Daily Archives: February 21, 2021

Cypriots defy ban to protest again over corruption, coronavirus curbs – Reuters

Posted: February 21, 2021 at 12:31 am

NICOSIA (Reuters) - Thousands of Cypriots protesting against coronavirus restrictions and corruption held a peaceful march on Saturday in defiance of a ban on gatherings.

The event, held following a violent crackdown by police of a previous protest which triggered widespread criticism last week, saw marchers holding flowers and banners parade through a central thoroughfare in the capital Nicosia to the islands parliament.

Protesters wearing face masks were observed at a distance by police.

Cyprus, which has fared better than most countries in handling the pandemic, has been in and out of lockdown for about a year. However, disclosures of perceived corruption from a passport-for-investment scheme has fueled public discontent.

I feel like my future is just hanging by a thread. There are no jobs, but those governing and their buddies are getting rich, said one protester identified only as Ioanna, 24.

A smaller protest held on Feb. 13 was met with a heavy-handed response by police, who clashed with demonstrators and deployed water cannon. The incident triggered a police inquiry and admissions by the islands justice minister that some scenes showed a disproportionate reaction.

On Saturday, the water cannon was kept at a distance, parked about two kilometres away within the medieval walls of the capital Nicosia.

The passport scheme was abruptly pulled by authorities last year after the Al Jazeera news network showed individuals allegedly willing to facilitate citizenship for a fictitious investor with a criminal record, and which they subsequently denied. The scheme is also being probed by an independent board of inquiry.

Down with the Junta of the Partitionist, read one banner, with the word partitionist a play on the name of President Nicos Anastasiades, referring to the ethnic division of the island populated by Greek and Turkish Cypriots.

Reporting By Michele Kambas; Editing by Mike Harrison

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Cypriots defy ban to protest again over corruption, coronavirus curbs - Reuters

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Skateboarding superstar charged with hosting COVID-19 superspreader party in L.A. – Los Angeles Times

Posted: at 12:31 am

A skateboarding superstar is among five people Los Angeles prosecutors have charged with organizing parties that were possible superspreader events at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nyjah Huston, a four-time world skateboarding champion, and Edward Essa, the owner of a home in the Fairfax District where authorities say parties have been repeatedly shut down by police since last fall, are among those charged.

After the latest party last month, Mayor Eric Garcetti ordered the L.A. Department of Water and Power to cut off electric service to the home in the 800 block of North Curson Avenue. Huston and Essa are both charged with creating a nuisance, a misdemeanor. Neither could be reached for comment Friday.

Three other people face similar charges in unrelated cases, allegedly involving a secret New Years Eve banquet in downtown L.A. and frequent gatherings behind covered windows at another Fairfax nightspot.

Mike Feuer, the city attorney who acts as L.A.'s top prosecutor, said the coronavirus has dramatically changed the lives of Angelenos, but some have refused to change their behavior.

During this crisis, my office has held those individuals and businesses who have had large indoor gatherings, violating important public health and safety orders, accountable. he said. Those charged, he said, are connected to properties where we allege that large indoor parties were held in violation of public health orders.

It is the latest crackdown on the worst violations of emergency orders that seek to limit the spread of the virus, targeting a party scene driven in part by social media creators who make money by providing entertainment for the maskless mass gatherings.

During the pandemic, this enforcement is particularly important because party houses can produce superspreader events that jeopardize public health. Were taking the steps to shut them down, Feuer added.

Last month, LAPD Capt. Sharon Paulson said officers cleared about 40 people from the Curson Avenue address after receiving a complaint of a gathering at a social media influencer residence. Officers had previously shut down events at the home on Sept. 12-13 and Oct. 17 and issued warnings to the residents that large gatherings violated the mayors public order, officials said.

Huston has gotten into trouble for house parties before. In September 2019, he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace at a 2017 Los Angeles party. The multiple X Games gold medalist, who has 4.5 million Instagram followers, was originally charged with felony assault. In 2014, he was cited for noise violations after Orange County deputies responding to multiple complaints found 200 to 300 people at his south Orange County home.

Prosecutors allege that Salon Oaxaca in downtown Los Angeles, owned by Hermelinda Nicolas De Ruiz, was the site of a New Years Eve party with about 150 guests, and that dozens have gathered for underground parties at the Hidden River, owned by Brandon Miller, Oshri Elmorich and a company, Royva Inc., in the 300 block of North La Brea Avenue.

Last August, Feuer filed charges against TikTok stars Bryce Hall and Blake Gray and the owners of mega mansions they rented for massive parties.

