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700 Club: Bob Fisher nears exclusive milestone

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:13:09 GMT

There is no man more synonymous with high school basketball in Eastern Massachusetts than Bob Fisher.Over the span of six decades, Fisher has patrolled the sidelines at three different schools. He has won a pair of state championships, reached Eastern Mass. and sectional finals, and witnessed up close some of the premier players to step foot in the Commonwealth. Now in the midst of his 43rd season, Marshfield’s Fisher is a dozen wins away from becoming just the second boys coach in Massachusetts high school basketball history to amass 700 wins.“It’s been quite the ride and I am still loving every moment of it each and every day,” Fisher said.Fisher went to Quincy High School and then Bentley University where in the early 1960s he helped found the Falcons’ athletic program. He played for four years, was an assistant coach at Bentley while getting his masters, and grabbed a teaching job in Bridgewater-Raynham. Then, in 1966, he began at Rockland as the sc...

Beijing sees most hours of sub-freezing temperatures in December since 1951

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:13:09 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Beijing recorded the most hours of sub-freezing temperatures in December in more than seven decades as a cold wave has enveloped northern and central swathes of China, bringing snowstorms and record-breaking temperatures.A weather observatory in the Chinese capital as of Sunday had recorded more than 300 hours of sub-freezing temperatures since Dec. 11 – the most since records began, in 1951, according to the official newspaper Beijing Daily.The city saw nine consecutive days with temperatures below minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit), the paper added.Parts of northern and central China have shivered under frigid cold snaps this month, with authorities closing schools and highways several times due to snowstorms.Temperatures at 78 weather stations across the country hit record lows for the month of December, while average temperatures this month in northern and some central parts of China hit record lows set in 1961, according to the National Meteorologic...

Pakistani police free 290 Baloch activists arrested while protesting extrajudicial killings

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:13:09 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani police Monday freed 290 Baloch activists who were arrested when they attempted to hold a protest last week in the capital, Islamabad. Their release came days after protest organizers gave authorities a deadline to release all those detained. The activists had traveled 1,600 kilometers (about 1,000 miles) on Thursday from Turbat, a town in Baluchistan province, to protest forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in the militancy-ravaged southwest. The protesters were mostly women and some had brought along their children, aged 7-12, when security forces used batons and water canons to disperse and arrest them.They wanted to draw attention to the case of 24-year-old Balaach Mola Bakhsh, who died in November while in police custody in Baluchistan. Authorities said he was killed after militants ambushed the police vehicle transporting him.Police said Bakhsh was carrying explosives when he was arrested. His family insists he is innocent, demanding justi...

Stock market today: Asian shares gain in quiet holiday trading after Wall St’s 8th winning week

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:13:09 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Asian shares were mostly higher on Monday after Wall Street capped its eighth straight winning week with a quiet finish following reports showing inflation on the way down and the economy potentially on the way up.Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 added 0.3% to 33,254.03 and the Taiex in Taiwan gained 0.1%. Bangkok’s SET was flat. The Shanghai Composite index edged 0.1% higher, to 2,918.93. Most markets in the region and beyond were closed for the Christmas holiday.Chinese regulators announced approvals of more than 100 online games and issued a statement expressing support for the industry after draft guidelines issued Friday caused share prices of major games makers like Tencent and Netease to plunge. On Friday, the S&P 500 rose 0.2% to sit less than 1% below its record set nearly two years ago, at 4,754.63. The Dow slipped less than 0.1% to 37,385.97, and the Nasdaq gained 0.2% to 14,992.97.With its eight straight weekly gains, the S&P 500 is in the midst of ...

Wet, mild Christmas for Chicago, but storm Could complicate travel for millions in the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest.

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:13:09 GMT

Christmas Day PlannerChristmas begins with just a slight chance for showers, but the rain will increase throughout the morning.  Widespread rain will then stick around through the afternoon and into the evening, as well.  ESE winds gusting up to 30 mph will make it a little harder to hang onto the umbrella, but the big winter coat won't be needed.  A forecast high of 54º is 40º than the high last Christmas.Widespread rain by midday Monday continuing through the afternoon with possible breaks in the early evening hours but but probably not drying out until later Monday nightChristmas Storm Could Complicate Travel for Millions in Northern Plains and Upper MidwestParts of South Dakota and Nebraska could see up to an inch of snow. Winds from 30-40 mph winds could make travel extremely dangerous.From the National Weather Service:A major winter storm will bring a blizzard with heavy snow and gusty winds to parts of the Northern and Central Plains. Farther north, this same ...

