tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18295443452991267692024-03-06T00:00:43.786-08:00BorneomagFree Responsive Magazine Blogger TemplatesThemes Paperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179566147787886404noreply@blogger.comBlogger33125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1829544345299126769.post-32985682253632203042015-02-08T17:19:00.001-08:002015-02-08T17:19:53.402-08:00Lionel Messi Stars as Rampant Barcelona thrash Athletic Bilbao <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A magical Lionel Messi produced another devastating attacking show as Barcelona thumped Athletic Bilbao 5-2 in La Liga on Sunday to move within a point of the leaders, Real Madrid. The Catalan side took full advantage of Real’s 4-0 derby defeat by the champions, Atlético Madrid, on Saturday with a victory that moved them up to 53 points. Atlético are three points adrift of Barcelona. <br /><br />Barça took the lead from a Messi free-kick that deflected off the wall and wrong-footed the goalkeeper, Gorka Iraizoz, after 15 minutes. The Argentinian then took on the role of provider. First he played in Luis Suárez, who fired home from 20 yards, a goal that took the pressure off the Uruguayan, who had not scored in six games and earlier had a header saved from point-blank range by Iraizoz. <br /><br />Mikel Rico pulled a goal back for the hosts in the 59th minute but their celebrations had barely died down when Oscar De Marcos put the ball into his own net from a Messi cross. Messi continued at the heart of Barcelona’s play and set up Neymar for a clinical finish after 65 minutes. Athletic, to their credit, kept attacking and Aritz Aduriz made it 4-2 but then they had Xabier Etxeita dismissed for a high tackle on Suarez. <br /><br />The substitute Pedro still had time for Barça’s fifth, scoring from close range with Messi again playing a part in the build-up. Earlier Valencia’s Pablo Piatti set them on the way to a 2-1 victory at Espanyol as they moved up to fourth by leapfrogging Sevilla, who slumped to a 2-1 defeat away to Getafe [<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/feb/08/athletic-bilbao-barcelona-la-liga-match-report" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>]. Themes Paperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179566147787886404noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1829544345299126769.post-18295583985561639552015-02-06T19:30:00.000-08:002015-02-06T19:30:07.082-08:00Cuba Publishes Photos of Fidel Castro to Quiet Rumors of Poor Health<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Cuban state media released the first photographs of former president Fidel Castro in nearly six months in a bid to quiet rumors that his health is failing. The images showed the 88-year-old Castro at his home along with his wife Dalia during a meeting with the leader of a students' union, and were published in the state-run newspaper Granma and other official media.<br />
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Castro had remained quiet publicly after the United States and Cuba announced in December that they were going to restore diplomatic relations after a half century of enmity stemming from the Cold War.That silence prompted chatter on social media and in foreign media that Castro was sick or even had died.<br />
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The article accompanying the new photos said the meeting took place January 23. The headline says, "Fidel is extraordinary." The photos show Castro wearing a blue sweat-suit with a blue-checked collared shirt.The images come after weeks of feverish speculation concerning the Cuban revolutionary leader's medical condition after he disappeared from the public eye.<br />
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The last time he was seen in public was January 8, 2014, when he attended an art gallery opening near his home.Swirling rumours of Castro's demise have cropped up often since he stepped down from office during a health crisis in 2006.Raul Castro, the longtime armed forces chief, took his brother's place at Cuba's helm.<br />
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The Granma article said that the meeting between Castro and the student leader came four days before Castro finally broke his silence on the diplomatic breakthrough with the US and said that, although he was wary of his old enemy Washington, he did not oppose it and viewed the historic change as a "positive step."<br />
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Perdomo said his talks with Castro were as if he were talking to an old friend.He said he got a call the night before from Castro and was moved when he finally heard a voice he had often heard from afar. "How are you, Randy,?" said Castro, according to Perdomo.He said they talked about the articles that Castro has published in Granma, and about astronomy and the importance of science in human advancement.<br />
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Last week the communist leader met with a Brazilian theologian, Frei Betto, who advocates liberation theology -- the idea that it is the Catholic Church's responsibility to help the poor."The commander is in good health and in good spirits," Betto said the next day. But no photos of the meeting were published.<br />
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Castro took notes on what Betto said, according to the Brazilian. Betto said he found the former Cuban leader "in good health, thin but lucid." In mid-January Castro sent a letter to Argentina football legend Diego Maradona -- a friend of his -- and this also eased fears that he was on his last legs [<a href="http://news.yahoo.com/cuba-publishes-photos-fidel-castro-quiet-rumors-poor-053244056.html" target="_blank">Yahoo</a>].Themes Paperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179566147787886404noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1829544345299126769.post-42616926856456640512015-02-06T17:10:00.000-08:002015-02-06T19:10:50.930-08:00Republicans, Feeling Shut Out, Question Obama’s Legislative Intentions <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Four days before President Obama unveiled a sweeping $60 billion vision of free community college for millions of Americans, his staff reached out to Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, a former education secretary and a Republican authority on the issue.