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You never stop being a parent. Even in old age, we still worry about our children and what their future will look like once you are no longer in their lives. Fortunately, with a secure life assurance set up, you are given the opportunity to take care of them even after you are gone. If you are an aging parent and you have dependents who will suffer financial loss if you were to pass away, life insurance can help you find ways to safeguard your loved ones from any financial hardship when you are not around. Normally when you are older, you are settled and enjoying retirement or your golden years Your children are most often older and are now providing for themselves, leaving you only to take care of yourself and your spouse. This usually enables you to save in order to provide for your dependents in the case of your death. However, this is not always the case, which is why many older parents look into purchasing life insurance. Aging parents who are still working ...

Online Support System is very important for distance education as it gives success easily to the students. Students should remain active in discussions, communication with the instructor and making study group. This can be easily done though emails. Distance education offers a number of benefits for students, including the ability to create a schedule that accommodates your other responsibilities, such as work and family. It also helps students who have diverse learning styles and who don’t perform as well in a traditional classroom. However, online learning can be tough on some students who need the flexibility but who also need the additional support that they might get in a traditional classroom. There are a few ways that you can have the best of both worlds by taking classes online but building a virtual support system for additional help. Here are a few ideas: Communicate Regularly with the Instructor In some online courses, you could go the whole term without ever...

A controversial new scheme is capturing CO2 emissions from wood burning. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2I1m5gQ

Fox News Breaking News Alert 10 dead in fire at Brazil’s Flamengo soccer complex 02/08/19 3:20 AM

Digital banking service Revolut is referred to the FCA over its Valentine's Day "single takeaway" ad. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2GgItBq

A gas explosion that occurred in the abandoned Gloria coal mine in South Africa has claimed the lives of six people and trapped at least 20 others. The mine is located in Middelburg, east of Pretoria,  and is owned by Tegeta Resources and Exploration. Tegeta is undergoing creditor protection after its owners, the Gupta brothers, could not continue doing business in South Africa following corruption allegations. The BBC reported local government official Speedy Mashilo as telling South Africa’s national broadcaster SABC: “We’re still waiting for engines and generators to arrive to start putting oxygen into the ground.” “We’re still waiting for engines and generators to arrive to start putting oxygen into the ground.” At that time when the gas pipe exploded, some people were inside the mine to steal underground copper wires. High levels of toxic gas disrupted rescue efforts, which would be supported by engineers by rigging up lighting in the shafts of the Gloria coal mine. ...

YouTube deletes singer Austin Jones's channel, after he exchanges sexual images with underage girls. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2BnYxNy

The NSW Land and Environment Court in Australia has rejected the proposed Rocky Hill open cut coal mine in the Hunter Valley because of the greenhouse gas pollution it would produce. Justice Brian Preston said in his ruling that the Rocky Hill project has been denied on the basis of uncertain economic benefits and adverse social and visual impacts. Gloucester Resources, a unit of GRL Holdings, proposes to develop the Rocky Hill project. Preston said that the mine would be in the wrong place at the wrong time and his decision is aimed at avoiding the dire consequences. “Shutting the door on new fossil fuel developments will be a major turning point in the battle to stabilise the climate system.” The judge commented: “The construction and operation of the mine, and the transportation and combustion of the coal from the mine, will result in the emission of greenhouse gases, which will contribute to climate change.” He added that the new coal mine would increase greenhouse gas pollut...

