- Some Diets Better Than Others for Heart Protection Medscape
- Mediterranean Magic: Diet Slashes Women’s Cardiovascular Disease and Death Risk by Nearly 25% SciTechDaily
- Mediterranean and low-fat diets reduce the odds of mortality, heart attack in people at increased cardiovascular risk News-Medical.Net
- Mediterranean diet ‘can reduce heart attacks in people at higher risk’ The Guardian
- Comparison of seven popular structured dietary programmes and risk of mortality and major cardiovascular events in patients at increased cardiovascular risk: systematic review and network meta-analysis The BMJ
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: Protection
CFPB Orders Repeat Offender Portfolio Recovery Associates to Pay More Than $24 Million for Continued Illegal Debt Collection Practices and Consumer Reporting Violations – Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
- CFPB Orders Repeat Offender Portfolio Recovery Associates to Pay More Than $24 Million for Continued Illegal Debt Collection Practices and Consumer Reporting Violations Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
- 2,600 student-loan borrowers to get $11 million in debt relief: CFPB Business Insider
- CFPB orders Portfolio Recovery Associates to pay $24 million American Banker
- Portfolio Recovery Associates Under Fire for Misconduct Bankrate.com
- U.S. watchdog orders Virginia debt collector to pay $24 mln for illegal practices Reuters
- View Full Coverage on Google News
SVB Financial files for Ch. 11 bankruptcy protection, says it has $2.2B in liquidity – TechCrunch
- SVB Financial files for Ch. 11 bankruptcy protection, says it has $2.2B in liquidity TechCrunch
- Silicon Valley Bank’s holding company files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in NY Fox Business
- Silicon Valley Bank files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy; First Republic Bank gets $30 billion lifeline Yahoo Finance
- SVB parent files for bankruptcy; Credit Suisse shares slide again amid banking crisis – live The Guardian
- SVB Financial Group (SIVB) Class Action Alert: Robbins LLP Reminds Investors of Lead Plaintiff Deadline i Benzinga
- View Full Coverage on Google News
‘Teen Mom’ star arrested for order of protection violation after wife reported photos – WTVC
- ‘Teen Mom’ star arrested for order of protection violation after wife reported photos WTVC
- Teen Mom’s Maci Bookout Shares Cryptic Message About ‘Narcissistic Abuse’ Amid Ryan, Mackenzie Drama Yahoo Entertainment
- Teen Mom Actor Posts Revealing Photos Of Wife; Arrested By Sheriff’s Office The Chattanoogan
- ‘Teen Mom’ Alum Ryan Edwards Arrested For Violating Protection Order Amid Social Media Drama With Wife Mackenzie Edwards Us Weekly
- Teen Mom OG’s Ryan Edwards Arrested for Violating Protection Order Amid Drama With Wife Mackenzie Yahoo Entertainment
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Oscar Sevilla revives retro puncture protection hack at Vuelta a San Juan
The pro peloton is a hotbed of futuristic technological advancement; the cutting edge of our sport with the fastest bikes, the lightest components and the most expensive accessories, all created by some of the brightest engineering minds in our sport.
Rare, then, is it that you see a rider dive into the history books and adopt a generations-old hack for puncture protection, but that’s exactly what Óscar Sevilla (Medellín-EPM) did at the Vuelta a San Juan.
In a video posted to the team’s Instagram ahead of the final stage, 46-year-old Sevilla proudly shows off his “trick”, in which he’s wrapped a few inches of electrical tape – at a cost of just a few cents – around the seat stays and fork legs of his $14,000 S-Works Tarmac SL7 race bike. The tape is positioned so precisely that it very nearly touches each tyre with the intention of ‘sweeping’ away any pieces of debris that are picked up from the road.
“This is a trick I learned here in Argentina,” Sevilla explains. “Nowadays you get a lot of thistles, little bits and pieces, and people walking around carry them on their shoes. And they cause a lot of punctures. So this nicks them off, cleans it.”
Sevilla’s hack is a makeshift replica of a small add-on accessory found on bikes from as far back as the 1940s, possibly further. Known as flint catchers, tyre sweepers, tyre wipers, and perhaps optimistically, even tyre savers, they were mounted to the brake mounting bolt and featured a small D-shaped wire that would wrap around the surface of the tyre.