<br /><br />But even as they invited Mr. Alexander to ride with Mr. Obama aboard Air Force One for the announcement in Knoxville, Tenn., last month, White House aides made it clear that they were informing the senator about the plan, not consulting him. In return, Mr. Alexander was uncompromising: He would not support the president’s big idea.<br /><br />“They let us know what they were planning; they didn’t ask for advice on developing a proposal,” Mr. Alexander said in an interview. “I would have suggested a different approach.” <br /> <br />As the president travels across the country promoting a bold and expensive domestic agenda for his last two years in office — including a trip on Friday to Indiana to push his community college proposal — his strategy on Capitol Hill is raising questions about what he hopes to accomplish.<br /><br />Is he trying to pass legislation in cooperation with an often hostile Republican-controlled Congress? Or is he mainly trying to bring attention to issues that he sees as burnishing his legacy and that will set the table for the 2016 presidential campaign?<br /><br />Mr. Obama has so far found little traction with Congress on major domestic policy proposals related to child care, paid sick leave, tax policy and higher education. His legislative aides have struggled to find Republicans willing to endorse the legislation. Few Republicans say they have even been approached.<br /><br />“You would think that he would have reached out by now to people like me who have a background on it,” said Representative Bradley Byrne, Republican of Alabama, who served for years as the chancellor of that state’s community college system. “None of that has happened.”<br /><br />Mr. Byrne said he opposed Mr. Obama’s approach, but was eager to discuss other options. “It’s not like I’m hiding,” he said. “Everyone knows who I am and my background.”<br /><br />Other Republicans on Capitol Hill say that if Mr. Obama’s aim is to get things done, he will have to abandon many of his domestic policy ideas to focus on areas of mutual interest like trade and a business tax overhaul. <br /> <br />“We think their time is much better spent on things other than the liberal, pie-in-the-sky ideas,” said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.<br /><br />The president’s team has made some headway with the opposition on a handful of issues, including efforts to improve cybersecurity, invest in infrastructure and advance trade deals. On Thursday, the White House announced a Republican sponsor for a bill to safeguard data collected from children in schools.<br /><br />White House officials insist that they are pursuing an aggressive legislative strategy to win passage of the president’s college plan. They also say that the president’s efforts to win support outside Washington — among mayors, governors and the public — are intended to build pressure on Congress to act.<br /><br /> “We are building momentum around the country to bring the debate more forcefully back to Washington,” said Cecilia Muñoz, the director of the White House Domestic Policy Council.<br /><br />White House officials said the administration had reached out to a dozen Republican lawmakers about the college proposal, although Ms. Muñoz declined to name them because the discussions were private. She disputed the idea that the administration was not aggressively pursuing legislation.<br /><br />“If your question is: Is this a serious proposal?” she said. “Absolutely.”<br /><br />But the rollout for what the White House called “America’s College Promise” illustrates the tension between the administration’s desire to put Mr. Obama’s imprimatur on an issue and the need to enlist allies on Capitol Hill and along the lobbying corridor of K Street.<br /><br />Officials from the White House and the Education Department told top lawmakers in both parties about the plan only the night before it was announced on Jan. 9.<br /><br />Community college advocacy groups in Washington that would need to be on the front lines of a lobbying effort received a similar courtesy call. Officials for the groups said the president’s aides had spent little, if any, time working out the details of the proposal with their experts.<br /><br />“I am not aware of any outreach,” said a member of one advocacy group, who insisted on anonymity to avoid antagonizing the White House. “I’m not aware that they have even tried.”<br /><br />Now, weeks after Mr. Obama pledged in his State of the Union address to “lower the cost of community college — to zero,” White House officials acknowledge that the idea is headed for a “long slog” in the months ahead.Themes Paperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179566147787886404noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1829544345299126769.post-89613059608700737902015-02-05T21:54:00.001-08:002015-02-05T21:54:23.381-08:00Neymar: Playing alongside Lionel Messi has made me better <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Barcelona forward Neymar claims playing alongside Lionel Messi has helped improve as a footballer. Brazilian Neymar has claimed 22 goals in all competitions this season, already nine more than his total haul last term. Barca’s new attacking triumvirate of Neymar, Messi and Luis Suarez is really starting to show signs of promise, the trio scoring combined 59 goals for the club in all competitions so far.<br />
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They may play for rival South American countries but Neymar admitted to idolising the Argentine, admitting playing alongside Messi has enhanced his own game. “When you play next to Messi, everything is going to be easy, because I am playing with one of my idols,” he said. “It’s very easy to play with Messi. It’s very easy to play with a big star like him.”<br />
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Speaking in Doha yesterday at the launch of a second TV advert celebrating the partnership between Barcelona and principal shirt sponsors Qatar Airways, Neymar also revealed he doesn’t feel any stress playing for the Blaugrana or Brazil. Neymar is idolised in his homeland and an entire nation pinned their hopes of World Cup glory on the young frontman’s shoulders when it hosted the 2014 tournament.<br />
