Tag: Daily Trends Hunter

Mike Freeman’s 10-Point Stance: Joe Thomas Says Level of QB Play Makes NFL Fun

Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield, right, shakes hands with former Cleveland Browns tackle Joe Thomas before being interviewed at the on-field set for Thursday Night Football after an NFL football game between the Cleveland Browns and the New York Jets , Thursday, Sept. 20, 2018, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Ron Schwane)

Ron Schwane/Associated Press

Baker Mayfield has already won over one future Hall of Famer, a game no NFL fan should miss and yet another example of how the NFL doesn’t really care about the health of its players. All that and more in this week’s 10-Point Stance.

1. No average Joe

It’s a Friday in late 2014, two days before Johnny Manziel is set to make his first NFL start, and the Browns offense is going through its practice. Normally, the Friday sessions are easy for quarterbacks, and they connect on almost all of their throws.

Manziel’s practice was, well, different.

“Apparently, he hadn’t been studying,” said Joe Thomas, the recently retired, soon-to-be Hall of Fame lineman. “He hit two out of 30 passes. I thought, ‘We aren’t going to do that well on Sunday.’”

The Browns lost 30-0 to the Bengals as Manziel threw for 80 yards and two interceptions and recorded a 27.3 passer rating.

That was just one of the scenes Thomas recalled in a recent conversation about his career and life in the NFL. Thomas played his entire 11-year career in Cleveland and made 10 Pro Bowls. He played a record 10,363 straight snaps, a remarkable streak for any player, let alone an offensive lineman.

And he’s just about seen it all, from the low of the Manziel era to the high of the Browns’ first win in a year. After they beat the Chargers in December 2016, the locker room was jubilant. Thomas and then-coach Hue Jackson approached each other.

“We hugged and the embrace was just raw emotion,” Thomas said. “We were both crying. We were crying over getting just one win.”

Sometimes, as we chronicle the daily news of the NFL, it’s smart to pause and just talk football with one of the greats, and Thomas is one of the greats.

But there’s a high price for doing what Thomas did so well for so long, which became clear when I asked if he would ever consider unretiring.

“I have almost no cartilage left in my knees,” he said. “My last year I could barely walk.”

So this season he’s made the transition to the other side of the microphone, developing into one of the keenest, and most honest, observers of the game. Especially about his former team.

Though Thomas had argued earlier this season that Jackson should remain the Browns head coach, he understood that the conflicts Jackson had with offensive coordinator Todd Haley were the reason both coaches were let go.

“The infighting in the building seemed to be the final straw,” Thomas said. “I don’t think they wanted that kind of thing around Baker Mayfield.”

That’s an important part of the equation to Thomas, because, as he said, “I think the Browns have found their franchise quarterback in Baker.”

Though he spent his career working on the finer points of line play, the game in the trenches is not what Thomas likes most about the league. It’s the quarterbacks those linemen are protecting.

“I’ve been shocked at how good [quarterback play] is across the league,” he said. “There is so much good play, and it really bodes well for football. It makes it fun.”

In addition to his analyst work, Thomas is now spending some of his time in retirement working with Polaris and the Heroes Hunt initiative. It’s part of an organization called LEEK, which is dedicated to the recovery of veterans by providing a hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation retreat as a means of healing.

“There are a lot of hidden and visible wounds veterans are fighting,” he said. “I’m honored to be a part of this.

It’s no surprise Thomas was one of the game’s most popular, successful and respected players. He is missed.

2. Now that’s how you turn a franchise around

Ron Schwane/Associated Press

As great as Thomas was, his Browns were not, but that is changing thanks to a 2018 draft that is shaping up to be one of the best of all time. Those are words you rarely hear associated with the Browns.

Quarterback Baker Mayfield, taken first overall, looks like a legit franchise quarterback. The fourth overall pick, corner Denzel Ward, has been terrific, too. Running back Nick Chubb, a second-round pick, is one of the bright young talents in the league.

There are other examples, such as fourth-round wide receiver Antonio Callaway and fifth-round linebacker Genard Avery, who’ve earned multiple starts in their rookie years. Assuming the Browns can get their coaching staff sorted out, fun times could finally be back for Browns fans.

3. Let Dak be Dak

Matt Rourke/Associated Press

Quarterback Dak Prescott has caught hell this season for his inconsistent play. Some of it has been legitimate—he does sometimes stare down receivers and hold on to the ball too long.

But he’s still talented and a franchise-type thrower…if only the coaching staff would let him be that. The biggest problem with Prescott is that the Cowboys have not allowed him to be himself. That’s not just my opinion, but what I’ve heard repeatedly from a number of coaches around the league.

Look no further than Sunday night against the Eagles for proof. Prescott, unleashed, was the QB he is meant to be, throwing for a touchdown and scoring another on the ground while connecting on 72 percent of his passes.

Now if only Jason Garrett and Co. would just let Dak be, the Cowboys might see again the star they have in their midst.

4. Talent + coaching = Wow!

Bill Feig/Associated Press

New Orleans has scored 51 and 45 points, respectively, over the last two weeks. As ESPN Stats & Info points out, the combined 96 points are the most in any two-game span in team history.