The author on the allure of Truman Capote, rereading Susan Hill and having her life changed by Kafka The book I am currently reading I’m not usually a slow reader but I have been savouring each luxurious line of Swan Son g, Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott’s novel about Truman Capote, set in the 1970s . It’s long, but I am fully immersed in the glamour of his society. The book that changed my life Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis troubled me at first because it broke all the rules. There was no explanation, no sympathy only absurdity and suffering. This is the book that made me realise I could write through a distorted lens and still convey truth. Continue reading... from Books | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2Si4eqU

Politicians' passwords have all been reset, but officials say it appears no information was stolen. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2BrpWOv

Parisian sewers, old gold mines and the Mole Man of Hackney in a thrilling celebration of the subterranean When I was a child, around the corner from my home in east London lived a man named William Lyttle. For decades Lyttle had been digging a series of tunnels underneath his house. His activities had made him something of a local celebrity, nicknamed “the Mole Man of Hackney”, but when one of his tunnels collapsed, causing a huge crater to form in the street outside his house, the council evicted him and filled in his excavations with concrete. He lived out the last few years of his life far above the ground in a high-rise block. The Mole Man of Hackney, Will Hunt argues in his winningly obsessive history of our relationship with underground places, might best be understood as an evolutionary throwback. As a species, he says, humankind has always been fascinated with what lies beneath the surface of the world. This obsession had practical origins – we descended underground to mine ...

Jeff Bezos says National Enquirer attempted extortion by threatening to publish "intimate photos". from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2BrERZ5

The film-maker takes legal action against the company for allegedly refusing to release his latest film. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2HVpeP9

The Nobel prize winner on how she would rewrite Beloved, and who gets to decide what’s in the canon “A writer’s life and work are not a gift to mankind; they are its necessity,” says Toni Morrison in “Peril”, the brief, remarkable introduction to her newest book. In this collection by the Nobel prize winning author – widely, ardently considered to be one of the world’s best writers – there are 40 years of her essays, speeches and meditations, including her thoughts and arguments about politics, art and writing. The book contains exhortations and transcribed question-and-answer sessions, reflections and analyses, exegeses and commencement talks. In other words, it’s a large, rich, heterogeneous book, and hallelujah. Organised into three parts titled “The Foreigner’s Home”, “Black Matter(s)”, and “God’s Language”, each section begins with a moving address to the dead: respectively, to those who died on September 11, Martin Luther King and James Baldwin. “The Foreigner’s Home” is centred...

A Parisian book fair’s promotion of Globish may have sparked outrage among critics, but it’s not the first time the French have promoted simplified English French writers were up in arms this week after the Salon du Livre book fair in Paris announced a celebration of young adult books that would feature a “Bookroom”, a “Photobooth”, and even a “Bookquizz”, a prospect so exciting it needs two zs. Such anglicisms, critics wrote, were an “unconscionable act of cultural vandalism”, employing the “sub-English known as Globish”. The literary Parisians see Globish simply as yet more Anglo-Saxon cultural imperialism Continue reading... from Books | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2DoPN9Y

Fox News Breaking News Alert John Dingell, longest-serving member of Congress, dead at 92 02/07/19 6:41 PM

A customer's ex-partner accessed her new address and bank details, before turning up at her home. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2GvAW0L

Fox News Breaking News Alert MLB legend Frank Robinson dead at 83, reports say 02/07/19 12:05 PM

The Ebola virus disease (EVD) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo continues with relatively high numbers of cases reported in recent weeks (Figure 1), and some encouraging signs. Katwa and Butembo health zones remain the epicentres of the outbreak, reporting 71% of cases in the last three weeks, with smaller clusters continuing to occur concurrently across a geographically dispersed area. As of 5 February, 789 EVD cases 1 (735 confirmed and 54 probable) have been reported, including 488 deaths (overall case fatality ratio: 62%). Thus far, 267 people have been discharged from Ebola Treatment Centres (ETCs) and enrolled in a dedicated monitoring and support programme. Among cases with a reported age and sex, 58% (454/788) were female, and 30% (232/786) were aged less than 18 years; including 116 children under five years. Five new health worker infections were reported in Katwa (4) and Kalunguta (1); overall 67 health workers have been affected to date. Published on February 07,...

