Categories
Technology

Scientists invented an AI to detect racist individuals

A team of researchers at the University of Virginia has developed an AI system that attempts to identify and quantify the physiological signs associated with racial prejudice. In other words, they are building a wearable device that tries to identify when you have racist thoughts.

Front: No. Machines cannot tell if a person is a racist. Nor can they tell whether someone said or did something Racist. And you certainly can’t tell if you’re having racist thoughts by simply taking your heart rate or measuring your O2 saturation level with an Apple Watch-style device.

Still, this is fascinating research that could pave the way to a better understanding of how unconscious prejudice and systemic racism fit together.

How does it work?

The current standard for identifying implicit racial prejudices uses the so-called implicit association test. Basically, you look at a series of pictures and words and try to associate them with “fair skin”, “dark skin”, “good” and “bad” as quickly as possible. You can try it for yourself here on the Harvard website.

There are also studies that indicate that learned threat responses to outsiders can often be measured physiologically. In other words, some people physically respond to people who look different than them, and we can measure it when they do.

The UVA team combined these two ideas. They took a group of 76 volunteer students and had them take the implicit association test while measuring their physiological responses with a wearable device.

Finally, the core of the study was to develop a machine learning system to evaluate the data and draw conclusions. Identifying a particular combination of physiological responses can really tell us whether someone is experiencing for want of a better expression involuntary feelings of racism?

The answer may be muddy.

According to the team’s research report:

Our machine learning and statistical analysis show that implicit distortions from physiological signals can be predicted with an accuracy of 76.1%.

But that’s not necessarily the end result. An accuracy of 76% is a low threshold for success in any machine learning endeavor. And flashing images of different colored cartoon faces are not a 1: 1 analogy for experiencing interactions with different races of people.

Take quickly: Any ideas that the general public might have about a wand-style device for detecting racists should be immediately rejected. The important work of the UVA team has nothing to do with creating a wearable that pings you every time you or someone around you experiences their own implicit biases. It’s more about understanding the relationship between darker complexion mental associations and badness and the associated physiological manifestations.

In this respect, this new type of research has the potential to shed light on the unconscious thought processes that are behind radicalization and paranoia, for example. It also has the potential to finally demonstrate how racism can be the result of an unintended implicit bias from people who may even believe themselves to be allies.

You do not have to feeling As if you were racist to actually be racist, and this system could help researchers better understand and explain these concepts.

But it absolutely doesn’t Recognize preload; it predicts it, and that is different. And it certainly can’t tell if someone is a racist. It sheds light on some of the physiological effects associated with implicit bias, much like how a diagnostician would initially interpret a cough and a fever as such connected with in certain diseases, while more tests are needed to confirm a diagnosis. This AI does not denote racism or bias, it only indicates some of the side effects associated with it.

You can read all of the pre-printed paper here on arXiv.

Published on February 3, 2021 – 20:11 UTC

Categories
Science

The surprising local weather chart @climateofgavin does not need you to see – what’s improper with it?

Just a few days ago, climate researcher Dr. Roy Spencer suggests that US warming trends may be largely wrong.

In his analysis, Dr. Spencer found another dataset maintained by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and found that weather stations used to measure climate trends, taking into account population density, report lower long-term temperature trends:

“… The stations with the highest population density had a warming trend of ~ 0.25 ° C / decade, with a reduced warming trend as the population density was reduced …”

He adds:

“Significantly, extrapolating to zero population density in the United States between 1973 and 2011 would result in essentially no warming. As we shall see (below), there has been a significant warming trend in official temperature records, consistent with warming in the most densely populated locations.

How can this result be explained otherwise than for at least for the period 1973-2011 (1) spurious warming occurred at the stations with higher population density and (2) the evidence essentially supports no warming when there were no people (population density zero) ) to change the microclimate around thermometer locations?

I am not claiming that there has been no global warming (whatever the cause). I claim there is evidence of improper heating of the thermometer data that needs to be removed. “

He also cited my work published at AGU in 2015:

Note that this is roughly in line with the trend I get for stations with the highest (and not the lowest) population density. Anthony Watts reported qualitatively similar results with different data as early as 2015.

In this sense, the atmospheric researcher Dr. Wei Zhang, in response to a tweet I made today that announced the appointment of NASA-GISS Dr. Gavin Schmidt waved to a senior climate advisor at the White House through Biden to say the following: and included a graph of his analysis that I hadn’t seen before:

We know that with Gavin the temperature will rise … No matter what the thermometers say. I’m still waiting for a plausible explanation of why temperature adjustments correlate almost perfectly with carbon dioxide. Would expect the correlation to be close to zero.

Wei Zhang adds in a follow-up tweet replying to another poster that unwittingly tries to explain the greenhouse effect 101 to him.

That’s not what I said Why do temperature adjustments correlate with CO2? The likelihood of this happening by accident is shockingly close to zero.

For those of you who don’t understand the meaning of it right away, here is the meat of it.

What Wei Zhang illustrated is a near perfect correlation between adjustments to the surface temperature record by NASA GISS (and Gavin Schmidt) and the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. They artificially cooled the past before 1960 (around the time Mauna Loa’s CO2 measurements began) and artificially heated it in 1960 to this day.

