Class AAA Blog: Teams Jockey For Positioning In The Final Week Of The Regular Season

So it seems like an appropriate time to take a look at each Class AAA region to see where things stand as we head into the final week of the regular season. Region tournaments begin next week, where teams will compete for the top four seeds to earn berths in the state tournament that begins Feb. 14-15.

Here's the breakdown:Region 1

Boys: Monroe has been flawless on the season with a 6-0 region record. The eighth-ranked Golden Tornadoes lead Crisp County (5-2), Worth County (2-4) and Cook (0-8).

Girls: Worth (5-1) holds the lead in the region ahead of Monroe (4-2),Crisp (4-3) and Cook (0-7). Worth County will host Monroe on Tuesday and travel to Pelham on Friday. 

Region 2Boys: Long County (7-1) leads in the region standings and Pierce County and Liberty Countyare tied at 5-3. Tattnall County (3-5) is chasing. Long County will travel to Tattnall County on Tuesday before a road trip to Liberty County on Friday, which could shake up the top of the standings.

Girls: Fourth-ranked Pierce County (8-0) is the leader with Tattnall County and Brantley County tied at 6-2 and chasing. Pierce will host Brantley County on Tuesday and travel to Tattnall County on Friday. Liberty County (2-6), Appling County (1-7) and Long County (1-7) are at the bottom of the standings.Region 3Boys: A showdown is set for Tuesday night when No. 2 Johnson-Savannah (13-1) will travel to No. 5 Windsor Forest (12-2) for a game to determine who will have momentum entering the region tournament. Beach (10-5) and Jenkins (7-8) make up the top four programs entering the tournament, with Southeast Bulloch and Benedictine tied at 6-8.

Girls: Top-ranked Johnson-Savannah (12-0) leads region rival Beach (12-2) and will have what should be two easy game this week -- at Windsor Forest on Tuesday and home against Islands on Friday.

Region 4

Boys: The two favorites, Westside-Macon and Central-Macon, are at the top. Westside (9-1) has beaten Central (10-2) twice this season. Peach County (6-4) and Rutland (4-6) are chasing, but expect a Westside or Central to claim the region championship.

Girls: Jackson (8-3) leads, but narrowly. Rutland (7-3), Pike County (6-4) and Kendrick (5-5) are chasing. Jackson will close its regular season Tuesday at Westside-Macon.

Region 5

Boys: Top-ranked Pace Academy is the clear favorite. The Knights are 10-0 in the region and No. 6 Westminster and No. 7 Lovett are tied at 7-3. Towers (5-7) is chasing the top three. Pace will travel to Redan on Tuesday before playing at home against Lovett on Friday.

Girls: No. 5 Cedar Grove and No. 10 Westminster are tied at the top with 9-1 records. Cedar Grove will host Lovett on Tuesday before a showdown against Westminster on Friday to determine the region leader. Westminster travels to Towers on Tuesday.

Region 6

Boys: Tenth-ranked North Murray has a commanding 15-0 lead in the region and is a favorite entering the region tournament. The closest team, Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe, is 11-3 in the league, and Murray County and Calhoun are tied at 9-5. 

Girls: No. 8 Ringgold and No. 9 Sonoraville are atop the standings, and Ringgold (13-2) has the edge over Sonoraville (12-2). The Tigers defeated Sonoraville twice this season -- 66-30 on Dec. 6 and 56-49 on Jan. 10. Coahulla Creek (10-4) is third in the standings, ahead of North Murray (10-5) and Calhoun (8-6).

Region 7

Boys: No. 4 Dawson County and No. 9 Greater Atlanta Christian are the leaders, and Dawson has the edge with a 10-0 region record. Dawson has beaten GAC twice this season – 72-40 on Dec. 5 and 57-39 on Jan. 14. GAC is 7-3 and tied with an unranked Cherokee Bluff program. North Hall (6-4) and Lumpkin County (4-7) are chasing.

Girls: Sixth-ranked GAC leads with an 8-2 region recrod and is narrowly ahead of 7-3 North Hall. The Spartans will host East Hall on Tuesday before closing the regular season at Fannin County on Friday. Dawson County is 6-4 and Fannin County is 6-5.

Region 8

Boys: No. 3 Hart County leads the league with a 9-1 record, and Jefferson is chasing at 7-3. That makes Hart’s road trip to Jefferson on Tuesday very important -- not so much for the standings, but for momentum heading into the region tournament. Hart beat Jefferson 48-45 on Jan. 3 and then it carried the momentum into a 67-38 victory against the Dragons a week later. Franklin County (7-4) and Monroe Area (5-5) are the third and fourth teams in the region standings, respectively.

Girls: No. 2 Jefferson leads the league at 10-0 with Hart County (7-3) and Morgan County (7-4) chasing. The Dragons will play at home against Hart County on Tuesday and Jackson County on Friday to close the regular season. Jefferson defeated Hart 69-35 on Jan. 3.