Like Sevilla’s piece of tape, their purpose was to dislodge any larger pieces of debris that had attached themselves to the tyre before they could make their way around again and be pushed further into the tyre, where they would likely cause a puncture. While they went out of fashion long ago, it is still possible to buy them, with retro-connoisseurs Reneherse offering a pair for $18.00 (opens in new tab).
Interestingly, Sevilla’s bike is equipped with Roval Rapide CLX II aero wheels – as confirmed by this separate Instagram post – which are tubeless compatible. Despite this, and his apparent concerns surrounding punctures, Sevilla’s wheels are wrapped in the not-tubeless Specialized Turbo Cotton clincher tyres, which are well revered for their low rolling resistance, but not so well known for durability or puncture protection.
Specialized does make a number of tubeless-ready tyres, including the new Turbo range, so it’s unclear why Sevilla hasn’t simply taken advantage of the tech available to him. Perhaps the team didn’t have anything other than the Turbo Cotton tyres available, or perhaps Sevilla trusts his sweeper hack more than he trusts tubeless technology.
Whatever his reasoning, it seems to have worked. His teammate Miguel Angel Lopez went on to win the overall, and Sevilla himself finished safely in the bunch on the same time as the stage winner Sam Welsford.
Updated Covid-19 boosters continue to offer substantial protection even against the rapidly spreading XBB.1.5 subvariant
CNN
—
The updated boosters are cutting the risk that a person will get sick from Covid-19 by about half, even against infections caused by the rapidly spreading XBB.1.5 subvariant.
The studies, conducted by researchers at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are one of the first looks at how the bivalent boosters have continued to work in the real world as the virus has evolved. The data shows that the boosters are continuing to offer substantial protection against currently circulating variants.
The near real-time data was collected by Increased Community Access To Testing program, which administers Covid-19 tests through pharmacies. It includes results for adults receiving tests at participating pharmacies from December 1, 2022 to January 13, 2023.
Out of nearly 30,000 test results included in the analysis, more than 13,000 (47%), were positive for Covid-19.
More people who tested negative had gotten an updated, bivalent booster compared with those who tested positive.
The study results show that the updated boosters are most effective for younger adults.
For adults between the ages of 18 and 49, the boosters cut the odds of getting a symptomatic infection caused by the BA.5 subvariant by 52%, and it cut the odds of getting an infection caused by XBB or XBB.1.5 by 49%. For adults ages 50 to 64, the new boosters cut the odds of getting sick with Covid-19 by 43% for BA.5 and 40% for XBB subvariants. For those age 65 and older, the boosters cut the odds of an infection with symptoms by 37% and 43% for BA.5 and XBB subvariants, respectively.
The study authors saw little evidence of waning effectiveness two to three months after people got their shots.
The study authors said that these are just estimates of how well the vaccines are protecting people against an infection that brings on symptoms like cough or fever. They are probably working even better against more severe outcomes like hospitalization and death.
“What we know from past experience is generally that the vaccines protect better against more severe disease. So these are estimates for symptomatic infection and we would expect that similar estimates for hospitalization and death would be higher,” lead study author Ruth Link-Gelles, a senior epidemiologist at the CDC, said in a news briefing on Wednesday.
Link-Gelles cautioned that these vaccine effectiveness numbers are averages. Because everyone is unique in terms of their underlying health, their past exposure to the virus, and other factors, these estimates of vaccine effectiveness may not apply on an individual level. She said it’s important to think of them on population level.
To hasten the study results to the public, the researchers used a shortcut to estimate which Covid-19 infections were caused by the BA.5 subvariant and which were caused by the newer XBB recombinant subvariant and its XBB.1.5 sublineage.
Test results use a series of probes, or markers, to identify a positive case. Some variants of the virus that causes Covid-19 have mutations in their spike protein that causes one of the test markers to fail. This is called an S-gene target failure.
In the study, test results that showed an S-gene target failure were considered to be an infection caused by a BA.5 subvariant. Those that were S-gene target positive, were considered to be caused by the XBB or XBB.1.5 sublineage.