Skateboarding superstar charged with hosting COVID-19 superspreader party in L.A. - Los Angeles Times

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Brave browsers Tor feature found to leak .onion queries to ISPs – The Daily Swig

Posted: at 12:30 am

Jessica Haworth19 February 2021 at 14:27 UTC Updated: 19 February 2021 at 21:33 UTC

Developers are issuing hotfix

UPDATED Brave, the privacy-focused web browser, is exposing users activity on Tors hidden servers aka the dark web to their internet service providers, it has been confirmed.

Brave is shipped with a built-in feature that integrates the Tor anonymity network into the browser, providing both security and privacy features that can help obscure a users activity on the web.

Tor is also used to access .onion websites, which are hosted on the dark net.

Earlier today (February 19), a blog post from Rambler claimed that Brave was leaking DNS requests made in the Brave browser to a users ISP.

Brave Is Leaking Browsing History From Anonymous Tor Browser – Decrypt

Posted: at 12:30 am

In brief

Brave, a Chromium-based, privacy-first browser that integrates the anonymous Tor web browser, has been leaking private .onion addresses to domain name system providers.

Tor obscures users web browsing activity by bouncing web traffic across a global network of relays. That makes it near-impossible to trace a users web history, making the browser a perfect home for anyone in need of privacy: mostly activists, dark web drug barons and hackers.

But the bug, addressed in a beta and soon-to-be-fixed in a hotfix, leaked all that private information to DNS providers, meaning that internet companies could snoop on their users Tor activity.

This is because Brave, which integrated Tor in 2018, is a Chromium-based browser, meaning it uses the same architecture as Firefox and Google Chrome. This issue has plagued Chromium-based browsers for over a decade and has been found on Brave as far back as 2019.

Braves bug was raised on January 21 after a Hacker One report unearthed the issue. It was resolved, then added to the Nightly version two weeks ago. Nightly is a developer's version of Brave that updates each day.

However, since the bug blew up on Reddit and Twitter today, Brave is bumping it up to the official version.

Brave never professed to be as private as Tor. Brave with Tor does not provide the same level of Privacy as the Tor browser, if your life depends on remaining anonymous, use the Tor browser, said Ryan Watson, Braves VP of IT, two years ago on Reddit.

Tor is more secure because it scrubs digital fingerprints used to identify computers, wrote Watson. Fingerprinting works by hiding in the crowd of other browsers, by using Tor in Brave you have a slightly more unique fingerprint than with Tor browser. Thus making you less anonymous.

He added: [Tors community] also develop and know about security issues before anyone else, so they get the patches first and they make their way downstream to other apps.

Brave has been in hot water for betraying user trust in the past. It redirected some crypto-related search queries to affiliate links, from which it earned kickbacks. It's not great, and sorry again. I'm sad about it, too, tweeted Brendan Eich, the companys fiery CEO after the scheme was unearthed. The bug, however, appears to be an error in code, rather than in judgment.

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Metadata, VPNs, and Tor – ACS

Posted: at 12:30 am

You are being watched.

Everything you do online is being captured, stored and analysed in order to determine your personality, preferences, and predict your behaviour.

In this special 3-part Information Age series, we look at the ways your online activity is being tracked and some of the steps you can take to control your personal data.

In the first part of this series, we looked at how your browser choice and configuration can stop advertisers from recording your internet activity by blocking third-party cookies and other site trackers.

With your browser no longer sending data elsewhere, there is another source of potential data leakage: your internet service provider (ISP).

It is established practice in the US for certain ISPs to package its customers browsing data to sell for targeted advertising.

And in 2018 Crikey reported the practice had made it to Australia (hidden behind 'privacy policies') citing a concerned advertising executive who was offered insights derived from Optus customer data.

An Optus spokesperson told Information Age the telco does not sell customers internet usage history to advertisers nor does it share information that directly identifies customers with any third-party for commercial purposes.

But Optuss privacy policy currently says it may analyse anonymous viewing and/or browsing data which could be de-identified and shared with its business partners.

Telstra also says it uses business intelligence techniques to get high level insights about aspects of its network usage including demographic trends and other types of behavioural data which may be shared with its own business and commercial partners.

Of course, advertisers arent the only ones seeking direct access to your internet activity from ISPs.

Metadata retention

Under the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979, your ISP is required to store certain information about your internet use for at least two years.

There are six categories of data your ISP has to keep, including: subscriber information; the source and destination (IP addresses) of communications; the date, time, type, and duration; and the location of equipment used during the communication.

For law enforcement this data has obvious use-cases, such as when tracking down people who share child exploitation material, theoretically allowing police to cross-reference instances of illicit behaviour and match them with real-world perpetrators.

ISPs are technically not required to store web browsing histories or the contents of communication under the act in order to allay fears of mass government surveillance but the differentiation between what is information about an internet communication and what are its content is not so clear-cut.

Last year, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security completed its review of the mandatory data retention regime, recommending the legislation should be updated to better define what is content or substance of a communication.

