NoneLisa Simpson once said during an episode of “The Simpsons:” What could be more exciting than the savage ballet that is pro football? On Monday night, the entire Simpsons universe gets to experience it in a way not many could have imagined. The prime-time matchup between the Cincinnati Bengals and Dallas Cowboys will also take place at Springfield’s Atoms Stadium as part of “The Simpsons Funday Football” alternate broadcast. The altcast will be streamed on ESPN+, Disney+, and NFL+ (on mobile devices). ESPN and ABC have the main broadcast, while ESPN2 will carry the final “ManningCast” of the regular season. The replay will be available on Disney+ for 30 days. Globally, more than 145 countries will have access to either live or on replay. “We’re such huge football fans, and the Simpsons audience and the football audience, I feel, are like the same audience of just American families and football. And the Simpsons are so much a part of the DNA of the American family and culture that for us to, like, mush them together in this crazy video game, it’s so fun,” said Matt Selman, executive producer of “The Simpsons.” While the game is the focal point, the alternate broadcast, in some ways, will resemble a three-hour episode of “The Simpsons.” It starts with Homer eating too many hot dogs and having a dream while watching football. Homer joins the Cowboys in the dream while Bart teams up with the Bengals. Lisa and Marge will be sideline reporters. “That’s the beginning of the story, and the story continues through the entire game until Homer wakes up from his dream at the end of the game. It is like a complete story, and the NFL game will happen in between. It’s just going to be an amazing presentation with tons of surprises,” said Michael “Spike” Szykowny, ESPN’s VP of edit and animation. This is the second year ESPN has done an alternate broadcast for an NFL game. It used the characters from “Toy Story” for last year’s Sunday morning game from London between the Atlanta Falcons and Jacksonville Jaguars. “The Simpsons” has featured many sports-themed episodes during its 35 seasons. Even though “Homer at the Bat” remains the consensus favorite sports episode for many Simpsons fans, there have been football ones such as “Bart Star” and “Lisa The Greek.” There also was a Super Bowl-themed one after Fox’s broadcast of Super Bowl 33 between Denver and Atlanta in 1999. Even though “The Simpsons” remains a staple on Fox’s prime-time schedule, it is part of the Disney family after their acquisition of 20th Century Fox in 2019. All 35 seasons are on Disney+. The show’s creators have worked with ESPN and the NFL to make sure the look and sound is definitely Simpsonsesque. The theme song is a mash-up of “The Simpsons” opening and “Monday Night Football’s” iconic “Heavy Action.” There have also been pre-recorded skits and bits to use during the broadcast featuring Simpson’s legendary voices Hank Azaria, Nancy Cartwright, Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, and Yeardley Smith. The telecast will be entirely animated, with the players’ movements in sync with what is happening in real-time on the field. That is done through player-tracking data enabled by the NFL’s Next Gen Stats system and Sony’s Beyond Sports Technology. While Next Gen Stats tracks where players are on the field with a tracking chip in the shoulder pads, there is skeletal data tracking and limb tracking data — which uses 29 points per player — to get closer to the player’s movements. The other data tracking will allow Beyond Sports and Disney to add special characters to the game. For example, there might be a play where Lisa catches the ball and goes 30 yards instead of Cincinnati’s Tee Higgins. “Lisa is much smaller than the rest of the players. So, in real life, the ball would go over her head, but now, with data processing, we can take the ball and make it go exactly into her hands. So for the viewer, it still looks believable, and it all makes sense,” said Beyond Sports co-founder Nicolaas Westerhof. The other major challenge is making “The Simpsons” two-dimensional cartoon characters into 3-D simulations. Szykowny and his team worked to make that a reality over the past couple of months. “That’s a big leap of faith for them to say, hey, we trust you to make our characters 3-D and work with it. Our ESPN creative studio team has done a wonderful job,” Szykowny said. Lisa, Krusty, Nelson, Milhouse and Ralph will be with Bart and the Bengals; while Carl, Barney, Lenny and Moe join up with with Homer and the Cowboys. The broadcast will also feature ESPN personalities Stephen A. Smith, Peyton Manning and Eli Manning. ESPN’s Drew Carter, Mina Kimes and Dan Orlovsky will call the game from Bristol, Connecticut, and also be animated. They will wear Meta Quest Pro headsets to experience the game from Springfield using VR technology. For Kimes, being part of the broadcast and being an animated Simpsons character is a dream come true. She is a massive fan of the show and has a framed photo of Lisa Simpson — who