Revelations that the author of The Woman in the Window lied repeatedly about having cancer have not dissuaded HarperCollins from publishing a followup Dan Mallory’s publisher HarperCollins has said that it intends publish a second novel by him, despite revelations that he had lied about having cancer . Mallory, who wrote the bestselling thriller The Woman in the Window under the pseudonym AJ Finn, admitted in a statement this week in response to an extensive New Yorker investigation that “on numerous occasions in the past, I have stated, implied, or allowed others to believe that I was afflicted with a physical malady instead of a psychological one: cancer, specifically”. Continue reading... from Books | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2DiwPC5

After discovering most novels of ‘literary value’ are written by dead white men, Emily Maguire asks, who gets to decide? And what’s the criteria? I dropped out of high school early, so when I eventually got to university I was a “mature-age student”. What a ridiculous label. I was 24, and I didn’t feel mature – I felt ancient. After almost a decade working minimum wage jobs with shitty pay and shittier treatment, I felt exhausted beyond words. And as someone who hadn’t picked up a textbook or written an essay for that same amount of time, I felt generations older than my classmates. Out of touch doesn’t begin to cover it. Continue reading... from Books | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2DYpYiM

But some pictures - such as scars - will be allowed to remain, the head of the platform says. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2WN2Ta1

A clinical neuropsychologist charts his own disturbing thoughts in this original, provocative study Have you ever embarked on a relationship with someone you instantly found attractive, knowing from the start it would end badly? The same exhilarating but doomed sentiment is evoked on encountering the authorial voice of Let Me Not Be Mad , a debut non-fiction work by clinical neuropsychologist AK Benjamin (not his real name). He is erudite, funny and quite possibly (but not definitely) crazy. That is Benjamin’s own assessment and fear, hence his title. Much of the book takes the form of a handful of neurological case studies, a form now reassuringly familiar thanks to books by writer-medics from Oliver Sacks to Suzanne O’Sullivan . “Michael” is the survivor of a skydiving accident that sliced “two cubed inches” off the front of his brain, as a result of which the “super normal, unimaginative” financier became “a compulsive surrealist”. “Jane” pleads for surgery to remove the offendin...

The social media firm reports higher profits, but its revenue forecast falls short of expectations. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2GuWWbX

The BBC's Zoe Kleinman describes what was inside the Ocado grocery warehouse, which has been hit by fire. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2tadE8P

Bernard Matthews says bank account details of 200 employees were "potentially compromised". from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2Dibybw

Popular and prolific novelist best known for The Shell Seekers and Coming Home whose work was particularly admired in Germany In 1988 the 14th novel by a little-known 63-year-old British author was published in New York. The Shell Seekers, the 500-page story of a woman, Penelope Keeling, looking back on her life and loves during the second world war, took the US by storm. The New York Times reviewer wrote: “Rosamunde Pilcher, where have you been all my life?” It sat in the bestseller list for 49 weeks in hardback and then tipped Tom Wolfe off the No 1 spot in paperback. The Shell Seekers was translated into more than 40 languages, selling around 10m copies. Continue reading... from Books | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2tcKu9c

A watchdog calls for improved safety following another death and a series of severe injuries in US cities. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2UKusPp

When Rutger Bregman and Winnie Byanyima spoke out about taxes at Davos they went viral. They talk with Winners Take All author Anand Giridharadas about why change is coming Rutger : Winnie, why did the comments you and I made about billionaires and taxes at Davos go viral? Why do things seem to be changing right now? Winnie: Why did we go viral? I think we said things that people have wanted to hear, especially on a big stage where powerful politicians and companies are represented. And they are rarely said. People go there and speak in coded words and praise themselves and spin out the stats that suit them, but for once we spoke plainly about the challenges that people face. Continue reading... from Books | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2ScZGlo

The British author, who produced numerous bestsellers after her 1987 breakthrough, died after having a stroke Rosamunde Pilcher, author of the sweeping, bestselling family saga The Shell Seekers, has died at the age of 94. Her son, author Robin Pilcher, confirmed the news to the Guardian on Thursday. “She had been in great form up until Christmas, then suffered from bronchitis in the new year, but was always expected to bounce back as before. However, she suffered a stroke on Sunday night and never regained consciousness,” said Robin. Continue reading... from Books | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2DZGA9T

