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With one sizable difference, they could be scenes of everyday recreation in the sunshine state of Florida: a tourist playing with a football, another eagerly chasing a remote control boat round a lake.

But the remarkable images posted to social media over the past week feature alligators, not humans seeming to confirm a Tennessee university study that said crocodilians like to have fun too.

A picture posted to the Alligators of Florida Facebook page by Sandra Raymon Harrison showed an alligator in the Big Cypress preserve with a football in its jaws. How the reptile came across the ball, and whether it had any playmates, was not specified.

Commentators worried that the alligator had the ball stuck in its mouth were assured by experts who pointed out the massive force of the creatures bite could pop the ball in a heartbeat.

The second playful gator was captured in a short video clip posted to the website of Jacksonvilles ActionNewsJax TV, swimming in hot pursuit of a remote-controlled boat.

The images were shot by a producer from the station who filmed a neighbor launching the vessel and noticed the alligator swimming along in pursuit. The animated alligator changes speed and direction several times as the boat zips before it.

Both episodes appear to bear out the research of University of Tennessee Knoxville animal behavior expert Vladimir Dinets, whose 2015 study, Play Behaviour in Crocodilians, noted such behavior was not uncommon.

Social play by crocodilians is almost never reported but this doesnt mean that it is particularly rare, Dinets wrote, after spending more than 3,000 hours observing crocodilians in the wild and captivity.

He witnessed alligators at play with river otters in Big Cypress and detailed the story of a crocodile in Costa Rica that bonded with its rescuer.

Play behavior included swimming together, rushing at [him] with an open mouth in mock charges, sneaking on him from behind as if to startle him, and accepting being caressed, hugged, rotated in the water and kissed on the snout, he wrote.

According to a Science Daily report accompanying the study, the results show[ed] a softer side of the intimidating creatures one that includes romping around with river otters and people.

A third recent episode of Florida alligators potentially at play, however, had to be discounted. A video posted to Facebook of an apparently friendly 20ft alligator named Grandpappy leading a 6ft reptile across a Lakeland golf course ended with the smaller of the two being eaten.

See original here:
Alligators just want to have fun: Florida images may show predators at play - The Guardian

When Sam Burns won the 2022 Valspar Championship on Sunday, he became the second golfer in the last three events to pick up at least three PGA Tour wins before making his debut at Augusta National. Burns' three victories (two Valspars and the Sanderson Farms Championship) have pushed him into the top 10 in the Official World Golf Rankings, but they all came after the 2021 Masters, which means his drive down Magnolia Lane in two weeks will be his first.

Collin Morikawa also won three times (including a major championship) before the oddly-situated 2020 Masters in November. Morikawa finished T44 in his Masters debut before going on to win the Open Championship the following summer.

All of this begs the question: Could a first-time participant at Augusta unlock the Rubik's cube that was once disguised as a nursery?

It's been done before, but it hasn't happened inn a long time. In 1979, Fuzzy Zoeller shot 70-71-69-70 and won in a playoff over Tom Watson and Ed Sneed.

Since that tournament, though, first-timers have not gotten off the schneid. The prevailing narrative is that it takes old-school characteristics like wisdom and mettle and battle-testedness to conquer Augusta in your debut. I'm not sure that's exactly correct, though.

Last year, debutante Will Zalatoris finished one shot out of a playoff as Hideki Matsuyama went on to win. I'll never forget what he said that Thursday after shooting 70 to sit T4 after 18 holes.

"Kind of the joke that I've been saying with my family is if I'm stupid enough to think I can play here, then I'm stupid enough to think I can win it," said Zalatoris. "Like I said, just kind of focusing on the process, and I know that's a very boring media statement that I'm sure you guys hear a lot, but it's what's gotten me here."

Zalatoris isn't the only golfer to have recent first-time success at Augusta. In fact, of the seven golfers who have finished in second place at the Masters since World War II, five of them (Jason Day, Jonas Blixt, Jordan Spieth, Sungjae Im and Zalatoris) have come in the last 10 years.

The anecdote that younger players are more prepared to win when they get on the PGA Tour,which seems to have some statistical roots, also appears to be true at the Masters.

There are 16 first-timers in this year's Masters, but not all of them have an equivalent chance of winning the event. Among those who have qualified, Talor Gooch, Harry Higgs, Tom Hoge and Min Woo Lee are all interesting, but it's Burns that stands apart from the rest. In addition to his No. 10 world ranking, Burns is ranked No. 9 on Data Golf and possess the physical skillset to win a major championship.

He has a pretty spotty history at majors thus far in limited experience. Burns' best finish at a major thus far is a T29 at the 2019 PGA Championship at Bethpage Black. However, he's turned himself into a plus in every strokes-gained category (off the tee, approach, around the greens and putting), and the thing he does best (iron play) also happens to be the most statistic when it comes to winning this tournament.

Perhaps the stronger trait Burns already possesses is that he knows how to win. Many first-timers qualify by getting into the top 50 in the Official World Golf Rankings or maybe qualifying for the previous year's Tour Championship. Not all of them have won, and even the ones that have normally haven't won as often as Burns.

That won't make the pressure feel different on that second nine on Sunday afternoon with the world watching, but it does provide some much-needed confidence for those trying to seal the deal.

"When you're coming down the stretch and you're near the lead and you want to have this belief that you can do it, sometimes it's tough when you haven't done it yet," said Burns on Sunday after winning the Valspar for a second time. "So, I think for me today, it was just only thing I can control is what I'm doing, how I'm reacting to the shots, everything else is out of my control."

What is in Burns' control, like the rest of the field at Augusta National here in a few weeks, is a major championship win. He's unlikely to get it because technically everyone playing is unlikely to get it.