This followed revelations that law enforcement agencies were effectively given access to web browsing history, despite that being outside the scope of collection.

In one public committee hearing, Commonwealth Ombudsman Michael Manthorpe whose office provides oversight to the accessing of metadata under this scheme described issues with the scheme.

"The piece of ambiguity we have observed through our inspections is that sometimes the metadata, in the way it's captured particularly URL data and sometimes IP addresses does, in its granularity, start to communicate something about the content of what is being looked at."

Since an ISP is your gateway to the internet, how can you avoid them using your internet history for advertising or passing it onto the government?

A VPN might work

You will no doubt have seen or heard ads for virtual private network (VPN) companies trying to sell their services by creating perceived need for one of their main purposes:

-Unlocking geoblocked content (such as internationally available streaming services)

-Securing your data

-Anonymising your internet use

As far as online anonymity goes, VPNs hide activity data from your ISP by encrypting your service requests and tunnelling them into its private network.

This means your ISP will only see that you are connected to a VPN and the size of data moving back-and-forth but it wont see what websites or services you are accessing within that network.

And because government website blocking is done at the ISP level, VPNs may also act as a way of circumventing restrictions on unlawful piracy or online gambling websites.

VPN companies tend to be headquartered in countries with minimal government oversight in order to avoid regulatory hurdles like mandatory data retention regimes.

Unfortunately, this means taking these companies claims about privacy and security on face value, which brings its own set of problems.

Just last year, security researchers at Comparitech discovered an exposed database from UFO VPN.

Despite the company claiming it did not track or log its customers internet activity, the database revealed UFO VPN was storing account passwords in plain text and keeping records of users IP addresses along with the VPN servers they were connected to.

Typically you also want to avoid any free VPN services as they are likely just designed to harvest and sell web data.

For example Onavo Protect a now-defunct privacy-focused VPN app owned by Facebook told users it would protect and encrypt their user data but instead shuffled that information straight to Facebook for analysis.

Trustworthiness

VPN brands are working hard to establish consumer trust in the growing market in order to stay ahead of opportunistic companies.

NordVPN started contracting independent auditors Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) to double-check its no-log claims a process fellow VPN heavyweight Express VPN copied by having PwC conduct an audit of its systems, too.

ProtonVPN from the same company that operates end-to-end encrypted email service Proton Mail tries to differentiate itself by being open source and allowing security researchers to check under the hood for nefarious features.

And non-profit Mozilla also has its own product, Mozilla VPN but its not yet available in Australia.

Theres no shortage of lists naming the best top or most secure VPNs around the internet, many of which feature NordVPN and ExpressVPN up the top.

But before signing up to the next VPN service being sold to you on a podcast or YouTube video, beware that not all VPNs are created equal.

A decent VPN service will cost you around $10 a month and can be a bit cheaper if you pay annually.

The onion router

If you are interested in anonymous web browsing and dont want to shop around for a VPN, you could always try using the free anonymity network Tor.

Like a VPN, Tor hides the details of your internet activity from your ISP but it will still likely know you are connecting to Tor.

Tor uses onion routing which sees your server requests covered in many layers (hence onion) of encryption.

It is then passed through a relay of networked volunteer computers, each of which peels off a layer of the encrypted request until the last layer of encryption is removed and your request gets fulfilled.

It is then wrapped back up in multiple encryption layers and passed down the relay to your machine.

All these relays will naturally slow down your internet connection.

Tor keeps you anonymous by design because no single point in the relay sees both the sender and receiver which is in stark contrast to ISPs and VPNs, each of which needs to see both sender and receiver in order to deliver the message.

Because of its in-built anonymity features, Tor has long been used for illicit online activity and is host to hidden onion services which can only be reached through Tor and make up part of the infamous dark web.

The underlying Tor software is maintained by the non-profit Tor Project which is funded largely through US government grants, and the most common way to access Tor is by using the Tor Browser.

Do keep in mind, though, that when it comes to remaining anonymous online, how you access the internet is just as important as what you access on the internet.

In Part III: Social media and other sandboxes.

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Metadata, VPNs, and Tor - ACS

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Why Live Roulette is a Better Experience than Digital Roulette – Gameindustry.com – GameIndustry.com

Posted: at 12:28 am

If you are interested in playing roulette online from one of the leading casinos in your country, then stop for a second and ask yourself what kind of roulette will you be playing? In fact, more importantly, what should you be playing?

In the realm of online casino gameplay, there are two types of gaming formats and they both started around the same time in the mid to late 90s.

You have digital gameplay that offers players a simulated digitalized game, kind of like slot machines, but played out on a table because thats roulettes natural place. Then you have the live gaming format played inside the live casino platform with a live dealer as gaming host.

So, which of these should you be playing? Is one really better than the other? Well, we are here to justifiably explain why you should only ever be playing live casino games and, in this instance, live online roulette.

