2015 World Cup update #11: New Zealand beats Australia in a thriller

What a game!

A match between two of the three favorites to win the trophy proved to be one that was worthy of all the hype and New Zealand eked out a win in one of the closest matches ever, replying to Australia’s 151 off 32.2 overs with 152/9 off 23.1 overs. What was surprising was that in a tournament dominated by batsmen and high scoring, this time it was the fast bowlers who dominated, with both teams barely scoring 150 and neither side coming anywhere close to using up their allotted 50 overs.
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Some good news on the internet front

The Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 along party lines to approve chair Tom Wheeler’s proposal to reclassify broadband under Title II of the federal Communications Act., which means they can be treated as common carriers like landline phone service, which means that they are subject to FCC regulation and must treat all users equally and cannot give preferential faster service to companies that pay them more. This is what has come to be known as ‘net neutrality’.
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2015 World Cup update #10: South Africa hammers West Indies

Yesterday’s game was the most lop-sided one of the tournament so far, with South Africa defeating West Indies by the huge margin of 267 runs. While the result was not unexpected, since SA has been one of the favored nations to win the tournament and WI has been in a slump generally, recent performances had suggested a close game and nothing like the blowout that happened.
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The odious Rahm Emanuel runs into trouble in Chicago

Rahm Emanuel, the former congressman and chief of staff to president Obama and now mayor of Chicago, represents the worst elements of the Democratic party, someone who is authoritarian and slavish in his devotion to the oligarchy. He had been a leader in the effort to destroy the Chicago public schools and hand them over to private interests and has been brazen in his favoring of cronies using the funds of the city.
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NYC mayor caves in to Orthodox Jews and risks children’s lives

In some Orthodox Jewish circles, it is the practice for infant boys to be circumcised, not by a doctor in sanitary conditions, but by a religious person known as a mohel who then sucks out some blood from the penis with his mouth. This extremely unhygienic practice can lead, and has led, to serious infections, and “City health officials linked 17 cases of neonatal herpes to direct oral suction in the last 15 years. Of those, two have died and two more suffered brain damage.”
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2015 World Cup update #9: Afghanistan registers historic and thrilling win

Afghanistan beat Scotland in a low-scoring but thrilling game yesterday to register its first World Cup win. Scotland batted first and once again its batsmen failed to put up a decent score. They scored 210 all out in their 50 overs, better than their previous outings of 142 and 184 but nowhere near the score that would give their bowlers some room. Afghanistan got off to a decent start with 42/0 but a middle order collapse saw them reeling at 97/7 before Samiullah Shenwari stabilized the innings and almost single-handedly took them to 192 before getting out for 96 and leaving them tantalizingly close at 192/9. So they still needed 19 runs to win off 19 balls with only one wicket left. But Shapoor Zadran, who had earlier shone as a bowler, saw them safely through with just three balls to spare
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