slot machine attendant job description Marler to retire from rugby on Friday, a month after quitting international duty with EnglandChatGPT opened the floodgates. But many people don’t realize there’s a whole world of generative AI tools and applications out there, just waiting to be explored. Whether you’re struggling to overcome a case of writer’s block, lack the artistic aptitude to do your imagination justice, or just need a hand crafting efficient computer code, generative AI can help augment and streamline both your professional and creative endeavors. Yet, amid the seemingly endless variety of AI assistants currently on offer, finding the right one for your needs can prove a daunting task. So, let’s delve into some of the most impressive AI tools that are pushing the boundaries of innovation, including the best AI chatbots , the best AI image generators , and much more. The best AI tools for image generation One of the first AI image generators to be released back in 2022, Midjourney has proven immensely popular with users and art critics alike . It can output high-definition, photorealistic images in countless artistic styles based on natural language text prompts. Originally only available through the company’s Discord server, Midjourney can now be accessed through a streamlined web portal . While the website’s gallery of generated art is free to browse, you will need to subscribe to a monthly service plan (which range from $10 to $120) in order to generate images of your own. While not as creatively robust as Midjourney — only able to generate images in one of five preset artistic styles — Ideogram does offer a generous free tier that allows users to generate up to 40 images per day. Paid tiers range from $7 to $48 per month and offer a host of benefits, from additional compute resources and priority access to full-quality image downloads. The company also boasts an iOS app and an API that it claims will “offer superior image quality at a lower cost compared to other models.” This is OpenAI’s in-house text-to-image generator and runs atop the company’s GPT-4 model. Originally released in September 2023, it was initially only available to paid tier subscribers. OpenAI expanded its availability to free tier users this past August, though you’ll only be able to generate two images per day at that subscription level. Dall-E 3 is also available through Microsoft’s Copilot chatbot. If you’re looking to create high-quality images without the strict production limits that ChatGPT enforces, Google’s Imagen 3 is a solid option. It’s available through the Gemini chatbot , including the free tier, and offers higher-quality outputs with fewer artifacts than its previous versions. Note, however, that the system will not generate images of people, famous or not, unless you subscribe to Gemini Advanced (which costs $20 per month). Grok 2 is the text-to-image generator for people uninterested in adhering to copyright law. Developed for Elon Musk’s xAI company, and available on X, Grok 2 isn’t restricted by minor inconveniences like safety and legal guardrails, as other image generators are. Want to see Mickey Mouse fighting Darth Vader atop a 747 as it flies into the World Trade Center? Grok will generate it, no questions asked. You will, however, need to pony up $8 for a premium subscription to X in order to access it. Runway’s Gen 3 Alpha is a relatively new model, having been released in June of 2024, and is capable of creating both still images and video clips with nearly photorealistic quality based on the user’s natural language prompts. The company recently announced that it will begin integrating a new foundational model, dubbed Frames , into the Gen 3 platform that will offer unprecedented control over the image creation process, enabling users to generate multiple image variants while maintaining a specific aesthetic style, whether that’s mimicking 35mm disposable camera shots or retro anime motifs. Subscription prices run from $12 to $76 per month, though the company does offer a limited free tier as well. The best AI tools for image editing Skylum’s Luminar Neo is a photo editing suite designed with professional photographers in mind. It offers many of the same powerful tools as Adobe Photoshop, but outsources much of their functionality to AI. This enables users to accomplish numerous common tasks, from adjusting color balance and lighting levels to tweaking the look of the sky, water, and skin tones, with a single click. Luminar Neo might be a bit pricey for casual users, costing $421 for a yearly subscription or as a lifetime subscription for $577. It’s available on both Windows and Mac, as well as a plugin for Photoshop, Photos, and Lightroom. Canva is a multifunction creative platform that offers everything from digital whiteboarding, data visualization, and marketing material templates to photo, video, and YouTube editing features. While you can easily make minor adjustments like cropping, adding filters and adjusting aspect ratios using the site’s free editor, Canva Pro offers