Why roulette first of all? Well, its a table game that comes with the most basic of rules.

1: Predict where the ball is going to land within the roulette wheel.

2: Place your bet or bets on the table.

3: Spin the Wheel and await the outcome of your bet.

The game of roulette is for many new players the go-to-game when they want to experience traditional gaming. If slots seem less challenging, then roulette at least allows you to call the shots.The game is, therefore, popular amongst first-time players and because of this fact, we what to share the reasons as to why players will benefit more from playing online roulette in its live gaming format, rather than opting to play a more standardized version of the table game.

Roulette is a gaming classic and is housed by every online casino you can find. Its a game that has stood the test of time and even Albert Einstein once said of the game: You cannot beat a roulette table unless you steal money from it.Roulette is a gambling feature that holds many positives, however, these come more into light as a live gaming format than one which is produced as a simple digital game.

Digital gameplay, be it roulette, blackjack, or even poker, their gaming construct is identical to that of a slot machine.

The layouts are the same in a programming and instructional sense within the gaming mechanics.

So, firstly, what is a slot machine? You have 3 to 5 reels; they will spin at random and will pay out when 3 or more matching symbols align.

How is this even close to roulette?

The mechanics of the reel rotation is exactly the same as that of the roulette wheel, chance is being created through this random even.

The symbol of the wheel, like that of the reels, in this instance, is the number, and the colour and the odd or even value of the number. The alignment is that of the wheel and the table bet matching.

Now, why do we say that it is all random? Well, it is not, not entirely. Digital roulette is a program and for it to know when to trigger or generate wins, the program needs an algorithmic calculator or solution. Now, there are two types of algorithms out there in the industry, Return to Player (RTP) which 90% of online slots use. And then you have the Random Number Generator (RNG) which accounts for 100% of online card and table games i.e. Online Roulette.

The RNG algorithm uses a 30 billion numerical code to generate the concept of chance. This is how roulette and all other online games in their digital format determine who wins and losses. Now, this goes for all roulette variants also.

Roulette is a game that is especially loved in Ireland and for players wanting to get a full measure of what roulette variants there are, then we advice you to head over to a professional comparison site, such as betinireland.ie. You dont need to be from Ireland to appreciate the detail this webpage goes into.

We reached out to Shane Hennessy, which is a casino games reviewer at BetinIreland.ie, to see how online roulette on their dedicated page betinireland.ie/casino/games/roulette/ fares when compared to the live table version, and he confirmed that player reaction to live roulette tends to be stronger, especially among veterans of the game.

Judging by the data gathered from our site, players do believe that if you want to experience the best of roulette, then only in a live gaming format will you actually play the game how it was intentionally designed.

We can now look into the process of play with the live casino features of roulette.

For many players online, their experience of live gaming will be developed by Evolution Gaming. They were the first developer to create the live streaming content for online casinos and have since dominated the market, with no real competitors trying to challenge an already perfect live service.

So, let us briefly discuss live gaming. From the confines of Evolutions Studios, real casino games are being played. Roulette tables hosted by model-like dealers are broadcast to hundreds of international online casinos, which are then streamed on the casino platform for users to access, watch, and play.

The defining thing is that the equipment is real! There is no programming or coding to decide If you should win or lose. The answer is that simple, have full control over the roulette you play by playing roulette live online. With it, you will get a better experience for it. You get to converse with the live dealer via the chat option embedded into the game which allows for a greater immersive gaming experience.

You still get to play the many variants that appear online, you will have access to Live European Roulette, Live American Roulette, even specialist titles like Double Ball Roulette and Lightning Roulette, specially created by Evolution Gaming.

Plus, you have the future of the format to look forward to. As you can see with traditional console gaming, it is now providing the option for a VR gaming experience. Soon and not too long into the future, live casino gaming will implement the technology of VR programming so that players can assume avatars and play inside a virtual casino online.

Live roulette provides a greater profitable plater of games, if you imagine the digital games as the coin machines you find in amusement arcades, not to say they are rigged per-se but, they are there as quick profit-making games for the casino. Play live and you are not playing into the hands of the casino.

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Online roulette: one of the most sought after games – Explica

Posted: at 12:28 am

The trend continues and shows no changes in the future. Online roulette is one of the games most chosen by users, not only in Spain, but worldwide among those who want to spend time and win money in the game rooms offered by the cybernetic world of fun.

888 online roulette is without a doubt the one that offers the greatest variety of gaming options for those players who choose one specific variety over another.

Roulette comes from the French term roulette which means small wheel. The ultimate goal of the game is to place real money bets where you think the ball will land.

