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fh365 By Ja'han Jones Pete Hegseth, the politically inexperienced weekend Fox News host whom Trump has tapped to lead the Pentagon, has been embroiled in scandal over the past week. The controversy has largely centered on reports that Hegseth paid off a woman who accused him of sexual assault, while he claims the encounter was consensual. (NBC obtained a copy of the police report ; a spokesperson for Hegseth said, “The incident was fully investigated and police found the allegation to be false, which is why no charges were filed.” The police did not provide a reason for the decision not to file charges.) However, Hegseth’s actual politics have gotten far less attention, and in particular his apparent ties to Christian nationalism. That issue came into focus initially because two of Hegseth’s tattoo are a ssociated with far-right extremist groups (Hegseth has said that the accusation is “ anti-Christian bigotry ”). Hegseth is doing little to dispel the perception of extremism, as earlier this week he called for an “educational insurgency” to take over American schools. As Right Wing Watch flagged , Hegseth made his comments Monday on a right-wing podcast while discussing a book he published in 2022 , in which he and his co-author vowed to give “patriotic parents the ammunition to join an insurgency that gives America a fighting chance” against educators. Hegseth has ties to Christian nationalists , who see religiously affiliated schools — some of which receive public funds — as key to their efforts to blur the line between church and state . On the podcast Monday, Hegseth agreed when one of the hosts suggested Christian schools should be seen as bootcamps to groom children for the so-called insurgency. “That’s what the crop of these classical Christian schools are gonna do in a generation,” Hegseth said. “Policy answers like school choice, while they’re great, that’s phase two stuff later on once the foothold has been taken, once the recruits have graduated boot camp.” Hegseth continued: We call it a tactical retreat. We draw out in the last part of the book what an educational insurgency would look like, because I was a counterinsurgency instructor in Afghanistan and kind of the phases that Mao [Zedong] wrote about: We’re in middle phase one right now, which is effectively a tactical retreat where you regroup, consolidate and reorganize. And as you do so, you build your army underground with the opportunity later on of taking offensive operations in an overt way.” “Obviously, all of this is metaphorical and all that good stuff,” Hegseth added. Ask yourself: In a country where school violence is commonplace, do Americans really need a defense secretary who has promoted a war — figurative or not — on American schools? Consider the message this might send at a time when right-wing religious extremists already portray schools as enemy territory . And then consider how it looks to have the top civilian leader of the United States military affirming their views. It’s typical for defense secretaries to have battle plans, of course, but if he’s confirmed, Hegseth will be unique in that the war he’s most prepared to wage isn’t against a foreign combatant but against institutions and people he’ll be sworn to protect. Ja'han Jones is The ReidOut Blog writer. He's a futurist and multimedia producer focused on culture and politics. His previous projects include "Black Hair Defined" and the "Black Obituary Project."

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Pelicans vs. Thunder Injury Report Today – December 7/ NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES ./ CALGARY, AB , Nov. 25, 2024 /CNW/ - Tourmaline Oil Corp. TOU (" Tourmaline " or the " Selling Shareholder ") and Topaz Energy Corp. TPZ (" Topaz " or the " Company ") announced today that they have entered into an agreement with Peters & Co. Limited and BMO Capital Markets (the " Lead Underwriters "), on behalf of a syndicate of underwriters (together with the Lead Underwriters, the " Underwriters "), pursuant to which the Underwriters have agreed to purchase, on a bought deal basis, from Tourmaline 8,700,000 common shares of the Company (the " Common Shares ") at a price of $27.80 per Common Share (the " Offering Price ") for total gross proceeds to the Selling Shareholder of approximately $242 million (the " Offering "). The Underwriters will have an option to purchase up to an additional 15% of the Common Shares issued under the Offering at the Offering Price to cover over-allotments and for market stabilization purposes exercisable in whole or in part at any time until 30 days after the closing. The Company will not receive any of the proceeds of the Offering. The Selling Shareholder currently holds 45,149,494 common shares of Topaz, representing approximately 29.4% of the issued and outstanding common shares. Following the closing of the Offering, the Selling Shareholder will hold 36,449,494 common shares, representing approximately 23.8% of the issued and outstanding common shares of Topaz (22.9% if the over-allotment option is exercised in full). Tourmaline is selling the Common Shares as part of a long-term plan to reduce its equity position as Topaz develops and continues to succeed as an independent royalty and infrastructure company. Tourmaline will use the net proceeds of the Offering in part to fund its planned extensive NEBC infrastructure build-out, which is expected to add over 150,000 boepd of production over current levels in the next five years while maintaining net debt (1) at the long-term $1.5 billion target. The Offering will expand Topaz's free-trading share float and generate enhanced trading liquidity which is in-line with Topaz's structural objectives. The Common Shares will be offered by way of a short form prospectus to be filed in all of the provinces of Canada other than Quebec and may also be placed privately in the United States to "qualified institutional buyers" pursuant to Rule 144A of the United States Securities Act of 1933. The Offering is expected to close on or about December 11, 2024 and is subject to customary closing conditions including, the receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals, including the approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange. No securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved of the contents of this news release. The securities being offered have not been, nor will they be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, U.S. persons absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any State in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. __________________________________________________ ( 1 ) "Net debt" is a capital management measure. See "Non-GAAP and Other Financial Measures" in this news release and Tourmaline's Q3 MD&A. Reader Advisories CURRENCY All amounts in this news release are stated in Canadian dollars unless otherwise specified. FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION This news release contains forward-looking statements and information (collectively, " forward-looking information ") within the meaning of applicable securities legislation, which reflects Tourmaline's and Topaz's current expectations regarding future events, including but not limited to the use of proceeds of the Offering, Tourmaline's planned extensive infrastructure build out in NEBC and the benefits of such build out including the incremental production growth, the timing for such incremental production growth and the ability to maintain long-term net debt targets, the date the Offering is expected to close and the anticipated benefits for Tourmaline and Topaz to be derived from Tourmaline's reduction in Topaz equity including that the Offering will expand Topaz's free-trading share float and generate enhanced trading liquidity. Forward-looking information is based on a number of assumptions and is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Tourmaline's and Topaz's control that could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those that are disclosed in or implied by such forward-looking information. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the factors discussed under "Risk Factors" in Tourmaline's and Topaz's most recently filed Management's Discussion and Analysis and Annual Information Form, which are available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.ca . Tourmaline and Topaz do not undertake any obligations to update such forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable laws. In this news release, production is presented on a "barrel of oil equivalent" or "BOE" basis. BOEs may be misleading, particularly if used in isolation. A BOE conversion ratio of 6 Mcf:1 bbl is based on an energy equivalency conversion method primarily applicable at the burner tip and does not represent a value equivalency at the wellhead. In addition, as the value ratio between natural gas and crude oil based on the current prices of natural gas and crude oil is significantly different from the energy equivalency of 6:1, utilizing a conversion on a 6:1 basis may be misleading as an indication of value. NON-GAAP AND OTHER FINANCIAL MEASURES This news release includes references to "net debt" which is considered a "capital management measure" and does not have a standardized meaning prescribed by International Financial Reporting Standards ("GAAP"). Tourmaline's management uses the term "net debt" as a key measure for evaluating Tourmaline's capital structure and to provide shareholders and potential investors with a measurement of total indebtedness. Accordingly, Tourmaline's use of this term may not be comparable to similarly defined measures presented by other companies. Investors are cautioned that this measure should not be construed as an alternative to or more meaningful than the most directly comparable GAAP measures in evaluating Tourmaline's performance. See "Non-GAAP and Other Financial Measures" in Tourmaline's most recent Management's Discussion and Analysis for more information on the definition and description of these terms. ABOUT TOURMALINE OIL CORP. Tourmaline is Canada's largest and most active natural gas producer dedicated to producing the lowest-cost natural gas in North America . We are an investment grade exploration and production company providing strong and predictable operating and financial performance through the development of our three core areas in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. With our existing large reserve base, decades-long drilling inventory, relentless focus on execution and cost management, and industry-leading environmental performance, we are excited to provide shareholders an excellent return on capital, and an attractive source of income through our base dividend and surplus free cash flow distribution strategies. Website: www.tourmalineoil.com ABOUT TOPAZ ENERGY CORP. Topaz is a unique royalty and infrastructure energy company focused on generating free cash flow growth and paying reliable and sustainable dividends to its shareholders, through its strategic relationship with Canada's largest and most active natural gas producer, Tourmaline, an investment-grade senior Canadian E&P company, and leveraging industry relationships to execute complementary acquisitions from other high-quality energy companies. Topaz focuses on top-quartile energy resources and assets best positioned to attract capital in order to generate sustainable long-term growth and profitability. Topaz's common shares are listed and posted for trading on the TSX under the trading symbol "TPZ" and it is included in the S&P/TSX Composite Index. This is the headline index for Canada and is the principal benchmark measure for the Canadian equity markets, represented by the largest companies on the TSX. For further information, please visit the Company's website at www.topazenergy.ca . Topaz's SEDAR+ filings are available at www.sedarplus.ca . For further information pertaining to tourmaline, please contact: Tourmaline Oil Corp., Michael Rose , Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, (403) 266-5992 OR Tourmaline Oil Corp., Brian Robinson , Chief Financial Officer, (403) 767-3587; brian.robinson@tourmalineoil.com OR Tourmaline Oil