Want the voice of one of the most annoying men in America to tell you even more annoying jokes? Now you can!
Jimmy Fallon unveiled a new partnership with Amazon on his Tonight Show on Monday. For the next month, if Echo users ask Alexa to “tell me a joke,” she’ll introduce her “friend Jimmy.”
Fallon is not the first celeb to collaborate with the mega-corporation behind a smart assistant. In February, Gordon Ramsay came to the Echo via an Alexa skill that allowed users to ask Ramsay what he thought of their cooking; naturally, he answered with an insult. In a much more enticing partnership, Google got John Legend to lend his voice to Google Home Assistant in May. The R&B revelation and husband of Chrissy Teigen can read Google Home Assistant users their weather or even deliver their wake up message.
The Fallon partnership delivers a bit of levity for Amazon, which recently angered New Yorkers by choosing Queens as its next HQ location — and getting over a billion in tax breaks, from an already overflowing city with crumbling infrastructure, for a Jeff Bezos helipad.
But as we know, Jimmy Fallon is just fine with cozying up to morally repugnant power brokers. Remember the Trump head-patting incident, in which he palled around with our soon-to-be autocrat in chief?
Rain will be the antidote to the worst of this California fire season.
Most years, some rains would have already arrived. But California’s grasses, woodlands, and forests remain profoundly parched — with some areas even matching or exceeding records for dryness after record-breaking summer heat and persistently dry autumn winds.
While rains won’t completely stomp out California’s fires, it will significantly reduce the likelihood of vast areas of land continuing to catch fire. This year’s sustained dryness, however, is a foreshadowing of future parched, rainless falls.
“It’s been pretty bleak this year,” Paul Ullrich, a climate scientist at the University of California, Davis, said in an interview.
There’s no immediate rainfall on the horizon this week that might douse the expansive flames of either the deadly Camp or Woolsey fires, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Though, some weather models show perhaps a little rain falling in Northern California next week.
But the bigger picture about dry California autumns — which means a longer, more potent fire season — is growing increasingly clear.
“What we’re seeing is a harbinger of things to come as this century progresses,” Sasha Gershunov, a research meteorologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, said in an interview.
Specifically, recent research provides strong evidence that California is going to see a shorter, more concentrated rain season. That means more rain packed into December through February, but critically, less rain during the fall and spring.
“There is a big concern going forward when it comes to future fire seasons in California,” said Ullrich.
During the fall, the winds pick up in California, which fan the flames. This will always be a problem — it’s an ingrained and expected part of the region’s climate. But now, the winds are blowing over dryer vegetation, and the results have been historically destructive and deadly.
Making matters worse, concentrated deluges during rainy winters (like that of 2017) means vegetation will flourish after the rains, only to be dried out by drought, hotter summers, and arid falls.
“A really wet season loads the gun for the following year, giving more vegetation to burn,” Neil Berg, a climate scientist and associate director at the UCLA Center for Climate Science, said in an interview. “That is something we call whiplash.”
“Living in extremes — it’s going to become one of the pressing problems of our time,” added Berg.
There are two main drivers of California’s condensed rainy season, and accordingly, drier falls.
One is simple physics: As it grows hotter on Earth due to climate change, the atmosphere absorbs more water. So “whenever you have rainfall, you have more rainfall,” but there’s less moisture available in spring and fall, said Ullrich.
Second, the weather systems that bring storms to the Golden State — propelled by strong, higher atmospheric winds called the jet stream — are getting pushed farther north. That means more of California will be will be subjected to drier, desert-like conditions, explained Gershunov.
“We can expect a longer dry season,” Gershunov said.
Although the rains haven’t shown up much this fall, that certainly doesn’t mean the entire season will be a wash. About 12 to 15 percent of California Octobers see negligible rain, noted Ullrich. So this may be just be a dry start to an average (or above-average) rainy season.
“But it would be extremely anomalous if we had no rainfall for the next month,” Ullrich said.
When the rains do come, the only hope is that they’re normal.
Heavy rains drive terrible mud slides down burned land — and there’s now a lot of freshly burned terrain. And like anywhere, too much rain at once means flooding.
Unfortunately, with the extreme and historically unprecedented levels of carbon collecting in our atmosphere, temperatures are expected to continue rising this century.
California should expect less rain in the fall, more land torched by fire, but more deluges during the winter.
“The rains are usually so welcome, but not in their extreme form,” said Berg.
Brooklyn Nets guard Caris LeVert is expected to return this season after being diagnosed with a subtalar dislocation of his right foot.
The team announced Tuesday that surgery will not be required.