Roulette has a wheel of 37 slots numbered from 0 to 36 (there are exceptions in variants that we will see later). The slots alternate between red and black, except for 0 which is green. Players can place bets on the number, color or a series of numbers. After the bets placed by the users are concluded, the wheel spins until the ball lands on a randomly determined number. There are outside or inside bets.

The types of bets are:

Simple full: Bet on a number. If the ball lands on that number you win 35 times the value of the bet. Double: Bet on two numbers. You win 17 times the bet.Tro or Calle: Bet on three numbers. You win 11 times the bet. Angle and Quad: Bet on four numbers. You win 8 times the bet. Line: Bet on six numbers. You win five times the bet. Dozen: Bet on twelve numbers. You win twice the bet. Higher, lower, red, black, even or odd: In these three variants of bets with two options, in case of being a winner, you get the equivalent of your bet.

Roulette modes

888 online roulette offers, as we discussed earlier, several modes for those users who prefer one over the other. We will explain each modality below.

European roulette: Players place bets on both single numbers and a variety of numbers, color, odd or even, higher or lower, columns, or dozens. Then the croupier turns the wheel and throws the ball in the opposite direction. This variant has an advanced panel in which special bets arise such as: neighbors (up to four numbers at a time according to the order of the roulette), hot and cold numbers and automatic play.

American Roulette: One of the differences with the European one, which is that it has a number plus 00. If the player makes an odd / even bet, low / high and the ball lands on 0 or 00, the player loses his bet.

French roulette: It has 37 numbers. One of the exclusive rules of this modality is La Partage whereby if the ball lands on the number 0, the player will only lose half of his bet of 1 to 1 payouts: higher / lower, even / odd and red / black.3D Roulette: It is the version of the European roulette, but with 3D graphics that give a different visual experience.Low Stakes Roulette: It is an option of European roulette, but with lower stakes on the table.

What is the live roulette experience like?

It is the perfect combination of sensations that are experienced when playing with a real dealer in a perfect visual experience both on PC, Mac, iPhone, Android and smartphones and they can also choose between an immersive, classic or 3D view.

The dealers are prepared to entertain and interact with users in conversations in different languages where they respond to what the players write from the chats.

In live roulette there are also different options. Immersive Roulette features high definition at over 200 frames per second with camera shot changes. Dragonara Roulette transports players to Maltas Dragonara Palace, one of the most luxurious casinos in the world. And an autoruleta is also available.

Specifically, the options are adapted to the tastes of the different players and 888 is distinguished by the variety, quality and attention to its customers, an experience that without a doubt you cannot stop living if you like online games.

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Community news from around the area | News, Sports, Jobs – The Daily Times

Posted: at 12:28 am

St. Paul weekly fish fries are

happening with many changes

WEIRTON The St. Paul Holy Name Men and Christian Mothers will once again have their fish fry every Friday during Lent and featuring Coleman fish.

But because of COVID-19 restrictions, this year will bring many changes, according to organizers.

We will only offer fried fish dinners (fried fish, bun, french fries and coleslaw) for $10. All orders will be takeout, a spokesperson explained.

Orders can be called in to (304) 797-1182, which is the preferred way to order. You also can order curbside from your car in the circle in front of the school. All orders will be paid for here cash only and delivered to your car.

The hours are from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. every Friday during Lent.

We need to close curbside ordering and pickup from 2:15 p.m. to 3 p.m. to allow parents to pick up their children from school, the spokesperson emphasized. Please plan accordingly. Phone orders can still be placed during this time for later pickup.

There will be no deliveries available this year pickup only.

We are sorry for the inconvenience and hope to be back to normal next year, the spokesperson added.

Brooke County Library plans

to show Race on Feb. 26

WELLSBURG Provided Brooke County isnt at level red for COVID-19 cases, the Brooke County Public Library will show the PG-13 rated film Race, about African-American Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens, at noon Feb. 26.

Seating will be limited. Call (304) 737-1551 or visit wellsburg.lib.wv.us/newsletter2.htm to reserve a seat for the free screening.

Chamber: Restaurant Roulette supporting local eateries

WEIRTON The Weirton Area Chamber of Commerce is asking area residents to take a chance while supporting their local eateries.

Restaurant Roulette is a contest, which Chamber President Brenda Mull explained is a new way to show support for area restaurants.

When you go out to eat, save your receipts and drop them off at the chamber, Mull said, noting residents should write their name and phone number on each receipt.

Receipts mailed to the chamber also will be accepted but not those e-mailed, faxed or photocopied. For those stopping by the chamber office located at 3174 Pennsylvania Ave., Suite 1 outside of business hours, or not wishing to go inside, a blue bag has been placed under the offices mailbox.

Each week of the contest, chamber officials will draw a name, and the winner will receive a gift card to a local restaurant.

Well post the winners on our Facebook page, Mull said.

The contest runs through April.

