Monthly Archives: August 2024

Mugshot of alleged drunk driver who killed NHL star Johnny Gaudreau and brother Matthew in tragic accident released

[ad_1] By Oliver Salt Published: 11:32 EDT, 30 August 2024 | Updated: 13:56 EDT, 30 August 2024 NHL star Johnny Gaudreau and younger brother Matthew were tragically killed in a bicycle accident on Thursday night after being hit by an alleged drunk driver. The driver – 43-year-old Sean M. Higgins of Woodstown, New Jersey – is suspected of being under the influence of alcohol at the time of the fatal crash in Salem County, Oldmans Township. In documents seen by DailyMail.com, Higgins admitted to cops that he drank ‘5-6 beers’ before getting behind the wheel of his Jeep Grand Cherokee and crashing into the back of Johnny and Matthew on Thursday night. On Friday, police released a photo of him looking glassy-eyed in his mugshot after he was charged with two counts of vehicular homicide with no bail or bond. Sean M. Higgins, 43, is accused of killing NHL star Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew after driving under the influence of alcohol Johnny (right), 31, and Matthew (left), 29, were struck and killed by Higgins’ vehicle while out cycling together on the eve of their sister’s wedding Johnny, 31, and Matthew, 29, were struck and killed by Higgins’ vehicle on Pennsville Auburn Road near Stumpy Lane, according to details from local news station 6 ABC, while out cycling together on the eve of their sister Katie’s wedding. The brothers were expected to be groomsmen for Katie when she marries partner Devin Joyce on Friday.  Johnny leaves behind wife Meredith, whom he married in September 2021, and two young children in one-year-old daughter Noa and baby boy Johnny, who was born just six months ago.  It is believed Meredith was due to be a maid of honor at her sister-in-law’s wedding this weekend. Matthew, meanwhile, leaves behind wife Madeline just over three years on from their wedding in New Jersey. Johnny was an NHL veteran who played 11 professional seasons in the league and was about to enter his third with the Columbus Blue Jackets this year. He played his first nine with the Calgary Flames, a tenure that included becoming one of the sport’s top players and a fan favorite across North America.  Matthew was a professional hockey player in the ECHL, most recently playing for the Worcester Railers in the 2021-22 season. He also spent a season with the Reading Royals. Share or comment on this article: Mugshot of alleged drunk driver who killed NHL star Johnny Gaudreau and brother Matthew in tragic accident released [ad_2] Source link

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Zuckerberg regrets bowing to White House ‘pressure’ over Covid

[ad_1] Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg says he regrets bowing to what he calls pressure from the Biden administration to “censor” content on Facebook and Instagram during the coronavirus pandemic. In a letter sent to a US House committee chair, he said some material – including humour and satire – was taken down in 2021 under pressure from senior officials. The White House has defended its actions, saying it encouraged “responsible actions to protect public health and safety”. Mr Zuckerberg also said his firm briefly “demoted” content relating to Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, ahead of the 2020 election, after the FBI warned of “a potential Russian disinformation” operation. It later became clear that this content was not part of such an operation, Mr Zuckerberg said, and it should not have been temporarily taken down. Mr Zuckerberg did not give further detail about the actions he regretted during the pandemic. At that time, his business removed posts for a variety of reasons. Mr Zuckerberg said the decisions made were the decisions of his business, but that the “government pressure was wrong”. He continued: “We made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn’t make today.” Mr Zuckerberg said he and Meta would be ready to “push back” if something similar happened in the future. His letter was addressed to Jim Jordan, the chair of the House judiciary committee, which has been investigating content moderation on online platforms. Republicans said the letter was a “big win for free speech“. In a statement issued to the website Politico, the White House stood by its actions. It said: “Our position has been clear and consistent: we believe tech companies and other private actors should take into account the effects their actions have on the American people, while making independent choices about the information they present.” Mr Zuckerberg’s comments on Hunter Biden refer to the story of a laptop that was abandoned by the president’s son at a repair shop in Delaware – as first reported by the New York Post. The newspaper claimed emails found on the computer suggested his business abroad had influenced US foreign policy while his father was vice-president. The president and his family have denied any wrongdoing. The story became a notable right-wing talking point in the US, and a point of contention as some social media platforms censored the content. Mr Zuckerberg said the story was temporarily demoted on his platforms while going through a fact-check – after a warning from the FBI of a potential Russian disinformation operation, and “in retrospect, we shouldn’t have demoted the story,” Mr Zuckerberg wrote. “We’ve changed our policies and processes to make sure this doesn’t happen again.” Mr Zuckerberg also said he did not plan to make any more contributions to supporting electoral infrastructure. In 2020, he donated $400m (£302m) via his philanthropic Chan Zuckerberg Initiative which was intended to help government offices conduct the election during the pandemic. However, misinformation spread rapidly on social media accusing Mr Zuckerberg of effectively using a loophole to skirt maximum donation limits in a bid to get Mr Biden elected. Mr Zuckerberg said his donations “were designed to be non-partisan”. “Still, despite the analyses I’ve seen showing otherwise, I know that some people believe this work benefited one party over the other. “My goal is to be neutral and not play a role on way or another – or to even appear to be playing a role – so I don’t plan on making a similar contribution this cycle.” [ad_2] Source link