Corp., Scott Kirker , Chief Legal Officer, (403) 767-3593; scott.kirker@tourmalineoil.com OR Tourmaline Oil Corp., Jamie Heard , Vice President, Capital Markets, (403) 767-5942; jamie.heard@tourmalineoil.com OR Tourmaline Oil Corp., Suite 2900, 250 – 6th Avenue S.W., Calgary, Alberta T2P 3H7, Phone: (403) 266-5992; Facsimile: (403) 266-5952, E-mail: info@tourmalineoil.com For further information pertaining to Topaz, please contact: Topaz Energy Corp., Marty Staples , President and Chief Executive Officer, (587) 747-4830; Cheree Stephenson , VP Finance and CFO, (587) 747-4830 SOURCE Tourmaline Oil Corp. View original content to download multimedia: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/November2024/25/c0279.html © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.As her students finished their online exam, Arlet Lara got up to make a cafe con leche. Her 16-year-old son found her on the kitchen floor. First, he called Dad in a panic. Then 911. “I had a stroke, and my life made a 180-degree turn,” Lara said, recalling the medical scare she experienced in May 2020 in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. “The stroke affected my left side of the body.” Lara, an avid runner and gym-goer couldn’t even walk. “It was hard,” said the 50-year-old mom from North Miami and former high school math teacher. After years of rehabilitation therapy and a foot surgery, Lara can walk again. But she still struggles with moving. This summer, she became the first patient in South Florida to get an implant of a new and only FDA-approved-nerve stimulation device designed to help ischemic stroke survivors regain movement in their arms and hands. Every year, thousands in the United States have a stroke, with one occurring every 40 seconds, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The majority of strokes are ischemic, often caused by blood clots that obstruct blood flow to the brain. For survivors, most of whom are left with some level of disability, the Vivistim Paired VNS System — the device implanted in Lara’s chest — could be a game changer in recovery, said Dr. Robert Starke, a neurosurgeon and interventional neuroradiologist. He also serves as co-director of endovascular neurosurgery at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where Lara underwent the procedure. The Vivistim Paired VNS System is a small pacemaker-like device implanted in the upper chest and neck area. Patients can go home the same day. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the stroke rehabilitation system in 2021 to be used alongside post-ischemic stroke rehabilitation therapy to treat moderate to severe mobility issues in hands and arms. Lara’s occupational therapist can activate the device during rehabilitation sessions to electrically stimulate the vagus nerve, which runs from the brain down to the abdomen and regulates various parts of the body’s nervous system. The electrical stimulation rewires the brain to improve a stroke survivor’s ability to move their arms and hands. Lara also has a magnet she can use to activate the device when she wants to practice at home. Her therapy consists of repetitive tasks, including coloring, pinching cubes and grabbing and releasing cylindrical shapes. After several weeks of rehabilitation therapy with the device, Lara has seen improvement. “Little by little, I’m noticing that my hand is getting stronger,” Lara said in September. “I am already able to brush my teeth with the left hand.” Since then, Lara has finished the initial six-week Vivistim therapy program and is continuing to use the device in her rehabilitation therapy. She continues to improve and can now eat better with her left hand and can brush her hair with less difficulty, according to her occupational therapist, Neil Batungbakal. Starke sees the device as an opportunity to help bring survivors one step closer to regaining full mobility. Strokes are a leading cause of disability worldwide. While most stroke survivors usually can recover some function through treatment and rehabilitation, they tend to hit a “major plateau” after the first six months of recovery, he said. Vivistim, when paired with rehabilitation therapy, could change that. Jackson Health said results of a clinical trial published in the peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet in 2021 showed that the device, “when paired with high-repetition, task-specific occupational or physical therapy, helps generate two to three times more hand and arm function for stroke survivors than rehabilitation therapy alone.” The device has even shown to benefit patients 20 years after their original stroke, according to Starke. “So now a lot of these patients that had strokes 10 to 15 years ago that thought that they would never be able to use their arm in any sort of real functional way are now able to have a real meaningful function, which is pretty tremendous,” Starke said. Vivistim’s vagus-nerve stimulation technology was developed by researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas’ Texas Biomedical Device Center and is being sold commercially by Austin-based MicroTransponder, a company started by university graduates. Similar devices are used to treat epilepsy and depression. For Lara, the device is a new tool to help her recovery journey. “Everything becomes a challenge, so we are working with small things every day because I want to get back as many functions as possible,” Lara said. Patients interested in Vivistim should speak with their doctor to check their eligibility. The FDA said patients should make sure to discuss any prior medical history. “Adverse events included but were not limited to dysphonia (difficulty speaking), bruising, falling, general hoarseness, general pain, hoarseness after surgery, low mood, muscle pain, fracture, headache, rash, dizziness, throat irritation, urinary tract infection and fatigue,” the FDA said. MicroTransponder says the device is “covered by Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance with prior authorization on a case-by-case basis.” Get local news delivered to your inbox!

Top five small SUVs of 2024ABU DHABI(UNITED ARAB EMIRATES): A grid penalty for Charles Leclerc threatens to end Ferrari 's hopes of beating McLaren to the Formula 1 constructors' title. Ferrari said Friday the team had to change the battery pack on Leclerc's car in the first practice session in Abu Dhabi. Ferrari said the team expects a 10-place penalty on the grid for Sunday's race. Leclerc was fastest in the first practice session by .221 of a second from McLaren's Lando Norris , with Lewis Hamilton third fastest for Mercedes. Leclerc's brother Arthur took over Carlos Sainz Jr .'s car and was 18th. Norris was fastest in the second session by .234 from teammate Oscar Piastri while Nico Hulkenberg was a surprise third fastest for Haas, .462 off the pace. Sainz was the fastest Ferrari in fourth. McLaren goes into the race with a 21-point lead over Ferrari in the constructors' standings. Artificial Intelligence(AI) Master in Python Language Quickly Using the ChatGPT Open AI By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Web Development Master RESTful APIs with Python and Django REST Framework: Web API Development By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Web Development Django & PostgreSQL Mastery: Build Professional Web Applications By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Web Development Intermediate C++ Skills: Master Pointers, Structures and File Stream By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Entrepreneurship From Idea to Product: A Startup Development Guide By - Dr. Anu Khanchandani, Startup Coach with more than 25 years of experience View Program Finance Financial Literacy i.e Lets Crack the Billionaire Code By - CA Rahul Gupta, CA with 10+ years of experience and Accounting Educator View Program Finance AI and Generative AI for Finance By - Hariom Tatsat, Vice President- Quantitative Analytics at Barclays View Program Entrepreneurship Crafting a Powerful Startup Value Proposition By - Dr. Anu Khanchandani, Startup Coach with more than 25 years of experience View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) AI-Powered Python Mastery with Tabnine: Boost Your Coding Skills By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Data Science SQL Server Bootcamp 2024: Transform from Beginner to Pro By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Web Development Advanced Java Mastery: Object-Oriented Programming Techniques By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Marketing Modern Marketing Masterclass by Seth Godin By - Seth Godin, Former dot com Business Executive and Best Selling Author View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) Learn InVideo AI: Create Videos from Text Easily By - Prince Patni, Software Developer (BI, Data Science) View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) Generative AI for Dynamic Java Web Applications with ChatGPT By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Web Development Mastering Full Stack Development: From Frontend to Backend Excellence By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Entrepreneurship Startup Fundraising: Essential Tactics for Securing Capital By - Dr. Anu Khanchandani, Startup Coach with more than 25 years of experience View Program Marketing Digital Marketing Masterclass by Pam Moore By - Pam Moore, Digital Transformation and Social Media Expert View Program Marketing Digital Marketing Masterclass by Neil Patel By - Neil Patel, Co-Founder and Author at Neil Patel Digital Digital Marketing Guru View Program Data Science SQL for Data Science along with Data Analytics and Data Visualization By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) AI and Analytics based Business Strategy By - Tanusree De, Managing Director- Accenture Technology Lead, Trustworthy AI Center of Excellence: ATCI View Program Leclerc's teammate Sainz said Thursday that he expected that either he or Leclerc would have to win the race in Abu Dhabi, with the other car also finishing on the podium, to have a chance of the title “unless something very disastrous happened” to McLaren. Either McLaren or Ferrari will end a long wait for an F1 constructors title Sunday. McLaren hasn't won the lucrative prize for teams since 1998 and Ferrari's last win was in 2008. “I think even with the penalty, I wouldn't be surprised if we can see (Ferrari) very rapidly fighting for the front,” McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said. “So nothing changes. We keep remaining calm, focused and full of energy.” Tension in the paddockTwo of Formula 1's top drivers are exchanging bitter personal attacks. All-time great Hamilton is bidding an emotional farewell to Mercedes. It's all overshadowed the constructors' title fight. Despite Max Verstappen wrapping up his fourth driver title in Las Vegas two weeks ago, the Red Bull star is still the center of attention for a feud with George Russell of Mercedes. Russell branded Verstappen “a bully” and accused him of threatening behavior following a dispute between the two in qualifying at the Qatar Grand Prix last week. Verstappen was pushed off pole position in Qatar in favor of Russell, and has said his rival lied to get him a penalty. "Look, Max, he's a very straight shooter. He just tells you exactly how he sees it," Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said Friday. "And obviously he had a large amount of frustration last weekend, the way things played out in a scenario that we haven't seen before and a subsequent grid penalty." Verstappen was only 17th fastest in his only practice session Friday as he aims for his 10th race win of the season in Abu Dhabi. The whole weekend will be a long goodbye for Hamilton as he leaves Mercedes, where he won six of his seven titles, and joins Ferrari for 2025. Hamilton is driving in Abu Dhabi with the names of 150 fans on his car as part of a “Thank you, Lewis” campaign by Mercedes. The move to Ferrari was announced before the season began and Hamilton admitted Thursday the prolonged farewell has been much more of a strain on his emotions than he expected. Hamilton is out of form and was pessimistic about finishing on a high after penalties and a puncture marred his race in Qatar. Doohan leads new wave of rookiesHamilton's move to Ferrari shocked F1 when it was announced in February, and it set off a chain reaction of driver moves elsewhere. Next year F1 will have its largest influx of young drivers in years as established names switch teams or leave the grid. One of the new faces is on the grid in Abu Dhabi after Alpine opted to give Jack Doohan an early taste of F1. He replaces Esteban Ocon for the last race of the season. Doohan, a 21-year-old Australian, is the son of motorcycle racing great Mick Doohan. He was 19th fastest in both practice sessions Friday. (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel )

2025 NFL Draft: Oklahoma State RB Ollie Gordon II turning pro after disappointing 2024 season for CowboysBy Stephanie Lai and Hadriana Lowenkron, Bloomberg News Donald Trump says he is selecting venture capitalist David Sacks of Craft Ventures LLC to serve as his artificial intelligence and crypto czar, a newly created position that underscores the president-elect’s intent to boost two rapidly developing industries. “David will guide policy for the Administration in Artificial Intelligence and Cryptocurrency, two areas critical to the future of American competitiveness. David will focus on making America the clear global leader in both areas,” Trump said Thursday in a post on his Truth Social network. Trump said that Sacks would also lead the Presidential Council of Advisors for Science and Technology. Related Articles In Sacks, Trump is tapping one of his most prominent Silicon Valley supporters and fundraisers for a prime position in his administration. Sacks played a key role in bolstering Trump’s fundraising among technology industry donors, including co-hosting an event at his San Francisco home in June, with tickets at $300,000 a head. He is also closely associated with Vice President-elect JD Vance, the investor-turned-Ohio senator. Sacks is a venture capitalist and part of Silicon Valley’s “PayPal Mafia.” He first made his name in the technology industry during a stint as the chief operating officer of PayPal, the payments company whose founders in the late 1990s included billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk and investor Peter Thiel. After it was sold to eBay, Sacks turned to Hollywood, where he produced the 2005 satire Thank You for Smoking. Back in Silicon Valley, he founded workplace communications company Yammer, which was bought by Microsoft Corp. in 2012 for $1.2 billion. He founded his own venture capital firm, Craft Ventures, in 2017 and has invested in Musk-owned businesses, including SpaceX. Sacks said on a recent episode of his All-In podcast that a “key man” clause in the agreements of his venture firm’s legal documents would likely prevent him from taking a full-time position, but he might consider an advisory role in the new administration. A Craft spokeswoman said Sacks would not be leaving Craft. In his post, Trump said Sacks “will safeguard Free Speech online, and steer us away from Big Tech bias and censorship.” Protecting free speech is a keen interest of Sacks. He regularly speaks about “woke” interests that try to muzzle unpopular opinions and positions. The new post is expected to help spearhead the crypto industry deregulation Trump promised on the campaign trail. The role is expected to provide cryptocurrency advocates a direct line to the White House and serve as a liaison between Trump, Congress and the federal agencies that interface with digital assets, including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Trump heavily campaigned on supporting crypto, after previously disparaging digital assets during his first White House term, saying their “value is highly volatile and based on thin air.” The president-elect on Thursday said Sacks would “work on a legal framework so the Crypto industry has the clarity it has been asking for, and can thrive in the U.S.” During the campaign, Trump spoke at a Bitcoin conference, accepted crypto campaign donations and met with executives from Bitcoin mining companies and crypto exchanges multiple times. Trump’s desire to give priority to the digital asset industry is also reflected in his close allies and cabinet selections, including his Commerce secretary pick, Howard Lutnick, and Treasury secretary nominee Scott Bessent. On the AI front, Sacks would help Trump put his imprint on an emerging technology whose popular use has exploded in recent years. Sacks is poised to be at the front lines in determining how the federal government both adopts AI and regulates its use as advances in the technology and adoption by consumers pose a wide array of benefits as well as risks touching on national security, privacy, jobs and other areas. The president-elect has expressed both awe at the power of AI technology as well as concern over the potential harms from its use. During his first term, he signed executive orders that sought to maintain US leadership in the field and directed the federal government to prioritize AI in research and development spending. As AI has become more mainstream in recent years and with Congress slow to act, President Joe Biden has sought to fill that void. Biden signed an executive order in 2023 that establishes security and privacy protections and requires developers to safety-test new models, casting the sweeping regulatory order as necessary to safeguard consumers. A number of technology giants have also agreed to adopt a set of voluntary safeguards which call for them to test AI systems for discriminatory tendencies or security flaws and to share those results. Trump has vowed to repeal Biden’s order. The Republican Party’s 2024 platform dismissed Biden’s executive order as one that “hinders AI Innovation, and imposes Radical Leftwing ideas on the development of this technology.” Sacks can be expected to work closely with Musk, the world’s richest person and one of the president-elect’s most prominent supporters. Musk is also a player in the AI space with his company xAI and a chatbot named Grok — efforts which pit him against Silicon Valley’s giants — and he stands to wield significant influence within the incoming administration. The appointment won’t require Sacks to divest or publicly disclose his assets. Like Musk, Sacks will be a special government employee. He can serve a maximum of 130 days per year, with or without compensation. However, conflict of interest rules apply to special government employees, meaning Sacks will have to recuse himself from matters that could impact his holdings. Sacks’s Craft Ventures is known more for enterprise software investing than for crypto, but it has made a few crypto investments, including BitGo and Bitwise. Still, Sacks has firm opinions on the sector. Speaking last month on All-In, Sacks praised a bill on crypto regulation that had passed in the U.S. House but not the Senate earlier this year. The Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act would regulate certain types of digital assets as a commodity, regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. “The crypto industry basically wants a really clear line for knowing when they’re a commodity and they want commodities to be governed, like all other commodities, by the CFTC,” he said on the November podcast. He also disparaged some of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s positions on crypto under its chair, Gary Gensler. “The days of Gensler terrifying crypto companies,” he said. “Those days are about to be over.” Earlier this week, Trump nominated crypto advocate Paul Atkins to lead the SEC. With assistance from Zoe Ma, Bill Allison, Sarah McBride, Anne VanderMey and stacy-marie ishmael. ©2024 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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The AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll is back every week throughout the season! Get the poll delivered straight to your inbox with AP Top 25 Poll Alerts. Sign up here . ABILENE, Texas (AP) — Leonardo Bettiol scored 22 points as Abilene Christian beat Texas Southern 69-65 on Saturday night. Bettiol added six rebounds for the Wildcats (8-5). Quion Williams added 21 points while shooting 8 of 15 from the field and 4 for 5 from the line while they also had 11 rebounds. Hunter Jack Madden went 4 of 15 from the field (1 for 10 from 3-point range) to finish with nine points. The Tigers (1-10) were led in scoring by Kavion McClain, who finished with 19 points, seven rebounds and two steals. Texas Southern also got 17 points and three steals from Zaire Hayes. Kenny Hunter had 10 points, six rebounds, two steals and two blocks. ___ The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .Beyond The Numbers: 26 Analysts Discuss Marvell Tech Stock

Elon Musk stuffed an additional $120 billion into his already money-packed deep pockets this year, solidifying his spot as the world’s richest person as he cozies up to President-elect Donald Trump. Trump’s so-called “First Buddy” is even richer after Trump’s election victory. The Tesla CEO’s net worth soared to a total of $349 billion this year, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Musk owns roughly 12 percent of Tesla, the world’s most valuable car company, Forbes noted. The company’s shareholders also gave him a 2018 compensation package worth more than $50 billion. But a Delaware judge struck it down Monday. She wrote in her decision that what would have been the largest pay deal in history was an “unfathomable sum” that “seems to have been calibrated to help Musk achieve what he believed would make ‘a good future for humanity.’” Monday’s decision reaffirms her decision from January, when she also rejected the pay package. “Never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware,” Musk wrote in January on X, another company he owns. He has vowed to use 58 percent of his Tesla shares as collateral for his personal loans, according to Bloomberg. Musk acquired the social media platform, then known as Twitter, for $44 billion in 2022. Fidelity valued its stake in X at $5.53 million at the end of October, a nearly 72 percent decrease in value since Musk took over the company, according to its Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund monthly report. The tech billionaire also owns about 54 per cent of xAI, an artificial intelligence company he founded in 2023. The startup was valued at $50 billion last month, according to the Wall Street Journal . Then there’s SpaceX. Musk owns roughly 42 percent of the aerospace company, which was valued at $210 billion in June, according to Bloomberg . He also founded The Boring Company, an infrastructure company that says it aims to dig transportation tunnels to “solve traffic.” The company announced that it was worth $5.68 billion in April 2022 after a Series C funding round. Neuralink, Musk’s computer-brain interface company that is developing brain chips, was valued at $5 billion as of June 2024, according to Reuters . In January, Musk posted on X that the first human patient received an implant from Neuralink and was “recovering well.” Musk contributed a massive $230 million of his personal coffers to Trump’s America PAC, which he created, in the last month leading up to the presidential election, FEC filings Thursday revealed. In the weeks leading up to Election Day, Musk made three separate $25 million donations to the super PAC, according to the records. But that wasn’t all; the SpaceX founder also donated more than $20 million to the controversially named RBG (Ruth Bader Ginsburg) PAC, which falsely presented the late Supreme Court Justice as a Trump champion, in late October, new filings show. Trump tapped Musk to lead the newly created department of government efficiency alongside billionaire entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Despite campaigning on improving economic conditions for working class Americans , Trump has filled his next administration with a hefty handful of billionares, including Musk. The net worth of Trump’s second White House is estimated to be larger than the gross domestic product of more than 11 dozen countries . Billionaires have doubled their wealth in the past decade, amounting to a combined total of $14 trillion , Swiss bank UBS reported this week.Hidden Potential in AI! Are You Missing Out on a 10,000% Return?

