Jordanian civil defence services worked on a road that was damaged by flash floods near Madaba on November 9 [EPA]
Heavy rains and flooding killed at least nine people in Jordan and forced authorities to evacuate more then 3,700 tourists from the ancient city of Petra on Friday, officials said.
The visitors were taken to safe areas before flash floods inundated parts of the mountainous city famed for its carved rock ruins, government spokesperson Jumana Ghunaimat said.
In an earlier statement, Ghunaimat said two women and a girl were killed in Madaba province when their vehicle was swept away, adding that nine people were admitted to hospital, including some in critical condition.
Torrential rains and flooding began Friday afternoon. In Wadi Musa, the town next to Petra in southern Jordan, water surged from nearby mountains into a dry riverbed running through the community.
Ahmed Shamaseen, 29, owner of the Petra Harmony guest house, told The Associated Press news agency he heard a thunderous sound, ran outside and saw water carrying tree stumps, rocks and debris rushing through the riverbed towards Petra. He said several shops near the Petra visitors’ centre were badly damaged by flooding.
Shamaseen said a couple from the Netherlands and their one-year-old child were touring Petra when the flooding began. He says the couple told him after their return to the guesthouse that they had to climb to higher ground to evade the water.
Authorities declared a state of emergency in the Red Sea port city of Aqaba further south as downpours started in the afternoon.
A major highway that links Amman with the south was also closed. The government announced the closure of universities and schools on Saturday and mosques were opened to shelter civilians in areas hit by the floods.
Two weeks ago, 21 people, mainly children, died after they were swept away in flash floods on a school outing in the Dead Sea region, in one of the country’s worst natural disasters in decades.
Politicians and members of the public criticised the emergency services at the time, saying crews had been unprepared, and two ministers were forced to resign after a parliamentary committee found negligence.
When all else fails, it’s time to wholeheartedly embrace the mid-’90s roller-rink carpet aesthetic.
Facebook, seeing a steady decline in usage among teens, appears to have done just that with the release of a new “viral clips” app by the name of Lasso. Sporting a design that makes you feel like you need some tokens to play it, Lasso is a transparent rip-off of the popular TikTok app.
The app, available on the iOS App Store and Google Play, aims to be all the things that Facebook isn’t (namely, fun), and comes just a few weeks after word of it oozed out of Menlo Park.
“Lasso makes it easy for anyone to create and share short videos with fun effects,” reads the App Store description. “Once you’ve found a type of video that’s trending, whether it’s #comedy or #fail, you can use the in-app camera to put your own spin on it with special effects, music and editing tools. Add hashtags to your video to share it with the world!”
So exciting, right! Hashtags! Oh, and don’t forget that you “can also add your videos directly to your Facebook story.”
Which, phew. We were worried there for a second.
This reporter downloaded the app, and, upon seeing that you need to log in with either a Facebook or Instagram account, promptly deleted it. However, The Verge helpfully tells us that you “have to authorize the app to allow access to your profile page, photos, and videos.”
Facebook has a long history of copying popular apps or features in an attempt to stave off its inevitable slide into irrelevance (think Houseparty or Snapchat Stories). Its uncanny ability to know what’s hot has in the past been driven at least in part by a creepy VPN-like app called Onavo, which it was forced to pull from the App Store after Apple told Facebook the app violated its policies governing data gathering.
But those downloading Lasso surely don’t need to worry about any of that. Definitely not with all the “ THE LATEST HASHTAGS AND CHALLENGES” the app offers to keep them busy, anyway.
As the colorful confetti rained down around me, I put my hands up and wiggled in a small victory dance. No one around me knew why I was celebrating; all they could see was the white Vive Focus headset covering most of my head. But I knew: I had successfully passed through three training tasks at a car plant.
Except I was actually in a warehouse in San Francisco where virtual and augmented reality company HTC Vive had just announced its expanded Vive Focus system for companies to use in fields like health, entertainment, automotive, aerospace, and retail.
For months we’ve been hearing about “production hell” for Tesla as it struggles to make enough electric cars. The idea of applying an interactive digital experience to train workers how to build cars sounds like it could be like a silver bullet for car production.