The author was commissioned to write about British food for an overseas audience in 1946, but piece was spiked amid anxiety about postwar austerity More than 70 years after the event, the British Council has apologised to George Orwell for commissioning and then rejecting an essay about British food. The author of Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm was, the body has revealed, commissioned to write British Cookery in 1946, as part of the organisation’s efforts to promote British culture overseas. But a discovery in the British Council’s archives has revealed that after commissioning the essay, it declined to publish it, telling Orwell that it was problematic to write about food in a time of strict rationing. Continue reading... from Books | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2Dcnify

List also includes Fiona Wright’s The World Was Whole, Jenny Ackland’s Little Gods and Enza Gandolfo’s The Bridge “Women’s writing swaggers into the limelight again,” said the judging panel chair, Louise Swinn, in announcing the 12 longlisted books for this year’s Stella prize. This year’s longlist includes Bri Lee’s debut work of non-fiction, Eggshell Skull; literary stalwart and acclaimed novelist Gail Jones’s “novel of ideas”, The Death of Noah Glass; Chloe Hooper’s investigation into Black Saturday, The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire; and Fiona Wright’s most recent collection of essays, The World Was Whole. Continue reading... from Books | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2tbluPC

A security flaw in gay dating app Jack'd leaves private intimate photos publicly exposed on the internet. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2Dho4bg

Japanese esports pro RizArt apologises after falsely claiming he was a 12-year-old to gain subscribers. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2RI25Q0

Anaconda Mining is set to collaborate with College of the North Atlantic (CNA) in Canada on the Baie Verte Peninsula gold project. By partnering with research interns from CNA, and with the help of modern technology, Anaconda will be able to drill into a new solution for developing the placer mine. The deposit was initially discovered in 1986 but could not be accessed and was left undeveloped, the company said. CNA students, in collaboration with non-profit national organisation Mitacs, will help Anaconda to develop a mining process to extract gold from Deer Cove. The first intern on the project is set to start this year from the Geomatics Engineering Technology at CNA’s Ridge Road campus in St John’s. Later on, the second intern will follow. The interns will carry out a feasibility study, map the sediment thickness, and perform laboratory tests for several months. “The operations require a smaller-scale technology that’s less invasive, yet economically feasible for a company to ...

Ausdrill’s subsidiary Barminco has secured an underground mining services contract worth approximately $100m from Hindustan Zinc (HZL) for additional works related to the Rampura Agucha mine in Rajasthan, India. Hard-rock underground miner Barminco was acquired by Ausdrill in October and has operated at the Rampura Agucha zinc mine since late 2016. In February 2018, Barminco secured a contract extension at the mine. The three and a half year contract is subject to review and mutual agreement of rates after the first year. Barminco will extend development works that were being provided under a contract that was recently concluded and will add production work in the area of the mine developed by the company. “We are very pleased to have been awarded a contract that extends our operations at the Rampura Agucha mine with an expanded scope to include production works.” Barminco will start work at the Rampura Agucha mine with immediate effect. Ausdrill managing director Mark Nor...

BHP has collaborated with the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to clean up lands and water impacted by mining. BHP will clean up mine sites that are no longer operating and those that were acquired by the company after mining was completed. In partnership with regulatory agencies and local communities, the company works to address concerns pertaining to historical practices at these sites that have environmental impacts. By working with local universities, BHP will find a sustainable way to clean up the lands. Additionally, the company plans to develop biomass that will be used as feedstock for biofuels from the impacted lands and water. “The study will be conducted for one year and will identify and test native and other compatible species of algae and plants for their phytoremediation capability and metal uptake.” As part of the collaboration between BHP, universities, and research institutes, species of plants and algae that can be ...

