College Football Playoff Rankings 2018: Official Committee Releases Week 12 Poll

BATON ROUGE, LA - NOVEMBER 03: Head coach Nick Saban look on while playing the Alabama Crimson Tide at Tiger Stadium on November 3, 2018 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Alabama won the game 29-0. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

The Top Four of the College Football Playoff rankings remained unchanged heading into Week 12.

Following a 24-0 shutout of the Mississippi State Bulldogs, the unbeaten Alabama Crimson Tide kept the top spot. They’re followed by the Clemson Tigers, Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Michigan Wolverines.

Here’s the full Top 25 from the CFP selection committee:

CFP Rankings

1. Alabama

2. Clemson

3. Notre Dame

4. Michigan

5. Georgia

6. Oklahoma

7. LSU

8. Washington State

9. West Virginia

10. Ohio State

11. UCF

12. Syracuse

13. Florida

14. Penn State

15. Texas

16. Iowa State

17. Kentucky

18. Washington

19. Utah

20. Boston College

21. Mississippi State

22. Northwestern

23. Utah State

24. Cincinnati

25. Boise State

Analysis

The Kentucky Wildcats were the highest-ranked team to lose in Week 11. They had climbed up to 11th in the playoff rankings before losing 24-7 to the Tennessee Volunteers.

None of last week’s Top Four did anything to warrant a demotion.

Alabama met some resistance from then-No. 16 Mississippi State but wasn’t in any real danger. Clemson went on the road and dominated the previously 17th-ranked Boston College Eagles, holding them to 113 yards. Notre Dame and Michigan, meanwhile, won by 29 and 35 points, respectively.

The No. 5 Georgia Bulldogs continue knocking on the door of the Top Four following a 27-10 win over the then-No. 24 Auburn Tigers.

If no team above them slips up, though, the Bulldogs may not climb. Beating the UMass Minutemen and Georgia Tech Yellow Jackers would not improve their stock too much, putting everything on Georgia’s date with Alabama in the SEC Championship Game on Dec. 1.

A little further down the rankings, the Ohio State Buckeyes were an interesting case for the playoff committee.

The Buckeyes defeated the then-No. 18 Michigan State Spartans 26-6 in East Lansing, Michigan, but they actually fell a spot in both the Associated Press Top 25 and Amway Coaches Poll. Ohio State is ninth in the AP poll and eighth in the coaches poll.

Media members and coaches clearly weren’t impressed by Ohio State, which led just 9-6 after three quarters. The playoff committee agreed with that assessment, keeping the Buckeyes at No. 10.

The Oklahoma Sooners are a lot like Ohio State in that they’ve looked great at times but have glaring issues that could give the committee pause.

Firing defensive coordinator Mike Stoops has changed little for Oklahoma. A week after allowing 473 yards and 46 points to the Texas Tech Red Raiders, the Sooners narrowly avoided an upset at the hands of the Oklahoma State Cowboys. The Cowboys, who amassed 640 yards, had an opportunity to win the game with 1:03 left but failed on a two-point conversion attempt and lost 48-47.

While the win counted the same for Oklahoma, the result did little to convince the committee the Sooners are a Top Four team.

The Week 12 slate is unlikely to lead to a shakeup of the rankings. Only two games pit Top 25 teams against one another: No. 3 Notre Dame vs. No. 12 Syracuse and No. 16 Iowa State at No. 15 Texas.

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It’s not just no drinking and scooting, it’s no texting and scooting

Just because you’re riding around on two wheels with a motor boosting you to 12 mph doesn’t mean you can stop paying attention.

Just like distracted driving, distracted scooting is becoming a concern on the road. That’s why scooter-share company Bird says it joined AT&T’s “It Can Wait” campaign. Since 2010, the phone company has encouraged putting down the phone for texts, calls, and checking your email (and more), while driving. In 2018, the campaign includes all those behaviors — but on rentable e-scooters.

For confident scooter riders, the inclination to multitask while riding can be strong, as is the pull of the smartphone. The motorized devices may feel like a toy, but they’re considered a road vehicle, riding alongside cars, buses, bicycles, pedestrians, and other scooters. At least you better be off the sidewalk and in the bike lane, or riding along the edge of the road.

PCI insurance group noted a recent study by Zendrive that found at least 69 million drivers in the U.S. use a phone while driving every day. What riders are willing to do behind the handlebars hasn’t been studied enough yet, but we can guess it’s just as pervasive a problem.