she said is a personal hero and icon — as part of her backdrop when she makes appearances on ESPN NFL shows from her home in Los Angeles. “I didn’t have any input, and I didn’t see anything beforehand, so I wasn’t sure if it would look like me, but it kind of does, which is very funny,” said Kimes, who drew Simpsons characters when she was a kid. “To see the actual staff turn me into one was a dream.” Even though the Bengals (4-8) and Cowboys (5-7) have struggled this season, Selman thinks both teams have personalities that appeal to “The Simpsons” universe. “We were just so lucky also that the Cowboys are sort of like a Homer Simpson-type team, American team, and Mike McCarthy might be a Homer-type guy, one might imagine,” he said. ”And then you have Joe Burrow on the other side who is a cool young, spiky-haired, blonde bad boy -- he’s like Bart. And that fits our character archetypes so perfectly. “If Homer is mad at Bart and has a hot dog dream while watching ’Monday Night Football’, and then it’s basically McCarthy versus Burrow, Homer versus Bart, and that’s the simple father versus son strangling — Homer strangling Bart dynamic that has been part of the show for 35 years. I don’t know if that would have worked as well if it was like Titans versus Jacksonville. We would have found something. We would have made it work.” AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Tang Shangjun, a devoted son from a small village in rural China, has embarked on a heartwarming mission to fulfill his mother's long-cherished dream of having a new house. Known for his hard work and determination, Tang has set out to make this dream a reality as a gesture of gratitude for all the sacrifices his mother has made for their family over the years.
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Celsius Holdings, a high-growth energy drink company, has seen its stock price drop 70% from its highs this year due to a slowdown in sales. However, the company's long-term prospects remain strong, with a growing market share in the US and international expansion. A recent distribution deal with PepsiCo caused a temporary revenue drop, but retail sales to customers remain strong. With a market cap of $6.6 billion, the stock's current price presents a buying opportunity for long-term investors, with potential for double-digit revenue growth in 2025 and a possible doubling of revenue over the next five years. 2024 has been a great year for high-growth stocks. The Nasdaq-100 Index is up 23.4% year to date, with many stocks flying more than 100%. Recent investor favorite Celsius Holdings (NASDAQ: CELH) has not followed this trend. The disruptive energy drink brand is down 70% from highs this year after seeing a massive slowdown in sales. After achieving over 10% market share in the energy drink category in the U.S., Celsius stock rocketed more than 40,000% in 10 years, making it one of the best-performing stocks of the last decade. Now, with its market cap slipping to $6.6 billion, investors are getting nervous about further short-term losses for Celsius stock. For smart investors who care about the long term, these falling stock prices can present fantastic buying opportunities for historically strong growth stocks. Are You Missing The Morning Scoop? Wake up with Breakfast news in your inbox every market day. Sign Up For Free » Here's why now is a great time to buy the dip on Celsius stock. A healthier energy drink future Celsius disrupted the energy drink market over the last 10 years by embracing sugar-free drinks. Its drinks, which are also infused with vitamins, are marketed as a health beverage. This positioned the traditional energy drink competitors with an unhealthy brand connotation. Embracing gym goers, women, and younger people, Celsius has consistently grown its market share in the energy drink category while also expanding the overall category. Celsius is not only competing with Red Bull, but also coffee, soda, and fruit juices. So far, the company has succeeded mightily with this strategy. Revenue was $1.37 billion over the last 12 months, up from under $100 million five years ago. Management estimates it has 11.8% market share in the U.S., taking share from the traditional players Monster Beverage and Red Bull. Now, it is taking this success in the U.S. and expanding internationally. It has entered the Canadian, U.K., Australian, and French markets over the last year or so, with plans for more countries in the coming years. International revenue grew 37% year over year last quarter to $18.6 million. Understanding the Pepsi distribution headwind Seeing these massive growth figures, investors may be wondering why Celsius stock has fallen 70% from highs set earlier this year. It all comes down to recent revenue growth figures and worries about the next few years. In 2022, Celsius signed a distribution deal with PepsiCo . For the majority of sales in the U.S. -- with options to sell internationally -- Celsius will be selling into the Pepsi distribution network. Pepsi will then