Mediaboss Marketing

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.

Support us

Winaero greatly relies on your support. You can help the site keep bringing you interesting and useful content and software by using these options:

If you like this article, please share it using the buttons below. It won't take a lot from you, but it will help us grow. Thanks for your support!

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

Yuri Kovalchuk seen at a meeting of President Dmitry Medvedev with Russian and foreign shareholders of the National Media Group in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2011. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool)

Marina Ovsyannikova interrupted Mondays evening news on Russian TVs Channel One when she appeared behind the on-air anchor holding a sign that read NO WAR, and Dont believe the propaganda. They lie to you here. Authorities whisked away the news producer and detained her for over 12 hours. She was hit with a fine and, according to Russian state media, is now under investigation for spreading false information. I wanted to show the world that the majority of Russians are against the war in Ukraine, Ovsyannikova told CNN. If convicted under Russias new law that prohibits expression deviating from government-approved truth, she faces up to 15 years in prison.

Russian President Vladimir Putin looms like a dark shadow over the broader Soviet-like crackdown on accurate information that, for example, prohibits the word war from being used by Russian media. (Its called a special military operation whose goal is to rid Ukraine of Nazis.) Putins general in the disinformation war is Yuri Kovalchuk, the 70-year-old oligarch described by the U.S. government as Putins close advisor and personal banker in 2014 U.S. sanctions against him. The two men have been almost inseparable in the last couple of years, according to one Kremlin watcher. Kovalchuk, through his holding company National Media Group, has a grip on what news Russians see and hear. He owns stakes in Channel One and several of Russias most influential TV channels. In December, his company acquired a piece of VK, Russias largest social media company.

Kovalchuk and Putin are tight. They own homes in the same exclusive Ozero dacha cooperative and Kovalchuk hosted the wedding of Putins daughter in 2013, according to the Panama Papers. In the last two years, Kovalchuk has established himself as the de facto second man in Russia, the most influential among the presidents entourage, according to Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar, author of a book on Putins inner circle.

When people say Russian state television, they really mean Kovalchuk television, says Anders slund, an expert on Russias oligarchy. Putin doesnt trust the state sufficiently. He wants his closest man to control television.

Kovalchuk, who Forbes estimates is worth $1.3 billion, created National Media Group in 2008 in partnership with another oligarch, Alexei Mordashov. Alina Kabaeva, widely considered Putins girlfriend, is the companys chair. In addition to Channel One, National Media Group controls popular Russian television channels 5TV, REN-TV (formerly an opposition network to Putin) and entertainment channel CTC, as well as stakes in newspapers, digital media and content studios.

The National Media Group is one of the two biggest players in the Russian media market along with state-owned VGTRK, says Ilya Yablokov, a journalism professor at the University of Sheffield in England.

The National Media Group and Kovalchuk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Since the February 24 invasion of Ukraine, media coverage on Russian TV networks have echoed themes in Putins speeches. This week, pundits and anchors have pushed conspiracy theories about Ukraine developing biological weapons with U.S. support. Ukraine and the Biden administration have denied those charges.

Kovalchuk is known for his anti-liberal and anti-Western views and his conspiracy thinking, says Tatiana Stanovaya, a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Moscow Center and founder of newsite R.Politik. People like Kovalchuk understand Putins priorities and goals, she said. They can feel it, and try to adapt media policy to such needs.

In December 2021, Kovalchuks National Media Group acquired a controlling stake in Russian social media giant VK from oligarch Alisher Usmanov. Following the ownership change, VK fired much of its existing management and promoted Kovalchuk relatives, according to independent Russian news site The Bell. Today, VK is being used by the Kremlin to recruit mercenaries for Russias war on Ukraine, the BBC reported.

VK is playing an enormously influential role in keeping the population under control, spreading the narratives that are favorable to the Kremlin and punishing those who use the social network for spreading alternative views, says Yablokov, the journalism professor. VK is now as open as it could be to Russian domestic intelligence services.

Kovalchuk and Putin became close in St. Petersburg during the 1990s, when Kovalchuks Rossiya Bank supported Putins political rise. Then, as now, Kovalchuk operated behind the scenes. David Lingelbach, a professor at the University of Baltimore, worked in Russia during the 1990s in banking and venture capital. On several occasions, Lingelbach met with Putin in his capacity as first deputy mayor of St. Petersburg to facilitate investments from foreign investors. I met most of the other people that Putin brought into his inner circle Igor Sechin, Dimitri Medvedev, Alexey Miller but I never once saw or had any awareness of Kovalchuk, Lingelbach says. In hindsight, Putin was leading a second sort of private economic life, which he was developing with Kovalchuk.

Once Putin was elected president in 2000, Kovalchuk used Rossiya Bank to build his media empire, powered by Putins relentless drive to kill negative press. In 2000, Putin arrested media baron Vladimir Gusinsky on charges of fraud and forced him to sell his media properties, including his crown jewel REN-TV, to state-owned Gazprom. (Gusinsky, who denied all charges, has since disappeared from public view; the European Court of Human Rights declared in 2004 that accusations against Gusinsky were politically motivated.) Putin then arranged for Gazprom to sell those media assets, as well as its insurance business Sogaz and other financial assets, to Rossiya Bank at a bargain price.

These transactions were part of a larger transfer of wealth taking place during the 2000s, from oligarchs and the Russian state into the pockets of Putin and his cronies. Over $60 billion worth of state-owned assets were funneled through Gazprom to Kovalchuks Rossiya Bank and entities owned by other Putin allies, the Rotenberg brothers and Gennady Timchenko, between 2004 and the end of 2007, according to a 2008 investigation by Russian opposition figures Vladimir Milov and Boris Nemtsov. (Nemtsov was shot to death on a Moscow bridge in 2015.)

In Putins initial term, the discussion was that all non-core assets of monopolies including Gazprom should go to open markets to create a competitive environment, Vladimir Milov, who has since left Russia, told Forbes. However, Putin completely turned that path around and transferred these assets to his cronies. Gazprom received nothing, the taxpayers received nothing, and instead of reform we shifted towards establishing a system of control under a handful of Putins cronies.

As Russias unprovoked war on Ukraine continues, Kovalchuks importance is primed to grow. Oligarchs with assets in Europe and the U.S. are reeling under Western sanctions, and Putin is reportedly closing ranks, purging some of his top spies and military officials in response to Russias faltering war effort.

Kovalchuk is someone with whom Putin can really share his life, his visions, Stanovaya says. And he trusts him.

Originally posted here:
Meet The Man Who Whispers In Putin's Ear - Forbes