To promote safe scooting, Bird created a short video showing how that scooter selfie can result in a crash — or worse. The silent 7-second safety message is above.

Bird isn’t the only scooter company concerned about safe riding, or at least the liability of unsafe riding.

Last week their competitor Lime released its “Respect the Ride” safety campaign. The program includes a rider pledge, educational videos about safe scooter use and proper parking, and a $3 million commitment from the company toward public safety and education plans.

A Lime spokesperson said this week that 75,000 people had signed the pledge. That might’ve been prompted by the lure of free helmets for the first 25,000 who pledged to ride safely. Lime plans to distribute 250,000 free helmets in cities across the globe in the next six months. The pledge helmets were mailed to signees.

In the fight against distracted scooting, Lime has plans to include a personalized screen with your user profile and info about your previous trips and saved locations on its next generation scooter. Maybe that’ll stave off the urge to connect to a smartphone.

Lime last week also announced alongside e-scooter company Spin (which was just bought by Ford) an agreement with the Los Angeles Department of Transportation to study how the scooters are used. So more data will be shared with cities, starting with LA, and hopefully improve the streets for scooter users.

Distracted scooting comes up alongside drunken or impaired scooting, another e-scooter no-no. While distracted scooter riders can be harder for police and public safety officials to track down, intoxicated scooting can lead to real arrests and DUI records, like the 28-year-old who crashed into a pedestrian while three times over the legal limit on a Bird scooter in Los Angeles back in September.

Like this wine supplier points out, it’s important to learn what’s legal while on an e-scooter and not to drink and drive. The legal limit is the same as when driving a car. While you’re at it, put down the phone and just scoot.

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‘Game of Thrones’ director: Season 8 twists will rival the Red Wedding

Game of Thrones‘ final season might only be six episodes, but director David Nutter confirmed that they’ll be super-sized. (We already knew this, but thank the old gods and the new.)

Nutter also suggested, in a Reddit AMA, that there are jaw-dropping twists ahead.

“As far as season 8 compared to the Red Wedding I just have to tell you — hang onto your seat cause it’s going to be special,” Nutter said. He also called the final season “spectacular, inspiring, satisfying,” with “lots of surprises and shocking moments.”

That seems like a warning for fans to steel themselves. The notorious Red Wedding, which slaughtered several key characters near the end of Season 3, was a plot twist that discombobulated fans immensely.

Readers of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire watched with bated breath, not only as the terrifying scene came to life, but as their unsuspecting friends who hadn’t read the books experienced it for the first time. A popular pastime was filming people as they reacted to the final scene, and it takes us right back!

If Season 8 is going to have us clutching our seats, what on Earth could Thrones have in store? Is everyone going to become a White Walker? Will incest suddenly stop? Is Cersei going to be nice?

On that last one – probably not.

“The White Walker army will not be the only issue our characters have to face in season 8,” Nutter said. “They have to also face each other.”

Game of Thrones returns April 2019.

h/t Entertainment Weekly

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Draymond Green Reportedly to Sit vs. Hawks After Altercation with Kevin Durant

SALT LAKE CITY, UT - OCTOBER 19: Kevin Durant #35 of the Golden State Warriors tries to calm down teammate Draymond Green #23 after a foul in the second half of a NBA game against the Utah Jazz at Vivint Smart Home Arena on October 19, 2018 in Salt Lake City, Utah. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Gene Sweeney Jr./Getty Images)

Gene Sweeney Jr./Getty Images

The Golden State Warriors have suspended Draymond Green without pay for Tuesday night’s game versus the Atlanta Hawks.

Green exchanged words with Kevin Durant after losing the ball just before the end of regulation Monday night against the Los Angeles Clippers:

Bleacher Report @BleacherReport

Here’s why KD was so mad at Draymond https://t.co/pub3L5o3my

According to Wojnarowski and Marc J. Spears of ESPN.com, the altercation carried over into the locker room.

Green reportedly “challenged” Durant about his upcoming free agency, per Shams Charania of The Athletic, and the argument remained a “simmering issue” Tuesday.

Per Haynes, Green also called Durant a “b—h” several times. The usually quiet Klay Thompson felt the need to speak up to his teammates after the game and “stressed the importance of sticking together.”

Charania added that the Warriors decided Green will sit to “cool off.”

Though the 121-116 overtime loss to the Clippers shouldn’t worry a team that is 11-3, the infighting could be a greater concern.