Bergholz Foundation offers scholarship application news

BERGHOLZ The Bergholz Community Foundation will offer scholarships for the 2021-22 school year with applications are now available.

Students eligible for consideration for the scholarships are 2021 high school graduates who reside in the Edison Local School District.

Scholarships also are available to nontraditional students. These applicants must be past graduates of Edison High School or one of the Edison School Districts consolidated high schools, who are seeking a first-time associate or undergraduate degree or technical training.

Edison High School students may obtain scholarship applications from the Edison guidance office. Scholarship applications can be obtained from the foundations website at http://www.bergholzfoundation.org or by forwarding a request and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Bergholz Community Foundation, P.O. Box 201, Bergholz OH 43908.

The application deadline is April 2.

Completed applications can be returned to Bergholz Community Foundation, c/o Scholarship Committee, P.O. Box 201, Bergholz OH 43908.

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The Science In Gambling – EconoTimes

Posted: at 12:28 am

There is a long relationship between gambling and science. Woven together, mathematics, psychology and science breathe life into a game of chance.

Since the Renaissance scientists and mathematicians have earnestly studied the science in gambling and attempted to take luck out of the game, some have been more successful than others, paving the way for the optimists to continue to try to beat the dealer.

Welcome to a world where computer science presides over the roulette wheel, artificial intelligence meets poker, and nuclear Science predicts race times and sports-field goals.

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Quantum Physics and Beating the Dealer

Einstein boldly declared that God doesn't play dice, but, in saying this, he failed to apply the same edict to scientists. He didnt like the fuzzy world of probabilities and proposed quantum physics is fundamentally predetermined. He stated that you could predict an exact result with precise knowledge of all the contributing factors.

According to John Bell, Einstein failed to consider that said contributing factors possessed an unavoidable, built-in degree of randomness. Over some time, these two scientists battled it out, both stubbornly sticking to their theories. Ultimately, as other scientists entered the fray, Einstein and Bell found company in each other to have independently credible ideas.

And so, the dealer lives another deal another day as there is no way to predict the unpredictable and it might be said after all that God does play dice.

The Dice is Always Rolling

The toss of dice is, interestingly, considerably more predictable than science would have us believe. Isaac Newton interjects, suggesting that if one were to record the precise height, velocity and direction of the toss, one could easily predict a pair of sunflowers (double fives) or a tutu (double twos).

The challenge is time, of which there are virtually none and the unpredictability of the conditions surrounding the toss. These factors guarantee the impossibility of a solid guess and therefore, the safety of the game of chance.

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A game of chance at the wheel of fortune

The roulette - meaning the little wheel was invented in 1655 by a French physicist, inventor and mathematician, Blaise Pascal. Ironically, he wasn't trying to create a casino game, but rather a perpetual motion machine.

It is often said that roulette is a perfect world, a game of chance with absolutely predictable results. In said perfect world scientific calculations, using conditions and forces, guarantee the players an inevitable outcome and thus a big-time win.

However, In the real world, where time waits for no man, physics has no seat at the roulette table. The outcome predictability is clouded by tiniest variations in the conditions leading up to the final chancel.

Scientific Ideas Developed into Betting Strategies

1940:- Exploiting the biased wheel

In 1940, Albert Hibbs, a mathematics student, and Roy Walford studied medicine and took time out from their studies to visit casinos in Reno and Las Vegas.

Interested in the possible existence of science in gambling, they studied the roulette wheel. The wheel design was basic in 1940, and the pair observed that the wheels had flaws. These flaws offered degrees of predictability, so they set about exploiting these findings by creating formulas for the various wheels they studied.

On hearing about their success, the casinos replaced the old biased roulette wheels for new smooth-spinning models.

1955:- Counting on your toes

Edward Thorp, inspired by Hibbs and Walford, devised a handheld computer to process the information observed while studying the now smooth-spinning roulette wheels. The little computer was quick enough to use the throws trajectory and the wheels speed to predict and transmit a result to the player at the table.

Joining forces with mathematician Claude Shannon in the late 1950s, Thorp invented the first wearable computer designed to fit into the bottom of an, specially designed shoe. By manipulating the toes to capture the variables, the predicted result was sent via musical notes to an earpiece worn by the player.

This method was only effective while late betting was allowed. So as not to become evident by always placing late bets, i.e. betting once the wheel and ball were in motion, the pair mixed up the timing of their bets thereby ultimately reducing their profitability.

In 1966, Thorp went public with his methods and published books on the Science of Gambling.

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1970:- Eudaemonism

In the 1970s, J Doyne Farmer and Norman Packard and a group of savvy students, collectively known as The Eudaemons, fine-tuned Thorp and Shannon's shoe computer.

The device was made even smaller with limited wiring and no earpiece. The result was sent as a vibration to the other foot. This discreet method was highly successful, earning the group a 44% profit on each dollar spent.