Uncomfortable corners of the male psyche are explored in a tale of a sexual assault accusation, and visions of adultery In the afterword to his four-story collection Different Seasons , Stephen King describes the heart-sinking moment when you realise that what you’ve written is a novella. He compares the form to “an anarchy-ridden literary banana republic” where no one in their right mind would want to end up. Fiction between 20,000 and 40,000 words long does seem to be the least appetising prospect of all for publishers. That’s a pity, of course. Give me great bantamweight work any day – think of Heart of Darkness , The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie , Animal Farm – with its extraordinary power-to-size ratio, rather than the grandiose bloat of an interminable saga. James Lasdun’s new book is actually two novellas, Feathered Glory and Afternoon of a Faun , and the headline act is clearly the second tale. Of the two novellas, Feathered Glory and Afternoon of a Faun , in James Lasdun’s n...

The social network says it intends to appeal the German watchdog's ruling. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2SgZsJW

The novelist explains his experimental approach to the noir detective, focusing on characters traditionally forgotten, even in their down time between jobs Alan Trotter has a charmingly evasive attitude to biography: “Was born, grew taller and is yet to die,” he once wrote of himself . His website simply reads: “ Hello. My name is Alan . I write fiction .” In conversation, everything leads back to writing. Wanting to be a writer, he says, predates his memory of anything else. When reading The BFG as a young child, he realised someone must have written it. And that was it. Trotter has worked in publishing, as a copywriter and completed a PhD. But he sums all this up as having “done everything else” but write a book. An early draft of his debut novel, Muscle, was even part of his doctoral dissertation. He’s been working on Muscle for more than 10 years. It won the the Sceptre prize for a novel-in-progress . And this week it is published at last. Continue reading... from Books | Th...

After #Metoo, it’s no surprise a new generation of female authors is exploring sexual abuse and dominance Recently I have found myself wondering about the prevalence of rough sex in new fiction written by women. It’s viscerally present in You Know You Want This , the new short-story collection by Kristen Roupenian (who shot to fame last year with Cat Person , published in the New Yorker): I found some of the scenes so unpalatable that I had to keep putting it down. They (spoiler alert) include a woman strangled to death as part of a sex game; a man who imagines his penis is a knife when he has sex; and a woman who says to the guy she is sleeping with: “I want you to punch me in the face as hard as you can. After you’ve punched me, when I’ve fallen down, I want you to kick me in the stomach. And then we can have sex.” Related: Cat Person going viral shows how rare it is to explore women’s sex lives | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett Continue reading... from Books | The Guardian http://bit.l...

Founder Eben Upton says the shop will attract customers who are "curious" about the tiny computer. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2WKZ19A

An important investor explains how his enthusiasm has turned to shame As the so-called Techlash gains pace and polemics on the downsides of the internet flood the book market, one omission seems to recur time and again. Facebook, Google, Amazon and the rest are too often written about as if their arrival in our lives started a new phase of history, rather than as corporations that have prospered thanks to an economic and cultural environment established in the days when platforms were things used by trains. To truly understand the revolutions in politics, culture and human behaviour these giants have accelerated, you need to start not some time in the last 15 or so years, but in the 1980s. Early in that decade, the first arrival of digital technology in everyday life was marked by the brief microcomputer boom, which was followed by the marketing of more powerful personal computers. Meanwhile, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan were embedding the idea that government should keep its...

As concerns mount over how screen time and social media affect children, parents are given suggestions. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2RHPxbu

The battery market is booming, as growth in intermittent renewables and a search for cleaner energy solutions is leading people to lean on lithium-ion storage. Increasingly, this demand for batteries is being driven by the electric vehicle (EV) market. In 2017, sales surpassed one million globally, and it is predicted that they will meet 4.5 million units by 2020. These battery technologies – and EV units in particular – require huge amounts of metals, including lithium, nickel and cobalt, amongst others. As more and more people switch from combustion vehicles to EVs, these metals are facing growing demand, with nickel in particular expected to face shortages. “The dominant lithium-ion battery type for electric vehicles is expected to have a nickel chemistry,” said Wood Mackenzie’s principal analyst, Sean Mulshaw. “Sourcing this quantity of nickel will be a challenge as most of the incremental supply through to 2025 will be [either] ferronickel or nickel pig iron, both of which are u...