The result? A steeper warming trend (adding 0.24 ° C) than actually seen in the unmatched data.

It’s evidence of man-made climate change that results from adjusting temperature data to a certain premise. The human-made CO2 that is released into the atmosphere drives temperature.

From the analysis by Dr. However, Wei Zhang makes it clear that statistical adjustments are the main drivers of the rise in temperature.

In my opinion, this is either scientific incompetence or fraud in my view, possibly both. I rarely use the word “fraud” in my criticism, but when it comes to millions of dollars for the prestige of being named White House Climate Adviser, is it still possible? How does such a scientific incompetence persist for years when they are real scientific experts?

The curious want to know.

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Sport

Pacers Heart Myles Turner desires to place Giannis Antetokounmpo off the pitch as defensive participant of the NBA of the yr

7:00 ET

  • Eric WoodyardESPN

WHEN MYLES TURNS He was told he would be absent for two to three weeks after an avulsion eruption in his right hand on January 14th. He had a reaction.

“Absolutely not,” said the Indiana Pacers’ great man to his freshman coach Nate Bjorkgren.

The Pacers’ next scheduled game against the Phoenix Suns was postponed so that Turner had time to meet with two hand specialists – one in Los Angeles and one in the organization – who both told him it wouldn’t require surgery, but Would be extremely painful to compete. That was all Turner needed to hear.

He appeared at Indiana’s exercise facility just five days after his injury, wearing a protective pad on his hand, and insisting that he was ready to leave.

“He could very easily have sat on it and said, ‘I’ll sit out here for two or three weeks.’ There was no way he had anything to do with it, “said Björkgren. “He knows how important he is to this team and how actively he can shape our defense and what he means to protect the rim for us.”

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Turner takes his job as the defensive centerpiece of the Pacers too seriously to miss out on any long time, especially now when he’s in the middle of his best season as a professional. The six-year veteran changed his entire approach, both physically and mentally, this off-season.

Participation in Wednesday night’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks (7 p.m. ET on ESPN and the ESPN app), Turner averages 3.9 blocks per game, which would be the most for any player since Hall of Famer Alonzo Mourning in 1998-99. Earlier this season he blocked at least three shots in ten consecutive games, the third longest streak for any player in the past decade.

“You can lead the league in the field of shot blocking and still not form an all-defensive team,” Turner told ESPN. This is exactly what happened to him when he averaged the best 2.7 blocks per game in 2018/19.

“My drive this year goes beyond the rim protection,” he continued. “I want to show the league what everyone in Indy has known for years – that I’m a defensive anchor and I’m proud of that.”

AP Photo / Doug McSchooler

THREE WEEKS BEFORE Training camp began, Bjorkgren met with his young star in Santa Barbara, California, where Turner was training, and set out everything he wanted to see the big man and set Turner’s goals for the season.

“For the first couple of years I had long-term goals. For example, ‘Oh, I want a championship. I want to be an All-Star. I want to do this, this and that.’ But I think I had to focus more in the short term, “said Turner. “Now I’ve got to the point in my career where I want to get better and better every year and want to focus on myself to improve the team.”

As a rookie, Turner started 30 games but eventually got off the bench because he’s now successful in defense. He admitted he never took that end of the court seriously until he got to the NBA, relying solely on his athletic ability to block shots without learning the intricacies of what it takes to be NBA-level defense to play.

“As for rotations, I got really burned in certain situations and got put on a bench for that,” he said. “Well, that kind of thing gassed me there in a way, because you can always check the end of the floor and when I started playing more and more and I had to realize that.”

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For Turner, this was part of a maturation process that did not go unnoticed by his teammates.

“He’s only more mature in how he thinks, leads, listens and can be guided about the game,” said Pacer’s wing Justin Holiday. “So, Myles did a great job of allowing the game to come to him and not shooting well, which still affects the game.”

The impact Turner has on Indiana’s defense is strong. When he’s on the court, the Pacers give up stingy 104.3 points per 100 possessions, better than the Los Angeles Lakers’ league-leading 104.8 mark. If he’s seated, the Pacers allow opponents to score 113.8 points per 100 possessions, a mark that would take 28th place in the league. Opponents also shoot 8 percentage points worse from the field when Turner is playing.

“Overall there was a jump [in his game]”An Eastern Conference scout told ESPN.” Part of it is enemies pulling into the lane and trying to land as a rim. It’s a legitimate size. Whether he’s blocking the shot, which he’s done more this year, or even changing the shots, he’s definitely there. “

This year’s Pacers play more zone so Turner can stay close to the edge. Your guards are trained to lead opponents to Turner, where he can turn them off on the edge. You’re building the defenses around him, and so far Turner says the plan worked.