a number of additional AI-empowered tools. Select, move, resize, and even erase individual objects within an image; extract and modify text on flattened images; and even generatively expand the image’s background, all with a few simple clicks. Canva Pro costs $120 per year for a single user license. This online photo editing suite has served as a free and user-friendly alternative to Photoshop since it was released in 2008. Last November, the company debuted a number of AI features including image generation, a generative fill tool, AI background removal, AI face swap, and image expansion to help round out the tool set’s functionality. While the interface is geared more for casual users and may not be as precise and granular as what Photoshop offers, you can’t beat free. If you only need to do some light retouching work on your images, the Topaz Photo AI suite offers eight enhancement tools: Denoise, Sharpen, Upscale, Recover Faces, Remove Objects, Preserve Text, Adjust Lighting, and Balance Color. It’s not a true replacement for full-function photo editors like Photoshop, but it is available without an annual subscription, for a flat rate of just $199 with version upgrades costing $99. Adobe’s Firefly AI doesn’t just generate images and video from text prompts, it also empowers a number of AI features throughout the Adobe product ecosystem. That includes the Generative Fill tool in Photoshop, text effects in Adobe Express, vector and pattern generation in Illustrator, and Generative Extend in Premiere Pro. You will need to subscribe to Adobe’s Creative Cloud suite in order to access these features, though they can either be purchased individually (the image generator, for example, costs $5/month while Photoshop costs $23) or you can pick up all 20-plus Adobe apps for $60 per month. Best AI for video generation While Luma Dream Machine may be designed with fashion, marketing and filmmaking professionals in mind, it’s built as a subscription-based service with both casual and professional users in mind. Unlike conventional AI tools, Dream Machine does not require precise and exhaustive prompting to generate the desired effect, but rather, interprets the user’s natural language request intuitively. It also accepts multi-image prompting and single-image character references so users can show the AI what they have in mind. Luma does not offer a free tier, though a “hobbyist” subscription costs just $10 per month. Kling AI video-generation system from China’s Kuaishou Technology offers photorealistic outputs on par with what we’ve seen from OpenAI’s Sora and is already available to users around the world. It can generate high-definition videos up to two minutes in length (double what Sora can) at up to 30 frames per second and 720p resolutions (slightly less than Sora’s 1080p output). Each clip starts out at just five seconds in length but can be extended in 4.5-second increments by purchasing additional credits. Just be warned that the system is blocked from generating politically-sensitive subjects. Synthesia is a bit more niche than the other video generators we’ve discussed so far. It’s designed specifically to generate video avatars from the user’s text prompts making it ideal for business applications like onboarding and training videos, sales presentations, and internal communications. Users can choose from one of more than 130 avatar models speaking 140 different languages and over 60 video templates. The free tier allows you to generate a single three-minute video per month and your choice of nine avatars, while the $30/month Starter tier and $90/month creator tier offer significantly more benefits. Vyond offers similar functionality to Synthesia in that it generates AI avatars for training videos based on the user’s text prompts, however, this service relies on animated characters rather than live actors. You also have the option to record yourself performing specific actions or movements and Vyond will motion match its animation to them. Plans start at $49 per month, which also includes access to an added video editor, though anything you produce at that tier will be watermarked with Vyond’s logo. The best AI for text generation ChatGPT , the chatbot that launched the AI boom in 2022, remains at the forefront of the industry with an estimated 200 million active weekly users. Trained on huge quantities of written content including websites, books, social media posts, and news articles, ChatGPT is equally adept at answering general knowledge queries and compiling computer code as it is at generating creative prose . It was also the first chatbot to offer a conversational feature in Advanced Voice Mode that allows users to interact with the chatbot as if it were a person, doing away with the need for text-based prompts. ChatGPT is available on the web as well as on iOS and Android. It’s free to use, though subscribing to the $20/month ChatGPT-Plus plan will give you increased access to the company’s latest AI models and features. Copilot answers the question “what if ChatGPT worked