By JESSICA DAMIANO Finding the perfect gift can be daunting. The only way to truly ensure you get it right would be to ask the recipient what they want, but that wouldn’t be much fun for either of you. Luckily, there’s another tactic to help you earn a “gift whisperer” reputation: seeking out unique, practical, game-changing gifts that will truly surprise and delight. But that’s about as easy as it sounds, which is to say it’s not easy at all. So, we’ve done the legwork for you. Start making your list with this compilation of some of the most innovative, functional and fun gifts of 2024. There’s something for every budget. Bear with me: The new FinaMill Ultimate Spice Grinder set elevates the pedestrian pepper and spice mill in both function and style. Available in three colors (Sangria Red, Midnight Black and Soft Cream), the rechargeable-battery unit grinds with a light touch rather than hand-tiring twists. That’s easier for everyone and especially helpful for those experiencing hand or wrist issues such as arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome or tendinitis. And it’s fun to use. The set includes a stackable storage tray and four pods that can be easily swapped as needed: The GT microplane grater for hard spices, nuts and chocolate; the MAX for large spices and dried herbs; the ProPlus for smaller and oily spices; and the Pepper Pod for, well, pepper. $110. Campers and backyard firepit lovers who have experienced the heartbreak of wet wood will appreciate having a three-pack of Pull Start Fire on hand. Made of 89% recycled materials, including sanding dust, wax and flint, the food-safe, eco-friendly, 3-by-2-by-1-inch fire starters will light a fire quickly without matches, lighters or kindling. Just loop the attached green string around a log, incorporate it into a wood stack, and pull the attached red string to ignite. Each windproof, rainproof block burns for 30 minutes. $29.99. The No Mess Utensil Set from Souper Cubes , a company known for its portioned, silicone freezer trays, lives up to its name. The utensils — a serving spoon and a ladle — have innovative, S-shaped handles designed to rest on the edge of a pot, keeping them upright so they won’t slip in. The design also eliminates the need for a spoon rest or, worse, placing dirty utensils on the kitchen counter or stovetop between stirs. A silicone coating in a choice of Aqua, Charcoal, Cranberry or Blueberry keeps handles cool to the touch. $24.99. The FeatherSnap Wi-Fi smart bird feeder could turn anyone into an avid birdwatcher. Equipped with an HD camera, the dual-chamber feeder enables up-close livestreaming of avian visitors, as well as species-logging via the free mobile app. An optional premium subscription ($59.99 annually or $6.99 monthly) includes unlimited photo and video storage, AI identification with species-specific details, and the opportunity to earn badges for logging new visitors. Turn on notifications to get alerts sent to your phone whenever there’s activity at the feeder. $179.99. Fujifilm’s Instax Mini Link 3 smartphone printer offers a touch of nostalgia without sacrificing technology. Just load the 4.9-by-3.5-by-1.3-inch printer with Instax Mini instant film and connect it to your Android or iOS device via Bluetooth to print wallet-size photos. If you want to get fancy, you can adjust brightness, contrast and saturation, or apply filters, including 3D augmented-reality effects, via the free Instax Mini Link app. It can also make collages of up to six images, or animate photos to share on social media. Available in Rose Pink, Clay White and Sage Green. $99.95. The appropriately named easyplant is one of the best gifts you can give your houseplant-loving friends, regardless of their experience level. Select a pot color, size and plant (or get recommendations based on sunlight requirements, pet friendliness and other attributes) and fill the self-watering container’s built-in reservoir roughly once a month. Moisture will permeate the soil from the bottom as needed, eliminating the often-fatal consequences of over- or under-watering. It’s also a literal lifesaver come vacation time. $49-$259. Related Articles Things To Do | US airports with worst weather delays during holiday season Things To Do | The right book can inspire the young readers in your life, from picture books to YA novels Things To Do | Holiday gift ideas for the movie lover, from bios and books to a status tote Things To Do | ‘Gladiator II’ review: Are you not moderately entertained? Things To Do | Beer pairings for your holiday feasts If you’ve got a no-dairy friend on your list, a plant-based milk maker could save them money while allowing them to avoid sugar, stabilizers, thickeners and preservatives. The Nama M1 appliance both blends and strains ingredients, converting nuts, seeds, grains or oats into velvety-smooth milk in just one minute, with zero grit. And for zero waste, the pasty leftover pulp can be used in other recipes for added nutrients. The device also makes infused oils, flavored waters and soups. And, importantly, cleanup is easy. Available in white and black. $400. For friends who prefer stronger beverages, the QelviQ personal sommelier uses “smart” technology to ensure wine is served at its ideal temperature. Unlike traditional wine refrigerators, this device doesn’t take up any floor space. It also doesn’t chill wine to just one or two temperatures based on its color. Instead — paired with the free QelviQ app — the tabletop chiller relies on a database of more than 350,000 wines to bring a bottle to its specific recommended serving temperature in as little as 20 minutes. It also suggests food-wine and wine-food pairings. Plus, the appliance serves as a great icebreaker to inspire dinnertime conversation. Available in Exciting Red, Dashing Black and Dreamy White. $495. Grilling food after dark — and ascertaining its doneness — can prove challenging without outdoor lighting, and it’s nearly impossible to cook while holding a flashlight. But as is often the case, the simplest of solutions can make the biggest of impacts: Uncommon Good’s 2-piece LED Grilling Tool Set puts illumination into the handles of its stainless-steel spatula and tongs. After use, the lights can be removed and the utensils run through the dishwasher. $40.Slowly repeating bursts of intense radio waves from space have puzzled astronomers since they were discovered in 2022. In new research, we have for the first time tracked one of these pulsating signals back to its source: a common kind of lightweight star called a red dwarf, likely in a binary orbit with a white dwarf, the core of another star that exploded long ago. A slowly pulsing mystery In 2022, our team made an amazing discovery: periodic radio pulsations that repeated every 18 minutes, emanating from space. The pulses outshone everything nearby, flashed brilliantly for three months, then disappeared. We know some repeating radio signals come from a kind of neutron star called a radio pulsar, which spins rapidly (typically once a second or faster), beaming out radio waves like a lighthouse. The trouble is, our current theories say a pulsar spinning only once every 18 minutes should not produce radio waves. So we thought our 2022 discovery could point to new and exciting physics – or help explain exactly how pulsars emit radiation, which despite 50 years of research is still not understood very well. The source of the radio waves, as seen by the MWA at low resolution (magenta circle) and MeerKAT at high resolution (cyan circle). The white circles are all stars in our own Galaxy. Hurley-Walker et al. 2024 / Astrophysical Journal Letters More slowly blinking radio sources have been discovered since then. There are now about ten known “long-period radio transients”. However, just finding more hasn’t been enough to solve the mystery. Searching the outskirts of the galaxy Until now, every one of these sources has been found deep in the heart of the Milky Way. This makes it very hard to figure out what kind of star or object produces the radio waves, because there are thousands of stars in a small area. Any one of them could be responsible for the signal, or none of them. An artist's impression of the AR SCO system: a binary red dwarf and white dwarf that interact to produce radio emission. Picture: YouTube/ European Southern Observatory (ESO) So, we started a campaign to scan the skies with the Murchison Widefield Array radio telescope in Western Australia, which can observe 1,000 square degrees of the sky every minute. An undergraduate student at Curtin University, Csanád Horváth, processed data covering half of the sky, looking for these elusive signals in more sparsely populated regions of the Milky Way. And sure enough, we found a new source! Dubbed GLEAM-X J0704-37, it produces minute-long pulses of radio waves, just like other long-period radio transients. However, these pulses repeat only once every 2.9 hours, making it the slowest long-period radio transient found so far. Where are the radio waves coming from? We performed follow-up observations with the MeerKAT telescope in South Africa, the most sensitive radio telescope in the southern hemisphere. These pinpointed the location of the radio waves precisely: they were coming from a red dwarf star. These stars are incredibly common, making up 70 per cent of the stars in the Milky Way, but they are so faint that not a single one is visible to the naked eye. Combining historical observations from the Murchison Widefield Array and new MeerKAT monitoring data, we found that the pulses arrive a little earlier and a little later in a repeating pattern. This probably indicates that the radio emitter isn’t the red dwarf itself, but rather an unseen object in a binary orbit with it. Based on previous studies of the evolution of stars, we think this invisible radio emitter is most likely to be a white dwarf, which is the final endpoint of small to medium-sized stars like our own Sun. If it were a neutron star or a black hole, the explosion that created it would have been so large it should have disrupted the orbit. It takes two to tango So how do a red dwarf and a white dwarf generate a radio signal? The red dwarf probably produces a stellar wind of charged particles, just like our Sun does. When the wind hits the white dwarf’s magnetic field, it would be accelerated, producing radio waves. This could be similar to how the Sun’s stellar wind interacts with Earth’s magnetic field to produce beautiful aurora, and also low-frequency radio waves. We already know of a few systems like this, such as AR Scorpii, where variations in the brightness of the red dwarf imply that the companion white dwarf is hitting it with a powerful beam of radio waves every two minutes. None of these systems are as bright or as slow as the long-period radio transients, but maybe as we find more examples, we will work out a unifying physical model that explains all of them. On the other hand, there may be many different kinds of system that can produce long-period radio pulsations. Either way, we’ve learned the power of expecting the unexpected – and we’ll keep scanning the skies to solve this cosmic mystery. Natasha Hurley-Walker is a radio astronomer at Curtin University This story originally appeared on The Conversation and reproduced with permission Originally published as Astronomers have pinpointed the origin of mysterious repeating radio bursts from space Space Don't miss out on the headlines from Space. Followed categories will be added to My News. More related stories Space Astronaut returns to earth devastated, crying Emily Calandrelli became the 100th woman in space this week but was in tears after a “moaning” controversy erupted on social media. Read more Space ‘They don’t get it’: Elon Musk explodes Elon Musk has slammed Neil deGrasse Tyson after the celebrity astrophysicist mocked the billionaire’s plan to send humans to Mars. Read moreCristi Croitoru Uber Technologies ( NYSE: UBER ) is arguably the cheapest growth stock in the market today, trading at 28 times '25 earnings and a 4.5% free cash flow yield, on expectations for mid-teens revenue growth for years to come. The Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of UBER either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.