sell Celsius inventory into retail channels. During the beginning of the deal, Pepsi ordered as much Celsius as it could to catch up with its rapidly gaining market share. However, in recent quarters Pepsi realized that it had over-ordered Celsius inventory and is now normalizing these figures, which caused Celsius' revenue to fall 33% year over year in the third quarter. This 33% revenue drop is obviously not something to ignore, but it does not mean Celsius is suddenly falling out of favor with consumers. It has maintained its 10%+ market share of the energy drink category, with year-to-date retail sales (i.e., the sell-through to actual customers) through the first three quarters already higher than all of 2023. Orders to Costco grew 15% in the third quarter, while orders to Amazon grew 21%. I mention all of these data points to contextualize Celsius' revenue drop. This is a temporary concern and should normalize sometime in 2025. By then, the company will be growing along with its retail sales to customers once Pepsi stops under-ordering inventory in its distribution network. Is the stock a buy? A 33% revenue drop for Celsius is scary, and clearly a lot of investors have been frightened away from the stock. However, if you still believe in the long-term viability of the Celsius brand, a share price below $30 looks appetizing. Celsius has put up strong revenue growth in the last five years, up 1,720%. That will assuredly slow over the next five years but it still has room to steadily grow. Through steady market share gains past 10%, overall category growth, and pricing power, I think it is feasible for Celsius' revenue to double over the next five years. That would bring annual sales to around $2.75 billion. Using Monster Beverage as a barometer, Celsius should be able to achieve 25% profit margins once the business matures, equating to $690 million in annual earnings power in five years. Compared to a current market cap of $6.6 billion, Celsius would have a price-to-earnings ( P/E ) ratio of less than 10 in five years. I think the stock will trade at a much higher P/E in five years. For this reason, the stock looks like a great buy-the-dip candidate as the company gets ready to return to double-digit revenue growth in 2025. Should you invest $1,000 in Celsius right now? Before you buy stock in Celsius, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now... and Celsius wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $869,885 !* Stock Advisor provides investors with an easy-to-follow blueprint for success, including guidance on building a portfolio, regular updates from analysts, and two new stock picks each month. The Stock Advisor service has more than quadrupled the return of S&P 500 since 2002*. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of November 18, 2024 John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Brett Schafer has positions in Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Celsius, Costco Wholesale, and Monster Beverage. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . 1 Monster Growth Stock Down 70% to Buy Right Now was originally published by The Motley Fool
NoneThese Are the Highest-Paying Tech Jobs in Every State — and Software Developer Isn't the Most Common One
In conclusion, YunTianLiFei's first-of-its-kind C-end education hardware, led by the visionary Dr. LuKa, represents a significant step forward in the evolution of educational technology. By leveraging the power of AR, VR, AI, and personalized learning technologies, this innovative device is poised to transform the landscape of education and empower students to learn, grow, and succeed in the digital age. With the introduction of this groundbreaking product, the future of education looks brighter than ever before.
In the fast-paced world of professional basketball, anything can happen, and the only certainty is that the competition will be fierce and the stakes will be high. The leading team must remain focused, stay resilient, and continue to push themselves to new heights if they want to achieve their ultimate goal of becoming champions. With the right mindset and determination, they have the potential to overcome any obstacles that come their way and emerge victorious in the end.
Trump's picks for key positions in his second administration
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Title: Peyton Discusses Critical Steal on Edwards and Effective Double-Teaming Defense
Thunder vs. Warriors Prediction, Pick, Odds, NBA Parlay for Wednesday, Nov. 27 - The Action NetworkThe journey began with a resounding victory over Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu. Despite facing the formidable talents of Hazard, Benzema, and Modric, the Champions League giants showed their class and composure as they outplayed and outmaneuvered their opponents. Goals flowed freely as they dismantled the Madrid defense with precision passing and clinical finishing. The final scoreline of 3-0 left no doubt as to which team was the superior side on the night.