1980/1990:- Bringing Down The House

In the 1980s, Casinos prohibited the use of computers and upgraded their equipment. This effectively brought an end to sciences winning streak. While in the 1990s, A MIT Blackjack team beat the odds again by implementing an extremely profitable system.

Through these remarkable men, the proof has been revealed that the science in gambling exists and while it is no longer legal to apply, on the roulette wheel of life, these men went on to hit the jackpot, and good for them.

Stories of successful gambling go against the grain and the notion that casinos and bookmakers are unbeatable. They plant the idea that there are flaws in games of chance and open to exploitation by anyone sharp enough to spot them. Employing science to test the notion that randomness can be reasoned with and formulae control fortune is the best money-making scheme to date - except its nothing new.

These thoughts are so appealing that people have tried to find ways to beat the dealer since the history of gambling has been reported. Yet, the search for the perfect wager has not only influenced gamblers throughout history, but the investigation has also transformed our entire understanding of luck and will continue to do so. So lets hear it for science after all its only half the story.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes

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My beautiful daughter took ketamine and drowned in her bath its become Russian Roulette drug for teens in – The Irish Sun

Posted: at 12:28 am

TALENTED and fun-loving with celebrity friends including Amy Winehouse, Pete Doherty and Kate Moss, Louise Cattell had an incredibly bright future ahead of her.

But it was taken away when, at the age of just 21, the 5ft 1ins student overdosed in her bathtub after taking ketamine.

Now, on the 10th anniversary of her death, her mother Vicky Unwin is sending a stark warning about the dangers of the popular party drug.

Figures released this month show that one in 10 teenagers admit to taking hard drugs including ketamine which is commonly used as a horse tranquilliser or anaesthetic - as it has become the cheap, lockdown drug of choice.

As one 25-year-old told a newspaper: These days everyone does ketamine.

In an exclusive interview, writer Vicky, 63, says: One of the things thats worrying about lockdown is that teenagers are taking drugs in the secrecy of their homes and you just dont know what they are buying on the dark web.

These kids are getting depressed because they cant go out and have a good time and the parents often have no idea what they are getting up to."

Vicky says: Ketamine has become one of the party drugs of choice because its cheap, but its also very dangerous and there is still a lack of education about its effects.

Everyone wants to experience this so-called 'K-hole' where you get into a catatonic state and have a psychedelic trip.

But people do really stupid things on ketamine because theyre half asleep they fall off buildings, fall under buses, choke on their own vomit.

Louise took too much and fell asleep in a bath and drowned.

You cannot stop yourself from falling into this deep coma and that part is incredibly dangerous because you are completely out of control.

Young people have been warned they are playing chemical Russian Roulette by taking ketamine, which is also known as Special K or Super K.

Senior coroner Timothy Brennand spoke out after apprentice plumber Matthew Dutton, 22, fell into a canal and drowned having mixed ketamine with two pints of lager and three alcopops at a pub in Wigan, Greater Manchester, on August 23 last year.

Other recent casualties include Cardiff University law student Megan Pollitt, 18, who died on November 16, just days after she was found motionless by a flatmate at her halls of residence.

The teen, from Rugby, Warwickshire, was one of two people to die from a suspected overdose on the same weekend, with police blaming a rogue batch of ketamine.

Her family later released a statement, saying: We will miss her beautiful bright smile and positive energy that would lift the spirits of anyone.

Former deputy head girl Jeni Larmour, 18, collapsed and died after it's feared she took ketamine at Newcastle University, where she was studying architecture and urban planning.

Tragically, she was one of four suspected drug deaths in the city on the same weekend.

Her heartbroken mum Sandra Foster Larmour, of Newtownhamilton, County Armagh, paid tribute in the days that followed, writing on Facebook: My beautiful Princess my best friend x.

Her friend Piper Hebditch, 18, insisted: I don't believe she would willingly have taken drugs and TV presenter Eamonn Holmes described her death as "every parent's worst nightmare".

Customer services agent Joe Robinson died on June 14 last year after attending an illegal rave at Daisy Nook Country Park in Oldham.

The 20-year-old collapsed in the early hours of the morning after mixing ketamine with MDMA and shouting: Zombies are chasing me, just leave me to die," according to the Manchester Evening News.

His brother Dean Robinson, 28, told the inquest at Stockport Coroner's Court: "He was a much-loved member of the family."

Model Madalyn Davis, 21, plunged to her death in the early hours of the morning of January 11 last year after taking a cocktail of drugs including ketamine while backpacking in Australia.

The talented make-up artist, with thousands of Instagram followers, is believed to have been watching the sun rise and taking photographs at a beauty spot in Dover Heights near Sydney when she became disorientated.

