Armed with a degree in political science and law, Rebecca Samervel waltzed into journalism after a brief stint in modeling. As a reporter at The Times of India, Mumbai, she covers courts. She is a self-confessed food-a-holic. Travelling, politics and television are her passions. If you want to find her during the week the only place to look is the Bombay high court. Read More 10 foods that are typically loved in Mumbai How to make perfect street style Bhel Puri at home 10 golden rules families should have for happier homes 10 most delicious ways to cook Palak (spinach) Japanese mom turns simple dishes into adorable food art How to make delicious Soybean Pulao at home Lavanya Tripathi is a mesmerizing vision of beauty in sarees ​10 longest living animals​ 10 daily habits of happy couples 8 South Indian delicacies that make for a light mealRob Cross breaks silence after appearing to make an obscene gesture during shock defeat by Scott Williams at the World Darts Championship - as former champion reveals reasons behind his actions at Ally Pally Rob Cross lost 3-1 to Scott Williams in the second round at the Ally Pally Cross was seen making what seemed to be a rude gesture towards the crowd The fifth seed won the first set of the match but then lost the following three By SPENCER MORGAN Published: 23:04 GMT, 24 December 2024 | Updated: 23:17 GMT, 24 December 2024 e-mail View comments Rob Cross has addressed the seemingly obscene gesture he made during Monday's shock defeat to Scott Williams at the World Darts Championship. 2018 champion Rob Cross crashed out in the second round as he lost to last year's semi-finalist. And much of the focus after the match was one moment rather than the upset itself. Cross was seen making what looked to be rude gesture to someone in the crowd as he made his way off stage during a break in play. The Brit appeared to imitate a sexual act and it was all caught on the Sky Sports cameras. Cross has now broken his silence on both his defeat and that moment, taking to social media to declare: 'Massively disappointed to lose out to my friend Scott Williams. Good luck to him for the rest of the tournament. WARNING: RUDE CONTENT Rob Cross appeared to make a rude gesture during his shock defeat to Scott Williams The former world champion insists that he did not mean to cause any offence with the gesture Cross won the first set but then lost the following three to last year's semi-finalist ROB CROSS 😂😂😂😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/VH8A62UUtM — DartsAnonymous (@anonymous_darts) December 23, 2024 'I made a gesture to my manager about how annoyed I was with my performance. If it offended anyone, I apologise. Merry Christmas .' Williams overcame he odds to reach the last four of the World Championship last year and will now take on Germany's Ricardo Pietreczko in the third round Speaking after his win over Cross, he said: 'It's so tough, because Rob is one of my closest friends,' Williams admitted after beating Cross. 'Neither of us were great tonight, but Rob missed doubles and gave me a chance, so when you get given opportunities, you've got to take it. 'I'm always confident, regardless of who I'm playing, but I'm just looking forward to having Christmas with the family now.' He said pre-tournament: 'People have joked, calling me the Michael Buble of darts because I only turn up in October, November and December! Over the last couple of years, that is about right. 'I want to try and change that next year by getting into a couple more TV events, just to take my game to the next level. It's about finding consistency with my practice.' Share or comment on this article: Rob Cross breaks silence after appearing to make an obscene gesture during shock defeat by Scott Williams at the World Darts Championship - as former champion reveals reasons behind his actions at Ally Pally e-mail Add comment5 yen to php 。

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LANDOVER, Md. (AP) — Austin Ekeler was concussed in the final minute of the Washington Commanders’ loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday and taken to a hospital for further evaluation. Coach Dan Quinn said he and general manager Adam Peters got to visit with Ekeler before he went to the hospital. A team spokesperson said the decision to transport Ekeler was made out of an abundance of caution. Ekeler, 29, was injured when he was tackled by Damone Clark and Nick Vigil on a kickoff return with 9 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Ekeler remained down on the field for some time being attended to by medical personnel, and players from each team knelt around him with their helmets off. Lineman Andrew Wylie was also concussed and fellow running back Brian Robinson Jr. sprained an ankle in Washington’s third consecutive defeat. Ekeler is in his first season with the Commanders after spending his first nine years in the NFL with the Los Angeles Chargers. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nflThe AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll is back every week throughout the season! Get the poll delivered straight to your inbox with AP Top 25 Poll Alerts. Sign up here . LAS VEGAS (AP) — Dedan Thomas Jr. scored 15 points as UNLV beat UC Riverside 66-53 on Saturday. Thomas had five rebounds and five assists for the Rebels (6-5). Jeremiah Cherry scored 12 points and added three blocks. Jailen Bedford and Jaden Henley both added nine points. The Highlanders (8-5) were led by Barrington Hargress, who posted 17 points and two steals. Nate Pickens added 10 points and six rebounds for UC Riverside. Parker Strauss finished with six points. ___ The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .

Lots of people, especially city dwellers and renters, don’t have rooftops where they can install solar panels to generate some of the electricity they use in their daily lives. Community solar offers a partial solution for some, but it is not available everywhere. In Germany, more than 1.5 million people have installed Balkonkraftwerke , which translates as “balcony power plants.” Almost every apartment has a balcony with a railing to keep folks from tumbling into the street below. If it gets any sun exposure during the day, balcony solar panels can be mounted to those railings to make electricity that helps power a home. Proponents say balcony solar panels are easy to install on railings (and uninstall if need be in the event of storms). Once in place, people simply plug a micro-inverter into an available wall outlet. Add a small battery to store any solar energy not needed right away and you have your own personal micro-minigrid inside your home. The systems sell for between $500 and $1000, depending on the number of solar panels purchased. A typical system consists of two 150-watt panels and can pay for itself in a few years. It is also highly portable, so it can easily be transported from one apartment to another if the owner moves. According to Grist , Germany now has more than 550,000 balcony solar installations , half of which were installed in 2023. During the first six months of 2024, Germany added 200 megawatts of balcony solar. Regulations limit each system to just 800 watts, which is enough to power a small fridge or charge a laptop, but the cumulative effect is nudging the country toward its clean energy goals while giving apartment dwellers, who make up more than half of the German population, an easy way to save money and address the climate crisis. Matthias Weyland, who lives in Keil, tells Grist , “I love the feeling of charging the bike when the sun is shining, or having the washing machine run when the sun is shining, and to know that it comes directly from the sun. It’s a small step you can take as a tenant” and an act of “self-efficacy, to not just sit and wait until the climate crisis gets worse.” Balcony solar started a decade ago, but didn’t really catch on until 2019 when the German government enacted the first technical regulations for plug-in solar devices, allowing balcony solar systems to use standard electrical plugs and feed into the grid. That prompted an influx of plug-in devices and advocates to promote the technology. The pandemic helped fuel the surge in popularity as people spent more time working from home. The escalating energy price of electricity that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led more Germans to consider balcony solar. “People just did anything they could to reduce their energy bills,” said Wolfgang Gründinger, who works with the clean energy company Enpal . In April, the German government simplified permitting and registration requirements, and in July, federal lawmakers passed renter protections that prevent landlords from arbitrarily blocking installations. Cities throughout Germany, including Berlin, have offered millions of euros in subsidies to install balcony solar. Gründinger and experts at the German Solar Industry Association noted that the devices don’t generate enough power to strain the grid, and their standardized design and safety features allow them to integrate into balconies smoothly and easily. Many of them like the idea of producing energy at home and gaining a bit of independence from the grid. The system also provides a tangible way to take climate action. “It makes the energy transition feel a little more concrete and not so abstract,” said Helena Holenweger of Environmental Action Germany. She installed a balcony solar system on top of her garage about a year ago. “You can literally do something about it.” Holenweger and others say balcony solar led them to reevaluate their understanding of electricity consumption and take steps to reduce it. “For lots of people, energy is just something that comes out of your socket. You never think about how it gets there or how it works.” The systems don’t include battery storage, so the juice they generate must be used immediately, leading people to plan the best time to run the washing machine to ensure they’re using renewable energy. In that way, it becomes something of a game. Many balcony solar kits feature an app to track daily energy generation. That has become something of a scorecard for many who have balcony solar systems. “They screenshot that, they send it around to their Facebook groups, family WhatsApp groups. They’re super proud,” Gründinger said. Manufacturers say that installing a couple of 300-watt panels will give savings of up to 30% on a typical household’s electricity bill, but there are lots of variables that come with that claim. It depends on which direction the balcony faces and whether the panels are shaded part of the day. Perhaps the biggest benefit is the increased awareness of the need to find solutions to climate emissions. People with balcony solar systems influence others and it seems reasonable to expect they will vote for leaders who share their concerns. In Spain, where two thirds of the population live in apartments and installing panels on the roof requires the consent of a majority of the building’s residents, this DIY technology has obvious advantages. With solar balconies, no such consent is required unless the facade is listed as being of historic interest or there is a specific prohibition from the residents’ association or the local authority. According to The Guardian , as long as the installation does not exceed 800 watts — about what a typical hairdryer uses — one doesn’t require certification. “The beauty of the solar balconies is they are flexible, cheap and plug straight into the domestic network via a converter, so you don’t have to pay for the installation,” says Santiago Vernetta, CEO of Tornasol Energy , one of Spain’s main suppliers. As the cost of solar panels continues to fall, Vernetta says the labor cost of installing rooftop solar is often greater than the price of the materials. He adds that the vertical surface area of cities is far greater than that of available roofs and that balcony panels benefit more than roof panels from the low winter sun. Raquel Paule, director of the Fundación Renovables in Madrid, says the increasingly popular energy communities in which residents benefit from solar installations on the roofs of nearby schools and sports centers are another way around the problem of majority consent. “Balcony power is another piece in the puzzle. They are another step towards using the built environment to generate electricity. Paule emphasizes that self sufficiency, whether in individual households or energy communities, is a vital part of energy transition, especially for cities which depend on outside sources for about 97% of their electricity. “Cities need to become more self-sufficient by generating more,” she says. “Energy transition involves a change from cities depending on a centralised system with big companies supplying electricity to a more widely distributed, more democratic and more participative model, and this is what the energy companies are scared of. Big energy companies should be pushing for renewables because they’ve played a big part in getting us into this situation. Instead of creating obstacles, they should be facilitators by giving everyone access to the grid that they control.” “Plug-in solar is part of the whole array of options,” says Michael Schmela, director of market intelligence at SolarPower Europe, an umbrella group for 320 European solar power organisations. “What’s special about balcony power is it’s so versatile and you can install it as part of the building. This is the next step. The technology is there but the regulations and architects have to embrace it. There are so many solutions and balcony solar is the latest trend. For years solar has been the fastest growing and cheapest in the energy sector,” Schmela says, adding that what is needed now is battery development and greater cohesion between wind, solar, and other renewables. Vernetta says Spain has been slow to catch on to balcony power, but he remains confident the technology will take off. “If 1.5 million Germans have bought solar balcony kits there must be something in it,” he says. CleanTechnica's Comment Policy LinkedIn WhatsApp Facebook Bluesky Email RedditChuck Woolery, smooth-talking game show host of 'Love Connection' and 'Scrabble,' dies at 83