Let your mouth speak archive

Sweden beat Russia to win the 60th Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday, in an event described by organizers as beyond politics but marred by boos for the Russian that were apparently prompted by the Ukraine conflict and the Kremlin's anti-gay policies.

Italy took third in Europe's iconic songfest, which this year carried the extra attraction of an entry by Australia. Many were hoping its candidate, Guy Sebastian, would take home the trophy, giving it a place in next year's contest. But Australia, given a wild-card entry this year due to its enthusiastic fan base, came fifth, not enough to secure a spot in 2016.

The race between Russian star Polina Gagarina and Sweden's Mans Zelmerlow went back and forth for most of the balloting as jurors from 40 countries voted along a worldwide audience submitting their preference by phone and app.

Zelmerlow finally triumphed with 365 points, with Gagarina receiving 303.

Sweden's sixth Eurovision victory came 41 years after Swedish group Abba's triumph with "Waterloo" launched their world career. Only Ireland has been more successful, with seven triumphs.

In his pop number "Heroes," the Swede chose to forego the usual elaborate stage effects, relying instead on his strong singing and an innovative backdrop.

Cheers greeted his win. But the crowd's reaction to Gagarina struck a jarring note for those who believed in the contest's slogan, "Building Bridges."


Read More: Sweden wins Eurovision Song Contest while Russia is booed - CBS News

The Mississippi Delta region said goodbye to native son and blues icon B.B. King on Saturday at his funeral in Indianola, Miss.

Mississippi congressman Bennie Thompson read a letter from President Obama, which called King an inspiration to blues lovers everywhere and to up-and-coming artists.

"The blues has lost its king and America has lost a legend," the president wrote. "No one worked harder than B.B. No one did more to spread the gospel of the blues. He gets stuck in your head, he gets you moving, he gets you doing the things you probably shouldn't do — but will always be glad you did. B.B. may be gone but that thrill will be with us forever."

And, Obama predicted, "there's going to be one killer blues session in heaven tonight."

The sharecropper-turned-Rock Hall of Fame member, who won more than a dozen Grammys over the course of his career, died May 14 at his home in Las Vegas at age 89.


Read more: Blues icon B.B. King laid to rest

Two of B.B. King's children have recently alleged that King's business manager and personal assistant poisoned him?

An ever-growing number of games is available on the market and more and more features are incorporated each day. The increase in the player base and game enhancements demand that games work on a network with reliable speed and efficient time response. This article proposes a high speed network infra-structure exclusive for casino games,. This network, called IXGAMES originated from experiments with shared routing through Internet Exchange Point (IXP). IXGAMES opens new business opportunities for operators/ Providers and game companies that, not only will provide financial return, but will also allow them to offer better quality service to their customers

IXGAMES - Implementing Internet Exchange Point, exclusively for Games. Available from: IXGAMES - Implementing Internet Exchange Point, exclusively for Games [accessed Jun 7, 2015].

It's nice when people writing about ixgames. For me that's the only online gambling place on the internet.

A TAX windfall of almost $50 million each year will flow to South Australia from a decision allowing state governments to charge online gambling companies based on the location of the gambler, not the head office of the company.

About 74,000 South Australians have an online gambling account through 19 interstate betting operations, but none of the companies pay any tax in this state.

Treasurer Tom Koutsantonis has told The Advertiser that, following a meeting of state and territory treasurers this month, SA has been given the job to work out how to implement the scheme.

“South Australian clubs and pubs pay their fair share of gambling taxes which go towards providing essential State Government services,’’ Mr Koutsantonis said.

“It is important that online gambling operators pay taxes considering that they are generating profits based on betting activity of South Australians.”

Clubs SA, the SA Council of Social Service and the Australian Hotels Association SA branch support the plan.

Clubs SA represents not-for-profit community clubs which use pokies to raise revenue to be put back into the organisation.

It has argued it is disadvantaged by no-tax paying, online gambling “for-profit” corporations.

A Clubs SA submission to the current State Government tax review, obtained by The Advertiser, shows modelling by a “top four” accountancy firm estimated that the new tax take would be worth $4.7 billion nationally over ten years.

The state’s take of that would be $47 million each year.

The submission states: “So in this state, a tax for online gambling set at 40 per cent to match that of existing ‘for profit’ gambling businesses would generate many millions for South Australia and that would create many options for the State Government’’.

Clubs SA CEO Mike Penfold said online gambling options, which make up about 10 per cent of the market, were drawing revenue from SA-based organisations without paying anything towards public projects like helping problem gamblers.

“All the money we raise from gaming is returned to the community and we pay the highest tax in Australia for not-for-profit organisations,’’ Mr Penfold said.

“What online gambling does is take the revenue out of South Australia.’’

Under current rules, gambling companies pay a $1500 fee to allow them to operate in SA, but no taxes.

The state collects $390 million in tax from gambling companies which are based here and employ South Australians.

“Currently we charge authorised interstate online betting operators a small annual fee,’’ Mr Koutsantonis said.

“Authorisation allows interstate betting operators to advertise and conduct betting operations in South Australia.

“But under the current tax regime, these online betting services pay no tax because they are not based in South Australia.”

As part of authorisation requirements, online betting services are required to report on how much of their business occurs in South Australia, Mr Koutsantonis said.

“At the moment that is self-reported, so if you applied a tax regime based on this information you would need to establish a process of audit and compliance which would be much more reliable,” he said.

“I have asked my department to look at such a model in which we will report back to the other states mid this year and discuss how such a model might work nationally.”




Originally published: No Cookies | The Advertiser

Jurassic World, the fourth film in the series that began with Jurassic Park more than 20 years ago, became the highest global opener of all time with a staggering $511.8 million US in its first days in theatres.

It also devoured a number of U.S. box office records with a $204.6 million take, according to Rentrak estimated on Sunday. Rentrak is a film and entertainment analytics company.

In addition to setting a record for 2015, Jurassic World is now the second-highest U.S. opening of all time, right behind Marvel's The Avengers which took in $207.4 million in 2012. By the time Monday actuals roll in, there is a chance the film could dethrone Avengers.

It's been 14 years since there has been a new Jurassic film in theatres, and the combination of cinematic grandeur, nostalgia and awareness helped Jurassic World far surpass analyst predictions going into the weekend, which had the film on track for a $125-million opening.


Read more: Jurassic World devours global box office record - Arts & Entertainment - CBC News

Well that’s an incredible opening figure for any film but I am not surprised with this as I was expecting this kind of blast with this much awaited and awesome movie.

Experts say the Dutch government’s plans to allow online gambling market in the Netherlands are now unlikely to come into effect until 2017 at the earliest, broadcaster Nos said on Saturday. The legislation, which should have gone through parliament this year, is still pending and MPs have doubts about who should be allowed to enter the Dutch market, Nos said. In addition, charities fear their income may be hit when online gambling is legalised and traditional lotteries lose support. Currently, foreign firms are not supposed to target gamblers in the Netherlands, although the ban is widely ignored. The current laws date back 50 years, before the advent of internet. The Telegraaf said in April more than 200 companies have expressed an interest in a licence to offer online gambling in the Netherlands. Gambling regulator Ksa described the number of inquries as ‘high’ given the estimated size of the illegal market. The Ksa estimates people in the Netherlands spend between €250m and €800m on illegal online gambling a year.


Read more at DutchNews.nl: Law to allow online gambling in the Netherlands faces more delays Law to allow online gambling in the Netherlands faces more delays - DutchNews.nl

More and more countries allowing online gambling. That's very positive for the American market. They cannot stay out forever.

Kennex