What Sean Payton is doing with the Saints offense is remarkable, and it’s the reason he is one of three coaches, along with Andy Reid in Kansas City and Sean McVay in L.A., who are in the Coach of the Year running.

Reid may be the leader because of what he’s done with quarterback Patrick Mahomes, but Payton will make the choice a difficult one.

5. Best regular-season matchup ever?

KANSAS CITY, MO - NOVEMBER 11: Patrick Mahomes #15 of the Kansas City Chiefs throws a pass during the second quarter of the age against the Arizona Cardinals at Arrowhead Stadium on November 11, 2018 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty I

Peter Aiken/Getty Images

The Rams and Chiefs will play Monday night. It’s one of the most anticipated regular-season games of all time. It’s not just because it’s a possible Super Bowl preview (each team has lost one game so far) but also because the game will likely be so entertaining. These are the two best offenses in the NFL right now, each averaging more than 33 points per game.

The anticipation over the matchup brings to mind another of the most anticipated regular-season games in history, when the Dolphins hosted a 12-0 Bears team in December 1985. Miami won a shootout that night and preserved the franchise’s record of having the only undefeated team in league history. This game won’t have that sort of impact, but it should be close, fun and something no football fan should miss.

6. A lot of hot air

Tony Avelar/Associated Press

The phrase “player safety” is thrown around all the time by the league…

We’re changing concussion protocol because of player safety. We’re reducing physical contact in the offseason because of player safety. Protect the quarterback because of player safety.

Then the league will have a team play Sunday and then on the following Thursday.

Or the league will refuse to change the venue as it did for the Giants-49ers game Monday night, when the air-quality index was 156, a number which is considered unhealthy, according to AirNow.gov, an Environmental Protection Agency site that measures air quality. The air quality for the Raiders game in Oakland was worse at 167.

This is a multibillion-dollar league with almost unlimited resources. It can postpone a game or move it if needed. The NFL just didn’t care.

So much for player safety.

By the way: Where in the hell is the union on this?

7. Fighting the good fight

SANTA CLARA, CA - NOVEMBER 12: Matt Breida #22 of the San Francisco 49ers rushes with the ball against the New York Giants during their NFL game at Levi's Stadium on November 12, 2018 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

The 49ers are 2-8. That’s terrible. What’s not terrible is the effort the team is giving each week. The 49ers may lose, but they also fight, and that’s a credit to coach Kyle Shanahan.

That stands in stark contrast to teams like the Jets and Raiders, who look ready to hit the beach.

Culture matters.

8. Where to, Eli?

Bill Kostroun/Associated Press

One of the NFL’s most interesting parlor games is trying to figure out where Giants quarterback Eli Manning will be playing next season.

Few in the league believe he’ll remain in New York. Much of the early speculation has him ticketed for either Denver or Jacksonville.

But another intriguing team was brought up to me this week: Tampa Bay.

Again, this is all guesswork from team officials across the league, but several front-office sources think the Bucs would welcome Manning to make some sense of their messy QB situation.

If that did happen (and it’s a gigantic “if”), that would mean Jameis Winston would be gone. And since he’s currently being beaten out by Ryan Fitzpatrick, that could be the case anyway.

9. The C word

Paul Sancya/Associated Press

Now that Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell has decided not to play this season, he is headed for free agency, but his path there may not be as simple as signing with the highest bidder.

One of the dirty secrets of the NFL is that collusion is an almost regular part of NFL life. No, I can’t prove that. There isn’t a secret memo stored in an NFL safe titled “Collusion Secrets Here: Do Not Open.” But it happens.

See: Kaepernick, Colin.

The league despises players like Bell: independent, strong-willed and willing to give the middle finger to the league’s financial system.

So it wouldn’t be shocking to me if Bell, when he does get into the open market, got lower money than he should.

10. The Jaguars still believe

AJ Mast/Associated Press

After 10 weeks, it’s safe to say that one of the season’s most disappointing teams is Jacksonville. The Jaguars reached the AFC title game last year, but heading into this Sunday they stand at a mere 3-6. Not only has the offense had its predictable ups and downs, but the defense, considered the backbone of the franchise entering the season, has struggled to stop people as well.

One of the team’s stars, however, says it’s not too late to turn the season around.

“I believe we can,” Leonard Fournette said in an interview with B/R while promoting his iFly travel luggage collection.

“We’re in tough times right now,” he said. “But we’re fighting hard every practice to get back to winning.”

The schedule won’t make it easy with dates against the Steelers, Texans, Titans and Washington remaining, but if Fournette believes, maybe the rest of the Jaguars do, too.

Mike Freeman covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @mikefreemanNFL.

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We’re obsessed with the latest royal family photo

2016%2f09%2f16%2fe7%2fhttpsd2mhye01h4nj2n.cloudfront.netmediazgkymde1lzex.0212fBy Rachel Thompson

There’s one family we just can’t get enough of. No, no, we’re not talking about the Kardashians. 

The younger royals — namely William, Kate, Harry, and Meghan — posed alongside their father Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall for a pretty adorable family pic. 

