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Bridge: Sept. 3, 2023

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:44:52 GMT

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” — Lewis Carroll“How many times have you bid to the best contract,” a club player asked me, “while having no idea what you were doing?”He showed me today’s deal.“In a penny game, my partner and I got to 6NT. I opened two clubs and jumped to 3NT to show 25 to 27 points, balanced. He next bid four clubs. He thought that was Stayman; I thought it was the Gerber ace-asking convention, so I replied four diamonds, showing, I thought, all four aces. We still landed on our feet; he bid 6NT.”“I believe many pairs would treat a bid of four clubs as Gerber,” I said, “and four diamonds as Stayman. It’s a matter of partnership agreement. Did you make your slam?”“We ran out of luck in the play,” my friend said ruefully. “West led the queen of diamonds. I won with the ace, unblocked my A-Q of spades, led a club to dum...

Los bajos niveles de agua revelan huellas de dinosaurios que datan de 110 millones de años

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:44:52 GMT

(CNN) — Mientras Texas atravesaba un calor récord este verano y una creciente sequía hacía bajar los niveles de agua, un grupo de voluntarios descubrió algo algo magnífico: nuevas huellas de dinosaurios gigantes que se cree que datan de hace unos 110 millones de años.Paul Baker, gerente de la tienda del Parque Estatal Dinosaur Valley, dijo a CNN que “nunca antes había visto tantas huellas de dinosaurios”.“Es emocionante ver algo que nadie más ha visto; En cierto modo, es casi como una búsqueda del tesoro”, dijo Baker, quien ayuda a limpiar y mapear las huellas de dinosaurios en el parque. “Pensé que había visto todas las huellas de dinosaurios que existen, pero en los últimos dos años, con las sequías que hemos tenido y el arduo trabajo de nuestros voluntarios, es simplemente una vista increíble”.El Parque Estatal Dinosaur Valley, aproximadamente a una hora y media al sur de Dallas, alberga una gran cantidad de huellas de dinosaurios impresas por sauróp...

Italy makes Basketball World Cup quarterfinals for 1st time in 25 years

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:44:52 GMT

For the first time in 25 years, Italy is going to the quarterfinals of the Basketball World Cup.Stefano Tonut and Giampaolo Ricci each scored 15 points and Italy reached the World Cup quarterfinals with a 73-57 win over Puerto Rico on Sunday in Manila, the final day of second-round play at FIBA’s biggest tournament.Italy (4-1) will play either the U.S. or Lithuania in Tuesday’s quarterfinals in Manila. The Italians are assured of their best World Cup finish since placing sixth in 1998. They were ninth in 2006, 10th in 2019 and didn’t qualify in 2002, 2010 and 2014.Simone Fontecchio added 12 points and 12 rebounds for Italy, and Luigi Datome scored 11. Italy used a 15-0 run in the first quarter to take some control, wound up losing that lead in the third quarter, rallied to take a slight edge into the final period and pulled away from there.Tremont Waters scored 13 points and had nine assists for Puerto Rico (3-2), and Jordan Howard scored 11. Puerto Rico was bidding for its fi...

Death under investigation at Burning Man as flooding strands thousands at Nevada festival site

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:44:52 GMT

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Authorities in Nevada were investigating a death at the site of the Burning Man festival where thousands of attendees remained stranded Saturday night as flooding from storms swept through the Nevada desert.Organizers closed vehicular access to the counterculture festival and attendees trudged through mud, many barefoot or wearing plastic bags on their feet. The revelers were urged to shelter in place and conserve food, water and other supplies.The Pershing County Sheriff’s Office said the death happened during the event but offered few details as the investigation continued, including the identity of the deceased person or the suspected cause of death, KNSD-TV reported.Vehicle gates will not open for the remainder of the event, which began on Aug. 27 and was scheduled to end Monday, according to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which oversees the Black Rock Desert where the festival is being held.More than one-half inch of rain is believed to have fallen on Fri...

DC-based nonprofit raises awareness of meat packing injuries ahead of Labor Day

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:44:52 GMT

About 26,600 nonfatal injuries in the meat and poultry industry alone were reported in 2021, according to a D.C.-based nonprofit.Sustainable Earth Eating is spreading awareness of these injuries as Americans buy food produced by agricultural workers to celebrate Labor Day.“Your dinner might be costing someone an arm and a leg,” the nonprofit said in a news release.The nonprofit listed a number of reasons for this high injury rate in a news release, including how meat factories work 24/7 shifts.Undocumented workers who work in the industry may avoid reporting hazardous conditions over fears they could lose their jobs or be deported, according to a report by the Economic Policy Institute that uses data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.The meat and poultry industry is one of the most dangerous industries, according to the nonprofit, but the agricultural sector is incredibly dangerous overall.From 2015 to 2020, there were 573 fatalities in the sector an...