Boys AAA rankings and schedules

1. Pace Academy: Travels to Redan on Tuesday before playing at home against No. 7 Lovett on Friday.

2. Johnson-Savannah: Travels to No. 5 Windsor Forest (12-2 in 3-AAA) Tuesday and needs a victory to stay on top of the 3-AAA standings at 13-1.

3. Hart County: Travels to Jefferson on Tuesday and Franklin County on Friday.

4. Dawson County: Travels to Cherokee Bluff on Tuesday and East Hall on Friday.

5. Windsor Forest: Plays at home against 3-AAA leader Johnson-Savannah on Tuesday and Groves on Friday.

6. Westminster: Travels to Towers on Tuesday and plays at home against Cedar Grove on Friday.

7. Lovett: Closes the regular season on the road against Cedar Grove on Tuesday and top-ranked Pace Academy on Friday.

8. Monroe: Travels to Worth County on Tuesday and plays at home against Crisp County on Friday.

9. Greater Atlanta Christian: Plays at home against East Hall on Tuesday and travels to Fannin County on Friday.

10. North Murray: Closes the regular season at Sonoraville on Friday.

Girls AAA rankings and schedules

1. Johnson-Savannah: Travels to Windsor Forest on Tuesday before hosting Islands on Friday.

2. Jefferson: Plays at home against Hart County on Tuesday and Jackson County on Friday.

3. Beach: Closes the regular season Saturday against Class AAAAAA No. 5 Glynn Academy.

4. Pierce County: Travels to Tattnall County on Friday.

5. Cedar Grove: Plays at home against Lovett on Tuesday and travels to No. 10 Westminster on Friday.

6. Greater Atlanta Christian: Plays at home against East Hall on Tuesday and travels to Fannin County on Friday.

7. North Hall: Travels to Lumpkin County on Tuesday and plays at home against Cherokee Bluff on Friday.

8. Ringgold: Travels to Murray County on Tuesday and plays at home against Heritage-Catoosa on Friday.

9. Sonoraville: Plays at home against Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe on Tuesday and North Murray on Friday.

10. Westminster: Travels to Towers on Tuesday and plays at home against No. 5 Cedar Grove on Friday.

Facebook's Rules For New Oversight Board Leave The Company Firmly In Control

Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks during the F8 Facebook Developers conference on April 30, 2019 in San Jose, California.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Facebook on Tuesday unveiled its proposed bylaws for the company's oversight board — a sort of "supreme court" that can theoretically overturn content moderation decisions — but it's filled with loopholes and binds Facebook to very little concrete action.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg first announced the oversight board in November 2018 as the company weathered numerous scandals and criticism regarding its privacy and content moderation practices. During the run-up to the 2016 election, for instance, conservatives criticized the company for de-emphasizing certain news sources in its "trending" news section.

In a blog post, Zuckerberg noted that Facebook has to make many decisions every day over whether to remove content that violates its policies on nudity, misinformation and other areas, but wrote that Facebook "should not make so many important decisions about free expression and safety on our own."

The solution was supposed to be an independent board that would make final, binding decisions on whether to reinstate removed content, and explain its reasons for doing so.

In a 46-page document released Tuesday, Facebook outlined the bylaws of that board, establishing its powers and its broad limitations. These bylaws make clear that Facebook is still firmly in control.

For instance:

Article 2: Section 1.2.1 -- The following types of content are not available for the board's review, unless reassessed in the future by Facebook:

Content types: ​content posted through marketplace, fundraisers, Facebook dating, messages, and spam.

Decision types:​ decisions made on reports involving intellectual property or pursuant to legal obligations.

Services:​ content on WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram Direct, and Oculus.

This means the oversight board will be extremely limited in what pieces of content it will actually address, leaving out major pieces of the Facebook kingdom.

Article 2: Section 1.3.1 -- Facebook will fund the trust upfront for at least six (6) years. It will review the annual reports prepared by the trust to determine the operational and procedural effectiveness of the board.

In other words, Facebook can just let the board die after six years.

Article 2: Section 2.3.1 -- Facebook will implement board decisions to allow or remove the content properly brought to it for review within seven (7) days of the release of the board's decision on how to action the content. In addition, Facebook will undertake a review to determine if there is identical content with parallel context associated with the board's decision that remains on Facebook. If Facebook determines that it has the technical and operational capacity to take action on that content as well, it will do so promptly.

This means that the decisions made by the oversight board will, by default, apply narrowly to the specific piece of content that is being reviewed, and will not create any precedents that Facebook has to follow in the future for similar types of violations. The company retains final say on whether or not to broadly apply the decisions of the board.

Article 5: Section 1 -- These bylaws may be amended only with the approval of a majority of the individual trustees and with the agreement of Facebook and a majority of the board.