SEE ALSO: Prince Charles reads ‘Harry Potter’ to his grandkids and he does all the voices

For Charles’ 70th birthday, Clarence House released a brand new photo of the royal clan with its most recent additions to the fam’ — including Meghan Markle and baby Louis. 

Charles posed with Prince George on his knee, surrounded by grandkids Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. He was joined by Kate, Meghan, Harry, William, and his wife Camilla. 

We love a good outtake. A second pic, featuring Meghan and George having a good laugh, was also published. 

Keep ’em coming!

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Migos dab away to Whitney Houston in their ‘Carpool Karaoke’

Hip hop trio Migos is DTD to some serious Whitney Houston. Down To Dab, that is. 

Migos members Quavo, Offset, and Takeoff joined James Corden for a good old fashioned Late Late Show Carpool Karaoke, where they dabbed away to Whitney Houston’s hit song “I wanna dance with somebody.”

Migos then shared the story of how they were the original creators of the word dab. 

“Dab was a new word for swag,” Quavo told Corden. “And then people took that one word and […] made the word dab be a dance.”

Oh and then they just so happen to pull out 210,000 dollars in cash. NBD. 

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Technology has changed the way we get high, forever

This post is part of our High-tech High series, which explores weed innovations, and our cultural relationship with cannabis, as legalization in several U.S. states, Canada, and Uruguay moves the market further out of the shadows.

If you want to imagine the future of marijuana in the 2020s, picture a 3-D printer. 

Maybe it’s in a kiosk at your local legal recreational dispensary; maybe, if you’re a particular fan of greenery, it’s in your home. Either way, it’s pre-loaded with concentrated liquid forms of all  cannabinoids, the different kinds of molecules that make up marijuana. 

The machine has CBD for healing, CBN for sleepiness, THC for the giddy, giggly high; plus a ton of essential oils called terpenes, which generally provide every other subtle effect you’ve ever noticed with weed.

But you don’t need to sort them yourself. Via the kiosk screen, or 3D-printing mobile app, you select the effects you want to induce. Calm or hyped up? Uplifted or mellowed out? Creative or couch-locked? Or somewhere in the middle? The printer starts work on a mix of ingredients, which is composited based on an ever-growing, ever-evolving database of feedback from users like you.

All that remains is to choose your mode of delivery: wax for high-temperature, high-intensity dabbing; a liquid concentrate vape pen with precise microdosing ability; an edible; a strip that goes under your tongue; a nasal spray for those who want a fast-acting, 15 to 90 minute high. 

Later, you’ll be asked to rate the result, which will help other users achieve the common goal: never having a negative or unexpected cannabis experience ever again.  

SEE ALSO: Want to microdose marijuana? This company is making it easier for you.

A print-your-own-weed machine may sound like stoner science fiction, but there are startups in America right now hard at work on each element of it. Indeed, with legalization sweeping the nation and venture capital following in its wake, we’re entering a golden age of weed delivery technology — not to mention biotech that is only just starting to figure out exactly what this most versatile of drugs actually does to us, and how we can tweak that. 

A company called Altopa plans to deliver the Oblend, a printer-like DIY “home dispensary” device, in 2019 for $949. Another called Verra Wellness has just started selling a “nasal mist” for what it calls “transmucosal delivery of cannabinoids” (translation: stick pot up your nose). Enthuses one user: “I was very clear headed; I took it for work to help me focus and problem-solve without feeling overwhelmed.” 

Peak Experience

This is a common thread in the golden age of weed tech. The industry is leaving all the clichés about Doritos and forgetfulness behind, and embracing the other possibilities of a drug that is way more varied in its effects than alcohol. 

Users have had enough of the high-THC, ditzy, paranoid high — or rather, they know where to find that already. As any popular dispensary will tell you, the race for strains that simply have the highest THC content is no longer the only game in town, or even the main game. The mainstream is here. Thousands of regular consumers in newly legal states (and Canada), some of whom may not have smoked for decades, want the effects to be more subtle, creative and functional: an office-friendly buzz. 

“I want cannabis to enhance, not dumb down,” says Roger Volodarsky, Los Angeles-based founder of high-concept vaporizer company Puffco. “Personally, I find it to be much closer to coffee than to alcohol.” 

“Weed tech” is now definitely a thing.

I’d never have known it, but Volodarsky admitted to having a few hits before our interview. He’d been using his product, the Puffco Peak — a sleek battery-powered “smart bong” that retails for $370. The Peak was one of the most anticipated weed tech products at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (where yeah, “weed tech” is now definitely a thing.)  

That’s because it takes dabbing out of the realm of power users, who stick cannabis wax to a nail and blast it with a torch, and brings it into the realm of people who would consider what one review called “the Keurig of cannabis,” and also “what Apple would design” if it was in the marijuana business. 

Dabbing, which produces a large blast of clouds, may sound terrifying to moderate tokers. Still, Volodarsky is on a mission to convert them all. The advantage, he says, is that the dabbing process vaporizes all the good stuff and none of the CBN — a sleepy, dissociative cannibanoid that is barely even known among casual users yet. (Hey, they’re only just caught up with the whole CBD thing.) 

