A number of bars have closed in Manchester city centre following a burst water main. Engineers from United Utilities are attempting to fix the leak under Portland Street but are struggling with the 'complexity' of the repair. It has meant a number of venues have been left with no or little water supply in the Gay Village and Chinatown. Three bars in Manchester's Gay Village have confirmed they have been forced to close although other nearby venues remain open. Iconic Bar said in a post on its Facebook page: "Unfortunately we are closed at present due to a massive water leak on Portland Street which is affecting majority of the village, however our friends at New York New York, Oscars and The New Union are open. We will update you as soon as we can." READ MORE: The criminals were 'laughing' and the region felt lawless, but has the crackdown now gone too far? Eva bar said in its own statement: "Due to unforeseen circumstances out of our control we will not open tonight. There has been an ongoing complex burst on a water main in the area affecting many businesses which has left us without running water. Without running water we’re unable to operate. Should this change we will endeavour to reopen and will update via socials. "In the mean time our staff get a day of rest and our neighbours I’m sure will be more than happy to welcome you New York New York Manchester, New Union Hotel & Showbar and Oscars Bar Manchester currently remain open in the village." Another Gay Village bar Goose was also closed, disappointing punters who had hoped to attend its 'NOW That's What I Call Sunday' event. It said in a post on its Facebook page: "Unfortunately, we have had to stay closed due to a major water burst on Portland Street. At this moment, we have no timeframe for repair, but we will be back tomorrow at 12pm. "In the meantime, our wonderful friends at @newyorkbarmcr @newunionhotelmcr, and @oscarsbarmcr have confirmed they have running water and are open to welcome you. Thank you for your patience and understanding." A United Utilities spokesperson said: “Our teams are dealing with a burst on Portland Street. Due to the complexity of the repair, it’s taking longer than we’d have liked and we’re aware that some customers have low pressure or no water. We’d like to apologise to those impacted for the inconvenience caused and want to reassure them that we’re working as quickly as we can to carry out the repairs.”Bipartisan effort needed to resolve Muan disaster
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The Denver Center for the Performing Arts puts on a wonderful performance of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” every year, and is now celebrating its 30th year of doing so. Denver Center for the Performing Arts uses Richard Hellesen’s 1987 stage adaptation, which sticks to the original story while extending and enhancing some parts. One of my favorite moments that improves upon the original story occurs when the Ghost of Christmas Present takes Ebenezer Scrooge to visit the home of Scrooge’s employee Bob Cratchit, and they hear Cratchit deliver a dinnertime toast to Scrooge’s health. Instead of the short toast to Scrooge from Dickens’ story, Hellesen gives us a wonderful speech from Cratchit to his family. In the Denver Center for the Performing Arts performance, Geoffrey Kent’s Bob Cratchit has the perfect mix of casual delivery and deliberate pause as he searches for words and finds the exact language needed for the moment. The speech is masterful and stirring, starting with Cratchit pointing out that Christmas is not a static event. “When I listen to you talk about your hopes, I can’t but think about how Christmas changes as we grow older,” he says. Cratchit was talking about his own experience with Christmas, but I often think about that line with how the holiday changes each year for society as a whole. One marker of modernization is mail delivery, that under-appreciated yet absolutely crucial part of Christmas for so many families hoping to have presents delivered to loved ones across the country. The first people to make skis and use them regularly in the West were mail carriers. Among the best-known was Norway native John Tostensen, better known as Snowshoe Thompson, who braved avalanches, bears and blizzards to deliver the mail over the Sierra Nevada mountain range between California and Nevada in the 1860s. Today, a monument exists in his honor in Soda Springs, California, with an inscription describing him as “probably the first skier of the West.” Snowshoe Thompson’s counterpart in Colorado was Snowshoe Johnson, a man who used homemade skis to deliver mail from Crystal to Crested Butte in the 1880s. In a description of an exhibit that once adorned the Colorado Snowsports Museum in Vail, Al Johnson was said to have “learned to ski fast by outrunning avalanches.” In the decades to come, technological improvements would make the job much safer and easier. The Rocky Mountain News, in December of 1926, ran a story with the headline “Air Mail is newest recruit among aids of Santa Claus,” describing how the Christmas rush had ushered in a new era of night flight, in which lights would be used to illuminate runways to allow for more packages to be delivered out of Denver to meet holiday demands. By the 1930s, skis had gone from being homemade tools built for utility to mass-produced gadgets crafted for recreation, and that fact was reflected in the letters to Santa published in area newspapers. Skis, bindings and boots began popping up in those letters by the mid-to-late 1930s (along with, somewhat disturbingly, machine guns), before disappearing altogether decades later as skis became everyday items given to children automatically as a way of life each winter, like a jacket or a pair of shoes. (Thankfully, machine guns have also disappeared from local kids’ Christmas lists.) From the Steamboat Pilot: Dec. 13, 1935, from Jay Outsen: “Dear Santa — Please bring me a pair of skis