Durant is in his third season with Golden State and has helped the squad win the NBA title in each of the last two years, but he is still an outsider compared to the core of Green, Stephen Curry and Thompson. Green has been with the Dubs since 2012, when he was drafted 35th overall in the second round.

The Warriors have enough talent to win another championship even if the players don’t have the best chemistry, but they could be in trouble if relationships get too hostile.

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Google Assistant is even more kid-friendly with The Wiggles

“Hey Google, talk to the Wiggles.”

Image: google

By Johnny Lieu2018-11-13 22:00:00 UTC

Google Assistant is already another handy way to distract the kids, and now Australian superstars The Wiggles are making their way onto the platform.

You can talk to Emma Wiggle on the Google Home, Google Home Mini, Google Home Max or compatible smartphone, just by asking, “Hey Google, talk to the Wiggles.”

From there, you can use voice commands to help Emma to get to The Wiggles’ concert on time in the style of a choose-your-own-adventure, with the ability to dance, play games, and sing along with the rest of the band along the way.

The experience will allow kids to practice core skills, including decision making, counting, and naming colours, and it’s available to users in Australia, the UK, U.S. and Canada from Wednesday.

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Google has been steadily expanding its range of family-friendly games and activities, which also includes a range of stories for kids.

Having the world’s most popular children’s act is a clearly good get for Google, as voice assistants become embraced by families, and rivals Amazon launch competing products like a kid-friendly version of the Echo Dot.

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Chaos hits when the Rams-Chiefs Monday Night Football game gets flexed back to Los Angeles.

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Uighurs marking ‘independence day’ call for international help

Washington, DC – Uighur activists in the US marked their community’s “independence day” with a protest and march in the US capital on Tuesday.

November 12 is the 74th and 85th anniversary of two short-lived Uighur republics, known as East Turkestan, which were established in territory that is now part of China.

Those present at the event organised by the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement included Rebiya Kadeer, one of the world’s most prominent Uighur exiles and the former president of the World Uyghur Congress.

Is China persecuting its Uighur Muslim minority?

Carrying both the US and the East Turkestan independence flags, activists outside the White House called on the US to pressure China into stopping its persecution of the Muslim minority.

Though reports of abuse against the Uighurs date back more than a decade, the past year has seen an intensification in the persecution of the Turkic-speaking minority.

The UN has criticised China for holding around one million Muslims in internment camps where they are subject to political and cultural indoctrination. In a report it said around two million people had passed through the camps at some point.

China is also accused of forcing the Uighurs to renounce their Islamic beliefs and drop cultural markers that make them distinct from the country’s ethnic Han majority.

Chinese authorities have banned Ramadan fasting, as well as Quran classes for young children.

American-Uighur Aydin Anwar told Al Jazeera that China was attempting to “wipe out” the Uighur identity.

“China has put at least three million people in concentration camps,” she said, adding, “In these camps they’re forced to renounce Islam, adopt atheism, and pledge allegiance to the Chinese state.”

Turning to the crowd chanting behind her, Anwar said all of those present had at least one relative being held in the camps.

“My aunt’s husband has more than 70 relatives in camps and prisons, and one of them actually got killed through lethal injection in the camps.

“Even outside these camps life is no better. Practicing Islam is completely forbidden; praying, fasting, wearing a beard, wearing a hijab … even naming your baby with an Islamic name.”

More than a million Uighurs are believed to be held in Chinese internment camps [Shafik Mandhai/Al Jazeera]

When asked for comment, a spokesperson at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC directed Al Jazeera to a state media interview with Shohrat Zakir, the chairman of the Xinjiang government.

In the article, Zakir seeks to place China’s treatment of the Uighurs in line with the wider international “War on Terrorism”.

He further described the camps as “vocational training institutions” aimed at, “learning the country’s common language, legal knowledge, vocational skills, along with de-extremisation education, as the main content, with achieving employment as the key direction. “

Relatives imprisoned

Bilal Ibrahim Turkistani claimed asylum in the US in 2011 after securing a visa to enter for a conference organised by Uighur exiles. He told Al Jazeera that the US was one of the few supporters of the Uighur cause and that he hoped legislators would increase support for the Uighur people.

“We’re asking politicians to take action in Congress, to not abandon us,” he said.

The Uighur cause has drawn backing from senior US officials.

Vice President Mike Pence condemned China for its abuses against Muslims and other minorities, as did Nikki Haley, the former US ambassador to the UN.

Republican Senator Marco Rubio has also lobbied the US State Department to take action against China for its abuses the Uighurs and described Beijing’s behaviour as “sick”.

