and CEO of iRobot, said. “Robots with mapping and spatial awareness capabilities will play an important role in allowing other smart devices in the home to more seamlessly work together. We’re looking forward to working with Google to explore new ways to enable a more thoughtful home.” iRobot’s newer Roomba vacuums — including the i7+, which launched this fall — can create indoor maps of rooms within domiciles and effectively “remember” where they’ve been. Thanks to a combination of the company’s iAdapt 3.0 Navigation tech, a top-mounted camera, and visual simultaneous localization and mapping (VSLAM), they’re able to navigate to destinations using their surroundings to orient themselves, all the while autonomously segmenting out rooms before sweeping. Executives from Google and iRobot told The Verge that the indoor maps could be used to locate products in a room, or to assign names and locations to devices and appliances automatically. iRobot previously hinted that in the future, it plans to allow users to share floor plans with other connected devices. Michele Turner, director at Google’s smart home ecosystem division, couched the partnership as an evolution of its past collaborations with iRobot. The aforementioned i7 has Google Assistant integration — owners can instruct it to clean specific rooms with a voice command. “Over the past year, we’ve been working hard to make it easier to control all the devices and appliances in your home with the Google Assistant with just your voice,” Michele Turner, director at Google’s smart home ecosystem division, said in a statement. “We’re excited to be exploring with iRobot how its unique spatial awareness technology can work with the Assistant to offer customers a more intuitive and personalized experience in their homes.” The idea of robot vacuums sending maps of your home to Google might sound a bit creepy on its face, but Turner explained to The Verge that info sharing will be strictly voluntary, and that none of the collected data will be used for marketing or ad targeting. “This data doesn’t help current Google products,” Turner said. “This data is not getting fed into some larger morass of Google information.” This week’s announcement comes roughly a year after iRobot announced it would investigate selling spatial mapping data to smart home companies. In an interview with Reuters, Colin Angle, chief executive of Roomba maker iRobot, said that he expected to sign up customers within “the next couple of years.” “There’s an entire ecosystem of things and services that the smart home can deliver once you have a rich map of the home that the user has allowed to be shared,” Angle said. It’s a wise pivot. While the cleaning robot market is forecast to be worth $4.43 billion by 2023, according to analysts at MarketsandMarkets, the broader smart home sector is projected to grow to $40.9 billion in the next year. iRobot isn’t the only firm tapping machine intelligence to map apartments and houses, of course. Neato earlier this year announced the Botvac D4 Connected and Botvac D6 Connect, both of which use lidar sensors to detect nearby obstacles. And in September, Dyson announced the 360 Heuris, an autonomous vacuum cleaner with a night vision- and laser-equipped navigation system. Business via VentureBeat https://venturebeat.com October 31, 2018 at 10:04AM
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If iPad Pros are computers, Apple should become transparent with specs https://ift.tt/2qnP6Yl One of the big themes at Apple’s “More in the Making” event yesterday was the iPad’s emergence as a major computing platform — a rival to the notebook industry, and computers as a whole. Apple CEO Tim Cook began his introduction of the new iPad Pro by positioning the tablet lineup as more successful than any notebook.
