
While the rest of the Notre Dame community figures out whether it's worth paying four figures for a ticket to the College Football Playoff first-round home game against Indiana, the men's basketball team continues to figure out how to survive without Markus Burton. Notre Dame (5-5) hosts its next-to-last nonconference game Wednesday night against Dartmouth (4-4), which plays its sixth contest of a seven-game road trip. The Fighting Irish took a promising step -- and snapped a five-game losing streak -- on Saturday by edging Syracuse 69-64 in their ACC opener. "We needed to be in a close game and we needed to win a close game so our guys can build some belief back," head coach Micah Shrewsberry said. "We can't take any steps back on Wednesday." Without Burton -- the stat sheet-stuffing sophomore point guard who injured the medial collateral ligament in his knee Nov. 26 against Rutgers -- the Irish are struggling to find someone to run the offense, as evidenced by their seven assists versus 15 turnovers against Syracuse. At the same time, players are filling the scoring void. Braeden Shrewsberry poured in a career-high-tying 25 points versus the Orange while hitting 6 of 11 3-point attempts. Tae Davis averaged 12.4 points and 7.2 shots per game when Burton was healthy, but he has upped his mean production to 16.6 points and 12.2 shots in the past five games. Micah Shrewsberry, though, prefers to measure progress on a possession-by-possession basis. "Just the toughness," he said. "There have been times when we haven't gotten the key stop. We haven't gotten the bucket when we quite need it. It gets deflating sometimes." Dartmouth knows that feeling. On Sunday, the Big Green took a one-point lead with 4:03 left in overtime at UIC -- and then failed to score on their final six possessions to suffer a 69-68 loss. The Big Green, who haven't posted a winning season since 1998-99, believe whole-heartedly in launching 3-pointers as they take 48 percent of their shots from behind the arc. Senior Cade Haskins (13.6 ppg) has hit a team-high 28 of 68 3-pointers this season, though fellow senior Ryan Cornish stacks up as the team's top scorer (14.3 ppg), passer (3.0 assists per game) and defender (2.3 steals per game). In its only previous game against a power-conference opponent, Dartmouth upset Boston College 88-83 on Nov. 29. --Field Level MediaIf North Korea’s elite troops were expecting an easy campaign against Ukrainian forces entrenched in Russia’s Kursk region, they faced a harsh reality on the ground. About 1,100 North Korean special forces have been killed or injured in Russia since entering the fray against Ukraine a few weeks ago, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service reported on December 19. A general was reportedly among those killed. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on December 23 put the figure even higher, at more than 3,000, or about a quarter of the North Korean special forces sent to Russia, though he couched his statement by saying the data was preliminary. RFE/RL could not confirm either of the reported numbers. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, though, doesn’t seem to be fazed by the rapid losses. The authoritarian leader is reportedly doubling down in his support of Russian President Vladimir Putin, in exchange for critical supplies of oil, cash, and military technology. Zelenskiy said on December 23 that North Korea may send more troops and weapons to the front. The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff seconded that forecast, saying Pyongyang is preparing to rotate or supply additional forces to Russia. North Korean military support is coming at a critical time in the war. Russia is seeking to overpower an undermanned and under-resourced Ukrainian infantry and gain territory before its own manpower and resources become constrained. Russia has lost more than 600,000 soldiers in the nearly three-year war, the Pentagon said in early October. It has burned through so much war material that it is struggling to replace its artillery and missile needs amid sweeping Western sanctions. Now nearly two-thirds of the mortars and shells Russia launches at Ukraine come from North Korea, the Wall Street Journal reported , citing Andriy Kovalenko, a Ukrainian Army officer. And every third ballistic missile was made in North Korea, Ukrainian officials said. Pyongyang is ramping up arms production to meet Russia’s growing need, experts said. Trench Warfare Russian troops are now gaining ground in Ukraine’s east at the fastest pace since the start of the war. Kyiv carried out a surprise incursion into the Kursk region in August, seizing a swath of Russian territory in the hope of drawing enemy forces away from eastern Ukraine. That hasn’t materialized, thanks in part to the supply of North Korean troops. The arrival of the North Korean troops in Russia in October was initially seen as an act of desperation on the part of Putin, who has had to significantly bump up salaries to attract new recruits. However, The New York Times reported on December 23, citing U.S. officials, that it was North Korea who approached