natively within Microsoft’s 365 app ecosystem?” Which is exactly what it does. Microsoft has invested billions in OpenAI’s business and, as such, its Copilot AI runs atop the startup’s GPT-4o LLM. However, Copilot is more than just a reskinned ChatGPT. For one, Copilot does not restrict users from generating images without paying for a subscription to its premium plan as ChatGPT does. For another, its functionality can be integrated across Microsoft’s products, helping users generate text in Word , create graphs and tables in Excel , and draft emails in Outlook . Google’s Gemini chatbot may have gotten off to a bit of a rocky start upon its official debut in February but the AI assistant has quickly grown into a potent rival to ChatGPT, offering much of the same functions and features. Those include the ability to generate text, images, video, audio, and code, converse with users verbally with Gemini Live, and integrate with Google’s Workspace app suite. It can gin up email responses in Gmail, search for files in Drive, create content for Slides, and draft text in Docs, all through the user’s natural language prompts. Gemini is free to use and is available on the web as well as through its iOS and Android apps, but if you want to access the AI’s more advanced features (and Workspace integrations), you’ll need to subscribe to the company’s $20/month Google One AI Premium service. Perplexity’s AI assistant offers a unique alternative to traditional search engines. Rather than simply return a list of websites in response to a user’s query as Google search does, this chatbot scours the internet for relevant information, then synthesizes an answer to the user’s question directly in the chat window. It essentially eliminates the need to click through to individual websites to find the information you’re looking for. Built atop the GPT-4 model and available on Android, iOS, as well as on the web, Perplexity is free to use. The company also offers a Pro subscription plan for $20/month (or $200/year) that grants you access to additional AI models including GPT-4 Omni and Claude 3 Sonnet and Haiku , as well as a host of additional benefits. Unlike generalized chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini, Jasper AI is all business. It is designed to generate text for emails, blogs, social media posts, and marketing materials, all while maintaining your company’s distinctive tone, voice, and brand style. The platform includes Jasper Chat, which assists with research tasks and offers writing advice, as well as can help maximize the SEO score of your marketing content. Jasper is only available on a subscription basis, with plans starting at $40 per month per user, though the company does offer a seven-day trial. The best AI for audio and voice generation ElevenLabs knows how to make a machine talk. The company is a leader in generative speech technology, offering a variety of audio-centric services from automatic voice dubbing and cloning to text-to-speech and text-to-SFX. Users can select from thousands of unique voices (including those of famous celebrities ), all trained on public domain and licensed data, in any of 32 languages. Ideal for podcasting, audio book narration, and conversational AI applications, the company’s products are available at a variety of pricing tiers ranging from free up to $99 per month. Why read a document when you can have Speechify read it to you four and a half times faster? The company’s voiceover technology can recite nearly any document you present to it in one of 200 voices (including your own through its voice cloning feature) in more than 60 languages. Speechify is available as a Chrome extension, a Mac app, a web app, iOS or Android app. The mobile apps can also read physical documents using your phone’s camera to scan the page. Speechify’s free tier limits you to simple text-to-speech in just 10 voices, while the $12/month premium tier unlocks the service’s full functionality. Respeecher specializes in voice cloning for celebrities, content creators, voice actors, game designers, and other professional applications. The company’s AI model essentially enables one person to speak in the voice of another. “We take recordings of the ‘target voice’ (the voice that is being replicated), train our system, and apply it to a ‘source speaker’ (the actor reading the lines),” the Respeecher’s FAQ explains. “It features all the emotions, intonations, and nuances of a real human voice.” The company offers a wide range of celebrity voices including Chris Farley and Richard Nixon, the latter of which earned Speechify an Emmy in 2019. Subscription plans start at $18 per month for basic text-to-speech (up to 100,000 characters per month and range up to $500 per month for the Power tier, which offers 900 minutes of speech-to-speech and 3 million characters of text-to-speech generation in more than 100 voices and 13 accents. If you fancy yourself a musician but can’t carry a tune, Controlla Voice can help. Its generative model can train an “AI Singing Voice” that sounds