“Fortunately, tests performed this morning revealed that there are no fractures and only moderate ligament damage,” Dr. Martin O’Malley said in a statement. “While the optics of this injury may have appeared to be more severe, surgery will not be required.
“Caris will begin a period of rehabilitation with the Nets’ performance staff, following which he is expected to return to full strength and resume all basketball activities without any limitations this season.”
LeVert was stretchered off the floor after suffering a gruesome ankle injury in Monday’s loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center. It appeared at the time to be an injury in the same category as the ones to Paul George and Gordon Hayward, but further examination showed that not to be the case.
“There was really just no words,” Nets guard Joe Harris told reporters. “We didn’t talk even when we came in at halftime. There was nothing to be said. Guys were crying. It was really that horrific just to see.”
LeVert was in the midst of a breakout season, averaging 18.4 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game. He’s shown exponential growth every year since being taken No. 20 overall in 2016 after suffering multiple injuries at the University of Michigan.
The 2018-19 season was his first year as a full-time starter. Spencer Dinwiddie will likely move into the starting lineup with LeVert out.
US intelligence officials believe a phone message to “tell your boss” after journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered was a reference to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The New York Times has received a transcript of one of the recordings released by Turkey.
The newspaper says the telephone call was made by Maher Abdulaziz Mutreb, a security officer who frequently travelled with the Crown Prince.
Turkish intelligence believes Mutreb was speaking to one of the prince’s aides and also used words to the effect that “the deed was done”.
But officials in Ankara say the audio does not conclusively implicate Mohammed bin Salman.
So who is “the boss”? And will this new evidence lead somewhere?
Presenter: Martine Dennis
Guests:
Abdelwahab El-Affendi – professor of politics at Doha Institute for Graduate Studies
Mehmet Celik – political news editor at Daily Sabah newspaper
Bill Law – journalist and analyst at The Gulf Matters
Very soon now, PlayStation 4 people will get to feast on chicken dinners of their very own.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, aka PUBG, will at long last makes it PS4 debut on Dec. 7. The game, which set off the whole “battle royale” craze and unquestionably inspired Fortnite, had previously been released for Windows, Xbox One, and Android/iOS.
Pre-orders for the PS4 version of PUBG open on Nov. 13, with the game available in three different bundles. All three options come with bonus incentives that will no longer be available for purchase once the game is released in December.
The $30 “Digital Looter’s Edition” includes the game, a Nathan Drake “skin set,” a backpack that looks like Ellie’s from The Last of Us, “The Unknown” avatar (I don’t know what that is, sorry), and a PS4 dashboard theme based on PUBG‘s Miramar map. The Drake and Ellie skins are also included as pre-order bonuses for the on-disc version of the game.
The next step up from there is the “Digital Survivor’s Edition,” a $60 package that gets you everything from the Looter’s Edition along with 20,000 Battle Points (currency earned in-game) and an event pass for the game’s upcoming Winter Map. The top-tier “Digital Champion’s Edition,” a $90 purchase gives you all of that, plus 6,000 G-Coins (in-game currency that you can buy with real money).
There’s also a PlayStation exclusive parachute, a day one bonus included with all versions of the game.
Once the release happens on Dec. 7, all of those pre-order packages will go away. From then on, PUBG for PS4 will be available either as a download or on disc for $30, just like the Windows and Xbox versions.
The music-streaming service has finally added an Apple Watch app allowing users to not only get music playback controls, but also access playlists, favorite songs, and “DJ from your watch” with Spotify Connect speakers.
Spotify’s Apple Watch app has been long in the making. Although you could previously access playback controls like play/pause, previous/next track, and volume on your Apple Watch, the smartwatch’s default controls were pretty barebones.
The new Apple Watch app lets you do all of the above, but with just a touch more granular controls. For example, you rewind 15 seconds on a podcast, view playlists and shuffle tracks, favorite songs, and even connect to Spotify Connect devices such as a WiFi speaker or laptop.
It’s a step in the right direction to giving Apple Watch apps a much-needed boost, but it’s still missing one major feature we all want: cellular music streaming. As it stands, Apple Music is the only music streaming service that can stream over a cellular connection.
Nothing against Apple Music — it’s a robust music streaming service that’s gotten much better over the years — but Spotify is still the preferred music streaming service for many who prefer not to live in Apple’s walled ecosystem.
The new app will suffice for now, I guess. To get the Apple Watch app, make sure your smartwatch has been updated to the latest version of watchOS, and then go update the Spotify app from the App Store on your paired iOS device. Spotify says it’ll be pushed out to Spotify users “over the coming week” so if you don’t see it show up on your Apple Watch, hang tight. It’s coming!