Congressional Republicans and former Trump appointees have spent the last year building out their response to the movement protesting Israel’s war in Gaza , and now that Donald Trump is returning to the White House they warn that protest leaders, activists and those who help them raise money could face an onslaught of federal investigations and possible indictments. An NBC News review of congressional hearings and letters, along with lawsuits filed by organizations led by former Trump officials, provides a preview of which federal laws a second Trump administration could use when pursuing investigations and potential prosecutions. Judging from what has been pushed thus far, there are several legal measures most likely to be used once Trump returns to Washington. One would be deporting foreign college students in the U.S. on a visa after they’re found to have openly advocated for Hamas or another U.S.-designated terror group, or after they participated in an unauthorized campus protest and were suspended, expelled or jailed. Another measure would be to pursue federal prosecutions of demonstrators who block synagogue entrances or disrupt Jewish speakers at events. A third approach is to charge protest leaders and nonprofits that aid in fundraising for protest groups with failing to register with the U.S. Justice Department as an “agent of a foreign principal.” And a fourth avenue is to open investigations into protest leaders who are in direct contact with U.S.-designated terror groups while advocating on their behalf. The multifaceted law enforcement approach is a marked departure from the Biden administration’s response to the protest movement. Some of the nation’s leading civil rights groups told NBC News that they are gearing up for a flood of legal battles to protect the protesters. “Trying to predict what Trump will do is a fool’s errand. We have to be prepared for the most extreme version of what he’s threatened,” said Ben Wizner, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy and Technology Project. “We have to take him both literally and seriously.” ‘A new sheriff in town’ Biden administration officials have told NBC News that prosecuting speech-related crimes related to the anti-war protests is not a high priority for the current Justice Department, nor is seeking out student protesters on foreign visas a top concern for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “President Trump will enforce the law,” said Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, in an email to NBC News. Ernst recently asked the FBI to open an investigation into a pro-Hamas student group at Columbia University called Columbia University Apartheid Divest. A member had threatened “Zionists” on social media , which the organization had initially distanced itself from after a strong public outcry but later supported in an Instagram post . CUAD also has handed out pro-Hamas flyers that circulated around campus featuring masked men holding weapons. “There is a new sheriff in town,” Ernst said. The FBI has yet to respond to Ernst’s request, her office said. An FBI spokesperson did not immediately respond to request for comment. A Columbia University spokesperson said CUAD is not a recognized organization by the school and the flyers were under investigation. Members of CUAD declined to comment. Reed Rubinstein, who held high-ranking positions in both the Justice Department and the U.S. Education Department in the first Trump administration, is now a senior vice president at America First Legal, a public policy law firm in Washington, D.C., founded by former Trump adviser Stephen Miller. (Miller is expected to return to the White House as a deputy chief of staff for policy.) Under Rubinstein, America First Legal has in the past year filed four lawsuits that provide a glimpse into how the Trump administration could differ from its predecessor. America First Legal alleges in the suits that the State Department, the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Education have protected pro-Hamas extremists. In court papers and in letters to several federal oversight officials, America First Legal has also said it believes the Justice Department should have forced several leaders of pro-Palestinian groups to report themselves under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, known as FARA, which requires individuals acting as “an agent of a foreign principal” to register themselves with the Justice Department. It has also accused the Department of Education of not following Title VI regulations, which prohibits schools that accept federal funding from allowing on-campus discrimination based on race, shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics including being Jewish. “There’s a difference between lawful speech and unlawful conduct,” Rubinstein told NBC News. “Law enforcement has an obligation to act.” Although the lawsuits haven’t progressed in court, they provide a possible road map for how Trump-minded prosecutors could respond to the protest movement. So far, only the Education Department has responded to the allegations, court papers show, and said the agency doesn’t have sufficient evidence to respond to the claims that policies aren’t being enforced. The Justice Department didn’t respond to a request for comment. Spokespeople at the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Education all said they can’t comment on pending litigation. Rubinstein in an interview brought up an additional law he expects a second Trump administration could enforce. Known as the FACE Act , the law prohibits people from using force, threats or intimidation while blocking entrances of places of worship. Earlier this month, protesters with SJP Chicago gathered at the Chicago Loop Synagogue to demonstrate against an Arab Israeli speaker who had served in the Israeli military. Videos posted to social media showed demonstrators blocking the synagogue’s entrance, banging on the windows and getting inside. “You do not have the right to deny somebody the ability to congregate in a church or synagogue,” Rubinstein said. “We would like to see the Department of Justice do its job.” A spokesman for the FBI’s Chicago office said its policy is not to confirm or deny the existence of an investigation. The Chicago Police Department said it arrested two protesters and charged them with trespassing and one with property damage, both misdemeanor charges. SJP Chicago did not respond to a request for comment. But in an Instagram post, it said protesters were not being anti-Jewish. “Zionist have scrambled to throw together a narrative that these acts were anti-semetic and fueled by hate (what’s new).” An expected flood of legal battles Some of the nation’s leading free speech and civil rights groups say they are gearing up to fight