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Deregister Anonymous Functions in WordPress

[ad_1] When I first started writing about anonymous functions in WordPress back in January, I didn’t anticipate it spanning over three articles reaching into the fourth month of the year. But here we are. That said, this final article in the series aims to help provide a short introduction to a number of technical ideas both in PHP and WordPress to explain why deregistering anonymous functions is nearly impossible. And it provides a way for us to actually get contextual information about every single hook and callback in an instance of WordPress so we can handle the anonymous functions as we see fit all through the use of a plugin. Recall from the first article, the reason I started writing about anonymous functions in WordPress all stemmed from a tweet (or post or whatever they are currently called) that stated: I do wish developers would stop using WordPress hooks with (what I think are called) anonymous functions […]. They are very hard if not impossible to unhook. And the short of it is that it’s true: Anonymous functions are easy to register against WordPress hooks and are difficult to deregister. But it’s not impossible. Deregister Anonymous Functions in WordPress This is not what it means to remove a function from a hook. If you’ve stumbled across this article, here’s this is what the first two articles covered (should you be interested in reading them): In the latter, I provided some examples for how to programmatically identify the anonymous functions that exist in the instance of WordPress in which said code is running. Further, I provided an example function to include in the code so you can easily trace what the aforementioned code was doing. A Brief Summary of Anonymous Functions in WordPress Though I obviously recommend reading those articles (1, 2), here is a brief summary of what’s covered between the two of them: Anonymous functions (also called closures in PHP) are useful when you have a small, one-time callback that doesn’t need to be referenced elsewhere in your code. When an anonymous function is registered with a WordPress hook, PHP generates a unique ID for the closure using the spl_object_hash() function, and associates this ID with the callback function. This allows WordPress to track and manage callbacks even when they are anonymous functions. I show how to get the closure ID generated by PHP for a specific anonymous function callback. I talk about the global $wp_filter object and explain how it holds information on all registered actions and filters in WordPress. I share information for how to easily list all functions/callbacks hooked to a specific hook like wp_enqueue_scripts. I provide an example for how to create your own anonymous function hooked to wp_enqueue_scripts for testing purposes. The debug_backtrace() PHP function is used to render information about the call stack, including the object representing the anonymous function. Through the debug_backtrace() function, I show how to obtain the internal ID generated by PHP for a given anonymous function that’s registered with a specific hook. And at the end of the second article, I wrote: In the next article, I’ll walk through a process – regardless of how manual it is – for how to deregister the functions. How To Identify Anonymous Functions in WordPress And that’s what I intend to do in this article. Further, I’ll share a utility that I’ve written that helps give context to each function – anonymous or not – and where it’s located within the instance of WordPress where it’s running A Brief Survey of Technical Details Though you can skip to the end of the article to see the practical aspect of locating anonymous functions and deregistering them, there are technical concepts worth reviewing that are helpful in understanding why dealing with anonymous functions are problematic and the strategies we can use to locate them. Is this how you picture anonymous functions? Closures and Anonymous Functions The terms ‘anonymous functions’ and ‘closures’ are often used interchangeably in WordPress. Though they are similar, there are also differences worth noting. Consider the definitions of each: A closure is a special type of anonymous function that has access to variables from the outer scope even after the outer function has returned. It’s like having a function within a function and the inner function has access to the variables in the function that contains it. An anonymous function is a general term for any function defined without a name. In PHP, anonymous functions can be used just like named functions, but they are typically used as callback functions or for short, one-off tasks. They are similar in the following ways: Both are defined without a name, hence the term “anonymous.” They are typically used when you need a small, one-time-use function without the need to give it a specific name. Both can access variables from the enclosing scope through variable capturing. This means they can “close over” variables and maintain their values even after the enclosing function has finished executing. While both closures and anonymous functions are anonymous and can capture variables from the surrounding scope, closures have additional capabilities related to variable scope and lifetime management; however, in common use, the term “closure” is often used to refer to any anonymous function, leading to the confusion between the two terms. So when discussing anonymous functions in the context of WordPress hooks, it’s absolutely more accurate to state ‘anonymous functions.’ In short, perhaps it’s easy to remember it by saying “all closures are anonymous functions but not all anonymous functions are closures.” Garbage Collection in PHP Collecting garbage computers is not the same as garbage collection in a computer. When variables or objects are created in PHP, memory is allocated to store their values; however, when these variables or objects are no longer needed, they occupy memory space unnecessarily. Because of that, these values are referred to as garbage. Periodically, PHP will run an internal mechanism looking for values in memory that are no longer needed and free