Bitcoin has finally hit $100,000 . It took the world's largest crypto asset a decade and a half to go from being worth less than a cent to being six-figure. Bitcoin enthusiasts and investors are already on their next target— just how long would it take the world's largest crypto asset to be worth a million dollars? But while it took BTC seven years to 10x its value from 10K to $100K, meme coins have seen their value rise as much as 1000x in a matter of days to months. However, the reason for this is the market cap and liquidity. Bitcoin is a nearly $2 trillion market cap cryptocurrency that handles $160 billion in daily trading volume. Meanwhile, the entire crypto market capitalization is just $3.75 trillion, so BTC basically accounts for over half of that. Unlike BTC, a coin with a low market cap and trading volume is pretty easy to move. And because even small buy orders can send a coin to new highs easily, traders utilize them as a way to speculate and make quick profits. The likes of Bitcoin, unlike altcoins and meme coins, are utilized by traders and investors as a way to invest in the long term and secure their wealth. This is something that meme coin traders should never forget — meme coins are the gateway to having fun and making quick and sizable profits, but they better sell on time before it all becomes zero. That's not to say that your Bitcoin investment won't lose its value—it will when the bear market comes. However, if you end up not selling your Bitcoin, it's highly probable that you'll have a chance to sell it when the bull market returns. This is because Bitcoin has solidified its position as an asset class, having been battle-tested and now gaining broader institutional support via exchange-traded funds (ETFs) . But the same cannot be said for your meme coins, which may never see the light of the day once their time is over. So, for a trader to get better returns from meme coins, they must understand the difference between investing and speculation. Investing Vs. Speculation What separates an investment from a speculative trade is your mindset and the level of risk involved. That's the main difference, though the line between the two can often be very thin, as what's speculation for one could be an investment for another. Generally, if something is high-risk, it is categorized as speculation, while lower risk is attributed to investing. So, when you spend money with the expectation that the thing you put your funds on will return you a profit, that is investing. Essentially, you take an average or below-average risk to generate a satisfactory return on your capital. Here, you expect your investment to increase in value over time. Also, this approach is usually taken with a long-term perspective, which could be anywhere between over a year to decades, with an aim to build your wealth gradually. Moreover, your decision here is based on a reasonable judgment, which you have made after performing a thorough investigation and gaining enough understanding of your venture's soundness, which points to a good probability of success. Equity stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, real estate, and market instruments are some examples of investments. Now, if you take a position in an asset and expect it to move in a certain direction, you are speculating. If you enjoy the thrill of volatile market conditions and use the market momentum to capture price movements, you are again speculating. In this approach, you purchase and sell assets over a short period of time to generate profits. It involves frequent buying and selling of an asset, often jumping from one trend to another, which means emotions tend to play a big role here. Not only do you disregard any fundamentals, but you also see a high probability of failure. Success or failure here largely depends on external forces or events that are outside of your control. Unlike speculation, which usually means putting your money into something and praying for good results, investing involves analysis. You put in your time and energy to study fundamentals and use it as a basis for your investment. Speculation also does not have much to do with protecting your wealth but rather increasing it quickly. In contrast, with investment, wealth protection is as much part of the process as wealth creation. Derivative products like futures and options come under speculative investment options. Interestingly, for a non-crypto native, cryptocurrencies fall under speculative investment, but as we saw this year, with ETFs, Bitcoin has become a legitimate asset class, providing institutional investors a way to diversify their assets. For a crypto-native, majors like Bitcoin and maybe even Ethereum fall under investment, while the vast majority of altcoins, specifically meme coins, are just speculative trading. So, what makes meme coins so speculative? Also, what exactly are they, and where does their value really come from? A Look into Memes and Meme Coins' Value Meme coins are the most profitable narrative of this cycle, and they have captured a lot of attention. But before we get into meme coins, let's first understand the concept of memes. You may feel that memes are an Internet phenomenon, but that's not the case. Actually, memes can trace their origins to centuries before when they were used as a way to communicate. The term ‘meme' was first introduced by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book, “The Selfish Gene,” to describe the concept of cultural transmission. According to Webster's New World College Dictionary, a meme is defined as “a concept, belief, or practice conceived as a unit of cultural information that may be passed on from person to person, subject to influences in a way analogous to natural selection.” The term' Internet meme', meanwhile, was coined by Mike Godwin in 1993 to describe how memes spread through online communities. The emergence and popularity of social media have accelerated the speed at which memes proliferate the online world. Today, memes are an integral part of Internet culture, which helps people come together through humor and gain a sense of belonging to a community. The key elements of memes are their viral distribution and constant evolution. Now, meme coins are simply the financialization of memes. A cryptocurrency, when named after animals, characters, or individuals in an attempt to attract a user base, is a meme coin. Much like any other crypto, the underlying technology here is blockchain. But, unlike utility coins like ETH, which serve a purpose in this ecosystem, meme coins have no purpose other than offering a fun asset to learn about crypto and invest in to generate huge returns. Meme coins promise no fundamentals or inherent value other than creating a vibrant community of like-minded individuals. Given that meme coins remove any pretense of utility and are simply driven by hype, FOMO, and momentum, they are extremely risky and highly volatile. And that's exactly what makes them so popular in retail. The meme coin frenzy first gained traction this cycle in 2023 when PEPE, an inspiration from the popular Internet meme' Pepe the Frog,' captured the market's attention and saw an explosive increase in its value. This ignited the meme coin mania, which only allowed it to grow substantially higher. This year, the meme coin craze has risen beyond the wildest of imaginations, with new coins popping up every hour. The cheaper and faster blockchains like Tonchain and Base have been helping the meme coin trend thrive, with Solana at the center of it all. As the biggest beneficiary of the memecoin frenzy, Solana-based memecoins account for almost a fifth of the market value of meme tokens. A New Breed of Meme Coins: Easy Come Easy Go Solana isn't alone in fueling the memecoin craze; rather, it's Pump. fun, which is the fastest-growing crypto app in history that allows anyone to create new tokens in a minute for completely free. The biggest driver of the ongoing meme coin madness is Pump. fun's growth wasn't gradual but rather sudden and explosive. In February, less than a hundred coins were being launched a day on it, which has since skyrocketed to tens of thousands every day nowadays. While Pump.fun made it easy to create new meme coins, DEXs were already there to help people start trading right away. Unlike a CEX, there's no need for listing; the project provides the liquidity, and you are good to go. And this led to an eruption of meme coin mania, which is amplified by social media posts showing individuals turning their dollars into millions. While it's easy to start feeling FOMO with people bragging about bagging millions, it's not as widespread as one might believe. In fact, the reality is that most people lose money by trading meme coins rather than making profits. As per data from Dune , fewer than 3% of traders made more than $1,000 profit from investing in these speculative coins, while 0.8% have made over $10,000, and the bulk of traders, at over 60% , are incurring losses. Meanwhile, the platform itself (Pump.fun) is raking in millions of dollars in revenue and is now planning to launch a pro-trading terminal and its own token. Among the new line of meme coins, there's another category: celebrity meme coins, which might be the most fleeting ones ever, as well as net negative for the crypto industry. One may think that they would help gain crypto adoption, but the fast-paced crypto's low barriers to entry only end up attracting bad actors. Celebrity tokens are nothing but crypto that derive their value from the personality who launched them or whose name they bear. However, despite carrying the name of a celebrity, it's possible they may not be launched or promoted by them. The total market cap of celebrity coins is $113.7 million, as per Coinmarketcap . Currently, the biggest celebrity coin is MOTHER from music artist Iggy Azalea. The $65.8 million market cap token is currency trading at $0.065, down 72.68% from its peak of $0.240 from six months ago. In 2nd place is the $45 mln market cap DADDY from Andrew Tate, and then the $395K market cap JENNER from Caitlyn Jenner is in 3rd place, down 74% and 95% from their respective ATHs. Much like these, most of the celebrity tokens have been launched only to be dumped soon after and are now barely worth anything. Most recently, Hailey Welch, a.k.a the Hawk Tuah Girl, launched her memecoin $HAWK on Solana, which didn't even survive for an hour before plunging hard. As soon as the token launched, the initial surge saw its market cap rising as high as $500 million before tanking to $60 million in a mere 20 minutes. The crash cost many their “whole life savings,” igniting the calls of “rug pull” and “pump-and-dump” crypto scam. Some buyers took to Crypto Twitter to accuse Welch of orchestrating an exit scam and said that they would take legal action against her. One X user talked about losing their “life savings and children's college education fund,” while the other one pointed out how a vast majority of coins were held by an insider, only to be dumped on the retail. While some feel for those who have suffered grievous losses, others can't help but point out how the very purpose of meme coins is to get in and out of a trade before others. “It's a game of musical chairs,” said crypto trader Huss in a post on celebrity tokens earlier this year. “When they're right, they're geniuses, but when they're wrong, they were scammed and want