a new Trump administration and any attempts to go after protesters or their funders. Since 9/11, organizations including the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), along with the ACLU, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Knight First Amendment Institute have represented Muslim Americans and pro-Palestinian activists in cases involving free speech, surveillance or abuse. Edward Ahmed Mitchell, CAIR’s deputy executive director, argued that the Biden administration failed to enforce FARA against leaders of pro-Israel groups. Mitchell said both Trump and President Joe Biden single out pro-Palestinian activists with either a lack of enforcement or with too much enforcement. “Just as Americans who peacefully marched, protested and lobbied against segregation, the Vietnam War and South African apartheid were not deterred when government agencies spied upon, smeared, arrested and brutalized them,” Mitchell said, “the college students, human rights activists and everyday Americans peacefully opposing the Gaza genocide have not been deterred by such government abuses and, God willing, will not be deterred by such abuses in the future.” Both CCR and the ACLU told NBC News that their concerns go beyond what the administration could do to crack down on just the protests. They pointed to the possibility that a Republican-led Congress could pass a bill currently under consideration that would strip away the tax-exempt status of nonprofits that a Trump appointed treasury secretary designates as providing material support to “terrorist supporting organizations.” CCR also said it worries a second Trump administration could wrongly level accusations of failing to register as foreign agents against protest leaders and nonprofits that aid protest groups with collecting donations. CCR is also watching whether a Trump Justice Department will charge certain activists accused of supporting Hamas and other U.S.-designated terror organizations with violating a U.S. anti-terror law that prohibits advocating for terror groups while in coordination with them. “We are prepared for the Trump administration coming in and changing the game, particularly around the question, ‘Where does speech fit into this?’” said Vince Warren, CCR’s executive director. “To the extent that the Biden administration drew a line between speech and actionable conduct, we don’t think that the Trump administration will do that at all.” CCR is also concerned about the plans laid out in Project Esther , an initiative backed by the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank that published Project 2025 . Project Esther urges law enforcement to use a plethora of federal and state laws to dismantle what it terms the “global Hamas Support Network” using racketeering laws — used to break up the mafia — along with anti-terrorism and anti-hate speech laws. “They will throw any type of spaghetti up against the wall,” Warren said. The Knight Institute said although it expects the new Trump administration to aggressively police speech, it is prepared to fight back. Earlier this month, Knight successfully rebuffed the Biden Treasury Department, which had blocked a New York based nonprofit from organizing an overseas conference with Hezbollah members, arguing it can’t work with people sanctioned for ties to terrorism groups. The agency reversed course and settled the case earlier this month after Knight argued that an academic exchange of ideas could not violate anti-terror laws. “If there’s one thing the First Amendment protects, it’s the right of Americans to criticize their own government’s policies,” said Jameel Jaffer, the Knight Institute’s executive director. The ACLU’s Wizner struck a similar note, saying: “The courts have made clear that the First Amendment protects all manner of controversial advocacy, including advocacy of violence, so long as the speaker isn’t actively inciting imminent harm,” Wizner said. Impact on college campuses Kenneth Marcus, who ran the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights during the Trump and George W. Bush administrations, now leads the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, one of the leading civil rights organizations focused on Jewish students. Over the past year, the center has sued a growing list of universities arguing officials failed to stop what it sees as widespread antisemitism on campus. Marcus said he has met with Department of Education officials requesting an expansion of civil rights enforcement to protect Jewish students on campuses. The Department of Education didn’t respond to questions regarding Marcus’ concerns. “We know that President Trump has repeatedly expressed concern about the campus situation,” Marcus said. During the presidential campaign, one of the 20 promises in the preamble to the Republican Party platform was to “deport pro-Hamas radicals and make our college campuses safe and patriotic again.” NBC News reported in August that the Biden administration said it was not targeting visa revocations for foreign students who may have engaged in speech-related offenses or participated in unauthorized campus protests and had not terminated any university or college student visas due to protest activity related to the Israel-Hamas war. Trump’s return to Washington could lead to possible attempts to revoke student visas for foreign students who openly support Hamas or other U.S.-designated terror organizations, Marcus said. Marcus also anticipates more intervention from the Justice Department when Jewish students say they are being targeted on campus. At a campaign stop in September , Trump said that at the start of his second presidency, he would inform universities that if they allow violence and threats against Jewish students, they “will be held accountable for violations of the civil rights law.” “My administration will move swiftly to restore safety for Jewish students and Jewish people on American streets,” Trump said.One of the key highlights of the Pure Blood Hongmeng WeChat App is its emphasis on personalization and customization. Users can tailor their experience to suit their preferences, from choosing unique themes and layouts to selecting personalized features that cater to their individual needs. This level of customization ensures that each user can make the app truly their own, enhancing their overall user experience.For new users, Tencent Video has introduced an array of attractive benefits to entice them to subscribe to the membership. These include exclusive access to the latest movies and TV series, ad-free viewing, early access to new content, and discounted prices for the subscription package. By offering these perks, Tencent Video aims to attract a larger user base and increase its market share in the competitive streaming industry.