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Netflix fans in frenzy after new documentary about Michigan football ‘sign stealer’ Connor Stalions

[ad_1] Opinionated sports fans flooded X with comments following the debut of Untold: Sign Stealer, which featured fallen football analyst Connor Stalions. Stalions told his side of the story regarding the University of Michigan sign-stealing scandal in the documentary that Netflix released on Friday. Since its release, X users have been split in their opinion about Stalion’s antics, with one person even calling him an ‘arrogant liar’ in their tweet. However, many college football fans have come to his defense by praising his love of football, and suggesting he coach at more colleges. Besides Stalions, his friends, parents, and multiple sports journalists gave their opinions on the sports scandal. Former University of Michigan football analyst Connor Stalions told his side of the story in a new Netflix documentary about the infamous sign-stealing scandal Connor Stalions reacts to the suggestion that he secretly attended games after his suspension from college football in 2023 👀 Untold: Sign Stealer is now playing. pic.twitter.com/qUV7TlSIa5 — Netflix (@netflix) August 29, 2024 Stalions dreamed of becoming the head football coach at the University of Michigan. Michigan hired Stalions as an off-field analyst after he left the marines in 2022. Stalions was lucky enough to become a member of the coaching staff during the 2023 season, when an undefeated Michigan went on to win the National Championship. However, the sign-stealing scandal, which began in October 2023, led to the NCAA opening an investigation into the school’s football program. The organization later confirmed that Stalions was the focus of the investigation, and was accused of stealing opposing teams’ signals at their games, some of which he attend incognito. He allegedly filmed the opposing teams’ sidelines and later decoded its coaching staff’s play-calling signs. Central Michigan University opened their own investigation a month later after photos of what appeared to be Stalions at various games emerged online. All of his actions were Level I NCAA violations, and after the school suspended Stalions with pay, he resigned in November 2023. In the documentary, Stalions claims to NCAA officials that he never performed any in-person scouting. ‘I did not obtain signals through in-person scouting,’ he said before adding he didn’t recall ‘directing someone to go to a game’ on his behalf. However, he also admitted that ‘there are some people who attended games using tickets that I purchased and recorded parts of those games.’ In another moment, Stalions is confronted with a picture of him attending another team’s game on the sidlelines. Holding up the photo, Stalions says, ‘I mean, I don’t even thing this guy looks at me.’  The University of Michigan hired Stalions as an off-field analyst in 2022. The sign-stealing scandal began just months after the Wolverines won the 2023 National Championship Following the investigation, the school also fired its football team’s linebacker coach Chris Partridge, and then-head coach Jim Harbaugh was penalized by the NCAA. Stalions continues to be a Wolverine fan, and is Detroit Mumford High School football team’s defensive coordinator.  Despite violating NCAA rules, many believe that Stalions was simply doing his best to help the team in whatever way possible.  Stalions’ social media supporters have requested he go back to coaching, and that he is a ‘hero’ despite his actions. ‘Connor Stalions cost @Vol_Football a national championship… But that man loved football more than I thought you could; so can’t hate it,’ an X user tweeted. Another X user wrote: ‘Cowboys need to hire Connor Stalions to put on a 49ers polo and just walk around the team facility loudly spreading gossip and rumors to further the emotional downfall of San Fran.’ ‘I just finished the Connor Stalions documentary. I have bad news if you think that made Michigan look bad. It absolutely did not,’ one X user tweeted.  ‘He was just smarter than everyone and Ohio State fans look like cry babies. Penn State fans too but that’s just a constant thing tbh.’ Various X users have either supported or trashed the former football analyst for his actions Some football fans who criticized the former analyst in the wake of the documentary also spoke ill of Jim Harbaugh – former Michigan and current Los Angeles Chargers coach. ‘Connor Stalions obviously graduated from the Jim Harbaugh school of lying,’ an X user tweeted. They’ve also called Stalions a ‘liar’ and one X user referred to him as the ‘master of persuasion.’  Football fans have also trashed the University of Michigan’s team in general, and praised the Buckeyes for being a ‘better team.’ ‘Ohio State couldn’t stop the run in 2021, changed their signs before the 2022 game and Connor Stalions was unemployed for the 2023 game,’ wrote a tweeter.  ‘But keep making excuses to distract from the fact that Michigan has simply been the better football team. Whatever helps you sleep at night.’ [ad_2] Source link

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Our First Look at the Upcoming Twenty Twenty-Five Default Theme

[ad_1] If you’re a fan of default WordPress themes, I have great news! On August 15, we got our first look at the upcoming Twenty Twenty-Five default theme in this WordPress.org post. The new Twenty Twenty-Five theme will be released as part of WordPress 6.7 (which is currently scheduled for release on November 12, 2024). The design is being led by Beatriz Fialho, an Automattic-sponsored contributor who also led design for last year’s Twenty Twenty-Four theme. Carolina Nymark and Juanfra Aldasoro will be leading development for the theme. According to Fialho, “one recurring idea was that simple things should be intuitive while complex things should be possible.” To make that happen, Twenty Twenty-Five utilizes a minimalist base design while including tons of patterns and style variations to let you easily customize it to be your own.  It will also include a bunch of different blog templates, all of which you’ll be able to customize using the Site Editor. Currently, there are dedicated layouts for a simple blog, a photo blog (using a sort of justified grid), and a complex blog (which uses a magazine-type layout). Click image to enlarge Looking at the preview images, it kind of makes me think of Ikea – and that’s a compliment! I like its minimal looks and I think there are some great-looking patterns that users will be able to play around with. If you’d like to share your feedback on the design, you can do so by leaving comments on the public Figma file. You will need a Figma account to leave a comment, but it’s free to do so. There’s also some discussion on the WordPress.org blog post that I linked above. Or, you’re also free to share your thoughts in the comments section below if you’d like to connect with the WPShout community! … Don’t forget to join our crash course on speeding up your WordPress site. Learn more below: Was this article helpful? No Thanks for your feedback! Or start the conversation in our Facebook group for WordPress professionals. Find answers, share tips, and get help from other WordPress experts. Join now (it’s free)! [ad_2] Source link

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