I was at the Vive VR event to see how it all worked. Also at the VR event was German company Innoactive, which uses the Vive VR tech to build out software to create virtual training worlds. The company hasn’t worked with Tesla (yet), but it teamed up with the Volkswagen Group to set up virtual training sessions for its car manufacturers located around the world. With the Vive Focus system and now its new updates, workers can interact in a virtual car factory and practice and train together.
Innoactive founder and CEO Daniel Seidl set me up for two demos with the headset and 6DoF controllers so I could click and point at various things that only I could see behind the screen. Before my confetti shower, I used my bluish, gloved virtual hands to pick up parts and put them on a shelf. I scanned codes and pushed a car frame together. A friendly robot named Ida explained what I needed to do, and guided me along with reminders about which buttons to push. I earned that celebration.
Volkswagen is building virtual factories to train employees on how to build cars.
Image: innoactive
Seidl’s company is working with Volkswagen to train 10,000 employees across 30 simulations within five Volkswagen brands. He knows the simulated training isn’t the same as the real thing, but it shows the process and factory layout and gets people familiar with what they’ll be doing. As he pointed out, you don’t go in cold.
After having gone through the training, I did have a better sense of what equipment was on the factory floor. During the experience, I could view in up-close detail what each machine did and how it moved and behaved. If I had been paying better attention, I would have learned a lot more about the factory. The risk was low — even if the robotic arm hit me on the head, I wouldn’t need to visit the factory medical clinic. But even if I better understood the job, the virtual experience felt like it was diminishing the importance and skills of the role. This is a real job, not simply moving up a level in a RollerCoaster Tycoon-esque video game.
Innoactive builds the content management system and software that lets customers like Volkswagen run training sessions and workplace simulations. Training costs add up — Statista estimates 93.6 billion was spent in 2017 on in-person training throughout U.S. industries. But Seidl can boast that beginner mistakes in the VR trainings don’t ruin a workflow or destroy expensive inventory — it’s all digital and can be reset at the push of a button. Travel time and costs don’t really exist.
A VR training program isn’t free, however. The Vive Focus is priced at $599 for one standalone headset to be used for commercial purposes only.
Other similar companies Vive highlighted in press materials after the show that use the VR system for business were Raymond Corp for virtual forklift operations, and Airbus, which creates virtual mock-ups and 3D models of aircraft models to speed up inspection processes. Bell Flight developed a virtual model for a helicopter and looked at issues in VR before building out the real craft.
My vote: This isn’t going to solve production hell for car makers. But it was a fun, friendly way to get introduced to the overwhelming task of producing car parts on the assembly line. More confetti showers for everyone.
Rep. Kyrsten Sinema’s lead puts her just over 1 percentage point ahead after more than 2 million votes have been counted. | Ross D. Franklin, file/AP Photo
The Democratic candidate increases her lead over GOP’s McSally as election authorities continued to count ballots in the uncalled race.
Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema expanded her lead to 20,203 votes over GOP Rep. Martha McSally Friday evening as Arizona election authorities continued to count ballots in the state’s uncalled Senate race.
Sinema’s lead amounts to just over 1 percentage point after more than 2 million votes have been counted. Sinema was up by 9,610 votes earlier in the day before the counties processed approximately 80,000 additional votes Friday — but slightly more than 350,000 ballots have yet to be counted across the state.
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Republicans and Democrats had been expecting the ballot releases Thursday and Friday to benefit Sinema and expand her lead, as they were mailed ballots from the final days of early voting, which favored the Democrat. Republicans believe the gap will narrow in the coming days, however, because as many as 200,000 of the remaining ballots were dropped off at polling places on Election Day, and those ballots are expected to benefit McSally.
Most of the remaining vote is from Maricopa County, Arizona’s largest county that includes Phoenix. Arizona election authorities will continue to release a similar number of ballots every day over the weekend and into next week until the vote is fully counted. It’s unclear when the race will be called.