Oklahoma Sooners coach Lincoln Riley has become a hot name regarding potential NFL jobs, including the Dallas Cowboys‘ head coach position.
However, Dallas owner Jerry Jones won’t fuel any rumors.
“That would be total drawing it out of the air,” Jones told 105.3 The Fan, h/t the Dallas Morning News‘ Jon Machota. “… Totally speculation.”
Of course, there’s not much for Jones to say. Jason Garrett is in his ninth year as Dallas’ head coach amid a 4-5 start. The team recently snapped a two-game losing streak with a 27-20 victory over the reigning Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles in Week 10.
There has been increased speculation that Garrett’s time with the organization could be ending despite the Cowboys’ second-place standing in the NFC East. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported earlier this week that Jones has an “affinity” for Riley:
Ian Rapoport @RapSheet
From @gmfb Weekend: The #Cowboys seriously weighed moving on from OC Scott Linehan during the bye week and have an affinity for #OU coach Lincoln Riley if they move on from Jason Garrett… who @MikeGarafolo says may take back play-calling. https://t.co/8HRHaSKAHw
Although the 52-year-old Garrett is 71-58 in Dallas, he has led the team to just two playoff appearances and has one postseason victory on his resume. On the other hand, the Cowboys have only one losing season (4-12 in 2015) under Garrett.
Riley, meanwhile, has quickly become a household name in college football after he took over for legendary Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops last year. He led the Sooners to a 12-2 record and a trip to the College Football Playoffs in his first season in charge in Norman. This year, they are once again in contention at 9-1.
For now, it appears as though Garrett will remain in place for the rest of the season. Jones told reporters last week, perMac Engelof the Star-Telegram, that he would not make a coaching change during the season.
Jeff Bezos, who was this year named the world’s richest man, has been increasing his profile in the nation’s capital, even as the president has accelerated his attacks on Amazon. | Cliff Owen/AP photo
Amazon’s move to establish a new headquarters in the Washington area will have one immediate political impact: putting CEO Jeff Bezos more in President Donald Trump’s face than ever.
Bezos’ ownership of The Washington Post, which he bought back in 2013, has enraged Trump, sparking Twitter-fueled allegations from the president that Amazon is dodging taxes, ripping off the U.S. Postal Service and putting traditional retailers out of business.
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But the CEO’s decision to put down corporate roots in the D.C. suburb of Crystal City, Va., injecting some 25,000 jobs into a region Trump has dubbed the “The Swamp,” threatens to stoke the president’s resentment of the tech mogul.
“Anything that makes Bezos more prominent in Washington is going to irritate Trump and he will take it personally,” said Michael D’Antonio, author of the 2015 Trump biography “Never Enough.” D’Antonio added: “He will think Bezos made this decision to stick it to him.”
Amazon had initially been expected to choose one winner for its second headquarters, but on Tuesday, the company announced two: Crystal City and the Long Island City neighborhood in Queens, New York.
Queens has significance for Trump as well. He grew up there before becoming a New York City real estate developer and reality TV host. But it’s Washington — Trump’s current home — where Amazon’s growth plans could produce the most tension with the president.
Bezos, who was this year named the world’s richest man, has been increasing his profile in the nation’s capital, even as Trump has accelerated his attacks on the company.
Just days before Trump’s inauguration, it emerged that Bezos was the anonymous buyer of D.C.’s biggest house, a 27,000-square-foot former textile museum. He’s become a regular at some of Washington’s premier social events, like the Alfalfa Club dinner. And the CEO and his wife, MacKenzie Bezos, recently entered the political donor class, giving $10 million to a super PAC that aims to elect military veterans to Congress.
But it’s not just D.C.’s social and political circles that interest Bezos; there’s a business calculus for establishing a bigger, flashier presence in the Washington area. The federal government represents a huge potential market for Amazon’s cloud services business. And the e-commerce giant has a growing list of lobbying priorities in Washington, from delivery drones to online privacy to issues like taxes, trade and immigration.
“Do I think he’s going to come in and say my role with headquarters two in Washington is to change Donald Trump? No. He’s here to do business,” said Bobbie Kilberg, the president of the Northern Virginia Technology Council, which counts Amazon Web Services as a member.
Bezos’ decision to establish a headquarters in greater Washington, however, will cement his status as an immensely powerful player in D.C. — and an unavoidable presence for Trump.