Crypto lender Genesis Trading files for bankruptcy protection
Barry Silbert, Founder and CEO, Digital Currency Group
David A. Grogan | CNBC
Crypto lender Genesis filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection late Thursday night in Manhattan federal court, the latest casualty in the industry contagion caused by the collapse of FTX and a crippling blow to a business once at the heart of Barry Silbert’s Digital Currency Group.
The company listed over 100,000 creditors in a “mega” bankruptcy filing, with aggregate liabilities ranging from $1.2 billion to $11 billion dollars, according to bankruptcy documents.
Three separate petitions were filed for Genesis’ holding companies. In a statement, the company noted that the companies were only involved in Genesis’ crypto lending business. The company’s derivatives and spot trading business will continue unhindered, as will Genesis Global Trading.
“We look forward to advancing our dialogue with DCG and our creditors’ advisors as we seek to implement a path to maximize value and provide the best opportunity for our business to emerge well-positioned for the future,” Genesis interim CEO Derar Islim said in a statement.
The filing follows months of speculation over whether Genesis would enter bankruptcy protection, and just days after the Securities and Exchange Commission filed suit against Genesis and its onetime partner, Gemini, over the unregistered offering and sale of securities.
Genesis listed a $765.9 million loan payable from Gemini in Thursday’s bankruptcy filing. Other sizeable claims included a $78 million loan payable from Donut, a high-yield, decentralized platform, and a VanEck fund, with a $53.1 million loan payable.
Gemini co-founder Cameron Winklevoss initially responded to the news on Twitter, writing that Silbert and DCG “continue to refuse to offer creditors a fair deal.”
“We have been preparing to take direct legal action against Barry, DCG, and others,” he continued.
“Sunlight is the best disinfectant,” Winklevoss concluded.
Genesis is in negotiations with creditors represented by law firms Kirkland & Ellis and Proskauer Rose, sources familiar with the matter told CNBC. The bankruptcy puts Genesis alongside other fallen crypto exchanges including BlockFi, FTX, Celsius, and Voyager.
FTX’s collapse in November put a freeze on the market and led customers across the crypto landscape to seek withdrawals. The Wall Street Journal reported that, following FTX’s meltdown, Genesis had sought an emergency bailout of $1 billion, but found no interested parties. Parent company DCG, which owes creditors a mounting debt of more than $3 billion, suspended dividends this week, CoinDesk reported.
The crypto contagion
Genesis provided loans to crypto hedge funds and over-the-counter firms, but a series of bad bets made last year severely damaged the lender and forced it to halt withdrawals on Nov. 16.
The New York-based firm had extended crypto loans to Three Arrows Capital (3AC) and Alameda Research, the hedge fund started by Sam Bankman-Fried and closely linked to his FTX exchange.
3AC filed for bankruptcy in July in the midst of the “crypto winter.” Genesis had loaned over $2.3 billion worth of assets to 3AC, according to court filings. 3AC creditors have been fighting in court to recover even a sliver of the billions of dollars that the hedge fund once controlled.
Meanwhile, Alameda was integral to FTX’s eventual demise. Bankman-Fried has repeatedly denied knowledge of fraudulent activity within his web of companies, but remains unable to provide a substantial explanation for the multibillion-dollar hole. He was arrested in December, and is released on a $250 million bond ahead of his trial, which is set to begin in October.
Genesis had a $2.5 billion exposure to Alameda, though that position was closed out in August. After FTX’s bankruptcy in November, Genesis said that about $175 million worth of Genesis assets were “locked” on FTX’s platform.
Genesis’ financial spiral has exposed Silbert’s broader DCG empire. The parent company was forced to take over Genesis’ $1 billion liability stemming from 3AC’s collapse. In a later letter to investors, Silbert disclosed an additional $575 million loan from Genesis to DCG for undisclosed investing purposes.
DCG pioneered publicly traded trusts, allowing investors to hold bitcoin and other currencies in their portfolio without direct exposure. Grayscale Bitcoin Trust’s discount to net asset value widened significantly last year as confidence in the conglomerate waned.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Brazil court grants bankruptcy protection for retailer Americanas
SAO PAULO, Jan 19 (Reuters) – A Rio de Janeiro court on Thursday accepted Brazilian retailer Americanas SA’s (AMER3.SA) bankruptcy protection request, days after the company disclosed nearly $4 billion in accounting inconsistencies that have sparked a legal feud with creditors and investors.