“When I come out defensively, I make a big difference. I change the games,” said Turner. “I’m in the right place in the fourth quarter. I really feel like I can push my team and I’ve won a lot of games with my defense. I just know that I have that and that my team-mates know that.” I’m back and being able to have everyone back makes it easier for everyone. “

Turner is at the top of the league with five blocks in clutch time (Toronto’s Chris Boucher also has five), accounting for 71.4% of the Pacers’ total clutch time blocks this season. In the fourth quarter and overtime overall, Turner has 16 blocks, the second-highest place behind two-time Utah Jazz Defensive Player of the Year, Rudy Gobert, 17.

Turner has a total of 13.7 shots per game this season, the fifth most shots in the NBA. The only other Pacers player to have more than six shots per game is All-Star Domantas Sabonis (11.2).

“I always have to be pretty clear about where he is,” said Collin Sexton, who scored 28 points against the Pacers on New Year’s Eve. “You may think you have a free layup and he might just come out of nowhere and block it, so you need to make sure you are aware of it and that your eyes are looking for him.”

Milwaukee Bucks striker Bobby Portis plays alongside reigning Defensive Player of the Year Giannis Antetokounmpo but acknowledged the trophy could move 300 miles southeast this season, calling Turner’s shot blocking performance “remarkable.”

“I don’t know how the vote goes with all the awards and all that, but I’m pretty sure he’s up there in the ranks,” said Portis. “I don’t know too many people who are an average of four blocks away … he’s having a hell of a year right now.”

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At the end of the fourth quarter, Myles Turner blocks Norman Powell’s shot. A little later he gets the ball and ends with a dunk.

In the shortest Alongside the season in NBA history, Turner found ways to grow. Instead of training in his home state of Texas as usual, he went to Santa Barbara, California, where he trained six days a week at the Peak Performance Project (P3) in the mornings. In the afternoons he took part in private basketball trainings and film sessions with personal trainer Ross McMains, where they always ended with film sessions. He also studied players like Kevin Garnett and Chris Bosh, focusing on their defensive play.

McMains and Turner worked together to break down his game, body movements, and tendencies. In P3, they aimed at his hips, core, glutes and entire lower body to make him agile enough to defend himself in all different scenarios like pick and roll, girth and rotations in addition to blocking shot.

“P3 has worked to improve the mechanics of his foot and ankle, his ability to maintain trunk / trunk control during dynamic movements, and overall lower body strength,” said Adam Hewitt, general manager of P3. “During his time, Myles increased concentric power delivery by 13%.”

That heightened explosiveness, a new Pacers system more tailored to his strengths, and Turner’s emphasis on mental health produced the perfect marriage.

“He was that great talent just waiting to take off,” said McMains, a former Sacramento Kings assistant coach. “There’s a lot more untapped there.”

In his second second leg, after learning of the fracture of his right hand, he hit six shots against Toronto and five more against Charlotte on Jan. 27 while playing in the white protective pad.

Even so, Turner says he feels like he’s proving a point every time he checks into a game. When he plays in Indiana, it’s easy for him to scrutinize his achievements – Wednesday’s game is one of only two on national television for the Pacers in the first half of the season. It’s one of the reasons he didn’t let a broken hand stop him from showing that he should be part of the conversation as one of the NBA’s elite defenders.

“I have the opportunity to do something special this year individually,” said Turner. “Become Defensive Player of the Year.”

Categories
Technology

Virgin Orbit launched a missile from an airplane – here is how

Earlier this month, ten Cubesats – small, cheap satellites weighing around a kilogram each – were launched into orbit. With nearly 1,500 of these tiny satellites launched so far, adding ten more might seem trivial. However, this wasn’t an ordinary start.

Instead of lifting off the ground, these NASA satellites launched the rocket under the wing of a modified Boeing 747 called Cosmic Girl. The plane carried them to an altitude of 11 km before the missile was fired.

This marked the first successful launch of Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket, which marked the beginning of its commercial ventures. The company hopes to offer affordable, flexible satellite launch services without having to use on-site locations.

But how does it actually work to launch a rocket from an airplane?

[Read: How much does it cost to buy, own, and run an EV? It’s not as much as you think]

She is just a cosmic girl. Virgin Orbit / Greg Robinson, CC BY

Take off from an airplane

Typically, a missile launched from a launch site on the ground consists of two or three stages that allow the missile to lose weight as it consumes fuel. The first stage is the part that ignites on launch and propels the missile from the ground. When the rocket reaches a certain altitude, the first stage separates and the second ignites. A third stage works on the same principle and usually places the payload – the part we want to put into space – in its final orbit or interplanetary trajectory.

When satellites are launched from an aircraft, the carrier aircraft acts as both a launch site and a reusable first stage of the rocket.

Airplanes are more efficient than missiles when they take off from the ground, but without an atmosphere they cannot generate aerodynamic lift. Air launch takes advantage of this by attaching a missile to an aircraft and releasing it at high altitude.

Aircraft take-offs not only save fuel, but also offer other benefits. Conventional rocket launches are often repeatedly delayed by poor weather conditions. It is easy to change take-off locations with an airplane as it can take off from a commercial airport. Annoying weather conditions can simply be flown around and different launch requirements for different spacecraft can easily be accommodated.