This means the board's members, trustees and Facebook have the ability to amend the bylaws as they please. Some bylaws require a two-thirds vote to be changed, but the document allows for quite a bit of editing.

In some cases where the board and trustees vote to amend the bylaws in ways that could be unfavorable to Facebook, the bylaws state Facebook can agree to the changes "where it has determined that it is technically, operationally, and legally capable of doing so."

In other words, Facebook may not be acting alone when it comes to removing content, but it's still firmly in control of its platform.

The company also announced that Thomas Hughes, former executive director of human rights organization Article 19, will serve as the director of the oversight board administration. Facebook said it plans to announce board members and trustees in the coming months.

10 Ways To Monetise Your Blog

You may be wondering with strategies to digest and so much information to consume, how can a person not only grasp the art of blogging itself, but also that of turning their blog into a business?

The good news is that blogging has become a great way to build a business, in fact, more and more businesses are taking the blogging route instead of relying completely on paid ads. If you want to monetise your blog and generate revenue, you have a lot of options to look at.

Below we outline 10 ways you can monetise your blog in 2020:

1: Affiliate Marketing

A popular method to monetise a blog is to leverage affiliate marketing, it is especially useful if you are a beginner with no products or services to sell. All that is required is that you develop content which is in harmony with whatever affiliate offers you plan to push out. It is like commissioned sales in that your driving traffic and leads to an advertisers’ site through your blog posts.

2: Advertising

When it comes to how to make money blogging ‘display advertising’ is one of the most common ways. It is simple and easy to get started with and can be very profitable. Traditionally, site owners used to have to go out and find advertisers, but with the advent of ad networks such as Google Adsense and Amazon Ads it has never been easier. You get paid every time a user clicks the ad on your blog, with these ads you don’t even have to make sales.

3: Email Marketing

Email marketing allows you to build a strong bond and connection with your readers, you can effectively generate a sizable amount of money by marketing both your own products and services along with affiliated offers directly through email. To be successful all you need is to build your email list.

4: Sell eBooks

A quick pathway to making money from your blog is to develop an eBook which is aligned with the content of your blog. You can easily promote an eBook to readers directly through your blog.

5: Ad Space to Individual Companies

Once generating good traffic numbers, you can look at selling ad space at your own rates rather than just using Adsense or Amazon. This can allow you to set your own prices enabling you to charge monthly fees for certain sized banner ads or charging by click on powerful backlink articles, this can be a great money spinner.

6: Sell Courses

Another great avenue for passive income is in the selling of digital online courses through your blog. By developing intuitive and helpful courses it can be of tremendous value to your readers, and you may find they sell on autopilot helping you generate extra income.

7: Coaching or Consultations

By not including services such as one-to-one coaching and consultations you may be missing out on eager readers wanting to work with you. Today the highest earning bloggers offer such services, for example, if you are a financial blogger you may help a reader with coaching on monthly budgets or investments.

8: Selling Physical Products

Selling a physical product through your blog can be a great way to make additional income. Today an online shop can be up and running in no time with a litter of eCommerce platforms to help you including Shopify and Etsy.

9: Offer a Paid Membership Plan

Businesses with subscription models are becoming increasingly popular, from Netflix to web hosting providers they are all part of the subscription economy. A membership area is a gated section of your online blog which you can charge your readers to join for a monthly or annual subscription fee and in return offer exclusive benefits.

10: Sponsored Posts/Reviews

Through sponsored posts and reviews you can charge companies fees to write about their product or service on your blog. This means the company’s product or service gets exposure to your audience and you generate additional revenue, a win-win situation.

Japan Box Office Leaps To $2.4 Billion Record In 2019

The Japanese box office leaped by 17% in 2019 to set a record $2.4 billion score, according to figures announced Tuesday by the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan, locally known as Eirin. The previous high was the $2.2 billion recorded in 2016.

The Makoto Shinkai animation “Weathering with You” was the highest earning film among both local and foreign releases with a gross of $129 million.

Local films took a majority share with 54% or $1.3 billion, while foreign films grabbed a 46% share or $1.1 billion. The market share split was little changed from 2018.

Once again industry leader Toho accounted for the lion’s share of the box office, having handled seven of the top ten local films, including the period actioner “Kingdom” that it co-released with Sony. The other three were released by a resurgent Toei.

Total admissions rose 15% to 195 million, outstripping the growth in the number of operational screens, which edged up from 3,561 the year before

Hackers Target NFL, Teams’ Social Media Accounts

                                          

The NFL today announced that hackers breached the league's social media accounts, and those belonging to about half of its teams, including Super Bowl contenders, the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers.

 The NFL's cybersecurity department took immediate action to secure its accounts after it learned Monday of the breaches and directed its teams to do the same to prevent "further unauthorized access." The attacks occurred on Sunday and Monday. NFL officials alerted the social media platforms along with law enforcement officials.