Americanas, a 93-year-old company with stores all over Brazil and a major e-commerce unit, said in a securities filing that it would restructure debts of about 43 billion reais ($8.2 billion).
Shares in the company plunged about 42.5% to 1.00 real following news of the filing, extending its year-to-date drop to around 90%.
The firm, backed by the billionaire trio that founded 3G Capital, said the move had come “despite the efforts and measures that the management has been taking in the past few days alongside its financial and legal advisers to protect the company from the effects” of the accounting scandal.
Investors had expected the decision, with some deeming it unavoidable, especially after lender BTG Pactual (BPAC3.SA) obtained on Wednesday a court decision overturning part of the firm’s protection from creditors.
Americanas is also facing seven different investigations launched by securities regulator CVM, as well as an arbitration process requesting compensation of 500 million reais to the firm and the trio that founded 3G Capital.
In a document filed with the court, law firms Basilio Advogados and Salomao Kaiuca Abrahao attributed the urgency in filing for bankruptcy to the creditors’ decision to seize the companies’ assets.
The retailer also mentioned a debt downgrade by ratings agencies, which prevented any new loans from being extended. S&P, Moody’s and Fitch all downgraded Americanas’ credit ratings following the accounting scandal.
Earlier, Americanas had said that its current cash position stood at only 800 million reais, down from a previously reported 7.8 billion.
Lucas Pogetti, a partner at M&A advisers RGS Partners, said a large part of Americanas’ previously disclosed cash position was linked to the prepayment of receivables or deposited with creditors.
“Naturally, when the banks became aware of the company’s real situation they began to adopt a more aggressive posture to protect themselves, consequently restricting access to resources,” Pogetti said.
In the filing, Americanas asks to exclude its fintech, Ame, from the bankruptcy protection, as it is regulated by the central bank, and for authorization to increase its capital.
Americanas’ stores are ubiquitous at Brazilian shopping malls. It e-commerce unit, which traded as a separate company before a recent restructuring, is one of the country’s top online retailers.
Chief executive Sergio Rial resigned last week, less than two weeks after taking the job, citing the discovery of “accounting inconsistencies” totaling 20 billion reais.
Rial, the former head of Banco Santander’s Brazilian arm (SANB3.SA), attributed the inconsistencies to differences in accounting for the financial cost of bank loans and debt with suppliers.
Chief financial officer Andre Covre, who had just joined Americanas as well, also left the firm, which has Brazilian billionaires Jorge Paulo Lemann, Carlos Alberto Sicupira and Marcel Telles as reference shareholders.
Americanas said the reference shareholders intended to maintain the company’s liquidity at levels that allowed for a “good operation” of its stores, digital channel and other entities.
($1 = 5.2226 reais)
Reporting by Gabriel Araujo, Tatiana Bautzer and Peter Frontini in Sao Paulo and Carolina Pulice in Mexico City; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien and Bradley Perrett
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Apple Releases iOS 16.2 and iPadOS 16.2 With Freeform, Apple Music Sing, Advanced Data Protection and More
Apple today released iOS 16.2, the second major update to the iOS 16 operating system that came out in September. iOS 16.2 comes more than a month after the launch of iOS 16.1, an update that added support for Live Activities, Matter, iCloud Shared Photo Library, and more.
The iOS 16.2 update Apple’s can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. It can take a few minutes for the updates to propagate to all users due to high demand. Note that Apple has also released iOS 15.7.2 for iPhone users who have older devices, with the update offering security improvements.
Today’s iOS 16.2 and iPadOS 16.2 updates bring several notable features to iOS 16 and iPadOS 16, including the Freeform app, which is a sort of digital whiteboard that you can use for anything, while also working collaboratively with friends and colleagues.
It includes the Apple Music karaoke feature called “Sing,” it introduces Advanced Data Protection for end-to-end encryption for more iCloud features, plus more. On the iPad, the update brings support for external displays on M1 and M2 iPads.