Broncos report card: So many little failures add up to one big stinker for Sean Payton’s team

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:13:09 GMT

Offense — DThe Broncos roared to life late and there’s merit in that. They gave themselves a legitimate chance at winning the game. But they needed to put New England to bed early on Christmas Eve rather than letting them get hyped up on sugar cookies and in the mood to wait up to see Santa. The Broncos had multiple chances to do just that. And they failed in far too many of those. Add another wretched third quarter to the ledger, and it’s hard to see this as any kind of good performance even though the numbers looked closer to season averages by night’s end. Average won’t get it done often enough in the NFL, as the Broncos learned the hard way.Defense — CVance Joseph’s defense forced a turnover on the first play of the night and looked primed for a big-time outing. It held strong through the first half. But by the end of the night, they had left too much on the table. They didn’t get any favors from the offense, first in the failure to build a lead on their hard work and late with ...

Broncos’ playoff hopes go bust on Christmas Eve after comeback falls short against Patriots: “Our margin for error right now is not where it needs to be”

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:13:09 GMT

The Broncos will wake up Monday morning with nothing but coal in their stockings.They’ve got only themselves to blame for a blue, blue, blue, blue Christmas.Needing three wins to close the season and hosting the 3-11 New England Patriots on Christmas Eve, the Broncos marred their own holiday weekend with a loss that all but seals their 2023 fate.The offense: Putrid at the start, roaring to life too late.The other two units: Strong early, only to sustain massive letdowns at critical junctures.The final count: New England 26, Denver 23 after Chad Ryland drilled a 56-yard field goal with 2 seconds left to stick a fork right through the Broncos.The real damage is this: Any hope of making it out of a jumbled AFC playoff picture practically speaking went out the window when the Broncos dropped to 7-8 for the season. It’ll take 10 wins minimum barring something exceedingly unlikely happening. The teams that hit that mark will undoubtedly be more injured than this Denver team is. At least a...

Patriots turn rough start into memorable finish in 26-23 victory over Broncos

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:13:09 GMT

DENVER (AP) — The game couldn’t have started any worse for the New England Patriots — or finished any better.A rare highlight in what’s been a tumultuous season in New England was a gutsy 26-23 victory in Denver on a cold Sunday night that all but eliminated the Broncos from the postseason picture.Quarterback Bailey Zappe lost a fumble on the opening snap and the Patriots surrendered a 16-point lead in the fourth quarter but it all worked out in the end when Chad Ryland drilled a career-long 56-yard field goal with two seconds remaining.It was a blow not only to the Broncos’ playoff chances — which the NFL now calculates at a mere 6% — but also to the Patriots (4-11) and their chances at a higher draft pick. Not that it was on their minds as they celebrated the upset.“I’m on cloud nine, if that’s even a thing,” said Zappe, who engineered the seven-play, 43-yard drive to get the Patriots in position for Ryland’s winning kick and which was aided by two ti...

Pakistani police free 290 Baluch activists arrested while protesting extrajudicial killings

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:13:09 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani police Monday freed 290 Baloch activists who were arrested when they attempted to hold a protest last week in the capital, Islamabad. Their release came days after protest organizers gave authorities a deadline to release all those detained. The activists had traveled 1,600 kilometers (about 1,000 miles) on Thursday from Turbat, a town in Baluchistan province, to protest forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in the militancy-ravaged southwest. The protesters were mostly women and some had brought along their children, aged 7-12, when security forces used batons and water canons to disperse and arrest them.They wanted to draw attention to the case of 24-year-old Balaach Mola Bakhsh, who died in November while in police custody in Baluchistan. Authorities said he was killed after militants ambushed the police vehicle transporting him.Police said Bakhsh was carrying explosives when he was arrested. His family insists he is innocent, demanding justi...

AI pioneer says public discourse on intelligent machines must give ‘proper respect to human agency’

Published Tue, 24 Dec 2024 18:13:09 GMT

She’s an important figure behind today’s artificial intelligence boom, but not all computer scientists thought Fei-Fei Li was on the right track when she came up with the idea for a giant visual database called ImageNet that took years to build.Li, now a founding director of Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, is out with a new memoir that recounts her pioneering work in curating the dataset that accelerated the computer vision branch of AI.The book, “The World I See,” also portrays her formative years that abruptly shifted from China to New Jersey and follows her through academia, Silicon Valley and the halls of Congress as growing commercialization of AI technology brought public attention and a backlash. She spoke with The Associated Press about the book and the current AI moment. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. Q: Your book describes how you envisioned ImageNet as more than just a huge data set. Can ...