The NASA payload in a warehouse is inspected by two men.The payload. Virgin Orbit / Greg Robinson, CC BY

There are Limits

Of course, air launch is not a perfect solution. The size of the missile is limited to the carrying capacity of the aircraft. A dedicated carrier aircraft can potentially carry much more, but there is not much headroom for larger launch vehicles right now.

Stratolaunch, the developers of the giant carrier aircraft of the same name, which can carry a rocket weighing 250 tons, abandoned its program of launchers for heavy loads in 2019. For comparison: LauncherOne weighs 30 tons and is only used to transport small satellites.

Launching a rocket 10 km above the ground saves some fuel, but most of the fuel needed to reach orbit is not in altitude, rather it is moving at enough speed for it to fall into orbit. While an aircraft’s airspeed can make a small contribution to this requirement, the fuel savings from air take-off are not as high as it may initially appear.

A relatively small launcher, LauncherOne, has the capacity to put 500 kg into near-Earth orbit. Heavy-duty launchers like Ariane, Delta and Falcon can launch many times this weight and continue to be used for large satellites and interplanetary missions.

But Virgin Orbit doesn’t target big, expensive launches. With small satellites, cubesats, microsatellites and nanosatellites, all of which are rapidly being adopted by the space industry, air launches could mean a significant improvement in versatility and, most importantly, cost.

In the video below The first successful launch of LauncherOne …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrx2PBzeRdU

What’s next?

The idea of ​​air launch has been around for some time. Nasa launched a Pegasus missile from a B-52 bomber back in 1990. The Pegasus launch service is still operational and has completed 39 successful flights. The launches are expensive, however, and only four have been done in the past decade.

There are already several short-term start-up contracts. In the longer term, there are plans to add a third stage to the LauncherOne rocket, with which smaller satellites – around 50 kg – can be brought into distant orbits in order to fly past Mars or Venus.

Not many other air launch programs are in development. SpaceX abandoned an air-launched variant of the Falcon back in 2012. The Pegasus launcher still exists but has not been launched since 2019.

The British aerospace company Reaction Engines aims to fully combine aircraft and spacecraft with the SABER engine, which can act as a jet in the atmosphere and a chemical rocket in space. However, this project has been delayed several times and may still be a long way from its first commercial launch.

As the provision of launch services moves more and more into the private sector, LauncherOne has to make a business case to survive in an increasingly competitive market. There aren’t many direct competitors for small single launches like Virgin Orbit’s, though heavier launchers from more established companies like SpaceX can compete by launching multiple small payloads on the same rocket. It remains to be seen whether the versatility and relatively low cost of the system will prevail.The conversation

This article by Simon Lindsay, a researcher in the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy at Leicester University, is republished by The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read on: This 132-hour 18-course mega bundle can turn you into an ethical hacker

Categories
Entertainment

Hear from Sofía Vergara & Extra in 2009 Trendy Household Interviews

The Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker family has found a new home on Peacock.

That’s right: you can now watch all 11 seasons of Modern Family on the NBCUniversal streaming service and watch your favorite episodes on E! from time to time.

To celebrate – or just to remember what made the Emmy Award-winning series so great – take a look back at 2009 interviews with none other than the Modern Family cast. The clip above has features Sofia Vergara, Ed O’Neill, Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet Everyone talks about their characters, why the show resonates with so many people and, of course, how much the fictional family loves each other despite their craziness.

“I find it interesting to see a family who care so much about each other; who deal with each other’s problems,” said Vergara, who plays Gloria. “There is always a little bit of weirdness in every family so I think people can relate to it.”

Categories
Science

A brand new class of exoplanets can shrink from sub-Neptunes to superearths

Mighty planets can be cut off, leaving only their rocky cores and becoming nothing larger than Superearths. While astronomers had long suspected this could happen, a new study shows it could happen in just a billion years.

The largest planets in the solar system – and indeed the galaxy – are mostly gas and ice: hydrogen, helium, water, ammonia, and so on. However, you likely have rocky cores buried deep beneath all of these suffocating layers.

And those layers can essentially stay there forever unless something blows them away.

Astronomers had long thought that a giant planet (e.g. something in the “Sub-Neptune” class of nearly Neptune-sized worlds) would receive enough radiation from its parent star, eventually lose its atmosphere, leaving only its rocky core behind (in this case a so-called Superearth). But they didn’t know how long this process might take – there might just not be enough time in the entire history of the universe for this process.

However, the combination of two surveys offers one possible answer. The first poll is the Kepler Mission, which saw thousands of exoplanets orbiting other worlds, including Subneptune and Superearths.

The second survey is the Gaia Mission, which mapped the same stars (and many, many more) and made precise measurements of the star’s properties that can be used to estimate their ages.

The result is a new study that appears in the Astronomical Journal. Of the subset of stars that host large planets in their vicinity (where the average amount of starlight can be up to 150 times that of Earth), older stars tend to host smaller worlds. The younger the star is on average, the more likely it is that it has a larger subneptune. The older the star, the more likely it is that it has a smaller aboveground.