Apple’s full release notes for the iOS update are below:
Freeform
– Freeform is a new app for working creatively with friends or colleagues on Mac, iPad and iPhone
– A flexible canvas lets you add files, images, stickies, and more
Drawing tools let you sketch anywhere on the canvas with your fingerApple Music Sing
– A new way to sing along with millions of your favorite songs in Apple Music
– Fully adjustable vocals let you duet with the original artist, sing solo, or mix it up
– Newly enhanced beat-by-beat lyrics make it even easier to follow along with the musicAdvanced Data Protection for iCloud
– New option expands the total number of iCloud data categories protected using end-to-end encryption to 23 — including iCloud Backup, Notes, and Photos — protecting your information even in the case of a data breach in the cloudLock Screen
– New settings allow you to hide wallpaper or notifications when Always-On display is enabled on iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max
– Sleep widget lets you view your most recent sleep data
– Medications widget lets you view reminders and quickly access your scheduleGame Center
– SharePlay support in Game Center for multiplayer games so you can play with the people you are on a FaceTime call with
– Activity Widget allows you to see what your friends are playing and achieving in games right from your Home ScreenApple TV
– Live Activities for Apple TV app let you follow your favorite teams with live scores right on your Lock Screen or in Dynamic Island on iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro MaxHome
– Improved reliability and efficiency of communication between your smart home accessories and Apple devicesThis update also includes the following improvements and bug fixes:
– Improved search in Messages allows you to find photos based on their content, like a dog, car, person, or text
– Turn Off Hide IP Address setting enables iCloud Private Relay users to temporarily disable the service for a specific site in Safari
– News articles in Weather display information relevant to the weather in that location
– Participant Cursors in Notes allow you to see live indicators as others make updates in a shared note
– AirDrop now automatically reverts to Contacts Only after 10 minutes to prevent unwanted requests to receive content
– Crash Detection optimizations on iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models
– Fixes an issue that causes some notes not to sync with iCloud after updates are madeSome features may not be available for all regions or on all Apple devices. For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website:
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222
Apple also has some iPad specific notes:
Stage Manager
– External display support with resolutions up to 6K available on iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th generation and later), iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd generation and later), and iPad Air (5th generation)
– Drag and drop files and windows from your compatible device to your connected display, and vice versa
– Support for using up to 4 apps on the iPad display and 4 on the external displayiPad Specific Features and Fixes
– Tracking Notifications alert you if an AirTag separated from its owner is nearby and has recently played a chime to indicate it is moving
– Fixes an issue that may cause Multi-Touch gestures to become unresponsive while using the Zoom accessibility feature
Following the launch of iOS 16.2 and iPadOS 16.2, Apple may soon seed out the first betas of iOS 16.3 and iPadOS 16.3, giving us a look at new features that we can expect to see in the new year.
French baguette given UNESCO protection
(CNN) — Freshly baked news: the baguette, the long, crusty loaf bread that is a delicious staple of French life, has been awarded special protected status, placing it in a culinary pantheon alongside other regional food delicacies from around the world.
The “artisanal know-how and culture of the baguette” is now officially recognized on UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage, the organization announced Wednesday, inscribing the expertise behind the French bread as an integral part of human culture.
UNESCO — the UN’s cultural body — defines intangible cultural heritage as “traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants.”
The baguette joins other foods and culinary cultures on UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage, including the making of Neapolitan pizza, kimchi, Belgian beer culture, the “Mediterranean diet”, and Arabic coffee.
While sites from the US, including the Statue of Liberty, Yellowstone National Park and Philadelphia’s Independence Hall are recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites, nothing from the US is currently listed on the organization’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list.
While boulangeries in France typically sell numerous types of baguette, the best are known as baguettes de tradition or simply traditions. These can only be made with four ingredients — flour, water, salt and yeast or leavening — and must be baked on site.
According to the Observatoire du Pain, a research group that tracks bread consumption habits and trends in France, the average daily consumption rate of bread among adults dropped from 143 g/day (5 ounces/day) in 2003 to 103 g/day (3.6 ounces/day) in 2016. A rise in supermarket chains selling bread has been blamed for the closure of hundreds of family-owned bakeries.
Vivian Song contributed to this story | Top image credit: Adobe Stock