China depends on its trade and countries, including the US, need to impose the economic pressure necessary to stop it from furthering this oppression

Omar Suleiman, Muslim Scholar

Those present at the gathering said countries were reluctant to speak out due to China’s expansive economic impact.

There was a particular anger targeted at Muslim states for their seemingly timid response to reports of China’s oppression of the Uighurs.

American Muslim scholar, Omar Suleiman, described the Muslim world’s response to the Uighur’s plight as “complete abandonment”.

“They’re ironically being tortured for being too Muslim by China while the Muslim world seems to not see them as Muslim enough to fight for,” he told Al Jazeera.

“China depends on its trade and countries, including the US, need to impose the economic pressure necessary to stop it from furthering this oppression.”

Uighur protesters in Washington, DC [Shafik Mandhai/Al Jazeera]

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Ariana Grande Director Hannah Lux Davis Breaks Down The Emotion Behind ‘Breathin’

Getty Images

Back in 2016 — which might as well be 6,000 years ago at this point — Ariana Grande teamed up with Nicki Minaj for “Side to Side,” a wonderful trop-pop ode to knockin’ boots so vigorously that you wobble when you walk afterward. The song’s instantly iconic video took the playfulness of the title more literally though, placing the two leads on exercise bikes and letting them spin — a vision they also brought to the stage at that year’s VMAs.

The video’s director, Hannah Lux Davis, has a long history of partnership with Grande, helming the clips for several of her songs, including “Focus,” “Bang Bang,” and “Into You.” For “Side to Side,” she said the original idea came from a simple message from Grande herself. “I’m just thinking… spin bikes,” Ari told Davis, as she recently recalled to Billboard.

Earlier this month, Davis also helped bring Ari’s cathartic “Breathin” to life with a cloudy, mystical visual that helped illustrate the emotional opacity found in the song’s lyrics.

“She really let me take the reins for it,” Davis said later in the interview. “The song is obviously about anxiety, and feeling so out-of-touch and out-of-sync and out of alignment with everything in the world around you, and feeling like you’re just not connected. So I had this idea of doing motion control, which I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, and I’m really glad that I ended up doing it on this project. It’s the effect that we did to shoot her in a different frame rate, in a different speed, and other people in the frame that are moving quickly around her. That was through the effect of motion control.”

Davis also shared some deep-in-the-trenches stories about the vid’s nearly impossible turnaround time, which she oversaw herself as, like she says, Davis edits “90 percent of my videos.” “Shot and delivered in two weeks, which is insane, considering that every single shot was an effects shot, and it’s Ariana Grande, so it has to be perfect,” she said. “I cut the video literally in a day, sent it to her on her phone, she loved it. The next day, she came over with all her friends to watch it, and we locked it down the cut then.”

Read the full interview over at Billboard. For more on Davis’s process and how her hard work comes together behind the scenes, watch MTV News’s 2018 doc Seen & Heard below.

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Space Camp has come a long way over the years

Mashable, MashBash and Mashable House are among the federally registered trademarks of Ziff Davis, LLC and may not be used by third parties without explicit permission.

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Critics slam Amazon’s HQ2 deal as ‘corporate welfare’

Amazon is receiving a slew of blowback over its HQ2 announcement.

Image: Moment Editorial/Getty Images

By Matt Binder2018-11-13 20:43:52 UTC

Not everyone is happy with the deals Amazon made when it picked the multiple locations for its so-called second headquarters.

Some residents and representatives of New York’s Long Island City and Virginia’s Arlington reacted to Tuesday’s announcement with concerns over how the offices will impact their communities and the various incentives (mostly financial) that Amazon cultivated. Among them: just how Amazon’s move to the neighborhood will effect the cost of living and strain already struggling infrastructure.

In a tweet thread, U.S. Representative-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose district includes Long Island City, criticized New York state’s decision to provide Amazon with big tax breaks and questioned whether current residents would end up being displaced as a result of rising rent.

Amazon is a billion-dollar company. The idea that it will receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks at a time when our subway is crumbling and our communities need MORE investment, not less, is extremely concerning to residents here.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) November 13, 2018

Displacement is not community development. Investing in luxury condos is not the same thing as investing in people and families.

Shuffling working class people out of a community does not improve their quality of life.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) November 13, 2018

Other local elected officials in New York City voiced criticism as well. NYC Council Speaker Corey Johnson and State Senator Mike Gianaris both specifically knocked the deal for excluding input from those living in the community.