Up until now, Apple has marketed iPads as a soft alternative to laptops — simpler, more affordable devices that can be used for specific types of content creation, increasing in capability with each generation. The soft pitch went hard yesterday; Apple is now treating the iPad as a serious alternative to laptops, with the chip performance, professional software support, and pricing to match. You can now buy an $1,899 iPad Pro with a 12.9-inch screen, 1TB of storage, and Gigabit LTE cellular capabilities — a product and price Apple wouldn’t have chosen without at least a small potential audience. But there’s a problem: Apple’s lack of transparency when it comes to iPad specs. For years, journalists have tried to get the company to go on the record about even basic iPad specs — the base and turbo clock speeds of CPUs, RAM sizes and speeds, and GPU details, to name a few — yet when it comes to iPads, Apple reps repeatedly fall back on some variation of the statement, “we don’t really like to talk about specs.” They’ll generally only reaffirm whatever was announced in a keynote or press release. I can understand Apple’s past position. iPads are supposed to be “magical,” and specs provide quantification, moving the focus away from day one enjoyment towards verification and nitpicking. It’s easier to avoid disappointing users if they don’t know exactly what they’re buying, or why it’s falling short of some abstract measurement of performance. In the computer world, however, customers have traditionally had the right to know exactly what they’re buying. Marketing a computer as “great for photo or video editing” doesn’t mean much if people can’t meaningfully compare its speed to other computers. Similarly, not knowing how much RAM is inside a computer prevents you from understanding its ability to handle multiple apps or web pages at once, say nothing of its potential for dealing with large files. Having no insight into its GPU details leaves unclear whether it’s closer to a Chromebook or an Alienware laptop. By pushing the iPad Pro firmly into performance and pricing competition with Intel-based laptops, Apple has crossed the “soft alternative” line — yet it’s still trying to use soft specs to sell iPads. How fast is the “monster” A12X Bionic chip? Apple didn’t provide any hard numbers: Hardware VP John Ternus said only that it was markedly faster in several regards than Apple’s prior-generation chip… which the company also didn’t provide hard specs for. We were told that the iPad Pro is “faster than 92 percent of all portable PCs… including the most popular Core i7 models from the top manufacturers.” But how is anyone supposed to quantify that? If Apple’s argument is that its devices contain such special parts that they can’t be fairly compared with other products, sorry, I’m not buying it. I recognize that Apple has tightly engineered its software and hardware to be more efficient than rival options, but if one iPhone has 3GB of RAM, another has 4GB of RAM, and a competitor has 10GB of RAM, users deserve to know that. Apple can explain why the numbers aren’t comparable, but it can’t just keep omitting them from its disclosures. I mention that point not just because Apple’s website currently omits RAM disclosures for its iPads, but also because word spread after yesterday’s keynote that 1TB iPad Pro models will supposedly include more RAM (6GB rather than 4GB) than the less capacious Pros. No one offered either an explanation or attribution for this claim. Similar details have popped up at prior events, always without attribution or official guarantees of accuracy. In my experience, this sort of detail comes almost exclusively from Apple employees who are speaking “off the record” to certain writers. The RAM claim doesn’t appear anywhere on Apple’s web site, isn’t widely accessible to customers, and for all people know, may or may not even be true. Selectively disclosing key specs to individual writers wasn’t a good practice before, and it’s an especially bad practice now that the iPad Pro is directly taking on PC laptops. If iPads want to be taken seriously, Apple needs to stop playing games with its tablet specs and make the same disclosures it’s already making for Macs. Business via VentureBeat https://venturebeat.com October 31, 2018 at 10:04AM
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Jamal Khashoggi was strangled then chopped into pieces, Turkey says — the most detailed official account of his death so far https://ift.tt/2Q9Bsnd Chris McGrath/Getty Images
Jamal Khashoggi was strangled shortly after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, and his body was dismembered afterward, Turkish officials said. Irfan Fidan, the chief prosecutor of Istanbul, made the announcement on Wednesday. It is the most detailed official account of the journalist's death so far. Khashoggi went missing after entering his country's consulate in Istanbul on October 2. Saudi Arabia acknowledged his death 17 days after the disappearance, but claimed it was an accident after a fistfight. It then admitted six days afterward that the murder was preplanned. The kingdom — which has been trying to distance its crown prince from the crisis — has shifted its version of events multiple times. Reuters Fidan also demanded that his Saudi counterpart detail the whereabouts of Khashoggi's body. Unnamed Saudi officials previously claimed that Khashoggi's body was wrapped up in some kind of fabric and given to a local Turkish co-conspirator. He also demanded that the 18 suspects Saudi Arabia arrested over Khashoggi's killing be sent to Istanbul, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made the same demand yesterday. Fidan's statement came after Saudi's top prosecutor, Saud Al Mojeb, visited Istanbul this week to discuss the kingdom's investigation into Khashoggi's death. An unnamed Turkish official told Agence France-Presse on Wednesday that Saudi officials appeared unwilling to share intelligence over the probe. The official said: "The Saudi officials seemed primarily interested in finding out what evidence the Turkish authorities had against the perpetrators." "We did not get the impression that they were keen on genuinely cooperating with the investigation," they added. Business Insider has contacted Saudi Arabia's embassy in Washington, DC, for comment. NOW WATCH: Why most people refuse to sell their lottery tickets for twice what they paid See Also:
Business via Business Insider https://ift.tt/1IpULic October 31, 2018 at 10:03AM |
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