Chief executive Masayoshi Son said the record buyback would prop up the tech giant's share price. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2TAFdDT

The website will let users know if a company has flagged its negative reviews to hide them. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2TyhfJi

The Chinese telecoms giant says measures to address UK security concerns will take time to implement. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2WNPlLh

Fox News Breaking News Alert Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax sexual assault accuser releases statement detailing allegations 02/06/19 11:24 AM

Fox News Breaking News Alert Milwaukee police officer shot and killed while serving warrant, medical examiner says 02/06/19 11:15 AM

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’s author was also a campaigning journalist and amassed a huge archive researching the 1986 murder of Olof Palme Unseen research by the late Stieg Larsson into the assassination of Swedish prime minister Olof Palme is set to be revealed in a new true crime book. Larsson is most famous for his bestselling Millennium series of thrillers that explored the dark underbelly of Swedish society and politics. A journalist for his much of his life, he died suddenly in 2004, just months after selling his first book, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. He left behind completed manuscripts for the two sequels, which have together sold 80m copies around the world. Continue reading... from Books | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2TBDEp1

In tune with calls to study fewer dead white males, university announces new module focused on ‘hyper-contemporary’ International Dylan Thomas prize Swansea University has responded to calls for the English literature curriculum to be “decolonised” by launching a new module focusing on “hyper-contemporary” works of fiction. The module, which will focus on books longlisted each year for the International Dylan Thomas prize for writers under the age of 39, is the UK’s first course based on a contemporary book award. It follows demands from students at universities including Cambridge for courses to be “decolonised”, and more black and ethnic writers to be included in the canon instead of more white, male authors. Continue reading... from Books | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2SCz112

Fox News Breaking News Alert Virginia AG Mark Herring admits wearing blackface at 1980 college party 02/06/19 8:45 AM

Deputy leader Tom Watson accuses social media giants like Facebook of failing to protect their users. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2WNDugD

Criminals found a way to hide images of child sexual abuse within a high-profile crypto-currency. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2DaBkys

The government wants to see fully autonomous cars on roads by 2021. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2MRzua1

The exposure of a novelist’s ‘dissembling’ could spell trouble for unreliable narrators everywhere There’s a new work that has the publishing world gripped, with editors in both London and New York confessing themselves hooked. It races along like a thriller, with several dizzying twists and turns and a compelling central character. What’s more, this sensational story is not fiction but a detailed, well-sourced work of journalism. I’m referring to the New Yorker’s 12,000 word profile of Dan Mallory, whose debut novel, The Woman in the Window , published under the pseudonym AJ Finn, has been a monster hit. The report makes an unsettling read, charting what the magazine calls the “trail of deceptions” left by Mallory , including claims that he has endured and survived cancer in various forms – with tumours in both his brain and spine – that his parents were dead, and that his brother took his own life. Continue reading... from Books | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2BphiA2

A list of 230 new emojis also includes a blood drop meant to represent menstruation. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2UOgnRf

This tale of family violence and forgiveness uses elements of farce, caper, whodunnit and political satire, with a few horror tropes thrown in Monica Ludd, a schoolteacher who at 6ft and 17 stone can pack a punch, resorts to disguise at one stage in the novel she narrates, donning a cape and sunglasses in a bid to foil the police. She has come across the battered and blood-soaked body of her despised dentist father and promptly gone on the run. She is the prime suspect, after all, having bought an axe with the intention of finishing off the horrible Albert. But did she do it? Maggie Gee’s new novel is rather more successful at concealing its shape than Monica is. It has elements of ribald farce, criminal caper, whodunnit and political satire, with a few horror tropes thrown in, and at its core is the theme of emotional abuse in childhood. Monica has four living siblings, each as odd as she is, and all have been marked in youth by the bullying, narcissistic dentist whose zest in the s...