“If you’re talking about zoning in, quieting the noise, finding what drives you — this is what does it,” Volodarsky boasts of the Peak experience. “I don’t work as hard on days I don’t dab.” 

Colorful varities of edible and drinkable marijuana on sale in a Las Vegas dispensary.

Colorful varities of edible and drinkable marijuana on sale in a Las Vegas dispensary.

Image: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Talking to startup folks like Volodarsky about what technology will do for weed, my first surprising conclusion was that strains are increasingly seen as an outdated way of talking about cannabis. In fact, the future is likely more about blending specific cannabinoid molecules like CBN than growing new cutesey-named strains like Gorilla Glue or Girl Scout Cookies. 

Why? First of all, the content of various plant strains seem to vary from one grower to the next; there’s no standardization. Secondly, thanks to all that drug war-era experimentation, most strains are hybrids of some sort, even the ones that claim to be all indica (generally thought of as the body high) or all sativa (the head high stuff). Cast those concepts from your mind, because cannabis experts are increasingly calling for an end to the simplistic indica/sativa division. But molecules don’t vary. 

“We’re bringing a lot more consistency to this,” says Tristan Watkins, Chief Science Officer of a Denver company called LucidMood. “We can control what goes in, instead of you having to hope that your Super Lemon Haze is what it says it is, and doesn’t have some terpene that makes you groggy.”

LucidMood makes a variety of vape pens that are named for their desired effect: Energy, Chill, Party, Bliss, Relax, Calm, Relief, Focus, Sleep and Lift. The only thing they all have in common: they all contain 40 percent THC, 40 percent CBD and 20 percent terpenes.

The 1:1 ratio of THC and CBD is becoming more popular in the cannabis business, since it’s thought of as an ideal mix that allows casual users to be in control of their experience. You can’t dilute vape pen concentrate (or if you did, you’d be using the kind of chemical thinning agents you really don’t want to vaporize). 

“We make it newbie-proof,” says Watkins. “A normal vape pen is super strong. I’d never hand it to my mom.” 

Watkins has a Ph.D in neurology, for which he studied the effect of cannabis and its many compounds on the brain. What became clear to him: “We’re just scratching the surface” in terms of our understanding of the plant. 

We know THC increases blood flow to the brain and acts on the dopamine system, which is what makes everything seem important. We know it usually quietens the pre-frontal cortex, which makes it easier to do new things or let creative ideas bubble up without what Watkins calls “the helicopter mom in your head telling you to move on.” But beyond that, we’re only just beginning to learn how it acts on the biological system (known as the endocannabinoid system) that regulates appetite, mood, and memory. 

So how does LucidMood decide on the names of those 1:1 vape pens? Mainly by playing around with the terpene oils, where there’s a larger body of science telling us about their effects on humans. The company then does a placebo-controlled study (in the sense that one group of participants gets a regular 1:1 vape pen, making it probably the only placebo study in which everyone really gets high). 

Watkins catalogs the effects most users describe from the terpene-loaded pen, and if it matches up with what LucidMood expected, the pen is good to go. Science in action!

Just to make sure the newbies don’t overdo it, LucidMood pens automatically shut off after 5 seconds. That puts them in the same category as the Pax Era, the popular vape pen from the company that used to make the Juul e-cigarette. 

As of this summer, you’re able to “sip” your Pax in a “microdose“; you have to wait a couple of minutes before it’ll let you vape again. Microdosing is so popular with its customers that the company told me it’s looking into applying the technology to its larger Pax 3 vaporizer, which uses actual plant matter. A startup called Potbiotics may have beaten Pax to the punch with the Ryah, which it claims is the world’s first dose-measuring flower vaporizer. 

On the other hand, much of this technology could be ephemeral, as is the case in any fast-moving startup space, but perhaps more so in one where there are still many distractions. Potbiotics first offered to send me a test Ryah back in August; as of November, it has yet to materialize. 

Take a tour of my inbox and you’ll discover hundreds of weed-related pitches from companies that could either be the future or gone tomorrow. There’s an edible that dissolves in your mouth leaving no residue, called QuickStrip; Annabis, a line of high-end handbags that hide the smell of weed; cannabis marshmallows called Mellows; a tiny, powerful 4-inch disposable vape pen called The Little Chicken; an early stage startup called Form Factory with a patented “micro-encapsulation” technique that helps make edibles more consistent. 

When a thousand high-tech flowers are blooming like this, it can be hard to draw conclusions about the consumer needs they’re trying to fill, or whether they’re more interested in differentiating themselves through marketing. There’s an argument to be made that most startups are not being innovative enough; too many are simply putting new skins on the same old vape pen technology. 

“I’ve been underwhelmed by innovation in the cannabis space,” says Puffco’s Roger Volodarsky. “Everyone’s just trying to make the same herbal vaporizer. The only impressive new gadget I’ve seen lately is an electric grinder.” 

Still, some signals can be discerned in all this noise: We want weed to be discreet. We want it to be a delicious experience, whether in edible or vape form. And we want to customize it in endless configurations to match our desired mood and level of productivity — even if we can’t 3-D print it at home just yet. 