"We continue to work diligently with the teams, which have resumed normal operations," according to an NFL statement. 

A group of so-called "White Hat" hackers that operates under the name of "OurMine" markets its cybersecurity experts by exposing security flaws by hijacking social media accounts of the rich and famous. They also have "defaced" prominent websites such as The New York Times, BBC News, and CNN to spread their message,  ZDNet.Com reported.

"The group said they'd take passwords leaked during data breaches at other services and attempt to use the same passwords to gain access to accounts on other websites," ZDNet says. "They often took credit for hacking online forums and other legitimate companies and then putting their data up for sale online — using the reputation they forged by hacking tech CEOs to boost their sales on underground forums."

According to media reports, OurMine is a group of teenagers from Saudi Arabia. Coincidentally, OurMine falsely tweet from the Chicago Bears official account that an advisor to the Saudi Royal Family named Turki Al-Sheikh was the team's new owner. The tweet was news to the Bears' current owner Virginia McCaskey, whose father George Hallas founded the storied franchise a century ago. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, "There has been no indication whatsoever that the McCaskeys are considering selling the team."

OurMine is responsible for the hacks of the social media accounts of celebrities such as actor Channing Tatum, rapper Drake and reality TV star/self-made billionaire Kylie Jenner along with tech CEOs, including Twitter's Jack Dorsey, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, and Alphabet's Sundar Pichai. 

It isn't clear how the hack occurred or whether OurMine is planning another display of its cyber-prowess during Sunday's NFL Championship game. The Super Bowl usually is the most-watched television program in any given year. It also is a big traffic driver for social media platforms.

OurMine didn't immediately respond to an email sent to its website seeking comment for this story. A spokesperson for the NFL also couldn't be reached.

Google Maps Is Getting A New Feature That May Help You 'dodge' A Traffic Challan

Google Maps will soon roll out a new feature in India that will help people avoid speeding tickets.According to a report by Mashable, the US-based internet search giant has confirmed to them that Google Maps will show speed cameras in India on its mobile app. "Speed cameras will post for users in the UK, US, Australia, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, India, and Indonesia," said the report. Further, US, UK, and Denmark will get speed limits of the routes that users take.Both the speed-related features were first spotted by Android Police. As per the screenshot shared by them, the speeding cameras will appear on the Blue colour route as Orange icons. In certain situations, there will also be an audio cue when the user approaches a speed camera. As for the speed limits, the speed limit of the route will appear in the bottom left corner while using turn-by-turn navigation. Currently, the latest version on Android and iOS platforms do not show this speeding cameras, but it should soon be rolled out with an update. Recently, Google introduced auto rickshaw as a new public transport mode to its Google Maps app on Android devices. Using the feature, commuters will be able to view suggested routes and the estimated auto-rickshaw fares in the Google Maps. The new feature can be found within the ‘public transport’ and ‘cab’ modes in Google Maps. Results for the auto-rickshaw feature can be seen in the ‘Also Consider’ section. Once the commuters choose the auto-rickshaw as the preferable mode of transport, they will be able to see the estimated price of the journey and the route’s traffic information. To start the trip, one simply needs to tap ‘Navigate’. The same option can also be accessed through the “cab” mode on Google Maps. The suggested route maps and fares are based on the expected trip route and the official fare model shared by the Delhi Traffic Police, the firm said in a press statement.

10-Year-Old Spotted Driving In Hyderabad, Cops Issue Rs 2,000 Challan

Driving in Hyderabad, Cops Issue Rs 2,000 Challan

A video of a child driving a Maruti Alto in Hyderabad has surfaced on the internet. The child, who looks like a 10-year-old, was spotted driving the vehicle on Outer Ring Road in the presence of his parents on December 8.

The 16-second clip was shared by a Twitter user Tiger Neelesh. In the video, one can see a silver colour Maruti Alto bearing a number plate AP 28 BL 6979, driven by a child as his parents sit comfortably on the back seat.

Neelesh wrote, "An act of stupidity or wilful recklessnes. Video of outer ring road of Hyd on 8.12.19/ 9.32 Am. How these people risking their lives n also others moving around. Car driven by kid aged around 10 in the presence of parents."

In a trail of tweets, he even asked the Hyderabad traffic police to take “strict action” against the parents.

“Drinking and driving is a crime and in many cases driver is sent to jail. But a kid driving under supervision of parent is not sent to jail? [sic],” The New Indian Express quoted Neelesh as saying.

Kushaiguda Traffic Police Station has generated an e-challan against the vehicle. According to the receipt shared by the police station, the cops have raised a Rs 2000 fine, which includes disobedience of orders (Rs 500), dangerous driving (Rs 1,000) and underage driving (Rs 500).