like you, based on 15-30 minutes of sample audio, then apply it to songs from the company’s extensive catalog, or blend your voice with others from their licensed stable of voice actors to generate unique vocals. You can even convert the vocals in existing songs from other artists into your voice for low-effort covers. Subscription prices run from $12 to $30 per month. The best AI for coding Anthropic’s Claude chatbot may not be able to generate images or speak to you conversationally, but it utterly excels at coding applications. Its latest iteration, Claude 3.5 Sonnet , drastically outperforms the likes of Gemini 1.5 Pro and ChatGPT-4o across a broad swath of leading industry benchmarks. Claude was also the first chatbot to offer a collaborative window (dubbed Artifacts ) that previews what the AI is generating outside of the chat stream. The chatbot is available free to all users on the web, iOS, and Android, though subscribing to the $20/month Pro or $30/month Teams tiers will grant you priority access to the latest and greatest models that Anthropic has to offer. Developed through a partnership between Github and OpenAI, GitHub Copilot acts as an AI autocomplete, to help users in the Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, Neovim, and JetBrains IDEs generate code faster than they can on their own. Users can present Copilot with a coding problem, phrased in natural language, and the assistant will automatically generate a solution code. Conversely, it can also explain what a given snippet of code does as well as convert snippets between various coding languages. You can use Github Copilot for free, though upgrading to either the $4/month Pro or $21/month Enterprise tiers will, of course, give you additional resources and features. Similar to Copilot, Amazon’s CodeWhisperer is a general use coding assistant that will automatically generate suggestions and code recommendations based on your existing inputs, in real time. It’s available for the JetBrains and Visual Studio IDEs and also supports natural language-to-bash translation in the Mac command line. The free tier only offers limited access to the system’s more advanced features, so you’ll have to pony up $20/month if you want to unlock its full capabilities. Cursor AI is a coding assistant in the same vein as Codewhisperer but can offer autocomplete suggestions across multiple lines of code, based on your previous inputs. It also offers a smart rewrite function that automatically corrects your typos and syntax errors so you spend less time tracking down errant quotation marks and parentheses while debugging, as well as cursor prediction that guesses where your cursor needs to be next, enabling you to navigate through your project faster and more efficiently. It even offers a chatbot assistant (leveraging GPT-4, GPT-4o, and Claude 3.5 Sonnet) that can answer questions about either the entire active file or specific selected code blocks. The chatbot can even edit that highlighted code based on your natural language instructions. Cursor AI is available for the Mac, Windows, and Linux operating systems. You can try it out free for two weeks before a $20/month Pro or $40/user/month Business subscription is required. The best AI to integrate with the rest of your app ecosystem Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has been investing heavily in AI over the past few years and has recently begun incorporating the smart features found in rivals like Gemini and Copilot to its own product portfolio. “More than 400 million people are using Meta AI monthly, with 185 million people using it across our products each week,” the company boasted in a September blog post . The company now offers a conversational AI similar to Advanced Voice Mode in Messenger, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram DM. It can answer questions about photos shared in your group chats, generate custom backgrounds for images you reshare from your feed to Instagram Stories, and automatically translate the audio of your Instagram Reels. It can also generate images to share on your feed, Stories, and set as your Facebook profile picture. So when you find yourself wondering why there’s so much AI slop clogging up Facebook and Insta, understand that it is a feature Meta has spent billions developing, not a bug. Microsoft has dumped north of $10 billion into its partnership with OpenAI, so of course it’s going to shoehorn ChatGPT’s generative capabilities into every single product it possibly can. In addition to the Copilot chatbot itself, Microsoft has developed and released Copilot Pages, which function much like Claude’s Artifacts or ChatGPT’s Canvas. The company has also integrated it into Outlook to help you manage your inbox by prioritizing which messages to respond to first and quickly draft email replies. 