reparations.” – Huss recently said in another post on X. Back in June, X user Slorg created a list of these celebrity coins and found that they had an average decline of 94%. Most of these new coins are also released on Solana through Pump.fun. Celebrity-linked projects aren't anything new. Back in 2017, boxer Floyd Mayweather and actor Jamie Fox promoted ICOs. Much like meme coins in this cycle, over 80% of 2017 ICOs were scams, including those associated with celebrities. The same was seen during the 2021 bull season when Mayweather, again, along with the likes of Jake Paul, DJ Khaled, and David Dobrik, promoted scam NFT projects. So, this has been happening since the beginning of crypto and will continue to happen, but that's not to say that there aren't better and more honest ways to achieve this. Also, investors must be more careful when interacting with these speculative coins, as there are meme coins that tokenize culture and have value. Meme Coins That Stand Out Every meme coin is not the same. Much like how BTC has stood the test of time, there are a few meme coins as well that continue to survive year after year. The OG Dogecoin (DOGE) leads this pack, which was created eleven years ago as a joke but soon found its place in people's hearts and portfolios. This meme coin played a huge role in onboarding mainstream investors and traders to crypto, who were overwhelmed with the technical complexity of the space. Dogecoin gained significant attention during the last bull market when Tesla CEO Elon Musk came out in support of it. In fact, US President-elect Donald Trump has created a specific department, ‘Doge,' – The Department of Government Efficiency, which he wrote on his social media platform, “will become, potentially, ‘The Manhattan Project' of our time.” The department is to be headed by the tech billionaire and fellow entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who recently met behind closed doors at the Capitol to discuss the DOGE initiative and reportedly talked about keeping a ‘naughty and nice' list of those who will be part of the budget-slashing proposals and those who won't. Then, during the last bull run, we got many new meme coins, most of which are simply lost or irrelevant, but the likes of Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Floki have still managed to maintain their presence among the top 100 crypto assets and in people's minds. Interestingly, during the past cycles, meme coins pumped toward the end of the bull market, but this time around, they have been experiencing capital rotation throughout the cycle. Before even the Bitcoin halving occurred, meme coins continued to attract interest and capital, even when BTC had its consolidation between March and October this year. The meme coin market capitalization actually makes up 3.16% of the total crypto market cap, up from 1.3% at the beginning of the year. Excluding majors, such as BTC and ETH, this share rises to 11.21%, up from 4.2%. This makes sense, given that among the top 100 crypto assets, meme coins are the biggest gainers this year, with WIF's 2,165% year-to-date (YTD) gains and PEPE's 1,578% upside. These two have been among the most popular meme coins, along with BONK, FWOG, BRETT, PNUT, and POPCAT, during this cycle. Conclusion So, as we saw, meme coins are the hottest trend of this bull market, offering an enticing opportunity for retail to make the best of it. The fun element combined with their low entry point makes meme coins a magnet to new investors who get lured in by people flashing their big ‘1 SOL to $1 million' gains from meme coins. Instead of treating it like a game of hot potato, they mistake it for an investment or simply hold it for too long in the hope of bigger gains, and they eventually end up giving up all of their profits. It is important for those putting their money into meme coins to understand and remember that the vast majority of these meme coins become irrelevant when their underlying connection to social events becomes stale. So, make sure not to lose sight of your goal, which is quick profits. Speculation is a great way to make sizable returns in a very short period, but that's what it is. It's not an investment, and meme coins should never be treated as such because they are driven by hype and momentum, and when the music stops, you don't want to be holding them, or you'll be left with significant losses, “but as long as the music is playing, you've got to get up and dance”! Click here to learn all about investing in Bitcoin (BTC).New York City T-Bone Accident Lawyer Samantha Kucher Releases Comprehensive Article on T-Bone Accidents 11-25-2024 10:22 PM CET | Politics, Law & Society Press release from: ABNewswire New York City T-bone accident lawyer [ https://www.rrklawgroup.com/new-york-t-bone-accident-lawyer/ ] Samantha Kucher of Kucher Law Group has published a detailed article discussing the causes, consequences, and legal challenges associated with T-bone car accidents. The article provides valuable insights for individuals who have experienced such collisions, which often result in severe injuries, vehicle damage, and complex legal issues As a New York City T-bone accident lawyer, Samantha Kucher emphasizes the significant impact that side-impact collisions can have on victims. "T-bone accidents are among the most dangerous types of car crashes because the sides of vehicles offer less protection than the front or rear," Kucher explains. "Victims often face serious physical injuries, emotional trauma, and financial difficulties, which makes understanding their rights and legal options all the more important." The article defines T-bone accidents, often referred to as side-impact collisions, and explains how they typically occur. According to the New York City T-bone accident lawyer, these crashes are most common at intersections and are often caused by failure to yield, running red lights, distracted driving, or impaired driving. Kucher highlights the unique challenges of these accidents, noting, "Determining fault in a T-bone collision can be complicated because it often involves assessing traffic signals, driver behavior, and other factors. That's why it's essential to approach these cases with a thorough and strategic legal plan." The article dives deeper into what makes T-bone accidents particularly hazardous. Unlike rear-end or head-on collisions, side-impact crashes expose passengers to greater risk due to the lack of structural protection on the sides of vehicles. Kucher notes that the force of impact often leads to severe injuries, including head trauma, spinal injuries, broken ribs, and internal organ damage. In addition to physical injuries, the article discusses the emotional and financial toll of T-bone accidents. Victims may experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, or depression, while also facing significant medical expenses and lost income due to their injuries. "The aftermath of a T-bone accident is not just about physical recovery," Kucher says. "It's also about addressing the emotional and financial challenges that victims and their families endure." The article outlines the process of determining fault in T-bone accidents, which can be particularly intricate under New York's comparative negligence laws. These laws allow multiple parties to share responsibility for an accident, with compensation adjusted based on each party's degree of fault. Kucher explains that evidence such as traffic camera footage, witness statements, police reports, and physical evidence like skid marks or vehicle damage plays a critical role in establishing liability. "Each case is unique, and proving fault often requires a detailed investigation," she says. "The goal is to gather as much evidence as possible to build a strong case for compensation." The article also highlights the challenges of dealing with insurance companies after a T-bone accident. Insurance adjusters may attempt to undervalue claims or delay settlements, complicating the recovery process for victims. Kucher advises victims to seek legal guidance to handle these negotiations effectively. Kucher explains the types of compensation available to T-bone accident victims in New York, including economic damages (such as medical expenses and lost wages) and non-economic damages (such as pain and suffering). In some cases, victims may also be entitled to punitive damages if the other driver's behavior was particularly reckless or harmful. "The goal of pursuing compensation is to help victims recover from the physical, emotional, and financial harm they've suffered," Kucher states. "Every case is different, and the amount and type of compensation will depend on the specific circumstances of the accident." Victims of T-bone accidents face a challenging road to recovery, but they don't have to face it alone. Samantha Kucher's article encourages those affected to seek legal representation to protect their rights and pursue the compensation they deserve. About Kucher Law Group: Kucher Law Group is a personal injury law firm dedicated to helping accident victims secure justice and fair compensation. With a focus on car accidents, including T-bone collisions, the firm provides compassionate and diligent representation to clients throughout New York City. Kucher Law Group is known for their client-centered approach and commitment to achieving favorable outcomes for those they represent. Embeds: Youtube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn5qOLkDsMk GMB: https://www.google.com/maps?cid=5716384493669715397 Email and website Email: contact@rrklawgroup.com Website: https://www.rrklawgroup.com/brooklyn-personal-injury-attorney/ Media Contact Company Name: Kucher Law Group Contact Person: Samantha Kucher Email:Send Email [ https://www.abnewswire.com/email_contact_us.php?pr=new-york-city-tbone-accident-lawyer-samantha-kucher-releases-comprehensive-article-on-tbone-accidents ] Phone: (929) 563-6780 Address:463 Pulaski St #1c City: Brooklyn State: New York 11221 Country: United States Website: https://www.rrklawgroup.com/brooklyn-personal-injury-attorney/ This release was published on openPR.Marathon petroleum director Jeffrey Campbell acquires $897,644 in stock