In a statement, Sinema’s campaign manager Andrew Piatt said: “Once again, today’s data confirmed our expectation that as the ballots are counted, Kyrsten will steadily build her advantage and be elected to the U.S. Senate.”
In a statement, McSally said: “Equal protection under the law is a fundamental constitutional right for American voters. As a combat veteran, I fought to protect it. And today, we won an important battle to preserve that right for rural voters in Arizona. I will continue fighting until every ballot is counted.”
Republicans have lodged serious allegations against Democrats concerning the ballots as the process has unfolded since Election Day. President Donald Trump tweeted about the race Thursday alleging “electoral corruption” over a ballot issue the Arizona Republican Party was contesting in court.
Republicans filed a lawsuit to halt a practice in two counties where officials were checking signatures on early mail ballots that did not match voter files. Arizona GOP chairman Jonathan Lines and Sen. Jon Kyl both accused Democrats of potentially disenfranchising rural voters because officials only in Maricopa County and Pima County — home to Tucson — were checking the signatures.
An agreement was reached in court Friday afternoon to allow all counties to check signatures until Nov. 14, which Republicans hailed as a victory — though they continued to criticize the Maricopa County recorder. Only a few thousand votes were likely to be affected by the issue, the Associated Press reported, but that could be significant if the race tightens as votes continue to be counted.
Arizona’s Republican Gov. Doug Ducey tweeted Friday evening: “We often hear the phrase: Every vote matters. And the #AZSen race is proof. So let’s get this right. All legally cast votes MUST be counted. Lawful votes in EVERY county in the state MUST be counted. Let’s follow the law, count the votes, prevent any cheating, and heed the will of the voters.”
At the highest levels of the national party, there’s frustration with McSally — and a sense that she’s not being aggressive enough throughout the process.
While Florida Gov. Rick Scott has lashed out at election officials over the vote counting in his state, McSally has been silent. Top officials with the White House and Republican National Committee, who’ve been prodding the McSally campaign to amp up its efforts, have expressed frustration that the Arizona congresswoman hasn’t tried to drive a message that there’s something amiss with the vote count.
On Thursday evening, senior Republicans joined the McSally campaign for a conference call to discuss the state of play. On the call, Justin Clark, the White House director of intergovernmental affairs, and Mike Roman, a veteran opposition researcher who is working with the RNC, pressed the McSally campaign on what was being done.
RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel, meanwhile, has spoken with Lines, and has expressed a desire for more aggressiveness.
So far, the congresswoman has not addressed the vote counting directly. On Friday, Kyl released a statement saying “Democrats’ legal strategy sounds an awful lot like an effort to disenfranchise voters” from the state’s rural counties.
Lines held a press conference shortly before Friday’s court hearing to echo Kyl’s statement of “disenfranchisement.” Ultimately, the GOP got its desired result in that hearing.
Trump, who was briefed by aides on the Arizona and Florida tallies on Thursday, has also weighed in. “Just out — in Arizona, SIGNATURES DON’T MATCH. Electoral corruption – Call for a new Election? We must protect our Democracy!” the president tweeted on Friday afternoon while en route to Paris.
Among some senior Republicans, there is suspicion about why McSally has chosen to hold back. Some are convinced that she’s willing to let the race go and instead hope for an appointment to the state’s other Senate seat. Kyl, who was picked to replace the late Sen. John McCain, has yet to commit to serving for a full term.
That’s because Intel is bringing in its lightweight Shooting Star Mini drones — the ones that made appearances at the Olympics and the Super Bowl — for some light-filled, choreographed visions. The final scene is called “Christmas Lights”; it’s all very on theme.
Most notable will be the sheer number of drones: A hundred of them, all synced and moving together to create holiday cheer. The drones hold LED lights that can make 4 billion colorful combinations.
It’s a colorful production even before the mini drones show up.
Image: Zack Lane/MSG Photos
This is the first indoor theater performance for this many Intel drones, and the first indoor drone light show for Radio City Music Hall. Earlier this year, 50 of the drones flew through the San Francisco Pride indoor opening event. At Audi’s electric car unveiling in September, 850 mini drones made the Audi logo outside the venue.