365 Copilot can also help you rapidly establish a cohesive narrative in your PowerPoint presentations by generating pitch decks whole cloth from your natural language prompt that maintain a consistent tone and brand voice. In Excel, Copilot does the heavy lifting of generating formulas, graphs, and charts based, again, on the user’s prompt. And in Teams, Copilot can monitor your video meetings and provide summaries of what happened as well as generate actionable item lists based on what was discussed. Gemini does for Google’s Workspace app suite what Copilot does for Microsoft’s. The AI assistant can help draft emails in Gmail , write documents in Docs, generate graphs and charts in Sheets, create and modify slides in Slides, find files in Drive, and provide live-translated captions and take notes in Meet. If you don’t already have a personal Google One AI Premium subscription, you’ll have to ask your Workspace admin to grant you access. Apple Intelligence may be the new kid on the AI block, but it is promising to be more deeply integrated within its product ecosystem than any other currently on the market. Designed to serve as an overarching agent acting on the user’s behalf, it promises to streamline monotonous everyday tasks, make Siri a better conversationalist, automate proofreading and text summarization across the company’s myriad apps, and offer lightning-fast image generation. It is currently available to all devices running iOS 18 , iPadOS 18 , and MacOS Sequoia — basically, the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max (and newer), as well as iPads and Macs with M1 or newer chips.Bwala’s appointment will help Tinubu administration – APC Spokespersons League

Marriott Manila illuminates the season with gratitude and giving

Trump convinced Republicans to overlook his misconduct. But can he do the same for his nominees?Port Sultan Qaboos received over 431,00 tourists in 2023, according to Muscat Municipal Council. An announcement to this effect was made during a meeting of the council, chaired by Sayyid Saud bin Hilal al Busaidi, Governor of Muscat, on Monday. The meeting reviewed a statement from Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology regarding operations of the port, which now accommodates a growing number of cruise ships. Specialists from the ministry highlighted development plans for the port which aim to enhance the tourism sector by accommodating giant cruise ships in alignment with the government’s strategy to promote Oman as a premier tourist destination. Transformation of the port into a dedicated tourist hub reflects the government’s vision to optimise its capacity to handle ships of various sizes. The council also reviewed facilities and services provided by the port to shipping companies, logistics operators and cargo owners. These include nine berths with a combined length of 1,750m, a passenger terminal, port and gate management, cargo handling and maintenance services, as well as marine services such as mooring, tug operations, berth planning, fresh water supplies and baggage handling. The council presented statistics on the number of incoming tourists, which in 2023 exceeded 431,000, with 110 cruise ships arriving the same year. During the meeting, the council approved minutes of the previous session, including its recommendations. Discussions covered several key topics, including a statement of the Child Protection Committee of Muscat governorate, a work plan of the Social Development Committee and volunteer teams, the environmental impact of sewage water in Amerat, and proposals and plans outlined by the Governorate Development Committee.

End The Economic Blockade Of AfghanistanIt’s peak wedding season in India and airlines and operators of charter jets are rejoicing with the honeymooners. India’s peak wedding season spans from November to March, aligning with a higher number of dates deemed auspicious for matrimonial alliances. For airlines operating in India, that’s expected to translate to more families, wedding guests and newly wedded couples taking to the skies. On 17 November, a Sunday, India’s daily air passenger traffic climbed to a record 505,412, per data from India’s ministry of civil aviation, although this is also attributed to the ongoing festive season. The previous record of about 499,000 passengers was reached a couple of days earlier, on 15 November. “Tier 2 cities are powering the wedding season this year," said Aloke Bajpai, group chief executive, ixigo, a digital travel and hotels booking platform run by Le Travenues Technology Ltd. “Travel (bookings) to tier 2 and 3 cities for November and December have seen a significant rise, with Varanasi bookings up by an impressive 265% and Gorakhpur by 109%. Amritsar, Chandigarh and Patna have also recorded an increase of over 70% in flight bookings." According to ixigo, more people are flying to small towns like Varanasi owing to a combination of factors: people travelling to their hometowns for weddings and others for religious tourism. Flight bookings to major metro hubs such as Delhi and Mumbai as well as leisure destinations such as Srinagar, Jaipur, and Goa are also seeing a strong 70-80% year-on-year increase for November-December, Bajpai said. International destinations are also in