Her grandfather Paul Davis, 76, told of the family's devastation afterwards, revealing: She was intelligent, very stylish and had a magnetic personality. Everybody liked her. She had it all. It has broken our hearts.

Vickys daughter was similarly loved.

Known as Little Lou to her friends in north London, she moved with a fast crowd that included the late singer Amy Winehouse, the heroin addicted musician Pete Doherty, now 41, and his then girlfriend, model Kate Moss, 47, and other members of the Primrose Hill set.

A talented singer, dancer and photographer, she got through to the second round on X Factor in 2009, two years before she died, and was planning on going to arts college.

Louise had just returned from travelling in Australia and was staying with her unnamed best friend in Clapton, east London, when she took a lethal dose of ketamine on March 2, 2011.

Speaking from her home in Belsize Park, north London, her mum recalls: Louise was tiny, 5ft 1ins, but she was feisty and beautiful and used to wear the most amazing clothes and make-up with different hair colours.

She was such an attractive personality that people were drawn to her.

We did have conversations about drugs because I knew what teenagers do.

The really sad thing is she said, Dont worry mum, I know about drugs and I see what a mess Pete (Doherty) has made of his life with heroin'.

She promised, I will never take anything like that, I am much wiser'. But because there wasnt much education about the dangers, she had little idea how dangerous ketamine was.

She thought she was being smart. The night she died she weighed out the ketamine on a scale to check the dosage.

But she hadnt had any drugs for two or three months so her body wasnt used to taking the same amount as her friends.

Louise and her flatmate were watching something on TV and she decided to finish it in the bath when the other girl crashed out asleep in bed.

She promised, I will never take anything like that, I am much wiser'. But because there wasnt much education about the dangers, she had little idea how dangerous ketamine was.

When the friend woke up, she realised Louise wasnt there and she went and found her - she was already dead.

Despite the dangers, ketamine use by young adults aged 16 to 24 has almost doubled in the decade since Louises death, with 3.2 per cent admitting taking it the highest number ever recorded by the Office for National Statistics compared to 1.7 per cent in 2010.

Use of the drug in the general population is also at the highest on record, at 0.8 per cent, despite the fact that ketamine can cause respiratory failure and is particularly deadly when combined with alcohol.

Dangers of ketamine

Professor Owen Bowden-Jones, Consultant Psychiatrist, CNWL Club Drug Clinic says:

"A very unexpected harm of regular ketamine use, which we often see at the clinic, is bladder damage. While no one knows exactly why this happens, people describe intense pain over their bladders and when they urinate.

"They will often see blood in their urine and this is a sign that the bladder has been seriously damaged. Fortunately, with treatment, most people are able to reduce and stop using ketamine and the bladder usually recovers.

"Ketamine is attractive to some users as an emotional anaesthetic, taking away difficult or unwanted feels and replacing them with an emotional numbness.

"While this may feel good in the short term, it means that the person needs to keep taking more and more ketamine to control their emotions, putting them at risk of becoming dependent."

If you are experiencing problems with your use of ketamine and would like more information please see talktofrank.com/drug/ketamine or call Club Drug Clinic on 020 3317 3000 for advice.

University College Londons Millennium Cohort Study recently showed that 10 per cent of children have tried hard drugs by the age of 17.

There has also been a sharp rise in people being referred to hospital with ketamine-related bladder issues and long term users often end up needing bladder transplants.

Government statistics show 445 people were treated for ketamine-related health issues including addiction in 2018, the last time the figure was recorded.

Nearly one in five ketamine users end up addicted to the Class C drug, according to the Global Drug Survey.

Vicky is now a Trustee of the Transform campaign group and, on the 50th anniversary of the Misuse of Drugs Act, she is calling for substances including ketamine to be decriminalised so they can be labelled and regulated.

She said: Louise was part of that east London set at the end of the noughties and ketamine was the party drug of choice.

In those days I think it cost just 12 a bump and because alcohol was so expensive and these were young people with arty jobs, they would stay in and take ketamine.

Louises death was a big wakeup call to her friends.

Some of them told me they were already steering away from ketamine because they had such bad experiences with it and being out of control.

One in particular, a musician, said he had a really scary experience and stopped taking it.

The ones that were addicted had to be locked in a room and were sick as they went cold turkey.

"Im not angry with her friends but its such a stupid waste of life. As a bereaved parent you learn to live with the loss, but the feeling is always there.

Some people cant bear it but we made the decision to continue living our lives.

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We have a lovely son Tommy, who is 33 now, and we have to keep on living and we have to try to make sure others dont die unnecessarily.

Thats why I joined Transform and started campaigning to get some form of decriminalisation.

If gangs were taken out of the equation and people know what they are buying and can get advice from someone like a chemist, lives will be saved.

If you are experiencing problems with your use of ketamine and would like more information please see talktofrank.com/drug/ketamine

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