“While astronomers have long predicted that planets should shrink as they age, we didn’t know if this could happen over billions of years. Let’s do that now, ”says Travis Berger, PhD student in astronomy at the University of Hawaii, who led the study. “The fact that planet sizes change on billion-year timescales suggests that there is an evolutionary path where brightly lit sub-Neptune-sized planets transition to super-Earth-sized planets.”

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Health

Delaying the second dose of AstraZeneca vaccine works, a examine exhibits

A health worker shows a vial of the Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine from AstraZeneca-Oxford at Patan Hospital near Kathmandu on January 27, 2021.

PRAKASH MATHEMA | AFP | Getty Images

The UK’s decision to postpone AstraZeneca University Oxford’s second shot of coronavirus vaccine has proven to be an effective strategy, according to results from a new study.

Oxford University researchers found that the Covid-19 vaccine was 76% effective at preventing symptomatic infection for three months after a single dose, and that the rate of effectiveness increased with a longer interval before the first and second dose.

“The effectiveness of the vaccine after a single standard dose of the vaccine from the 22nd to the 90th day post-vaccination was 76% … and the modeled analysis showed that protection did not diminish during this initial 3-month period,” said the Study that was reviewed by The Lancet Medical Journal and published as a preprint on Tuesday found.

The effectiveness rate increased to 82.4% when at least 12 weeks were before the second dose. When the second dose was given less than six weeks after the first, the rate of effectiveness was 54.9%.

“These analyzes show that greater vaccine effectiveness is achieved with a longer interval between the first and second dose and that a single dose of vaccine is highly effective in the first 90 days, which further supports current policy,” the report said .

The UK’s current strategy is to vaccinate as many people as possible with a single dose first and postpone the second dose for up to 12 weeks. The idea is that a first dose will provide at least some of the protection and allow more people to have access to the vaccines while their availability is limited.

The decision to delay the administration of a second booster dose has sparked controversy, with some questioning whether it might reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine in preventing severe Covid-19 infection.

However, the UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization supported the approach. The UK is also delaying the second dose of Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, a move vaccine makers have warned about, arguing that there is no data to support a delay.

The study also provided key data on whether the vaccine reduced transmission of the virus, a previously unknown and crucial question for policy makers looking to lift measures to lock down the economy.

Based on weekly swabs from volunteers in the UK study, a 67% reduction in transmission was found after the first dose of the vaccine.

Effective strategy

This latest study supports the UK Government’s decision and concludes that vaccination programs “aiming to vaccinate a large proportion of the population with a single dose, with a second dose given after a period of three months, are an effective strategy to reduce disease and may be the optimum for pandemic vaccine introduction when supply is limited in the short term. “

The study used additional data from ongoing clinical trials of the vaccine. A separate announcement from AstraZeneca on Wednesday showed that the vaccine also prevented serious illness from Covid-19, with no serious cases and no hospital stays more than 22 days after the first dose.

The vaccine was approved by the UK Medicines Agency on December 30th and, as a shot made in the UK, makes up most of the country’s previously hailed successful vaccination program.

The UK is well on its way to vaccinating its four top priority groups (those over 70, residents and workers in nursing homes, frontline health and social workers and the most clinically vulnerable), which number around 15 million people by mid-February to have.

By February 1, over 9.6 million people had received a first dose of the vaccine, and just under 500,000 had received two doses, according to government figures.

Professor Andrew Pollard, chief investigator of the vaccine study at Oxford and co-author of the study, said, “These new data provide an important review of the intermediate data used by more than 25 regulatory agencies, including MHRA and EMA, to grant vaccine emergency approval.”

“It also supports the policy recommendation of the Joint Vaccination and Immunization Committee for a 12-week prime-boost interval as it seeks the optimal approach to initiation and assures us that people will be protected before 22 days after a single are dose of the vaccine. “

The researchers also hope to release data on the new coronavirus variants in the coming days and expect the results to be broadly similar to those already reported by other vaccine developers: that the current vaccines are effective against mutations in the virus.

Germany, France and Sweden currently do not recommend the AstraZeneca vaccine for people over 65 because of insufficient study data on this age group. However, the vaccine maker and the UK government have defended the sting, saying the data available shows it is safe and effective. Further analysis will be available shortly.

Categories
Sport

Tremendous Bowl NFL DFS Picks: Finest picks, sleepers for DraftKings, FanDuel single-game each day fantasy soccer lineups

Super Bowl Sunday is just days away, but there’s still plenty of time to make some savvy daily fantasy football or betting investments for the big game. With sports betting now legal in half of the continental United States, and more people than ever expected to watch from their own couches due to COVID-19, sports bets records will likely be shattered this weekend. That includes DFS sites like DraftKings, FanDuel, and Yahoo, which might see single-day highs in user activity this Sunday.

Football fans will be looking to close out the DFS season in style and bring home some winnings before the long seven-month wait for the 2021 season kickoff. With DFS player pools trimmed down to just two squads, it will be as important as ever for daily fantasy football managers to pinpoint the best value plays. Finding cost-efficient players who outperform their price tiers can afford managers studs at other roster spots.