demand, as in any wedding season. “Overseas honeymoon bookings to destinations in Southeast Asia and the Middle East have risen by 2x, marking this wedding season as one of the most dynamic and high-demand periods yet," said Rikant Pittie, co-founder of EaseMyTrip, another leading travel booking platform. “Indians are increasingly making bookings for honeymoon travel, showcasing a shift in preferences toward destinations like Thailand, the Andaman Islands, and Vietnam, moving away from traditional spots like the Maldives and Kerala." Bajpai too highlighted Southeast Asia and West Asia, or the Middle East, as among the top overseas destinations for Indian honeymooners this season. “... Hotspots like Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Dubai, and Kuala Lumpur (are) seeing a 120-130% YoY rise in bookings for November and December." India typically registers about 10 million weddings every year, per industry estimates. And given the growing fondness for lavish Indian weddings, Prabhudas Lilladher estimates revenue generation of 4.25 trillion from around 3.5 million weddings in just November to mid-December this year. India’s airline industry hopes the wedding season will make up for lower-than-anticipated flight bookings during Diwali in October. “We have increasingly seen a lot of demand for travel during the marriage season, and this year seems to be similar in terms of demand," said a senior executive at Tata Group’s Air India Express, declining to be identified. “The booking trend is equally encouraging and we might see a strong third quarter supported by weddings." Per India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation, domestic air traffic increased 4.7% on-year to 92.3 million in the first half of 2024 (January-July). The Centre for Aviation, or CAPA, a leading aviation industry research and advisory firm, expects India’s domestic air traffic to increase by 6-8% to 162-165 million. So far this wedding season, EaseMyTrip, operated by Easy Trip Planners Ltd, is seeing a 15% overall increase in travel bookings as compared with last year’s. While Delhi, Mumbai, Srinagar, Jaipur and Goa are witnessing a 40% year-on-year growth in bookings, tier 2 cities such as Varanasi and Gorakhpur are recording 90% and 75% increases, respectively, said Pittie, EaseMyTrip’s co-founded. As per ixigo data, Varanasi has recorded the highest jump in flight bookings so far for November-December, with a year-on-year surge of 265%, followed by Gorakhpur with a jump of 109%. Among international destinations, ixigo has registered a 270% year-on-year increase in flight bookings for Phuket in Thailand for November-December this year, followed by a 244% jump for Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur and 205% rise for Kuwait. For uber-wealthy Indian families with more lavish budgets, charter planes make for a grand wedding accessory. “For weddings, the demand is for business jets to fly the immediate family and VIP guests and bigger planes (an ATR or other aircraft) to fly (other) people," said Santosh Sharma, founder of Bookmyjet, an online platform for booking business jets. While a charter jet can seat 4-20 passengers, an ATR aircraft can carry fly 80 passengers. The charter cost depends on the type of aircraft—from 1.50 lakh per hour and going up to 30 lakh per hour for larger jets. “We are seeing demand from smaller cities like Indore, Rajkot, Raipur and also Kolkata, with flights going into Jaipur, Udaipur, Jaisalmer and Jodhpur," said Sharma, adding that the company was seeing an interest in business jets also from foreigners and Indian diaspora families planning destination weddings in India. “People from Middle East are getting married in India and they are booking flights from Delhi and Mumbai to marriage destinations to ferry their guests."India mosque survey sparks clashes, two dead

The New York Knicks waived Matt Ryan on Sunday to make room for Landry Shamet on the roster, but the team intends to re-sign the 6'6" forward to a two-way deal once he clears waivers. Michael Scotto of HoopsHype reported the news. Ryan was a local star who grew up in New York. He was born in White Plains and starred at Iona Prep in New Rochelle, where he became Mr. New York Basketball and was named a first-team Parade All-American. Ryan is a well-traveled hooper who played college ball at three schools (Notre Dame, Vanderbilt and Chattanooga) and has suited up for five NBA teams (Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Minnesota Timberwolves, New Orleans Pelicans and Knicks) in his four NBA seasons. He's also played for five G-League teams. The 27-year-old has only averaged 10.4 minutes over his 72 games, but he's shot 39.7 percent from three-point range during that time, posting 4.1 PPG in the process. Ryan hasn't played much with the Knicks this year (45 minutes over nine games). There may not be room for Ryan to carve out playing time on the active roster at the moment, but he'll certainly be getting time with the G-League's Westchester Knicks with the two-way deal.

