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NFL games are slow. Theyre 11 minutes of actual action, spread across a 3-hour-and-12-minute broadcast. You can blame that pace of the game on penalties, injuries, and, of course, commercials. But now, the NFL is teaming up with Sony to fix one of the games biggest time sinks: measurements. Beginning with the 2025 NFL season, all 32 teams will switch from human measurements to computer automation. Each stadium will be equipped with six 8K Sony Hawk-Eye cameras that track the position of the ball on the field. Its a significant upgrade to century-old technology. Chains have been used to measure the position of the football since they were first introduced in 1898, when rules mandated the ideal tool for measuring progress down the field was two light poles about six feet in length and connected at the lower ends by a stout cord or chain exactly five yards long. By 1906, the five-yard standard in football switched to its current ten-yard mandate, and the chain has gone relatively changed since. [Photo: Sony] Now, Sony cameras will replace the chain operatorswhat can frankly feel like an antiquated tool in the days of slow-motion replays and 3D recreations of the field. While the cameras are installed at stadiums locally, all the footage will be sent to New York, where digital calls are coordinated by the NFL’s Art McNally GameDay Central Officiating Center. Whereas it could take as long as 70 seconds for chains to measure the position of the ball, Sonys cameras do the job in 30. When that 40 seconds of savings is multiplied across the 153 average plays in a football game, thats a wild 102 minutes in savings. The game length appears to be cut in half. [Photo: Sony] Of course, all sorts of other things happen during those lengthy chain measurements. Every NFL broadcast is a masterclass in managing these logistics, juggling elements of the games narrative (wait, what penalty just happened?) and commercial cutaways (billionaire owners dont do this for charity). And so its unclear how much time these new automated measurements might actually save you on a Sunday afternoon this fall. While weve reached out to the NFL to clarify this point, is it too soon to bring up another sore point of fandom? Because in the face of so much amazing automated technology, the MLB is facing its own reckoning with the home plate umpire. This evolution certainly makes sense: I can see those strikes and balls better from my couch than they can from behind the batter! But at the same time, professional sports imbued with automated visual processing will face a tricky balance. While automation may improve the flow and accuracy of calls on the field, robots offer little in terms of suspenseful drama.
Category:
E-Commerce
Monday night, at 7 p.m. ET, Senator Cory Booker took to the Senate floor to speak out against the policies of the Trump administration. As of 3 p.m. Tuesday, he had not stopped talking. Vowing to continue his speech for as long as Im physically able, Booker has captured national attention as he has railed against Trump on a number of topics, ranging from Social Security to healthcare to immigration. Theres no telling how long Booker will gohes already entered the record books for one of the longest speeches given on the floor. But hes capturing peoples attention as Congressional Democrats (and corporate America) have come under fire for not standing up to Trump. Heres what you need to know about the speechand why it doesnt qualify as a filibuster. Why is Cory Booker doing this? Monday evening, Booker posted on X that he had taken the Senate floor and will speak for as long as Im physically able to lift the voices of Americans who are being harmed and not being heard in this moment of crisis. Since beginning his floor speech, Booker has discussed Trumps plans for immigration, healthcare, Social Security, education, and more, accusing the White House (among other things) of planning to cut Medicaid and speaking out against a Trump-backed spending bill, which was passed in March. These are not normal times in America, and they should not be treated as such, Booker said. He also took Trump to task for some non-policy actions since taking over the Oval Office. When is it enough? Booker asked. When the president of the United States starts a memecoin on his first day, violating the emoluments clause immediately and enriching himself? Why doesnt Cory Bookers speech qualify as a filibuster? According to Congressional rules, a filibuster can only take place when the Senate is attempting to pass a bill or confirm a nominee. Thats not the case now, making this just an incredibly long speech. Its far from the longest the Senate has seen, however. Ive been hearing from people all over my state, and indeed all over the nation, calling upon folks in Congress to do more, to do things that recognize the urgency, the crisis of the moment, he said before beginning his speech. And so we all have a responsibility, I believe, to do something different, to cause, as John Lewis said, good troubleand that includes me. What are the longest filibusters in history? Strom Thurmond holds the single-person record for filibustering, speaking for 24 hours and 18 minutes to oppose the Civil Rights Act of 1957. (Thurmond had some help, too, as other Senators opposing that bill chained their filibusters, tying up the Senate floor for a grand total of 57 days.) Senator Alfonse D’Amato of New York holds the silver medal for filibustering, after talking for 23 hours and 30 minutes in 1986 to hold up debate on a military spending bill. Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon talked for 22 hours and 26 minutes in 1953. And Senator Ted Cruz of Texas held the floor for 21 hours and 19 minutes in 2013 as he spoke out against the Affordable Care Act. Bookers speech, were it a filibuster, would now hold the fifth-place spot, topping a 1908 filibuster by Wisconsin Senator Robert La Follette, who spoke out for 18 hours and 23 minutes against a bill allowing the Treasury Department to lend currency to banks during a fiscal crisis. Booker still has a ways to go before he matches the fictional filibuster length of Jefferson Smiths 25-hour speech in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. How can I watch Cory Bookers marathon speech? There are plenty of places to watch: CSPAN-2 is carrying the speech live on cable and satellite, as well as streaming it online. Booker is streaming the speech on his social media sites, including X. The speech is also being streamed on YouTube by a number of news outlets, including USA Today, Fox, PBS, and CBS. How has Cory Booker filled that much time? Booker has spent a lot of time criticizing the Trump administration and Elon Musks role in it, but he has thrown in a bit of filler now and then, reading letters from citizens and quoting speeches and news articles. He has also gotten a fair bit of support from fellow Democrats, who ask him to yield for a question, without yielding the floor, giving Booker a bit of a rest. And before accepting those questions, Booker has been having some fun, sometimes joking or telling stories about the Senator who’s asking the question. And, from time to time, Booker has reminded himself (and people just tuning in) about the reasons for his speech. Twelve hours now Im standing, and Im still going strong because this president is wrong, and hes violating principles we hold dear and principles in this document that are so clear and plain, he said. Has Cory Booker taken any bathroom breaks? No. Booker has also not been seen eating anything during his speech and has only had two small cups of water within reach, neither of which has been emptied. U.S. Senate rules dont set time limits on debate. A Senator who has been recognized by the chair can speak for as long as they want, providing special limits on debate are not in effect. Senators who hold the floor cannot be forced to stop talking (or even interrupted) without their consent. They do, however, have to remain standing and speaking consistently. (Booker had a Senate page remove his chair so he wouldnt be tempted to sit down at any point.) Senators can yield for a question without yielding control of the Senate floor, which Booker has been doing. What will Cory Bookers marathon speech accomplish? Bookers main goal in this long address seems primarily to energize the Democratic base and show that their complaints to party leadership arent being ignored. In terms of real-world impact on Senate business, there hasnt been a lot so far. Depending on how long he talks, though, it could delay the vote on Matthew Whitakers nomination to be the U.S. ambassador to NATO. And the speech does raise Bookers visibility in a big way, which could be useul should he decide to run for president again in 2028. (Booker ran briefly in 2020, but dropped out before the Iowa caucus.)
Category:
E-Commerce
Shares of Newsmax continued to rise on Tuesday following a massive public debut on Monday, in which shares shot up more than 700% for the best-performing first day since 2022. Investors who bought in at the $10 IPO price are reaping a massive potential return. When trading opened on Monday morning, Newsmax shares, trading under the NMAX ticker, rose from $10 to close at nearly $78. After hours, values continued to rise, and when trading opened on Tuesday, the stock saw another surge. As of roughly 2 p.m. ET, shares were trading at around $215, an increase of almost 160%. The trading has been intense, and was even halted numerous times on Monday due to volatility. That volatility has evidently caught the attention of retail investors, some of whom, on social media and trader forums, are comparing it to the GameStop meme stock mania from a few years ago. Newsmax may also have some other similarities to GameStopnotably, that its a company thats been losing money (it lost $55.5 million during the first six months of 2024), and as a cable news network, is competing in a field that is losing steam, similarly to GameStop’s physical video game retail model. Newsmax is also a competitor to Fox News, which has been able to beat its chief competitors MSNBC and CNN in recent years and recently had its best February on record, averaging 3.1 million primetime viewers for the entire month. Newsmaxwhich tends to offer programming that is often even further to the right than Foxis hoping to tap into that audience and pilfer some of those viewers for itself. As for whats playing out in the markets? Its something of a cherry on top for Newsmax. The company was founded by Christopher Ruddy in 1998 and its cable news network launched in 2014, and now appears to be flying high with Trump back in the White House.
Category:
E-Commerce
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