The high-tech marijuana age is underway, and it’s taking us in directions we can only imagine. The only place the industry isn’t going is backwards, to a world of smoking inconsistent strains where you don’t know what effect you’re going to get. 

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Kimmel tears into Trump over the next round of White House firings

Listen, we all knew Donald Trump loved to say those two little words — “You’re fired” — during his time on The Apprentice. But, who knew this love of firing people would continue into his presidency? 

Trump is reportedly gearing up to fire Kirstjen Nielsen as Homeland Security Secretary, Chief of Staff John Kelly, and Deputy National Security Adviser Mira Ricardel. 

Jimmy Kimmel offered up his thoughts on the rumoured departures. “Nielsen has done her best to please the president,” he said. “She strongly supported his policy of taking children away from their parents at the border, but I guess in the end she just wasn’t quite evil enough and now Thanos will take charge.”

“The problem is, he’s too chicken to fire people face-to-face. And John Kelly is the guy who does it for him so now Trump has to figure out a way to get Kelly to fire himself,” he added.

“Not only is Donald firing people, Melania’s getting in on the action,” Kimmel added, referring to the reports that Ricardel is being fired after clashing with FLOTUS. 

“In other words, ‘be best’ is now ‘be gone,’” he continued. 

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California wildfire toll rises to 48, hundreds still missing

The death toll from the most destructive fire in California’s history has risen to 48 after six more bodies were recovered from homes in Paradise, while relatives and friends of the missing are desperate for information.

The total count of the victims of the blaze, dubbed Camp Fire, in the state amounted to 50, as two bodies were recovered hundreds of kilometres to the south in the scorching path of another fire, named Woolsey, near Malibu.  

“One of the hardest parts of this particular job is to provide you with an update on the recovery of human remains,” Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea told reporters on Tuesday. 

Honea said that 100 National Guard troops would join the efforts of forensic teams and sniffer dogs, as they continue the search through incinerated town of Paradise.

Paradise, California [Terray Sylvester/ Reuters]

“We’re finding remains in various states,” he told reporters. “People have been badly burned. Some of them, I assume, have been consumed.”

He has reported that 228 were still missing but they are hoping to produce a list of missing persons soon and ask the public’s help to determine if it accurate.

The winds are expected to drop in the next 24 hours while “more favourable conditions” and “potential rain” in the middle of next week, have been forecasted by the meteorologist in the “Camp Fire” impacted area. 

“The air quality will be poor” especially in the mornings, warned Aviva Braun, a National Weather Service meteorologist, but it will get better in the afternoons. 

The blaze has now been 35 percent contained, according to officials after it destroyed more than 54,000 hectares, incinerating more than 8,800 structures, 7,600 of them homes.

Around 52,000 people were evacuated from the area and more than 1,000 are at evacuees’ shelters. 

Steve Kaufmann, spokesperson for CalFire said that 5,615 personnel continued to fight the blaze on Tuesday. 

The latest weather forecast for California said that the conditions were improving, promising strong winds that would progressively weaken on Wednesday and Thursday, but some mountains regions would remain under critical fire risk. 

“The last 12 months in California have been very dry, with rainfall well below average,” Al Jazeera’s weather presenter Steff Gaulter said.

“The vegetation is like tinder wood, ignited by the smallest spark. The forecast isn’t promising, with no rain on the horizon and the air expected to stay very dry, but at least the winds are finally relenting. On Wednesday the winds will still be blustery, but not quite as strong.

“Without any rain and with the persistence of dry air there are likely to be more fires, but without the strong winds the flames will not spread as quickly,” Gaulter said.

A firefighter extinguishes a hot spot in a neighbourhood destroyed by the Camp Fire in Paradise, California [Terray Sylvester/ Reuters]

The Ventura fire Captain said that “Woolsey Fire” in the south which has burnt more than 39,000 hectares and destroyed at least 435 structures, has been 40 percent contained but “there are numerous hotspots”.  

Despite the gusty winds, low visibility and rough terrain it was a “successful day”, Captain Brian McGrath told reporters in a briefing. 

“We’re starting to get a handle on this fire,” he said.

“I’m not feeling nearly the amount of wind and it’s a little bit cooler this morning,” he said on Tuesday. 

Some residents were allowed to return to affected neighbourhoods on Tuesday, including in parts of Malibu.

Tens of thousands are still under evacuation orders. 

Actor Gerard Butler posted a photo on Instagram in front of his “half-gone” Malibu home encouraging people to support the “brave men and women” of the firefighting units.

“Heartbreaking time across California. Inspired as ever by the courage, spirit and sacrifice of firefighters. Thank you,” he wrote.

Despair in the north

A message board in one of the 1,385 evacuees’ shelters is filled with photos of the missing and pleas for information about relatives and friends, according to the Associate Press news agency. 

“I hope you are okay,” reads one of the many notes on the board, while another says “if seen, please have him call” next to a picture of a missing man. 

Butte County Sheriff Honea said that some remains may not be found before residents start returning to their intact homes. 

“We want to be able to cover as much ground as quickly as we possibly can,” he said.

“This is a very difficult task.”