Canadian company First Quantum Minerals (FQM) has offered to acquire the remaining 20% stake owned by the Zambian Government in the Kansanshi copper mine. Bloomberg quoted two people with knowledge of the transaction saying that the company is offering as much as $700m for the stake acquisition. First Quantum already owns an 80% stake in the Kansanshi mine, which is located in Zambia’s North-Western Province. The remaining interest is held by state-owned ZCCM Investments Holdings. As part of the proposal submitted last year, First Quantum offered $300m to $400m in cash and an equal amount in special royalties for a period of more than ten years, sources said. Zambia Finance Minister Margaret Mwanakatwe said at a mining conference: “There are multiple unsolicited offers on the table, including from FQM, which are based on preferential share conversions.” “The mine is now capable of producing 340,000t of copper and more than 120,000oz of gold annually.” Mwanakatwe said that the of...

Accenture is set to unveil the Applied Intelligence Studio for Mining in its office in Johannesburg, South Africa. To be located in the company’s office, the studio will implement data science and artificial intelligence technologies with new data sources for co-creating real-time digital solutions. These solutions can be used by mining companies to solve complex analytical problems. Accenture global mining business senior managing director Rachael Bartels said: “Volatile commodity prices, rising input costs and changing global demand for commodities require mining companies to rethink their strategies and business models to remain competitive. “They are increasingly looking to apply advanced analytics to reimagine processes, unlock trapped value, and drive operational excellence in their businesses today and position themselves for growth tomorrow.” “We are currently recruiting data scientists with engineering and mining experience to rapidly scale the studio’s capabilities.” Th...

OceanaGold has obtained resource permits to commence operations at its Martha Underground Project in Waihi, New Zealand. The consent comes after the conclusion of the statutory appeal period related to the Martha Project permitting process. Preparation of management plans and detailed mine designs have started to allow commencement of mining operations, including stope and infrastructure development. OceanaGold president and CEO Mick Wilkes said: “Receipt of the permits at the Martha Underground represents a tremendous outcome that will benefit the company, its shareholders, the town of Waihi and New Zealand. “The Waihi operation has had a long, rich history of operating to the highest of environmental and social standards globally while contributing significant socio-economic benefits to Waihi and the country.” At the time of ramp-up, the company will use four diamond rigs from the two underground drill drives beneath the Martha Open Pit to continue to drill the underground targe...

From Oscar Wilde to Sigmund Freud and David Foster Wallace, a psychoanalyst recommends reading that turns a critical eye on busyness We’re living in a culture governed by a permanent compulsion towards frenetic activity or fevered distraction. Outside working hours, every pause seems almost reflexively to trigger a jolt of anxious guilt or shame that something – a laundry cycle, a tax return, a status update – remains undone. The effect of this permanent busyness is to leave us feeling that inactive states have no meaning or validity in themselves; that they exist only to be filled in with some content. Inactivity increasingly exists for us as the negative of our “real” lives of activity and purpose. Continue reading... from Books | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2DVsqGB

About 200 firefighters were at the scene in Andover, where the blaze is now under control. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2DfEwsw

Don’t let the fear of missing out ruin your life. Count your blessings and be there for other people – but beware the ‘elitist trap’ In our time, “personal growth” is the corporate-approved dream. As the Danish psychologist Svend Brinkmann notes, it is a “rampant development culture that knows no boundaries”. Personal growth must be thought of as literally endless in order to feed the market for training and self-discovery. But just how huge does one person need to be? Infinite personal growth is no more sustainable than infinite economic growth. And so this smart little pamphlet is, in a way, a manifesto for personal degrowth, or shrinkage. Fear of missing out, or Fomo , is wrecking our lives, Brinkmann argues, so we should cultivate the pleasure of disengagement. He cites Aristotle’s rule of moderation in all things, research indicating that too much choice is psychologically toxic, and the idea of the “hedonic treadmill”, according to which we very quickly adapt to nice things an...