Nine CSU Rams earn Mountain West all-conference honorsCambrian College in Sudbury helping students for 'Giving Tuesday'

Albert Kan Dapaah: Minister for National Stability, Not Just National SecuritMcDermott+ Check-Up: November 22, 2024

Grad assistant coach suits up to fill QB void, sets Southern Illinois record with 7 TD passesIt’s looking like the same old song and dance right now for Zion Williamson. Shams Charania of ESPN appeared Friday on “NBA Today” and shared a pessimistic update about the New Orleans Pelicans star Williamson and the latest injury that he is nursing. Williamson is out with a hamstring issue and was initially expected to miss four-to-six weeks. But Charania now reports that Williamson could be sidelined well beyond that timeline. “I am told Zion Williamson is not remotely close to coming back to the floor,” said Charania . “He’s gonna be out a while longer. This is an injury [that is] typically a four-to-six-week injury ... But the Pelicans are bracing for him to be out beyond that point. I am told he has received multiple injections in that hamstring.” The 24-year-old Williamson was averaging 22.7 points, 8.0 rebounds, and 5.3 assists per game through his first six games for the Pelicans this season. But he strained his hamstring on Nov. 6 in a loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers and has not played since (now having missed seven games and counting). Four-to-six weeks would have Williamson returning some time around mid-December, but now it looks like the former No. 1 overall pick won’t be back in action until next calendar year. After appearing in a career-high 70 games last season and reportedly losing a good amount of weight over the summer , Williamson’s trademark injury woes are now back in a big way. This article first appeared on Larry Brown Sports and was syndicated with permission.

"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum." Section 1.10.32 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum", written by Cicero in 45 BC "Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?" 1914 translation by H. Rackham "But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?" 1914 translation by H. Rackham "But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?" Thanks for your interest in Kalkine Media's content! To continue reading, please log in to your account or create your free account with us.

Colts Notebook: Richardson again delivers in clutchQB Josh Allen and coach Sean McDermott deserve credit in Bills latest AFC East-clinching seasonPHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- The trifecta for holiday shoppers is almost here: Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday are all just days away. The big box stores are offering big deals as usual, but as you're shopping this holiday season, remember to shop local and shop small as much as you can. You'll get a personal experience, find unique items and you'll be putting money directly into your community. The owners of Vault and Vine , a gift shop, florist, and café, are on pins and needles as we move into the official holiday shopping season. "Nervous because for a lot of small businesses, Small Business Saturday is make or break for an entire year," said Vault and Vine co-owner Diana Baye. "If we don't do well during the holiday season, we don't make it to January." So to draw shoppers in, small businesses are offering deals. "We're offering double loyalty on Small Business Saturday," said Baye. That means 10% back on your purchase that you can spend any time. Plus, you get unique items, many of them handmade, you can't find anyplace else. "Three-quarters of all retail businesses in Center City are independent. They don't have locations in other cities. They're not the brands that you would find at a mall," said Clint Randall, Vice President of Economic Development of the Center City District . And to shop at a great cluster of small businesses, just head to Dilworth Park for the Made in Philadelphia Market . "It's called Made in Philadelphia for a reason, right? Every single vendor in that Dilworth Park market is a Philadelphia vendor. There's, I think, about 50 of them," said Randall. "A lot of them are already doing, you know, 'Black Friday sales,' which will then become, you know, a Small Business Saturday sale, and they're there through the whole holiday season." Baye's message to people who shop only at national big box chains? "If everyone keeps doing that, that is going to be your only option. There will be no small businesses. There will be no variety," she says. And eventually, Baye warns, "Those low prices that you enjoy, eventually they go up because they're the only game in town." And shoppers in Center City have their pick of stores to choose from. The Center City District says the number of retailers has increased 15% over the last five years and about 83% of all storefronts are occupied.