Taylor, a 72-year-old Vietnam veteran who walks with a cane said that the flames were at the back of his house when he received a call to evacuate immediately, Associate Press reported. 

He sprung into actions, rushing to leave with nothing but the clothes he was wearing and he tried to convince a neighbour to get in his car but the neighbour declined.

Almost a week later, he still didn’t know what happened to him.

“We didn’t have 10 minutes to get out of there,” he said.

Greg Gibson was at the message board on Tuesday, also trying to locate his neighbours, according to the Associate Press. 

“It happened so fast. It would have been such an easy decision to stay, but it was the wrong choice,” Gibson said from the Neighborhood Church in Chico, California.

On Sunday, he had told reporters that with the level of destruction, “Camp Fire” brought upon the county, “it’s very difficult to determine whether or not there may be human remains there.” 

According to officials, the forensic units are using portable DNA identification devices which can produce results in a couple of hours, rather than days or weeks.

Frank DePaolo, a deputy commissioner of the New York City medical examiners’ office said that “in many circumstances, without rapid DNA technology, it’s just such a lengthy process.” 

Hazards and looting

Officials are advising “extreme caution” when people return to a recently burnt area.  

The indications of P1 and P2, marked on trees, mean that they are hazardous. 

Furthermore, the Butte County sheriff’s office said there have been reports of more than 200 suspicious incidents, 18 of them linked to looting. 

Two men were arrested on Monday for allegedly looting a residence within an evacuated area and being in possession of a gun. 

Earlier on Tuesday, two more men were found looting and arrested into Butte County jail.

Deputies also found a motor home that was previously reported stolen and arrested a 22-year-old man and a 22-year-old woman linked to that crime.  

US Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and California Governor Jerry Brown were scheduled on Wednesday to pay a visit to the disaster areas.

Zinke talked of “gross mismanagement of forests” due to “environmental terrorist groups” which are forcing strict harvest restrictions when he toured California’s earlier fire incidents in August. 

The origins of both the Camp and Woolsey fires were listed as under investigation. 

A deer with a broken antler stands during the Camp Fire in Paradise, California [David Paul Morris/Getty Images]

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California’s New Governor Has a Problem: His Own Party

SAN FRANCISCO — California’s governor-elect Gavin Newsom, the former San Francisco mayor, has forged a political reputation as a risk-taker whose controversial—but ultimately prescient—moves in support of gay marriage, the state’s legal cannabis market and some of the nation’s toughest gun laws have put him on the national radar.

But as he prepares to assume the reins of the nation’s most populous state, Newsom will be pressured to manage an even more daring stylistic high-wire act in California. He must be able to do two things at once: Stay on top of the key issues that have made him a leader of the “State of Resistance” against President Donald Trump, while simultaneously establishing himself as a power broker in Sacramento who can manage a booming economy and $16 billion total in surplus and “rainy day” reserves as hungry Democrats push for new spending and initiatives.

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As leader of the world’s fifth largest economy – the state that’s home to Silicon Valley, Hollywood and the nation’s agricultural bread basket, the vast Central Valley – Newsom will automatically be catapulted into the ranks of future Democratic prospects for the White House. The political pressures of a party hungry to unseat Trump may pit him, eventually, against fellow Californians like Sen. Kamala Harris and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. And already, the increased scrutiny has put him in the sights of conservative Fox News commentators and Trump himself, who referred to him as a “clown” in stump speeches during the midterms. Although Newsom insists he is keeping his focus entirely on California for the next eight years, his path could be mined with political risks, should the state’s currently booming economy run out of gas – and the costly effects of wildfires and climate change could tarnish even a popular young governor’s future prospects.

Newsom’s political godfather Willie Brown, the former San Francisco mayor and assembly speaker – who launched Newsom’s political career when he appointed his enthusiastic 20-something campaign aide to a spot on the city’s traffic commission more than two decades ago – warns that weathering all this will require some political magic tricks.

One trick is getting out under the shadow of Jerry Brown, the four-term governor and son of the late Gov. Edmund “Pat” Brown, who has known him since childhood.

Another is marshalling the sharp elbows Newsom honed in the mosh pit of local San Francisco politics, while forging his own governing style in Sacramento – a town Newsom has never called home.

Willie Brown advises Newsom to make an immediate departure from the press-adverse Jerry Brown and schedule weekly press conferences in Sacramento, both to improve his relations with the media – and to dominate the headlines. That approach will be necessary “to gain the same presence that Jerry had by birth,’’ he says. “Newsom will have to work for it.”

Brown noted that unlike his predecessor, Newsom isn’t a creature at home in Sacramento’s insular political cultural or statewide Democratic Party machine politics. A business owner and entrepreneur who has enjoyed the backing of the Getty oil family, Newsom has frequently been labeled a “pro-business Democrat.” Early in his political career, he even described himself as a “dogmatic fiscal conservative and a social liberal’’ – a profile that has earned him barbs from the party’s far left.