MORE SUPER BOWL DFS: DraftKings Lineup | FanDuel Lineup | Lineup Builder

My job, all 17 regular-season weeks and throughout the postseason, has been to scan the vast projections on RotoQL and pick my favorite sleepers and value picks. If you checked this column out two weeks ago, you would have benefited from our advice to plug in Aaron Rodgers, Josh Allen, Leonard Fournette, Darrel Williams, Chris Godwin, Travis Kelce, and Dawson Knox.

These players all vastly outperformed their price tiers. This week, with the help of RotoQL’s advanced projection systems, I will be assembling my favorite picks at each position for both DraftKings and FanDuel.

Because only two teams remain, each site will be featuring their single-game formats rather than standard nine-spot lineups. DraftKings users will compete in “Showdown” mode, which features five utility spots and one slot for the “Captain,” who receives a 1.5x multiplier for all DK points accrued (plus 1.5x pricing). All players are still required to fit under a $50,000 salary cap. All options are in play, including QBs, RBs, WRs, TEs, and each teams’ kicker and D/ST.

On FanDuel, single-game contests feature an MVP spot (1.5x multiplier for points but not for price) and four AnyFlex spots with a $60,000 salary cap. Positive and negative scores are impacted by that multiplier, so if you choose a quarterback as MVP and they throw an interception, you will lose double the points you normally would. Conversely, each passing touchdown is six FD points (four in standard scoring) and a rushing or receiving TD is worth nine FD points.

Since these formats are vastly different from what this column usually covers, this week’s column will list some of my favorite plays at each position and culminate in two lineups I deem optimal for each major DFS site. This will give you the rare opportunity to play the exact same lineups I play if you want. Now let’s make some money together!

You can read Super Bowl previews and fantasy prediction articles 24/7 on BetQL, find out which side the pros are betting on their NFL expert picks dashboard, follow all the NFL public betting data, and build DraftKings lineups on RotoQL. 

Let’s break down our top Super Bowl DFS value plays, and you can get an idea of why 100,000 DFS players trust RotoQL to build lineups. We constantly monitor pricing and provide the most up-to-date insight and analysis to maximize your lineup success. Optimize, find value plays, and increase your chances of cashing today! 

Super Bowl NFL DFS Picks: QB Plays of the Week

RotoQL’s QB of the Week for DraftKings:

Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (DK price: $12,000 | RotoQL projection: 26.9)

Mahomes remains the best and most dominant quarterback in the sport, and thus he’s a fantastic choice to lead your squad regardless of cost or format. We especially like him on DraftKings for less than a quarter of the salary cap. The man does things with a football that we have never seen before, and the moment never appears too big for him. He proved that last Super Bowl, when his 286 passing yards and two touchdowns led the Chiefs to a 31-20 comeback victory. He’s the odds-on favorite to bring the Lombardi trophy (and Super Bowl MVP honors) back to Kansas City for the second straight year, probably because he went 37-of-49 for 462 yards and three touchdowns when these teams met on Nov. 29. Don’t let KC’s de facto status as the “road” team worry you — Mahomes averaged 321.1 passing yards and 2.4 touchdowns in the Chiefs’ eight games away from Arrowhead this season.

RotoQL’s QB of the Week for FanDuel:

Tom Brady, Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Kansas City Chiefs (FD price: $15,000 | RotoQL projection: 28.6)

In actuality, I will probably be rolling with Mahomes in both formats, but it’s simply more fun to craft two different lineups with two different QBs. Brady has been no slouch in his 21st season. If you include his three playoff games, nobody has passed for more gross yards since the 2020 NFL season kicked off (5,493). His 47 total passing TDs in that span trails only Aaron Rodgers, and he has an NFL-leading 28 passing TDs in away/neutral games. That last stat doesn’t play since the big game is at Raymond James, but it does illustrate how healthy his clutch gene remains at 43 years young. Oh, and there’s also the fact that he has six Super Bowl rings in nine appearances. He’s the G.O.A.T., and he’s more than worth $15,000 in your MVP spot in a $60K cap. Just don’t expect him to outscore Mahomes — the Chiefs need gaudy stats out of Mahomes to win, while the Bucs can rely much more on their running game.

Super Bowl DraftKings, FanDuel Picks: RB Plays of the Week

RotoQL’s RB of the Week for DraftKings and FanDuel:

Leonard Fournette, Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Kansas City Chiefs (DK: $7,800 | FD: $12,500; RotoQL DK projection: 15.7| RotoQL FD projection: 13.7)

Fournette became Tampa Bay’s starting running back in Week 15, and he never looked back. He has six total touchdowns in that six-week span, including one in each of the Bucs’ three postseason games. He also averages 104.3 yards from scrimmage in those playoff wins, appropriately earning him the nickname “Playoff Lenny.” Brady clearly trusts the fourth-year back, as evidenced by his recent increase in usage and volume. Since the playoffs began, Fournette has received a 60-percent carry share and played 74 percent of Tampa’s offensive snaps. He has also seen an increase in pass targets in each of the Bucs’ past three games. That last factor seals the argument for Playoff Lenny as a Super Sunday lock. He has caught 14-of-17 postseason passes for 102 yards. If Chris Jones and the Chiefs pass rush comes knocking early and often, Fournette could benefit from a plethora of dump-offs. Whether you play DK’s full-point PPR format or FD’s half-point PPR, Fournette is worth his DFS price tags this weekend. I would even make him the captain of your DraftKings lineup, which would cost a total of $11,700.