and bindings and please bring me a machine gun that shoots sparks and my sister would like you to bring her a sewing machine and a piano.” Dec. 15, 1938, from Ralph Yates: “Dear Santa — I would like a pair of skis and a pair of ice skates and a machine gun and a train and a tool set.” Dec. 14, 1939, from Maynard Smith: “Dear Santa — I want a pair of skis and a machine gun. Don’t try to come down my chimney or you will land in the basement.” Dec. 12, 1940, from Ted Kolb: “Dear Santa — I want a cowboy set. I want a machine gun. I want some skis.” In thinking about those letters to Santa, the post office and mail carriers, and all the other details where I find meaning in Cratchit’s speech about the way Christmas changes, an old joke comes to mind. I will attempt to retell it here, adapting it to our area and enhancing it slightly like Hellesen did with “A Christmas Carol.” In addition to the newspaper editor receiving many of the letters to Santa each Christmas, the other person who gets piles of them is your local postman. Oftentimes, in the back offices and break rooms of mail carriers’ workplaces, those letters would be opened and read aloud for the entertainment and enjoyment of the workers, as there’s no real place to deliver a letter addressed to the “North Pole.” As I mentioned earlier, skis and boots and bindings in mountain towns went from a common request 85 years ago to being almost nonexistent in letters to Santa in recent decades as skis started becoming regarded as parental responsibility rather than a special gift. But one year, not long ago, the post office workers here received a letter from a local third grader with beautiful handwriting who said she would love to learn how to ski. Her dad might even be able to get her a ski pass through his work, she said, but there’s no way her parents would ever be able to afford skis and bindings and boots. “If I could just get those three items, Santa — skis, bindings and boots — then I could join my friends on the mountain, where they seem to have so much fun every weekend,” she said. The post office workers, all skiers themselves, felt terrible. No child who wants to learn to ski should be held back by a lack of equipment, they said. So they passed a collection cup around among themselves, seeing if they could raise enough money to buy her the equipment she needed. Some donated $50, some $100, and at the end of the day, they had raised enough to get her a nice pair of skis with bindings in a size that she would be able to use for several seasons. But there wasn’t enough money left over for ski boots, and they didn’t know what size she was anyway, so they figured if they delivered the skis and bindings to the return address on the letter, someone would find a way to get the child a pair of boots so she could get on the mountain. A week went by and another envelope addressed to the North Pole was received, a rare post-Christmas letter to Santa. The workers immediately recognized the beautiful handwriting and opened it to see what the girl had to say. “Dear Santa — thank you so much for the skis and bindings,” the letter said. “I know you got me a pair of ski boots also, but the stupid idiots at the post office must have lost them.”In conclusion, Ian Wright's endorsement of Aaron Ramsdale as the perfect goalkeeper choice for Chelsea is a testament to the young shot-stopper's talent and potential. With Chelsea's attacking brilliance complemented by a strong defensive presence in goal, the Blues could be set for even greater success in the seasons to come. Ramsdale's blend of skill, composure, and leadership qualities make him an ideal fit for a team with ambitions as high as Chelsea's, and if the transfer rumors are to be believed, we could soon see him donning the blue jersey at Stamford Bridge.
The Syrian government has condemned the Israeli airstrikes as a violation of its sovereignty and has vowed to respond to what it sees as acts of aggression. Syrian state media reported that several people were killed and wounded in the airstrikes, though the exact number of casualties is still unclear.Shopping on Shein and Temu for holiday gifts? You're not the only one
If you happened to catch streaming coverage of the recently completed BFGoodrich SCORE Baja 1000, off-road racing’s newest technology was front and center for those knowing not what they were watching, but how it was possible in the first place. For hours, SCORE’s production group provided viewers real time live in-car coverage shot in the middle of Baja’s vast wilderness, all without a cell tower or relay helicopter in sight. At one point the production cut to a live shot from inside Rob MacCachren’s chase team located on a highway directly behind the race-winning McMillin Racing Trophy-Truck. The SCORE in-studio announcing team was able to speak directly with MacCachren’s wife Amber, who was giving updates in real time from the chase truck. In-car cameras are certainly not new, but the ability to connect cameras, voice and data from some of the world’s most remote locations is. All of it can be attributed to off-road racing’s increasing use of the Starlink satellite communications system engineered and marketed by SpaceX. First adopted by the marine and RV industries, the mobile Starlink units have seen a strong uptick in use by desert racing teams to greatly improve communications between race vehicles, chase teams and crew members. With direct internet access, all the old radio (with relays perched high on mountain tops or planes) and satellite phone technology is quickly becoming a thing of the past. The advent of installing the Starlink units on to the race vehicles themselves is a newer trend as advancements in products specifically made for this application come to market. PCI Race Radios, for example, now sells complete installation kits for the Starlink Gen 2, Gen 3 and the recently released Starlink Mini that includes custom mounts that house the dish itself and protects it