“He’s not part of the Democratic Party on a fulltime basis. He’s not part of organized labor on a fulltime basis. He’s not part of the business world on a fulltime basis,” Brown said. While “there will all these wannabes” crowding around to get part of his circle, he said, “the lobbyist types will be disappointed. … Newsom never performed in that way. He has paid no interest to them. But he’s smart enough, and sharp enough, to have talented folks seek him out.”

In the final days of his gubernatorial campaign, camped out in the back of his big blue campaign bus, Newsom acknowledged that he’d told his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, he’d been feeling “butterflies,” a combination of exhilaration, and a sobering gut check as the reality of that challenge set in.

“It’s been such a long, multiyear journey,” said a reflective Newsom in the waning hours of a dawn-to-dusk campaign barnstorm across California that would seal his win. And now, the reality is here: “There’s an ending,’ he said. “There’s a real responsibility. That’s the job.”

Newsom acknowledged that it’s daunting to be following Jerry Brown, a man who’s “a master” of California political dialectic, calling him “exceptionally gifted, exceptionally skilled … one of the best political minds of our generation.”

But as much as Newsom respects Brown, he’s got little time to waste — there’s a preliminary budget due on December 15, though he won’t be formally sworn in until January 7. “I just want to get to work,” he told POLITICO. “I’m not going to wait around for the first 100 days … these transitions are pretty quick.”

Newsom is approaching his first budget, which gets reviewed by the legislature in May, the way he approaches everything else: with deadly earnestness. It’s “your first chance at a first impression … demonstrably a reflection of your values,” he said. And for one who has talked about prioritizing issues like early childhood education, he noted, it will be seen as a “proof point” of his commitments.

For months, Newsom has been quietly assembling 30 policy teams – experts in academic, tech, business and government; the groups have been examining the challenges ahead in issues ranging from health care and climate change to more granular topics like cybersecurity, job automation and government procurement. Those efforts have produced a series of in-depth policy papers over the last months.

So far, Newsom said, “I’ve been focusing on ‘how.’” As the governor-elect, “I think the next phase is ‘who.’ … You can make big mistakes in a transition – and often they’re attached to personnel.”

Already, Jason Kinney, a longtime Newsom advisor, resigned his spot at California Strategies, a powerhouse state lobbying firm, to help the former mayor navigate what he acknowledges will be critical decisions ahead.

And Newsom’s first major picks, two veteran women in politics, have already won praise. His chief of staff – and the head of his transition team – will be Ann O’Leary, a former policy adviser to Hillary Clinton. And Ana Matosantos, who served as budget director to both Gov. Jerry Brown and Arnold Schwarzenegger, will be his Cabinet secretary – a key post that will serve as the new governor’s chief contact to key government agencies and departments.

Friends say Newsom, while seeking the advice and views of his trusted staffers, relishes the work of governing, and is known to read policy papers from the moment he wakes up, highlighting in yellow and crowding the margins with notes.

“He’s been looking at these issues for a long time and he is so far ahead of most people coming into this office on a policy level – because he really does love policy issues and he doesn’t jump fast,” said veteran Democratic consultant Gale Kaufman. “He’s thoughtful in his approach.”

Bill Whalen, a fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution who was previously an adviser to Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, says the new job will require Newsom to tone down his national profile and go local. “He has to spend a lot of time talking to lawmakers, staying on top of bills, building relationships,” he said. “Sacramento is a lot closer to Davis than to Davos. … He has to take care of matters at home first.”

Still, Whalen says it’s a good sign that Newsom is one of the few Democrats who in the last year has visited the conservative think tank, in part to explore the views of some of the nation’s most preeminent economists and policy experts on the other side of the aisle. Many came away impressed with the depths of the discussion, he said.

Such efforts may assist Newsom in a big challenge ahead, Whalen suggests: controlling the pent-up spending demands of California’s Democratic state legislature, which chafed under Jerry Brown’s trademark frugality and fiscal discipline.

“Jerry has been the ‘alpha dog’ in Sacramento for the last eight years,” pushing back on budget demands with tough vetoes — an approach that has helped Brown protect a budget that went from deficit to surplus on his watch. Says Whelan, “Can a Governor Newsom be the same big dog? Are the Democratic leaders of the legislature intimated by Gavin Newsom or not?”

Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, at Newsom’s victory party this week, noted Newsom’s statements that he would not be “profligate” and would try to follow in Jerry Brown’s footsteps by keeping the legislature in check when needed. “That’s the governor’s job – to say no to us sometimes,” he said, adding a pointed warning: “And it’s our job to say no to the governor sometimes. … It’s a balance of power. And I know that Gavin Newsom understands that.’’

Democrats who’ve known him for years say Newsom won’t have a problem saying no.

The former San Francisco mayor, during his tenure as the city’s chief executive, gained an understanding of “what it’s like to veto legislation that pisses off your friends,” said a longtime friend and advisor, Nathan Ballard, CEO of The Press Shop, a Bay-Area media strategy group run in partnership with veteran Democratic strategist PJ Johnston.

But Newsom is also likely to carve out his own signature issues where he goes further than his predecessors. Former Senator Fran Pavley, who helped craft a landmark climate-change bill signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, which mandated a cap on greenhouse gas emissions statewide, and a 25 percent reduction by 2020, says she sees Newsom already looking ahead on how to advance the environmental agenda forged by Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown.