Airports and highways are expected to be jam-packed during Thanksgiving week, a holiday period likely to end with another record day for air travel in the United States. AAA predicts that nearly 80 million Americans will venture at least 50 miles from home between Tuesday and next Monday, most of them by car. However, travelers could be impacted by ongoing weather challenges and those flying to their destinations could be grounded by delays brought on by airline staffing shortages and an airport service workers strike . Here's the latest: U.S. airlines are preparing for a Thanksgiving holiday rush, and so are the U.S. Postal Service, United Parcel Service and FedEx. Shipping companies will deliver about 2.2 billion packages to homes and businesses across the U.S. from Thanksgiving to Dec. 31, said Satish Jindel, a shipping and logistics expert and president of ShipMatrix. That’s down from 2.3 billion packages last year. Because the shopping period is a week shorter than in 2023, consumers are shopping further ahead of Black Friday and more purchases are taking place in physical stores, he said. The number of holiday package shipments grew 27% in 2020 and by more than 3% the following year during the pandemic. The numbers have been falling since then, with a projected decline of about 6% this holiday season. Looking to de-stress while waiting for your flight? Many airports have a fleet of therapy dogs — designated fidos and puppers that are eager to receive pets and snuggles from weary travelers. Rules and schedules vary from airport to airport, but the group AirportTherapyDogs uses online crowdsourcing to share the locations of therapy dogs across its various social media accounts. Today, Gracie, a toy Australian shepherd, and Budge, an English bulldog, wandered the concourses at Denver International Airport, and an American Staffordshire Terrier named Hugo greeted travelers at Punta Gorda Airport in Florida. Some airports even feature other therapy pals. San Francisco International Airport’s fleet of animals includes a Flemish Giant rabbit and a hypoallergenic pig. “We cannot live on the wages that we are being paid,” ABM cabin cleaner Priscilla Hoyle said at a rally earlier Monday. “I can honestly say it’s hard every single day with my children, working a full-time job but having to look my kids in the eyes and sit there and say, ‘I don’t know if we’re going to have a home today.’” Timothy Lowe II, a wheelchair attendant, said he has to figure out where to spend the night because he doesn’t make enough for a deposit on a home. “We just want to be able to have everything that’s a necessity paid for by the job that hired us to do a great job so they can make billions,” he said. ABM said it is “committed to addressing concerns swiftly” and that there are avenues for employees to communicate issues, including a national hotline and a “general open door policy for managers at our worksite.” Employees of ABM and Prospect Airport Services cast ballots Friday to authorize the work stoppage at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, a hub for American Airlines. They described living paycheck to paycheck while performing jobs that keep planes running on schedule. Most of them earn $12.50 to $19 an hour, union officials said. Rev. Glencie Rhedrick of Charlotte Clergy Coalition for Justice said those workers should make $22 to $25 an hour. The strike is expected to last 24 hours. Several hundred workers participated in the work stoppage. Forty-four fights have been canceled today and nearly 1,900 were delayed by midday on the East Coast, according to FlightAware . According to the organization’s cheekily named MiseryMap , San Francisco International Airport is having the most hiccups right now, with 53 delays and three cancellations between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. EST. While that might sound like a lot of delays, they might not be so bad compared to last Friday when the airport suffered 671 delays and 69 cancellations. In an apparent effort to reduce the headaches caused by airport line cutting, American Airlines has rolled out boarding technology that alerts gate agents with an audible sound if a passenger tries to scan a ticket ahead of their assigned group. This new software won’t accept a boarding pass before the group it’s assigned to is called, so customers who get to the gate prematurely will be asked to go back and wait their turn. As of Wednesday, the airline announced, the technology is now being used in more than 100 U.S. airports that American flies out of. The official expansion arrives after successful tests in three of these locations — Albuquerque International Sunport, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Tucson International Airport. ▶ Read more about American Airlines’ new boarding technology Travel can be stressful in the best of times. Now add in the high-level anxiety that seems to be baked into every holiday season and it’s clear travelers could use some help calming frazzled nerves. Here are a few ways to make your holiday journey a little less stressful: 1. Make a checklist of what you need to do and what you need to bring 2. Carry your comfort with you — think noise-canceling headphones, cozy clothes, snacks and extra medication 3. Stay hydrated 4. Keep up to date on delays, gate changes and cancellations with your airline’s app ▶ Read more tips about staying grounded during holiday travel Thanksgiving Day takes place late this year, with the fourth Thursday of November falling on Nov. 28. That shortens the traditional shopping season and changes the rhythm of holiday travel. With more time before the holiday , people tend to spread out their outbound travel over more days, but everyone returns at the same time, said Andrew Watterson, the chief operating officer of Southwest Airlines . “A late Thanksgiving leads to a big crush at the end,” Watterson said. “The Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday after Thanksgiving are usually very busy with Thanksgiving this late.” Airlines did a relatively good job of handling holiday crowds last year, when the weather was mild in most of the country. Fewer than 400 U.S. flights were canceled during Thanksgiving week in 2023 — about one out of every 450 flights. So far in 2024, airlines have canceled about 1.3% of all flights. Drivers should know that Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons will be the worst times to travel by car, but it should be smooth sailing on freeways come Thanksgiving Day, according to transportation analytics company INRIX. On the return home, the best travel times for motorists are before 1 p.m. on Sunday, and before 8 a.m. or after 7 p.m. on Monday, the company said. In metropolitan areas like Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Seattle and Washington, “traffic is expected to be more than double what it typically is on a normal day,” INRIX transportation analyst Bob Pishue said. Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Mike Whitaker said last week that he expects his agency to use special measures at some facilities to deal with an ongoing shortage of air traffic controllers. In the past, those facilities have included airports in New York City and Florida. “If we are short on staff, we will slow traffic as needed to keep the system safe,” Whitaker said. The FAA has long struggled with a shortage of controllers that airline officials expect will last for years, despite the agency’s lofty hiring goals. 5. Auto club and insurance company AAA predicts that nearly 80 million Americans will venture at least 50 miles from home between Tuesday and next Monday. Most of them will travel by car. 6. Drivers should get a slight break on gas prices . The nationwide average price for gasoline was $3.06 a gallon on Sunday, down from $3.27 at this time last year. 7. The Transportation Security Administration expects to screen 18.3 million people at U.S. airports during the same seven-day stretch. That would be 6% more than during the corresponding days last year but fit a pattern set throughout 2024. 8. The TSA predicts that 3 million people will pass through airport security checkpoints on Sunday; more than that could break the record of 3.01 million set on the Sunday after the July Fourth holiday. Tuesday and Wednesday are expected to be the next busiest air travel days of Thanksgiving week. ▶ Read more about Thanksgiving travel across the U.S. Workers who clean airplanes, remove trash and help with wheelchairs at Charlotte’s airport, one of the nation’s busiest, went on strike Monday to demand higher wages. The Service Employees International Union announced the strike in a statement early Monday, saying the workers would demand “an end to poverty wages and respect on the job during the holiday travel season.” The strike was expected to last 24 hours, said union spokesperson Sean Keady. Employees of ABM and Prospect Airport Services cast ballots Friday to authorize the work stoppage at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, a hub for American Airlines. The two companies contract with American, one of the world’s biggest carriers, to provide services such as cleaning airplane interiors, removing trash and escorting passengers in wheelchairs. ▶ Read more about the Charlotte airport workers’ strike Parts of the Midwest and East Coast can expect to see heavy rain into Thanksgiving, and there’s potential for snow in Northeastern states. A storm last week brought rain to New York and New Jersey, where wildfires have raged in recent weeks, and heavy snow to northeastern Pennsylvania. The precipitation was expected to help ease drought conditions after an exceptionally dry fall. Heavy snow fell in northeastern Pennsylvania, including the Pocono Mountains. Higher elevations reported up to 17 inches (43 centimeters), with lesser accumulations in valley cities including Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. Around 35,000 customers in 10 counties were still without power, down from 80,000 a day ago. In the Catskills region of New York, nearly 10,000 people remained without power Sunday morning, two days after a storm dumped heavy snow on parts of the region. Precipitation in West Virginia helped put a dent in the state’s worst drought in at least two decades and boosted ski resorts as they prepare to open in the weeks ahead. ▶ Read more about Thanksgiving week weather forecasts Two people died in the Pacific Northwest after a rapidly intensifying “ bomb cyclone ” hit the West Coast last Tuesday, bringing fierce winds that toppled trees and power lines and damaged homes and cars. Hundreds of thousands lost electricity in Washington state before powerful gusts and record rains moved into Northern California. Forecasters said the risk of flooding and mudslides remained as the region will get more rain starting Sunday. But the latest storm won’t be as intense as last week’s atmospheric river , a long plume of moisture that forms over an ocean and flows over land. “However, there’s still threats, smaller threats, and not as significant in terms of magnitude, that are still going to exist across the West Coast for the next two or three days,” weather service forecaster Rich Otto said. As the rain moves east throughout the week, Otto said, there’s a potential for heavy snowfall at higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada, as well as portions of Utah and Colorado. California’s Mammoth Mountain, which received 2 feet (0.6 meters) of fresh snow in the recent storm, could get another 4 feet (1.2 meters) before the newest system clears out Wednesday, the resort said. Another round of wintry weather could complicate travel leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday, according to forecasts across the U.S., while California and Washington state continue to recover from storm damage and power outages. In California, where two people were found dead in floodwaters on Saturday, authorities braced for more rain while grappling with flooding and small landslides from a previous storm . Here’s a look at some of the regional forecasts: 9. Sierra Nevada: The National Weather Service office issued a winter storm warning through Tuesday, with heavy snow expected at higher elevations and wind gusts potentially reaching 55 mph (88 kph). Total snowfall of roughly 4 feet (1.2 meters) was forecast, with the heaviest accumulations expected Monday and Tuesday. 10. Midwest and Great Lakes: The Midwest and Great Lakes regions will see rain and snow Monday and the East Coast will be the most impacted on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, forecasters said. 11. East Coast: A low pressure system is forecast to bring rain to the Southeast early Thursday before heading to the Northeast. Areas from Boston to New York could see rain and breezy conditions, with snowfall possible in parts of northern New Hampshire, northern Maine and the Adirondacks. If the system tracks further inland, there could be less snow and more rain in the mountains, forecasters said. ▶ Read more about Thanksgiving week weather forecasts