RotoQL’s RB2 of the Week for DraftKings and RB of the Week for FanDuel:

Ronald Jones II, Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Kansas City Chiefs (DK price: $2,200 | FD price: $8,000; RotoQL DK projection: 7.9 | RotoQL FD projection: 7.4)

Jones comes in at $1,000 cheaper than Darrel Williams on FanDuel, so he’s absolutely more valuable. But, for some reason he’s only $2,200 on DraftKings, which is the bargain of the year! Sure, he is not featured in the pass game that much, but that means very little to us. FD is a half-PPR format, and DK’s full-PPR does not merit the substantial price difference between Jones and Williams. Jones has received double-digit carries in the Bucs’ past four games, and he averaged 5.1 yards per carry on the season. He’s not an exciting play, but he’s the best value at these prices. All he has to do is fall into the end zone to get six points. He had eight touchdowns during the regular season.

RotoQL’s RB3 of the Week for DraftKings:

Darrel Williams, Kansas City Chiefs at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (DK: $5,200 | RotoQL DK projection: 6.1)

Fans of Clyde Edwards-Helaire must have been ecstatic to see the rookie return for the AFC Championship game after Week 15 injuries to his hip and ankle. However, they were probably underwhelmed with CEH’s results: Six carries, one catch, seven total yards and a TD. Without that touchdown, he would have finished with under two fantasy points. RotoQL favors Williams, who has logged 13 carries and posted 13-plus PPR points in each of the Chiefs’ playoff games. Don’t worry, he scored a touchdown last week, too. Simply put, he’s healthier and more productive than the rookie right now.

Super Bowl FanDuel, DraftKings Picks: WR Plays of the Week

RotoQL’s WR of the Week for DraftKings and FanDuel:

Tyreek Hill, Kansas City Chiefs at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (DK: $10,400 | FD: $14,000; RotoQL DK projection: 21.1 | RotoQL FD projection: 17.6)

Hill has been about as matchup-proof as a wide receiver can be, and he’s posted 52.1 combined PPR points in the Chiefs’ two playoff games. He scored 60.9 against these same Buccaneers back in Week 12, so let’s just say that we see plenty of value in him at $10,400. The majority of my lineups include Hill, and yours should, too. (Side note: he also merits consideration in your MVP spot in FanDuel.)

RotoQL’s WR2 of the Week for DraftKings and FanDuel:

Chris Godwin, Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Kansas City Chiefs (DK: $8,800 | FD: $12,000; RotoQL projection: 17.0 | RotoQL FD projection: 14.0)

Godwin has emerged as Brady’s favorite weapon, with 44 targets over Tampa Bay’s past five games. As a result, the fourth-year receiver has posted at least 18.9 PPR points in four of his past five outings. RotoQL lists Godwin’s ceiling at 44.2 points. He’s a great option if you can’t quite afford Hill.

RotoQL’s WR3 of the Week for DraftKings and FanDuel:

Mecole Hardman, Kansas City Chiefs at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (DK: $5,600 | FD: $7,500; RotoQL: DK projection: 9.0 | RotoQL FD projection: 7.5)

Hardman has very quietly put up back-to-back double-digit fantasy performances, and he’s a great sleeper pick this Sunday. The second-year receiver has caught eight of his past nine targets and found the end zone last week in Kansas City’s AFC Championship win over Buffalo. There also exists the possibility he finds the end zone as a punt and kick returner, as he made the Pro Bowl as a returner in his rookie season.

Super Bowl NFL DFS Picks: TE Plays of the Week

RotoQL’s TE of the Week for DraftKings and FanDuel:

Travis Kelce, Kansas City Chiefs at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (DK: $11,000 | FD: $14,500 | RotoQL DK projection: 25.4 | RotoQL FD projection: 18.4)

I’ve been saying it for the last two rounds, but it bears repeating: Travis Kelce is the best tight end in football, and might be the most reliable DFS option of all time at the position. If you can find a way to budget him into your lineup, do it. The man gets peppered with targets from Mahomes — 72 over the course of the past six games — and always produces (52 catches in that span). He hauled in 13 of his 15 targets last week against the Bills, finishing with 118 yards and two touchdowns. He’s the real deal and a real steal at $11,000 on DraftKings. He’s a great option in your MVP spot, as well.

RotoQL’s TE2 of the Week for DraftKings and FanDuel:

Cameron Brate, Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Kansas City Chiefs (DK: $4,800 | FD: $7,000 | RotoQL DK projection: 7.3 | RotoQL FD projection: 5.8)

Brate exceeded four targets in just two regular season games, but he’s enjoyed at least five targets in each of Tampa Bay’s three playoff contests. The veteran has translated this increased role into 11 postseason catches for 149 yards and a touchdown. The Chiefs allowed the third-most fantasy points to tight ends this season. If you can’t afford to invest in the ceiling of Kelce, you could do worse than the cost-efficient floor of Brate.