from water, dust and vibration. The units can use a magnetic mount or incorporated into solid mounts on a steel chassis or roll cage. The key development in transforming Starlink connectivity into a live streaming service provider is the invention of the Star Stream system. Invented by California-based Star Stream company founder George Hammel, a patent-pending control unit named the StreamBox Pro takes input from two GoPro cameras and re-streams the feed to content production trucks or directly to social media platforms. Racers can use the StreamBox Pro to switch camera angles, add image overlays and provide their feeds to a dedicated profile on Star Stream to send private coverage links directly to team members, sponsors, friends and family. A primary example leading teams creating their own relevant content is 1Nine Industries, a top manufacturer of Trophy Trucks based in Fountain Valley, Calif. Formerly Herbst-Smith Fabrication, in recent years the rebranded company has expanded from a private operation for the legendary Herbst off-road family of Nevada to providing turn-key vehicles, maintenance and race support for a variety of customers. 1Nine Industries and the Herbst family is not only providing a testing platform to perfect the technology, but also important funding to create proof of concept. Together with cinematographer Bryan Moore, the team integrated the use of the Star Stream system and live helicopter coverage to provide real time coverage of 1Nine Industries’ racing desert racing efforts in Baja and the U.S. All the camera footage is streamed directly to Star Stream’s production studios and cut live with graphics for hours of streaming content. The result has been nothing short of impressive, producing 75,000,000 Terrible Herbst Motorsports social media views in 2024. As verified by sponsorship analytics company Hookit, the live Herbst Motorsports live racing experience and social media generated 63.8 million impressions on Instagram and 18.5 million on YouTube. “That’s a big number, isn’t it?” enthused 1Nine Industries and Terrible Herbst Motorsports President Ryan Arciero. “Now everything is in real time, and we have never had access like that before. It’s changed everything for the better, and our sport’s future has blown wide open.” As applicable as the system is to remote desert racing applications, Crandon International Raceway and its production partners at TRG Rennsport and Long Haul Productions successfully introduced Star Stream to short-course racing at the Labor Day weekend Polaris Crandon World Championships and Red Bull Crandon World Cup event. With the help of progressive race teams looking to advance the sport (and pay for their own systems) for the first time in the sport’s 56-year history viewers enjoyed real time in-car cameras as part of MAVTV network’s record-breaking 16 hours of live Crandon coverage. Hammel and his company have now started working with the promoters of offshore boat racing, as well as producing all the streaming for the Legacy Racing Association desert series as well. While all of this surely represents a way to greatly expand off-road racing’s footprint and audience, new technology also comes with growing pains. One issue is the interface with the race teams creating content within a sanctioned event in which the “broadcast” material is owned by the organizing body. Imagine the Ferrari F1 team producing live content from a race but having the ability to stream live footage on its own social media platforms. It would never happen. The counter-argument to that is certainly a relevant one. The off-road audience when juxtaposed to F1 or even IMSA for that matter is growing, but smaller. In the case of the Baja 1000 or Crandon, the race teams themselves pay for all the equipment and installation costs, not the promoter or sanctioning body. The costs for a single Starlink/Star Steam package starts at around $4500 per vehicle, plus a mobile subscription from Starlink. In the case of the Terrible Herbst Motorsports team, the agreement with SCORE International is that they have the rights to livestream on their channels only if SCORE’s production group has equal access to the same live footage. What is not allowed currently is for teams like Terrible Herbst to provide the footage to any of its sponsors for use on their social media channels unless they pay SCORE a substantial licensing fee. The argument, of course, is that expansion of the sport is better served with additional eyeballs, something that the Terrible Herbst team could provide via primary sponsors like Monster Energy and BFGoodrich. With off-road desert racing teams competing for little to no prize or championship money while also paying for the livestream production equipment, that argument is more than relevant. Another challenge lies in the sheer quantity of live content. At the Baja 1000, Hammel shared that Star Stream-equipped teams added 94 additional in-car cameras for coverage of the event. With that much coming in, there is no way to guarantee teams little to any coverage within the official SCORE livestream. A final challenge is one based in technology. This type of access to internet communication can also allow live telemetry (which Star Stream is currently working on) from the race vehicle to an engineer, and vice versa — thus opening the door for in-race engine, shock and transmission tuning from anywhere in the world. The wide-open unlimited rules package in desert racing’s fastest classes allows for this, but not in the much more controlled environment of short-course racing, for instance. No matter the outcome, thanks to SpaceX, Starlink and innovators like Hammel, the power of real time, in-car content and unlimited internet access has arrived to greatly impact off-road racing’s future. Given the environment, it changes this form of motorsports far more than almost any other on earth.The US egg industry kills 350M chicks a year. New technology offers an alternative