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BOISE, Idaho — Ashton Jeanty ran for 209 yards and a touchdown and No. 10 Boise State earned a College Football Playoff spot, beating No. 19 UNLV 21-7 on Friday night for its second straight Mountain West title. Boise State (12-1, No. 10 CFP) is all but assured of a first-round bye in the playoffs if it maintains its ranking ahead of the Big 12 winner and finishes as one of the four highest-ranked conference champs. “In January when they were playing tug of war on the field with their shirts off, they talked about what they wanted to do this season,” Boise State coach Spencer Danielson said. “They wanted to win a conference championship and make it to the college playoffs, and they worked for that.” Jeanty, who had the spotlight to himself to state his Heisman case, didn’t disappoint, ripping off an electrifying 75-yard touchdown run. It was his fifth TD run of 70 yards or more this season, tying LaDainian Tomlinson’s FBS season record. Jeanty also surpassed 1981 Heisman winner Marcus Allen of Southern California to move into fourth place on the FBS season rushing list and needs 132 more to pass record-holder Barry Sanders of Oklahoma State. Maddux Madsen threw a touchdown pass and rushed for another score for the Broncos. UNLV (10-3, No. 20 CFP), which entered the game seventh nationally in scoring offense averaging 38.7 points, hadn’t been held below 23 this season. Boise State quarterback Maddux Madsen (4) celebrates after a touchdown run against UNLV with wide receiver Prince Strachan (17) late in the first half of the Mountain West Championship NCAA college football game Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, in Boise, Idaho. Credit: AP/Steve Conner “I have been in championship games before and come up on the wrong end of them,” UNLV coach Barry Odom said. “But you continue to learn from them and move your organization forward and find a way to get back to a game like this and win it.” However, Odom didn’t mince words when describing how he felt about Boise State, which handed his team two of their three losses. “Good luck to anyone who comes here and thinks they’re going to win the game,” Odom said. “I think they’re one of the best teams in college football right now. And I think they’ll do a great job representing this conference. They’re built to make a run.” With UNLV loading the box with eight or nine defenders early in the game, Boise State leaned heavily on Madsen in the first quarter. And he delivered, completing six of his first seven passes, including a 22-yard scoring strike to Latrell Caples for a 7-0 lead. Boise State quarterback Maddux Madsen (4) is tripped by a UNLV defender on a scramble in the first half of the Mountain West Championship NCAA college football game Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, in Boise, Idaho. Credit: AP/Steve Conner Madsen used his legs to put the Broncos ahead 14-0, scrambling for a 14-yard TD run with 2:40 left in the first half. After a quick stop, Boise State got the ball back and let Jeanty work his magic. Two plays later, he raced through the teeth of the defense and sprinted to the end zone for a 75-yard TD run, giving the Broncos a 21-0 lead with 29 seconds left in the half. UNLV had a chance to claw back into it late in the third quarter when Kylin James raced 86 yards before Seyi Oladipo ran him down at the Boise State 5. But the Rebels lost 4 yards on the next four plays and failed to score. The Rebels finally got into the end zone with 9:06 left on a Greg Burrell 31-yard run. Hajj-Malik Williams led UNLV offensively with 110 yards passing and 56 yards rushing. Takeaways UNLV: Odom, who guided the Rebels to their first 10-win season in 40 years, has the program headed in the right direction after UNLV had just seven wins in the three seasons before his arrival. If he continues to recruit well and build through the transfer portal like he did this season, the Rebels should contend for the Mountain West title. Boise State: First-year coach Spencer Danielson delivered what the program’s fan base has been starving for since it made waves in the college football world in 2006 by going undefeated and beating Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. But now this team has a chance to take it one step further and take down one of the sport’s blue bloods in the playoffs. Up next Boise State awaits the selection show Sunday to find out who and when it will play in the College Football Playoff.New pro-European coalition approved in Romania amid period of political turmoilIn Your Community: Mower County Senior Center

By JESSICA DAMIANO Finding the perfect gift can be daunting. The only way to truly ensure you get it right would be to ask the recipient what they want, but that wouldn’t be much fun for either of you. Luckily, there’s another tactic to help you earn a “gift whisperer” reputation: seeking out unique, practical, game-changing gifts that will truly surprise and delight. But that’s about as easy as it sounds, which is to say it’s not easy at all. So, we’ve done the legwork for you. Start making your list with this compilation of some of the most innovative, functional and fun gifts of 2024. There’s something for every budget. Bear with me: The new FinaMill Ultimate Spice Grinder set elevates the pedestrian pepper and spice mill in both function and style. Available in three colors (Sangria Red, Midnight Black and Soft Cream), the rechargeable-battery unit grinds with a light touch rather than hand-tiring twists. That’s easier for everyone and especially helpful for those experiencing hand or wrist issues such as arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome or tendinitis. And it’s fun to use. The set includes a stackable storage tray and four pods that can be easily swapped as needed: The GT microplane grater for hard spices, nuts and chocolate; the MAX for large spices and dried herbs; the ProPlus for smaller and oily spices; and the Pepper Pod for, well, pepper. $110. Campers and backyard firepit lovers who have experienced the heartbreak of wet wood will appreciate having a three-pack of Pull Start Fire on hand. Made of 89% recycled materials, including sanding dust, wax and flint, the food-safe, eco-friendly, 3-by-2-by-1-inch fire starters will light a fire quickly without matches, lighters or kindling. Just loop the attached green string around a log, incorporate it into a wood stack, and pull the attached red string to ignite. Each windproof, rainproof block burns for 30 minutes. $29.99. The No Mess Utensil Set from Souper Cubes , a company known for its portioned, silicone freezer trays, lives up to its name. The utensils — a serving spoon and a ladle — have innovative, S-shaped handles designed to rest on the edge of a pot, keeping them upright so they won’t slip in. The design also eliminates the need for a spoon rest or, worse, placing dirty utensils on the kitchen counter or stovetop between stirs. A silicone coating in a choice of Aqua, Charcoal, Cranberry or Blueberry keeps handles cool to the touch. $24.99. The FeatherSnap Wi-Fi smart bird feeder could turn anyone into an avid birdwatcher. Equipped with an HD camera, the dual-chamber feeder enables up-close livestreaming of avian visitors, as well as species-logging via the free mobile app. An optional premium subscription ($59.99 annually or $6.99 monthly) includes unlimited photo and video storage, AI identification with species-specific details, and the opportunity to earn badges for logging new visitors. Turn on notifications to get alerts sent to your phone whenever there’s activity at the feeder. $179.99. Fujifilm’s Instax Mini Link 3 smartphone printer offers a touch of nostalgia without sacrificing technology. Just load the 4.9-by-3.5-by-1.3-inch printer with Instax Mini instant film and connect it to your Android or iOS device via Bluetooth to print wallet-size photos. If you want to get fancy, you can adjust brightness, contrast and saturation, or apply filters, including 3D augmented-reality effects, via the free Instax Mini Link app. It can also make collages of up to six images, or animate photos to share on social media. Available in Rose Pink, Clay White and Sage Green. $99.95. The appropriately named easyplant is one of the best gifts you can give your houseplant-loving friends, regardless of their experience level. Select a pot color, size and plant (or get recommendations based on sunlight requirements, pet friendliness and other attributes) and fill the self-watering container’s built-in reservoir roughly once a month. Moisture will permeate the soil from the bottom as needed, eliminating the often-fatal consequences of over- or under-watering. It’s also a literal lifesaver come vacation time. $49-$259. Related Articles Things To Do | US airports with worst weather delays during holiday season Things To Do | The right book can inspire the young readers in your life, from picture books to YA novels Things To Do | Holiday gift ideas for the movie lover, from bios and books to a status tote Things To Do | ‘Gladiator II’ review: Are you not moderately entertained? Things To Do | Beer pairings for your holiday feasts If you’ve got a no-dairy friend on your list, a plant-based milk maker could save them money while allowing them to avoid sugar, stabilizers, thickeners and preservatives. The Nama M1 appliance both blends and strains ingredients, converting nuts, seeds, grains or oats into velvety-smooth milk in just one minute, with zero grit. And for zero waste, the pasty leftover pulp can be used in other recipes for added nutrients. The device also makes infused oils, flavored waters and soups. And, importantly, cleanup is easy. Available in white and black. $400. For friends who prefer stronger beverages, the QelviQ personal sommelier uses “smart” technology to ensure wine is served at its ideal temperature. Unlike traditional wine refrigerators, this device doesn’t take up any floor space. It also doesn’t chill wine to just one or two temperatures based on its color. Instead — paired with the free QelviQ app — the tabletop chiller relies on a database of more than 350,000 wines to bring a bottle to its specific recommended serving temperature in as little as 20 minutes. It also suggests food-wine and wine-food pairings. Plus, the appliance serves as a great icebreaker to inspire dinnertime conversation. Available in Exciting Red, Dashing Black and Dreamy White. $495. Grilling food after dark — and ascertaining its doneness — can prove challenging without outdoor lighting, and it’s nearly impossible to cook while holding a flashlight. But as is often the case, the simplest of solutions can make the biggest of impacts: Uncommon Good’s 2-piece LED Grilling Tool Set puts illumination into the handles of its stainless-steel spatula and tongs. After use, the lights can be removed and the utensils run through the dishwasher. $40.Welsh: A&M will move to digital ticket pull system to prioritize student safetyTrump names David Sacks as White House AI and crypto czar