The former Burberry chief is leaving after five years working to revitalise Apple stores. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2SeMs7K

UK competition watchdog probes a number of websites over pressure selling and discount claims. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2Dc52Da

This moving study examines the reasons women do not have children and why they are so often assumed to be less valuable Not long after she was told that she would never be able to have children, Lorna Gibb travelled to Doha, to begin teaching at Qatar University. She had spent time in the Middle East, researching a biography of Lady Hester Stanhope (she has also written a novel, and a biography of Rebecca West). Gibb had some idea, she thought, of what to expect. But she was not prepared for the degree to which a woman only made sense in that culture if she could give birth. Gibb describes the strategies she developed to explain, to deflect; finally she meets Halima, seemingly the mother of one of her students, but, in fact, only a first wife: when she was unable to conceive, her husband married again, and all four family members lived together. Halima points at the dusty ground. “I am like that,” she says with breath-stopping bluntness, “the barren place where nothing grows. Ayesha i...

“Do you want to win a bucket load of cash? Of course you do!” is the eye-catching strapline of the Mining Association of Nova Scotia’s (MANS) annual Mining ROCKS! contest. It offers cash prizes totalling C$8,000 for junior high and high school students who produce the most interesting and engaging videos about mining across five categories. Held between October 2018 and 22 February 2019, the contest hopes to inspire young people to teach themselves about the mining industry in Canada and beyond. Sean Kirby, executive director of MANS, says the association launched the competition because the industry needs to do better at explaining itself to the public and, in particular, reaching out to young people to educate them about mining, minerals and geoscience. “We started the Mining ROCKS! video contest as a way to appeal to young people, to give them a reason to want to learn about what we do by doing their own research,” he says. Attracting the next generation of miners Ingratia...

Fox News Breaking News Alert Trump says he will meet with North Korea's Kim Jong Un in Vietnam on February 27 and 28 02/05/19 7:08 PM

Fox News Breaking News Alert Watch State of the Union address on Fox News Channel and follow live on FoxNews.com 02/05/19 5:31 PM

Fox News Breaking News Alert Trump, in State of the Union address, to advocate ‘agenda of the American People,’ excerpts show 02/05/19 5:19 PM

The UK's advertising watchdog says steps should have been taken to hide them from under-18s. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2MVnswE

A Cambridgeshire village is trying out ultra-fast broadband in a limited trial. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2DUW0fv

A cocktail of deadly drugs was behind Vine and HQ Trivia co-founder Colin Kroll's death in December. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2UKT8rc

French magazine L'Express reports the firm paid nearly £440m tax in a secret pact late last year. from BBC News - Technology https://bbc.in/2GuZTtp

Investigation by the New Yorker finds that Dan Mallory, who writes as AJ Finn, repeatedly fabricated serious illness Dan Mallory, author of the bestselling thriller The Woman in the Window under the pseudonym AJ Finn, has admitted to lying about having brain cancer for years, after a lengthy New Yorker profile accused him of a long history of falsehoods around his professional history and health. Mallory made headlines in 2016 when his identity as a book editor was revealed during a heated auction for his debut novel, The Woman in the Window. A film version of the thriller, about a woman with agoraphobia who begins spying on her new neighbours, is due out later this year, scripted by Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Tracy Letts and starring Amy Adams and Gary Oldman. Continue reading... from Books | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2SAqL1z

Information technology giant IBM has a novel approach to improving an organisation’s response to a cyberattack: a state-of-the-art cyber watch floor located in an 18-wheel truck. Known as the Cyber Tactical Operations Center, or C-TOC, the facility is currently touring Europe to provide cybersecurity training and education for businesses and students. The facility, inspired by tactical operations centres used by the military, can also be deployed at large-scale events to bolster cybersecurity defences. “It’s highly mobile. When it gets on site it expands out to make this entire watch floor,” Caleb Barlow, vice president, IBM Security, XForce Threat Intelligence, told Verdict . “It’s 23 tonnes of cybersecurity preparedness.” The C-TOC is also self-powered and connects via its own sterile internet. Take a look inside the C-TOC and hear Barlow talk more about it in our video below. Training The main objective of IBM’s C-TOC is to provide organisations with realistic cyberattack s...