Offering massive corporate welfare from scarce public resources to one of the wealthiest corporations in the world at a time of great need in our state is just wrong.

— Sen. Mike Gianaris (@SenGianaris) November 11, 2018

The burden should not be on the 99 percent to prove we are worthy of the 1 percent’s presence in our communities, but rather on Amazon to prove it would be a responsible corporate neighbor.

Corporate responsibility should take precedence over corporate welfare.

— Sen. Mike Gianaris (@SenGianaris) November 11, 2018

It’s not just talk from New York elected officials either. According to journalist David Sirota, New York Democratic Assemblyman Ron Kim is looking to block the Amazon deal.

BREAKING: NY Dem lawmaker announces bill to block the Amazon deal and redirect taxpayer subsidies for Jeff Bezos into reducing student debt https://t.co/9zOqOTjbaX Dems just won full control of the NY legislature

— David Sirota (@davidsirota) November 13, 2018

Some Amazon critics point out that all 50,000 jobs and investment from the company was originally touted as going towards one location. Amazon later split HQ2 up between New York and Virginia. Furthermore, Amazon announced a third non-HQ location in its HQ2 announcement in Nashville, where the company will be receiving tax subsidies as well.

Also, Amazon isn’t splitting this between two cities, but three cities. Nashville is getting an Amazon “Operations Center of Excellence.” Even the press release of ‘splitting between two cities’ is a lie.

— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) November 13, 2018

One Twitter user uncovered that some of the investment Amazon says they will be providing for the local community had already been planned for the site.

Wait so Amazon is saying they’re donating space for industrial businesses, a school, and green space. Those things were all going to happen *at that site*. pic.twitter.com/YCtD9ixmJE

— Armando (@ThatArmandoMC) November 13, 2018

Over in Virginia, many were confused over Amazon’s reference to “National Landing” when discussing the Arlington H2 location. It turns out that Amazon and city officials have decided to rebrand an area of the community that encompasses Crystal City as “National Landing.”

Amazon is rebranding Crystal City as “National Landing” and got the Commonwealth of Virginia to renovate two Metro stations there plus build a pedestrian bridge linking the Amazon campus to Reagan Airport.

But just wait til Amazonians discover Gate 35X! https://t.co/7d0EWyfvbR

— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) November 13, 2018

In an unusual move, Amazon will also receive a heads up regarding any FOIA requests concerning the company.

Under agreement between Amazon and Virginia, the commonwealth will give the company written notice about any FOIA requests “to allow the

Company to seek a protective order or other appropriate remedy” pic.twitter.com/BkVXdnoX2M

— Benjamin Freed (@brfreed) November 13, 2018

Amid discussion of how the influx of Amazon employees will affect an already overcrowded bus and subway system in New York City, one nugget of information from the deal is receiving some extra anger from critics. Lena Afridi of the non-profit affordable housing organization Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development noticed that public money will go towards building a helipad for Amazon. This detail was part of both New York and Virginia’s legal agreements with Amazon.

Obviously, the outrage over subsidizing a company as rich as Amazon is only exacerbated by the fact CEO Jeff Bezos is the richest man on the planet.

With today’s HQ2 incentives, Amazon has now received at least $3.8 billion in taxpayer incentives since 2012.

At the same time, Jeff Bezos’s personal wealth has grown by $36 billion just so far this year

— Mike Rosenberg (@ByRosenberg) November 13, 2018

If your city wasn’t declared as one of the “winners” of Amazon’s HQ2, you might feel good after reading some of these critiques. But, as MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle points out, even if your city submitted a proposal for HQ2, Jeff Bezos likely extracted something out of your community too.

When Amazon first invited cities to vie for the company’s new headquarters, critics labeled the competition as a marketing ploy early on. However, it seems like it could have been more of a data collection scheme than just an advertising gimmick.

And let’s please remember what @amazon got for FREE – BIG BIG DATA

Every one of those cities vying for a shot at HQ2 went to great lengths to provide Amazon with information they demanded about their demographics etc…

Now Amazon has loads of intel & those cities have NUTHIN https://t.co/u58gXE2wWU

— Stephanie Ruhle (@SRuhle) November 13, 2018

Amazon may very well deliver on all of its promises to the two HQ2 cities. The move could mean tens of thousands of high-paying jobs and millions in community investments, which would be a boon to any city. But only time will tell if the bargain is ultimately worth it.

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