Russia with the offer of troops and Putin accepted. It is unclear when Kim made the offer. Putin traveled to Pyongyang to meet Kim in June. During the summit, the two leaders agreed on a strategic treaty that includes a mutual defense provision. Putin signed the treaty into law in November. The supply of troops to Russia can help Kim evade sweeping sanctions on technology and materials for military use. North Korea was hit with international sanctions after conducting its first nuclear test in 2006. Pyongyang hasn’t been engaged in a hot war in decades. Thus, its miliary brass and troops – which number more than 1 million -- have no combat experience. The deployment in Russia's war with Ukraine is a way for Kim and his military to acquire some. However, Kim’s troops are ill-prepared for the type of trench warfare with widespread use of drones and missiles they are facing in Kursk, experts say. Hyunseung Lee, a North Korean who spent 3 1/2 years with an artillery and reconnaissance battalion in the early 2000s before defecting, told RFE/RL last month that Kim’s troops "don't really train with that equipment." He said they cannot master drones and the high-tech equipment in such a short period of time. Videos circulating on social media show Ukrainian kamikaze drones striking and killing North Korean soldiers in Kursk’s snow-covered fields. Commenting on the videos in a December 19 tweet , Lee called it a “sad predictable outcome.” Modern warfare technology is not the only issue leading to large-scale deaths of North Koreans, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). The Washington-based research firm said North Korean soldiers were struggling to communicate and coordinate with Russian forces due to language barriers. Perhaps more importantly, North Koreans are now conducting the initial attack in open territory on Ukrainian positions, ISW said. Some military experts cynically call such fighting tactics “meat assaults” because they result in a large loss of life among the attackers. Yevhen Yerin, a spokesman for the Ukrainian military intelligence service, told the AFP news agency on December 24 that Russia’s use of North Korean troops has not had a major impact on the battlefield. “It is not such a significant number of personnel," he said, adding that they use tactics that are "primitive, linked, frankly speaking, more to the times of the Second World War."
Pick a social media platform and a fishing-related hashtag, say #patroutfishing on Instagram . It’ll turn up thousands upon thousands of posts. Anglers have long posed for photos with their latest and biggest catches, but the phenomenon of being able to pull out a smartphone and share your achievement globally is unique to the past 10 or 15 years. It’s something that’s been on Travis Pantaleo’s mind since the coronavirus pandemic drove so many of us into nature for socially isolated recreation — and it was the focus of his master’s research thesis in fisheries management at Oregon State University. Wednesday night, he brought his look into “Fish Out of Water” to Lost Tavern Brewing in Hellertown, as part of the Watershed Coalition of the Lehigh Valley’s Tap Talk series. “What impact, if any, does the use of social media have on recreational angling from a catch-and-release or even a mortality perspective?” is the question he posed. “And the reason that this is important is because some of your most dedicated anglers will do everything that they absolutely can to make sure that a fish swims off. But there’s still a 10% mortality assigned to any catch-and-release angling ... .” Travis Pantaleo, a member of the Cooks Creek Watershed Association in Bucks County and the Board of Directors for the Watershed Coalition of the Lehigh Valley, discusses catch-and-release fishing and snapping fish photos for social media during a coalition Tap Talk on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, at Lost Tavern Brewing in Hellertown. Kurt Bresswein | For lehighvalleylive.com Numerous managers of fisheries across the United States offer tips — online, of course — on how to practice safe catch and release. The intersection of the internet and fishing isn’t necessarily a bad thing, Pantaleo said. Anglers can visit the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission’s GIS site for maps of trout streams; where-and-when details on the 4.4 million trout stocked this year in Pennsylvania, including 1.2 million stocked by cooperative nurseries that help raise trout for anglers to go out and catch; and more. Those who manage fishing can draw on information gleaned from social media to influence decision making on stocking and conservation, he said. Pantaleo admits to taking photos of some of the fish he catches while out on Cooks Creek in Upper Bucks or other local steams. But his research has shown the extra time to snap a shot can increase the risk to the fish. “When you go to take a photo, the chances are the percentage and times that you’re keeping that fish out of the water multiplies by 1.6,” he cited. “So keeping a fish out for 30 seconds just became 45. Keeping a fish out of water for 60 seconds just