En Japón, a los jóvenes les cuesta tanto tener citas que sus padres lo hacen por ellos

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:44:52 GMT

(CNN) — Es una calurosa tarde de verano en la ciudad japonesa de Osaka, donde un grupo de alrededor de 60 hombres y mujeres se han reunido para una sesión de “omiai”, o emparejamiento, para encontrar el amor verdadero.Se mezclan, saltando de un extremo a otro de la sala de conferencias del edificio de la Cámara de Comercio de Sakai mientras evalúan posibles coincidencias y la competencia.Pero este no es un evento cualquiera de citas rápidas.Pocos de los participantes hablan de sus aficiones, películas o restaurantes favoritos, o incluso de ellos mismos. Están hablando de sus hijos adultos, todavía solteros, a quienes esperan emparejar y casar.Una mujer, de unos 60 años, habla con orgullo de su hijo de 34 años, maestro de escuela primaria pública. Un hombre de unos 80 años habla afectuosamente de su hijo de 49 años, con vocación profesional, que trabaja como controlador en una empresa eléctrica.Cada uno de los padres ha desembolsado 14.000 yenes (US$ 96) para asistir a este eve...

Bavaria premier keeps deputy Aiwanger in office despite Nazi scandal

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:44:52 GMT

BERLIN — Bavaria’s Premier Markus Söder will not dismiss his deputy Hubert Aiwanger despite numerous accusations surrounding an antisemitic leaflet from his school days. Since there was no proof that Aiwanger had written the antisemitic pamphlet himself and the incident occurred 35 years ago, a dismissal “would not be proportionate,” the Söder told reporters on Sunday in Munich.Leading members of the federal government had called for consequences after it became known that Aiwanger, the federal chairman of the right-wing Free Voters party, had been involved in distributing an anti-Semitic flyer during his school days and that fellow students had accused him of making the Hitler salute and antisemitic jokes at the time. The Bavarian Minister of Economics was criticized above all for downplaying of the accusations. Several times Aiwanger spoke of a “dirt campaign” against him. Söder, with the center-right CSU party, criticized Aiwanger’s crisis mana...

Apollo Phantom electric scooters recalled due to injury risk from loosened bolt

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:44:52 GMT

(CNN) — An electric scooter manufacturer is recalling some of its products due to the risk of a loosening bolt that could cause injuries.Delaware-based Apollo Imports issued a voluntary recall of its Phantom Electric Scooters made in China, according to a news release from the Consumer Product Safety Commission.The issue affects Phantom V1, V2 and 60V electric scooter models sold between June 2021 and May 2023, according to Apollo.“The stem bolt used to secure the front wheel and suspension assembly to the stem of the scooter can become loose over time and break,” according to the electric scooter company’s recall announcement.The Consumer Product Safety Commission received at least seven reports of the bolt breaking, causing the stem to detach or loosen. Three people were injured with cuts, abrasions and bruises, according to the release.The manufacturer and commission advised people to stop using the recalled users immediately.Meanwhile, Apollo is offering cust...

Column: Firings. A shooting in the stands. And a Chicago White Sox GM search that wasn’t a search. 10 days that shook the South Side.

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:44:52 GMT

From the moment Chicago White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf fired longtime executives Ken Williams and Rick Hahn to fans unfurling a “Jerry Reinsdorf must go” banner in the ninth inning of Friday’s loss to the Detroit Tigers at Guaranteed Rate Field, a season already off the rails veered off a cliff.The Sox already were in the midst of a stunning free-fall from a postseason team in 2021 to the fourth-worst record in baseball on Aug. 22. Traded reliever Keynan Middleton became an unlikely whistleblower, exposing a “no rules,” lackadaisical clubhouse culture exemplified by the pitcher’s allegation a Sox teammate slept in the bullpen during games without repercussions.The fate of Hahn, the general manager in his 11th year, was a daily topic of conversation, fueled by Hahn’s admission he might not be back to try to fix the mess in 2024. Former Sox player and manager Ozzie Guillen harped almost nightly on the NBC Sports Chicago postgame show about...

Tim Scott is the top Black Republican in the GOP presidential primary. Here’s how he discusses race

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:44:52 GMT

OSKALOOSA, Iowa (AP) — Tim Scott seldom specifically brings up race in Iowa. Nor does the Republican presidential candidate have to.He is often the only Black person at his campaign events in the state. The South Carolina senator introduces himself as the product of early-life mentors who taught him not to be bitter.When race comes up, he often says the United States is not fundamentally racist. “We don’t have Black poverty or white poverty. We have poverty,” he told an all-white audience Thursday in Oskaloosa after being asked about race. He earlier had spoken about his poor Southern upbringing and his late grandfather, born into Jim Crow-era South Carolina.“The brilliance of this nation is that we keep moving forward, even though there are lots of forces who want us to think the problem is that someone doesn’t look like you,” Scott said.Scott, the only Black GOP presidential candidate campaigning aggressively in the early-voting state, is betting that his upbeat messag...