But if recent form holds (we've seen a newcomer finish second in two straight Masters), Burns is the best bet to enter that conversation. And given his game and his growth over the last year, who knows, he might just mess around and become the first player in over 40 years to go out there and win it in his first four rounds ever at the most prestigious tournament in the world.

Read more from the original source:
Masters 2022: Debuting golfers on the rise can contend at Augusta National, recent trends show - CBS Sports

The McGowan Government is reforming the tow truck industry in Western Australia to protect people involved in traffic accidents and combat bad behaviour and price gouging.

Consumer Protection invited more than 6,000 stakeholders to engage in consultation on reforms for the industry, which received 37 formal submissions and more than 400 survey responses from industry participants, consumers, insurers and government agencies.

About 90 per cent of survey respondents agreed the industry should be regulated.

The following suggested reforms have received strong community support:

Responsibility for executing changes has moved to the Department of Transport, who will present reform options to the State Government by the middle of this year.

Depending on reform options, this may include legislative changes.

While this work is ongoing, the Department of Transport is also preparing amendments to the Road Traffic (Vehicles) Regulations 2014 to update technical standards and begin rolling out a communications campaign to advise drivers of their rights.

This will require maximum tow and storage fees to be recorded on the 'tow truck driver's statement', which is given to the person authorising the tow at the roadside.

The consultation report that summarises the feedback can be viewed on the Consumer Protection website.

Comments attributed to Commerce Minister Roger Cook:

"The views expressed as part of the consultation process indicated widespread community concern about the tow truck industry in WA.

"Ethical operators report that they are disadvantaged by the tactics of some unscrupulous drivers who threaten, mislead and harass people to get business.

"The consensus is that this behaviour needs to be stamped out."

Comments attributed to Transport Minister Rita Saffioti:

"Western Australia and Tasmania are the two States with the least regulation of the towing industry.

"Regulation in WA is long overdue and is essential to ensure that consumers are properly protected whilst improving safety and confidence in the industry.

"The community consultation has identified a host of concerns that we want to address through the reform process.

"This work will now be given to the Department of Transport to continue and I look forward to receiving options for how we implement this reform later this year.

"The reform and associated regulation will bring WA in line with most other Australian States and ensure that we have legislation in place that serves the needs of the community whilst supporting an honest towing industry that encourages fair competition."

Commerce Minister's office - 6552 6500

Transport Minister's office - 6552 5500

Read the original post:
McGowan Government to reform WA tow truck industry - Media Statements

In Windows 10 when you adjust the volume, a volume pop-up, also know as media volume control overlay, appears in the top left corner of the screen. It is well integrated with recent Chrome and Edge versions and allows you to pause a YouTube video or switch to the next entry in the playlist.

The following screenshot demonstrates the media notification toast:

This useful feature is available in Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge Chromium.

However, plenty of users find this media volume overlay annoying for its big size and long display time. Also, it is not clear how to dismiss it. The pop-up should automatically dismiss after a few seconds. However, sometimes it remains visible for too long, and its display time increases if you hover over it with your mouse pointer.

click on the app name. In this case, it is "chrome.exe".

For a media overlay which includes the album art or an artist photo, you can click on the artist name or on the album art to dismiss the popup.

Finally, if you are not happy to see this media overlay, it can be disabled with a special flag in modern chromium-based browsers.

That's it.

Related posts:

Thanks to Albacore.

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Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer from Russia who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube. View all posts by Sergey Tkachenko

The rest is here:
How To Dismiss Windows 10 Media Volume Control Pop-up

As it works to provide more options for brands to manage their ad placements across its apps, Meta has announced a new partnership with brand suitability platform Zefr which will better enable advertisers to ensure that their promotions dont appear alongside potentially offensive material, as defined by their own concerns on this front.

Zefr, which has also partnered with TikTok and YouTube on similar initiatives, utilizes advanced AI identification systems, including audio, text, and frame-by-frame video analysis, along with scaled human review, to provide a more accurate and customized brand safety solution, giving more specific placement control to ad partners.

As explained by Meta:

We will work together [with Zefr] to develop a solution to measure and verify the suitability of adjacent content to ads in Feed, starting with small scale testing in the third quarter of this year and moving to limited availability in the fourth quarter.

The partnership will help Meta develop better systems to ensure brand safety, while still maximizing ad opportunity.

Meta additionally notes that its developing internal suitability controls as another means to give advertisers more control over where their ads are shown.

We have begun scoping and building these new controls for Facebook and Instagram Feeds focused on primarily English speaking markets, with plans to test in the second half of the year before rolling more broadly in early 2023. Over the course of the next year, we will expand placement coverage to include Stories, Reels, Video Feeds, Instagram Explore and other surfaces across Facebook and Instagram, as well as expanding to additional languages.

Meta already offers various brand safety tools, including topic exclusions and 'publisher allow' lists, which provide broad-ranging oversight tools for brands. These new options will facilitate more specific control, so that brands can exclude the exact placements they choose, while still reaching as wide an audience as possible.

Brand Safety controls came into focus back in 2017 after YouTube lost millions in ad revenue when publishers started pulling their ads due to them appearing alongside extremist and hate speech content. Meta has also faced various challenges on this front - though its major ad challenges have been more specifically focused on the companys own stances, as opposed to placement concerns.

Meta banned ad placements near NSFW content back in 2013, and has been working to refine its systems on this front ever since. Meta was also the subject of an advertiser boycott in 2020, in protest against the platform's handling of hate speech and misinformation, which further underlined the rising concerns around the companys perceived focus on revenue over safety.

Given this, its important for Meta to continue its development, and these new projects will help to improve its placement tools and options.

See the original post:
Meta Partners with Zefr to Improve its Advertiser Safety Tools - Social Media Today