Here’s the scene: Aerialists will fly across the stage, then 100 Christmas lights (aka drones) will surround Santa Claus, and then the Rockettes will appear and finish off with a dance. Above there’s a preview of part of the final scene, with the drones flying around Santa.
The show begins Friday night at Radio City Music Hall and runs through Jan. 1.
Change, inspired by the #MeToo movement, appears to be contagious.
Facebook will suspend its policy of forcing employees to present sexual misconduct claims at a secret legal proceeding known as arbitration, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. Now, employees will be able to file public lawsuits against the company and accusers instead of settling the matters internally.
The new policy from Facebook comes one day after the same announcement from Google. CEO Sundar Pichai announced a host of new changes regarding the way it handles sexual misconduct complaints in an email to employees. That came one week after 20,000 Google employees walked out to protest Google’s history with sexual misconduct cases, including giving Android creator Andy Rubin a $90 million payout after he was accused of sexual harassment.
Facebook has also changed its “workplace relationships policy”. Now, all senior employees will have to disclose if they are dating a fellow Facebook employee, whether or not they’re within the same chain of command. Facebook first made its harassment policy public in 2017 as discussions about sexual misconduct at tech companies took center stage.
“We believe that the more companies are open about their policies, the more we can all learn from one another,” a Facebook representative told Mashable over email. “Today, we are publishing our updated Workplace Relationships policy and amending our arbitration agreements to make arbitration a choice rather than a requirement in sexual harassment claims. Sexual harassment is something that we take very seriously and there is no place for it at Facebook.”
In 2015, a former Facebook employee sued Facebook for wrongful termination after she said she was fired for reporting sexual harassment. She subsequently settled out of court, according to CNN. Facebook has not recently faced high-profile sexual misconduct accusations in the same way that Google, Tinder, or Uber have. Former Uber engineer Susan Fowler, who blew the whistle over sexual harassment at the company, has been an influential figure in the push to get rid of forced arbitration.Uber and Lyft both did away with forced arbitration in cases of sexual misconduct by their drivers in May of this year.
However, forced arbitration is still very much alive and well within the tech industry for settling other complaints. In 2015, a former WeWork employee sued because she claimed she was fired for refusing to sign an arbitration clause, and for talking to contractors about overtime and other workers’ rights.
As the #MeToo movement shakes the tech industry, some companies seem to want to be on the side of change.
In a statement that will run Sunday in the Star-Tribune, Mauer wrote:
“After much consideration I have decided to retire from playing baseball. The decision came down to my health and my family. The risk of concussion is always there, and I was reminded of that this season after missing over 30 games as a result of diving for a foul ball.
“Thank you, Minnesota Twins, and thank you, fans, for making my career as special and memorable as it was. Because of you I can leave the game I love with a full and grateful heart.”
Mauer was set to be a free agent this winter after playing out the final year of the eight-year, $184 million contract he signed with the Twins in 2010.
The 35-year-old, who mostly played catcher until 2013, is coming off a solid 2018 season, batting .282 with six home runs and 48 RBI. The six-time All-Star could still get on base at a respectable clip (.351 on-base percentage), but he offered little in the way of power.
While Mauer’s decision is an emotional blow for Twins fans who have watched him play for the past 15 years, it’s not altogether a surprise. He revealed in a September interview with Neal that he planned to seriously consider his future following the 2018 campaign:
“There’s a lot that goes into it than just, ‘Do you want to play?’ There’s a lot of different dynamics that go into it. I owe it to myself and my family to sit down and think about those things.
“I have had some conversations with some people close to me and it’s amazing. Getting little bits from different people that are helping me cultivate this [decision]. I still have a lot to think about. I still have people who I want to speak to.
“It’s interesting. It’s a big decision, and I want to make sure I’m 100 percent about it.”
Neal reported health was a factor for Mauer after he dove to make a play in the Twins’ 5-4 win over the Los Angeles Angels on May 11 and hit his head on the ground. He began suffering from concussion-like symptoms in the weeks after.