Pavley says she’s both energized and reassured by the news that Mary Nichols, who heads the California Air Resources Board – and has been a key in resisting Trump’s agenda aiming to roll back fuel emissions standards — will stay on though at least 2020, when her current term ends. Nichols, who’s been dubbed the state’s “clean air czar,’’ served as chair of the board under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and is widely viewed for decades as the most influential force behind the state’s successful moves to dramatically reduce air pollution — while advancing a cutting-edge climate change agenda. She says Newsom is strongly rumored to be preparing to address the issue of fracking – representing a key departure from Brown, whose continued support made him the target of environmental groups.

It may be one of the areas where Newsom will immediately be challenged to make an early and bold, game-changing stroke – much like he did in 2004 as a new mayor by legalizing same sex-marriage in San Francisco, says Willie Brown.

That decision put him on the national political map – and sparked a national uproar. Republicans lambasted Newsom, as did some Democrats like Dianne Feinstein, and many more — like then-Senator Barack Obama — declined to have photos taken with him in the immediate aftermath. Pundits predicted the end of his political career, but it was Newsom’s prediction that marriage equality would be the law of the land some day — “whether you like it or not,” he said — that turned out to be spot-on.

But Newsom cautions that recreating that “lightning in a bottle” moment will be “tough.” He adds: “That issue chose me, I didn’t choose it.”

But even as he sought to tamp down expectations, Newsom noted that his campaign slogan was “Courage, for a Change.”

“I don’t want anyone to be surprised with what they’re getting,” he said. “I’m not saying courage is always noble and righteous – but it’s an expression of a willingness to lean into issues” when others “may be a little more reticent to do so.”

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Samsung’s next flagship might have a new AI chip, 8K video recording

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Samsung's new Exynos 9820 chip is expected to be in mass production by year's end.
Samsung’s new Exynos 9820 chip is expected to be in mass production by year’s end.

Image: Samsung

2016%2f09%2f16%2f6f%2fhttpsd2mhye01h4nj2n.cloudfront.netmediazgkymdezlza1.53aeaBy Stan Schroeder

This time, it’s not a rumor. On Wednesday, Samsung officially unveiled its next-generation system-on-a-chip for smartphones, the Exynos 9820. 

Highlights of the new chip, which is likely to be built into Samsung’s next flagship phone, include a new Neural Processing Unit (NPU), which will power the phone’s AI tasks, as well as video recording in 8K resolution. 

SEE ALSO: Samsung says we’ll get new foldable phones every year

The new Exynos 9820 is built with an 8-nanometer process and has eight CPU cores, coupled with an ARM Mali-G76 graphics processing unit.  In terms of performance, the new chip should be 20% speedier in single core tasks and 15% faster in multi-core tasks than its predecessor (that would be the Exynos 9810, launched in January). 

The integrated NPU makes the chip seven times speedier than the Exynos 9810 when it comes to AI tasks. 

Image: SAMSUNG

Other highlights include a fast LTE modem that allows for 2.0Gbps download speeds and 316 Mbps upload speeds, 8K video recording at 30fps or 4K video recording at 150fps, as well as support for screen resolutions up to 3,840×2,400 or 4,096×2,160 pixels. 

The launch follows Apple’s A12 chip and Huawei’s Kirin 980 chip, both of which are built with a 7nm process and boast similar features, most notably AI improvements. And Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chip — also used by Samsung in its phones — is likely to get an upgrade later this year. 

Samsung says the Exynos 9820 should be in mass production by year’s end, which gives the company plenty of time to integrate it with its upcoming Galaxy S10 flagship, which is expected to arrive in February next year. 

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Shop Black Friday laptop deals a week early

Just to let you know, if you buy something featured here, Mashable might earn an affiliate commission.

Image: Asus

2018%2f06%2f12%2f08%2f20182f062f112f5a2fphoto.16a36.779efBy Kevin BillingsMashable Deals

Looking for a laptop on sale? You’re in luck. Black Friday is almost here, and so are all those deals you’ve been anxiously waiting for all year. And though Black Friday doesn’t officially start until Nov. 23, there are already lots of laptop sales trickling in. 

Whether you need a 2-in-1, a Chromebook, a gaming laptop, or something else, there are plenty of laptops on sale from from the likes of Dell, HP, Asus, and Alienware on sale at places like Walmart, Best Buy, Amazon, and more.

SEE ALSO: Best Black Friday gaming deals already live right now

Below we’ve put together a list of some of the best deals available now, plus those that won’t start until Black Friday. If you don’t see what you’re looking for, keep checking back as we update these laptop deals while more information becomes available. (And keep your fingers crossed for MacBooks!)

Check out the best deals below:

Early Black Friday deals

2-in-1 laptops on sale already:

Image: HP

Image: Dell

Gaming laptops on sale:

Image: Dell

More early laptop deals:

Image: Asus

Laptop deals starting on Black Friday

2-in-1 laptops on sale:

Image: Lenovo

Gaming laptops on sale:

Image: Asus

All other laptops on sale:

Image: Samsung

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