Even before the announcement, Amazon’s interest in the D.C. area was credited with helping to break the longstanding logjam over funding for the region’s ailing Metro system. Now, Amazon’s pledge of thousands of new corporate jobs could be a stimulus for the local job market, at a time when the White House is seeking to cancel automatic pay raises for 1.8 million federal workers.
Bezos’ flood-the-swamp plan comes amid growing Trump animus toward Amazon. The president equates the company with The Washington Post, which he considers part of the “fake news” media that cover him unfairly. He accuses Amazon of using The Post as a lobbyist to avoid taxes and says the company treats the U.S. Postal Service like its “Delivery Boy.”
The Amazon CEO spent months laying low as Trump ramped up his attacks, but at a dinner in Washington in September, he called the president’s anti-media rhetoric bad for democracy.
“What the president should say is, ‘This is right. This is good. I am glad I am getting scrutinized,’” Bezos said at the event hosted by the Economic Club of Washington. “But it’s really dangerous to demonize the media. It’s dangerous to call the media lowlifes. It’s dangerous to say they’re the ‘enemy of the people.’”
It’s unclear how far Trump will take the feud, now that Amazon is coming to his backyard.
In April, the White House unveiled a task force to examine the budget woes of the financially troubled U.S. Postal Service, amid speculation that the president would use it to target Amazon with higher shipping rates. And Trump has repeatedlysuggested that Amazon and other major tech companies are ripe for antitrust scrutiny.
Amazon, though, is poised to expand its influence game in D.C. with the headquarters plan. The company is already one of the biggest tech industry spenders in Washington, shelling out $12.8 million for lobbying in 2017 and maintaining a stable of well-connected lobby firms. But having thousands more workers in the area will undoubtedly give it greater leverage in the capital and its many policy debates.
Bezos himself will likely be a more frequent visitor to the area. The Washingtonian magazine has already chronicled the CEO’s emerging profile as a “freewheeling DC socialite.” The story, complete with an image of Bezos looming over the capital’s skyline, raised the idea that he could fill a role once occupied by the late Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham, bringing prominent decision-makers and thinkers together for salon-like dinners.
“In an ecosystem where power matters more than money or fame, an invitation to the house of the richest man in the world says something,” said Cathy Merrill Williams, the president and publisher of Washingtonian Media.
Trump and Bezos mixed it up even before the 2016 election, when Trump accused Bezos of using The Washington Post as a tax-dodging “scam,” and the Amazon CEO responded cheekily that Trump had “finally trashed” him. Bezos also proposed to have his space flight company, Blue Origin, offer Trump a seat on one of its rockets in a tweet featuring the tongue-in-cheek hashtag #sendDonaldtospace.
After Trump’s victory, Bezos and other tech executives attended an awkward Trump Tower meeting as they made nice with a president-elect they had not supported during the campaign. Amazon later announced it would add 100,000 new “full-time, full-benefit” U.S. jobs, joining other companies in touting domestic growth plans to please the incoming president — and Trump’s transition team promptly took credit for the pledge. Bezos later participated in the White House innovation office led by Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and attended a White House tech gathering last year.
Still, Trump ramped up his Twitter attacks on Amazon. Just days after sitting near Bezos at the June 2017 summit, the president unleashed the first of many volleys at the company, apparently enraged by Washington Post coverage.
Undaunted, Bezos has continued to pursue Amazon’s agenda in Washington, hosting Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in Seattle and positioning the company as a top contender for a $10 billion Pentagon cloud services contract known as JEDI. Winning that contract would be a huge victory for the company, solidifying its position as the nation’s leading web services provider.
Expanding in Washington, however, could expose Bezos to other kinds of political risk, making him a more tempting target for the company’s critics.
The CEO last month moved to defuse a source of growing liberal outrage about his company, announcing Amazon would increase the minimum wage it pays its thousands of warehouse workers to $15 per hour.
That appeared to be an effort to appease Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who spent months denouncing the working conditions at Amazon’s network of “fulfillment centers” and asking why one of the world’s most valuable companies couldn’t treat its employees better. Sanders had even introduced a bill called the Stop BEZOS Act, which would require large companies like Amazon to compensate the government when their employees use federal assistance programs like food stamps.
While Bezos sought to lower the temperature on that issue, the dust-up could be a sign of things to come for Amazon as questions accumulate about the company’s business and labor practices and its dominance in the online retail market, which is drawing increasing attention among regulators.
“No one wants to be the brightest spot in the greater Washington area, because it’s just a target and you don’t want that target on your back,” said Jim Dinegar, the longtime head of the Greater Washington Board of Trade. “It’s one of the concerns that Amazon has got to have on their list.”
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Daily Trends Hunter 