In 2013, Mauer appeared in just 113 games. While working behind the plate, he took a foul ball off his catching helmet that resulted a concussion. Mauer told reporters in February 2016 that effects from the concussion continued to linger, as he would occasionally encounter vision problems, particularly during day games.
Mauer retires as one of the greatest Twins in franchise history. Only Rod Carew and Harmon Killebrew posted a higher WAR with the team among position players than Mauer (55.1), per Baseball Reference.
Because his decline was so pronounced as he got into his 30s, it’s easy to forget how good Mauer was in his prime. He won the American League MVP Award in 2009 and won three straight Gold Gloves from 2008 to 2010.
For more than a decade, Mauer was the face of the Twins, and the fact that he’s a native of St. Paul, Minnesota, only strengthened his bond with the fans. His retirement represents the end of an era in Minneapolis.
Mauer’s next stop may well be the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Baseball Reference’s JAWS metric combines a player’s career WAR with his best seven-year stretch and averages the two numbers. Mauer’s 47.0 JAWS score ranks seventh among all catchers.
The six players above him on the list are all enshrined in Cooperstown.
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Apple-heads and Amazon stans have cause for celebration, as the two most valuable companies in the world announced a plan to come together and solve the global problem of not being able to buy the latest iPhone models on the e-retailer’s site.
That’s right, according to Bloomberg, soon you’ll no longer have to head over to apple.com to purchase a whole host of Apple products including the iPhone XR, the iPad, the Apple Watch, the Mac, or even the Apple TV. Instead, you can keep your browser forever parked at amazon.com for all your online shopping needs. Well, unless you’re one of the several people in the market for a HomePod, that is.
That’s because Amazon, which of course has its own home speaker and smart-assistant device, will not make Apple’s version available for sale.
And what a shame, really. We were oh so close to a moment of pure corporate harmony.
That’s not the only incidental little fact to rain on this otherwise joyous occasion. As Motherboard reports, Amazon has also taken this opportunity to boot any Apple reseller off the platform who isn’t authorized by Apple. This is bad for many reasons, one of which being the fact that many of those resellers are buying up otherwise discarded or broken Apple products, fixing them, and only then reselling them — postponing those goods’ junkyard and toxic fate.
Kyle Wiens, the founder of iFixit, summed the move up nicely.
“This is unconscionable,” he tweeted along with a link to the above Motherboard story.
But hey, it’s all in the name of customer experience! And Amazon most certainly values the experiences of its customers (assuming they also don’t work for the company in any capacity).
“Amazon is constantly working to enhance the customer experience, and one of the ways we do this is by increasing selection of the products we know customers want,” reads an Amazon statement provided to Bloomberg. “We look forward to expanding our assortment of Apple and Beats products globally.”
After Dez Bryant went down at Friday’s practice with what the team fears is a torn Achilles, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported the Saints “could turn back” to free-agent wideout Brandon Marshall.
Marshall, who was cut by the Seattle Seahawks on Oct. 30, worked out for the Detroit Lions on Monday, per ESPN.com’sField Yates.
The next day, NFL Network’sMike Garafoloreported the 34-year-old was in New Orleans to work out alongside Bryant and Kamar Aiken.
The Saints ultimately settled on Bryant to help bolster their receiving corps, but that experiment seemingly ended before it started.
If Marshall is brought aboard, head coach Sean Payton will hope the 6’5”, 232-pound jump-ball maestro can enhance New Orleans’ red zone offense thanks to his ability to win at the catch point in contested one-on-one situations.
Marshall finished his six-game stay in Seattle with 11 receptions for 136 yards and one touchdown.
![Jordanian civil defence services worked on a road that was damaged by flash floods near Madaba on November 9 [EPA]](https://i0.wp.com/www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2018/11/10/3fec2cfd2b63415daff0acc5f7ca7a84_18.jpg "Jordan: Rains and floods kill nine, force tourists to flee Petra")
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THE LATEST HASHTAGS AND CHALLENGES” the app offers to keep them busy, anyway. 
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Daily Trends Hunter 