became a minute and a half. “And so it kind of extrapolates the possibility of harming that fish without even really thinking about it. And when you see a lot of photos online, they look pretty good. You know, if you’re anything like me, if you go take a picture of a fish, you’re rushing. Like for me it’s quick, it’s awful because the photo comes out really bad because I’m just trying to get it back in the water and I’m not a good photographer.” Pantaleo is a member of the Cooks Creek Watershed Association and a board member at the Watershed Coalition of the Lehigh Valley, a nonprofit organization that encompasses 13 waterway groups in all. His research shows that the time a fish spends out of water, assuming it’s being released, can cause serious damage. “It’s not too different from if you were to try to hold your breath under the water for 60 seconds or more,” he said. “The only thing is where we would asphyxiate because we would take in too much water, fish kind of have the opposite: They have a large buildup of carbon dioxide. When they’re reintroduced into the water, to put it simply, the oxygen moves through their body so fast that it causes cardiac issues.” That sudden exchange can kill a fish, or cause difficulty righting or balancing itself, or lead to reproductive problems, Pantaleo said, voicing particular concern for native populations of brook or brown trout. “There can be injury to the fish,” Pantaleo said. “So depending on how you hook it, if you hook a fish relatively deep inside of its throat with its gills, there’s a good chance it’s going to swim away bleeding and ultimately die from loss of blood. You can scrape it, it can get infected.” Some examples of best practices for catch-and-release fishing include using barbless hooks, going with a silicone or rubber-mesh net instead of nets with knots, and wetting hands or gloves to reduce harm to the protective slime covering the fish’s skin. Anglers are good partners in conservation, said Stefanie Green, who coordinates the Watershed Coalition of the Lehigh Valley’s Tap Talk series. Rod and gun clubs promote coalition events. They organize stream cleanups. Pennsylvania’s fishing license sales estimated at 782,989 in 2023-24 help protect native species, conserve the outdoors and enhance waterways , according to Fish and Boat. Pantaleo cited examples of anglers calling others out on social media, over pics of fish that have been dropped or which are covered in dust or dirt. “And on the opposite side of that, you have other forums where people are very encouraging of folks to go out and experience this type of experience for themselves,” he told about 18 people gathered for Wednesday night’s Tap Talk. “So it goes back to that idea that social media can both be a positive and a negative.” The Watershed Coalition started its Tap Talks in spring 2019 at Birthright Brewing Co. in Nazareth. They’re held in conjunction with the Penn State Extension, whose master watershed steward coordinator for Lehigh and Northampton counties, Shannon Frankosky, was in attendance Wednesday. The series grew out of visits to local businesses that use Lehigh Valley water, and the talks don’t always take place at beer breweries. The members have held events at Portch Tea, a kombucha-tea maker in the Emmaus area; Taylor House Brewing Co. and Blocker’s Coffeehouse in Catasauqua; Seven Sirens Brewing Co. in Bethlehem; and Black River Farms Vineyard & Winery in Lower Saucon Township. “Give us something delicious with local water and we’re there,” said Green, who is president of the Bertsch-Hokendauqua-Catasauqua Watershed Association. For more tips on safe catch-and-release fishing, including to keep both the fight and the fish’s time out water as brief as possible, visit the websites of the National Park Service website or National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration . The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife is blunt in its recommendation: “ Photos can be so stressful. SKIP SOCIAL MEDIA! But if you feel you must get a picture, prepare for taking photos with your fish safely under the water surface. When lifting the fish out of the water, do it for 5 second intervals or less. Try to get the shot (within reason), but return your fish to the water for a rest between attempts. Take it slow down below.” More tips from keepfishwet.org include making sure your camera is easily accessible and ready to use and being mindful of conditions where a photo simply isn’t a good idea , like if the water is warm or the fish is deeply hooked. Pennsylvania Fish and Boat also offers a video on “How to Handle Fish for Safe Catch and Release” : Learn more about the Watershed Coalition of the Lehigh Valley on Facebook . Wednesday’s event was free, though participants were asked to register at eventbrite.com . President Rebecca Hayden says its next Tap Talk is planned for January on pollution trapped in snow and its year-round effects on both surface water and groundwater. more lehigh valley outdoors news Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com . Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com .Dubai, UAE , Dec. 25, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CoinW, the world's pioneering cryptocurrency trading platform , will list BIO, a DeSci project, on DeSci Zone. For all CoinW users, the BIO/USDT will be officially available for trading on January 3rd 2024, at 10:00 (UTC). To celebrate the listing of BIO, we are launching the " BIO Bounty Program" event with a reward pool of 10,000 USDT. Empowering DeSci Through Blockchain Bio Protocol aims to reshape biotechnology research funding, development, and intellectual property (IP) sharing through its innovative decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) model. By addressing disparities in traditional biomedical research funding, the project focuses on critical areas such as rare diseases, longevity, and emerging health challenges. 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With advanced technology, deep liquidity, and a wide range of supported cryptocurrencies, the company has amassed a broad user base to become one of the world's most secure crypto exchanges . Committed to security, transparency, and compliance, the CoinW exchange upholds the highest regulatory standards and actively contributes to the advancement of the crypto industry. To learn more about CoinW, you can visit the official website , and follow CoinW's Twitter Account , Btok , and Telegram Group . About BIO Bio Protocol is a DAO-based initiative aimed at addressing funding inequities in biotechnology research, fostering development, and sharing IP. It prioritizes research on rare diseases, longevity, and emerging health challenges. CONTACT: marketing at coinw.comWirestock Foot Locker, Inc. ( NYSE: FL ) released Q3 2024 results , disappointing the market by not meeting 3Q24 guidance and lowering FY24 guidance . The stock moved down 10% the day after the release. Under the hood, there were many things to like Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. 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Denver’s Democrat Mayor is promising to use the city’s police and to organize private citizen demonstrators to block the enforcement of federal immigration laws in his city. “More than us having [Denver police] stationed at the county line to keep them out, you would have 50,000 Denverites there,” Mayor Mike Johnston said. Democrats Look to Flood Country with Migrants Ahead of Trump Inauguration; Guest John Binder “It’s like the Tiananmen Square moment,” he exclaimed, comparing Trump’s enforcement promise to China’s government’s 1989 massacre of Chinese democracy advocates. Apparently fashioning himself as some sort of modern-day John C. Calhoun, Johnston says that he will press the city police department and “community volunteers” into his own little confederate army to take up the fight against ICE officials. Johnston insisted that he is not going to give up his sanctuary city policies and won’t be “bullied” by the incoming Trump administration. “We’re not going to sell out those values to anyone,” Johnston told the Denverite, according to Fox News. “We’re not going to be bullied into changing them.” Then he issued a stern warning. “More than us having DPD stationed at the county line to keep them out, you would have 50,000 Denverites there. It’s like the Tiananmen Square moment with the rose and the gun,” he reportedly said. “You’d have every one of those Highland moms who came out for the migrants. You don’t want to mess with them.” This is the same mayor who defunded his police department to pay for more freebies for illegal aliens. So far, the Denver Police Department has not commented on Johnston’s plans to turn its officers into his new nullification shocktroops. The mayor is not the only radical, left-wing official to openly call for resistance to federal law. The city council of far-left Los Angeles also jumped in to defend “sanctuary city” status this week with a unanimous vote to fully implement the policy in the crime-plagued city. The vote was called as an effort to signal to the Trump administration that officials there would resist federal authority on immigration issues. A number of left-wing governors from deep blue states have also made their fealty to illegal immigrants obvious by similarly announcing plans to resist ICE and any efforts to repatriate millions of illegal migrants. The list includes Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Washington State Gov. Bob Ferguson, and others. Boston’s radically woke Mayor Michelle Wu also vowed to resist Trump’s policies. Her proclamations spurred Trump’s incoming border czar, Tom Homan, to warn all these mouthy Democrats that resistance of the sort they are advocating is against the law. Homan warned these Democrats that “It is a felony to harbor or conceal an illegal alien from ICE. Read the statute. Don’t cross that line.” Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston , or Truth Social @WarnerToddHustonNorth America Healthcare Revenue Cycle Management Market Set for Exceptional Growth in the Forecast 2024-2032
Steelers QB Russell Wilson is spreading the wealth on offenseNew reliever Jordan Romano ready to go ‘electric’ for Phillies