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Super Bowl NFL DFS Value Plays:

RotoQL’s Best Bargain Bin Buys:

Scotty Miller, WR, TB (DK: $3,400 | FD: $6,500):

The underrated slot receiver could find himself open for a big play or two in four and five-wide sets. Miller found the end zone last week and posted 10.6 DK/11.6 FD points.

Kansas City D/ST (DK: $2,600):

The Chiefs defense has vastly improved under defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo this season, and he should be able to profit off some turnovers Sunday. Brady threw three interceptions in three consecutive possessions in the second half against Green Bay last week.

Ryan Succop, K, TB (DK: $3,800 | FD: $8,500):

RotoQL favors Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker (projecting him at 10 points to Succop’s seven), but I would opt for Succop if you need a cheap source of points. Brady’s kickers have historically succeeded in the big game, and Bruce Arians probably won’t gamble on too many fourth downs early.

Super Bowl NFL DFS Picks: Optimal Lineups for DraftKings Showdown, FanDuel Single-Game Lineups

My Optimal Lineup in DraftKings:

Captain (1.5x): Leonard Fournette, RB, TB ($11,700)

FLEX: Patrick Mahomes, QB, KC ($12,000)

FLEX: Tyreek Hill, WR, KC ($10,400)

FLEX: Chris Godwin, WR, TB ($8,800)

FLEX: Cameron Brate, TE, TB ($4,800)

FLEX: Ronald Jones II, RB, TB ($2,200)

Total: 49,900

My Optimal Lineup in FanDuel:

MVP (1.5x): Tom Brady, TB, QB ($15,000)

AnyFLEX: Travis Kelce, KC, TE ($14,500)

AnyFLEX: Tyreek Hill, KC, WR ($14,000)

AnyFLEX: Ronald Jones II, TB, RB ($8,000)

AnyFLEX: Ryan Succop, TB, K ($8,500)

Total: $60,000

Thanks to all my loyal readers throughout the season. I hope you all enjoy what should be a fantastic Super Bowl and that you bring home some serious DFS cash to close out a great season! 

Categories
Science

Aussie PM Edging In direction of a 2050 Carbon Pledge – Watts Up With That?

Guest essay by Eric Worrall

Surprise! When Aussies re-elected Conservative Prime Minister Scott Morrison in the last national election, we thought we were going to reject the Labor opposition Party’s harsh climate madness. It turned out we were wrong.

Morrison is aiming for a more ambitious net-zero climate target by 2050

By David Crowe
February 1, 2021 – 7:16 p.m.

A more ambitious target for climate change will be part of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s agenda for the coming year after expressing his hope of zero net carbon emissions by 2050, a goal set by government MPs separates.

Mr Morrison signaled his hope of setting the target as government policy before the next election, after months of internal coalition debate and a rejection by world leaders in December for failing to make the pledge.

“Our goal is to achieve net zero emissions as soon as possible and preferably by 2050,” he said.

Mr Morrison said this would depend on science and technology, such as reducing the cost of clean energy from hydrogen, rather than a “tax” in the form of a price on carbon.

When asked on Monday whether he could commit to net zero by 2050 in time for the United Nations climate change summit in Glasgow in November, Morrison said the answer would depend on science and technology.

“If I can tell you how to get there, I’ll tell you when to get there,” he said.

Read more: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/morrison-eyeing-more-ambitious-climate-target-of-net-zero-by-2050-20210201-p56yj3.html

It’s possible that Scott Morrison, known to have brought a lump of coal into Parliament, is only playing for time, trying to delay real action until Americans are fed up with Job Killer Joe and his magic pen.

But words have consequences. If Scott Morrison doesn’t try to find at least a small backbone on this issue, Australia could likely get caught up in a series of economically destructive climate action plans just as the economy shows signs of recovery from Covid lockdowns.

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Categories
Entertainment

Ari Fletcher teases followers with a brand new social media submit, suggesting that she get Moneybagg Yo’s identify tattooed on her

Roommate, following recent online rumors that she and her boyfriend Moneybagg Yo had officially quit – Ari Fletcher decided to make it clear where things stand between the two while having some fun with her fans. Ari went on Instagram and wrote that she intends to tap Moneybagg Yo’s name on her so everyone will know it’s real.

Ari Fletcher and Moneybagg Yo recently rocked the internet when recent reports suggested the two were no longer together after she tweeted that he was “single”. It was clear that the two were in some kind of disagreement that was spreading online, but it seems all is well now.

To show everyone that she and Moneybagg are definitely still together, Ari took a big step and suggested that he always be with her with some ink.

In an Instagram video, Ari stated that she will have Moneybagg’s name on her chest. “I’ll have his name checked here, so you know what wassup is,” she captioned the post along with several laughing emojis.

The rumors of the split between Ari and Moneybagg Yo have surfaced since the end of last year, although the two celebrated their one-year anniversary in October. There have also been various rumors of cheating on both sides, but it has to go pretty well if Ari is ready to make her love for Moneybagg permanent with a tattoo.

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