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Despite the expectations, and playing for one of the biggest club sides in the world, Neymar says he feels no pressure when he steps onto the field. “There is no stress, any kind of stress playing for either Barcelona or the Brazilian national team,” he said. “It’s an honour and I’m very proud to play for both of the teams.” <br /><br />Neymar appeared alongside Gerard Pique at the Four Seasons hotel in Doha as the airline jointly revealed an exclusive 60-second preview of the new commercial which will air worldwide from next week. In the ad, Neymar, Pique, Messi, Suarez and Andres Iniesta visit a number of destinations within the airline’s global network, including the Maldives, Dallas, Paris and Seoul [<a href="http://sport360.com/article/spanish-liga-bbva/32348/neymar-playing-alongside-lionel-messi-has-made-me-better" target="_blank">Sport 360</a>].Themes Paperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179566147787886404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1829544345299126769.post-46004939471496795112015-02-05T21:17:00.000-08:002015-02-05T21:17:10.416-08:00Barcelona could change Camp Nou name in new deal with Qatar Airways<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium may incorporate Qatar Airways into its name as part of a future sponsorship deal. The airline’s chief executive officer, Akbar al-Baker, said: “Everything is a possibility for our company, we’re open to surprises and one of these could be connected to the name of Camp Nou. Qatar Airways and Barcelona have the same values.<br />
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It is possible that our name is added to Camp Nou.” Last month the Barcelona president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, cast doubt on an extension to the current €165m (£123.2m) five-year deal with Qatar Sports Investments by saying that social and political issues in Qatar had led to a rethink.<br /><br />“We will look at other options – we are obliged to do that,” he said. “It ends in 2016. We are sensitive to the current situation in Qatar, which has changed since four years ago. Now there are social and political aspects which were not there when we signed.” <br /><br />However, speaking at the Qatar Airways event , Javier Faus, Barcelona’s vice-president, said he expected the partnership to continue. “We need a new sponsor, we have zero problems with Qatar, so it will be a quick decision,” he said. Real Madrid’s president, Florentino Pérez, was recently caught on camera admitting that the Bernabéu could be renamed the Abu Dhabi Bernabéu [<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/feb/05/barcelona-could-change-camp-nou-name-qatar-airways" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>].Themes Paperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179566147787886404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1829544345299126769.post-21391057724878911622015-02-05T19:04:00.000-08:002015-02-06T19:07:45.247-08:00White House Accelerates Drive to Improve Data Privacy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The White House accelerated its efforts on Thursday to bolster data privacy laws and announced a bid to scrutinize discriminatory pricing on the Internet, pressing to exert control on the use of data in Americans’ lives. A year after President Obama ordered a review of the vast collection and use of digital information by private companies, his top advisers announced that they had recruited a Republican ally for a bill to protect data collected from students’ educational apps. They said they were redoubling efforts to push broader measures, so far stalled in Congress, to safeguard consumer privacy.<br /><br />And in a report released by Mr. Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, White House officials said they would scrutinize companies’ use of personal data to charge different customers different prices online. “This big data revolution presents incredible opportunities to transform health care, boost economic productivity and to make government work better and save taxpayer dollars,” said John D. Podesta, the counselor to the president, who has been leading the effort, “but at the same time, those technologies raise concerns about how we protect personal privacy and our other values.”<br /><br />The president asked Mr. Podesta, who will leave his White House position Feb. 13, to lead the review last year after the leaks by Edward J. Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor. The renewed push from the White House came on the day after Anthem, one of the nation’s largest health insurers, said that the personal information of tens of millions of its customers, including its chief executive, had been compromised in a “very sophisticated external cyberattack.”<br /><br />Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said the breach was a “useful opportunity” to highlight Mr. Obama’s cybersecurity and privacy proposals. “We are hopeful that by working with Congress, we can make some important progress and take some steps that would actually safeguard the American people and their data,” Mr. Earnest said. The White House announced that its student-privacy initiative would be sponsored by Representative Luke Messer, Republican of Indiana, and Representative Jared Polis, Democrat of Colorado.<br /><br />But more comprehensive measures that Mr. Obama favors have yet to find bipartisan support. They include a bill to give Americans more control over how their information is collected and used and a separate measure to require that consumers be notified within 30 days of a breach that compromises their data. The escalation of cyberattacks like the one on Anthem should add to the urgency, officials said. “I’m pretty confident that if we keep the pressure on, and the pressure keeps coming from data breaches, that we can both improve and enhance cybersecurity,” Mr. Podesta said, “as well as protect consumers by passing strong data-breach legislation.”<br /><br />The report on differential pricing — when companies charge different amounts to different consumers for the same thing — did not propose new legislation or policies. The practice is not necessarily a problem, said Jason Furman, the chairman of Mr. Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, citing familiar examples such as movie theaters charging older adults less for a ticket and airlines giving frequent passengers special fares.<br /><br />But the report said that the rise of data analytics and of companies collecting vast amounts of personal data on customers increased the risk that characteristics like race, age, gender or religion could drive how prices are set, leading to unfair prices on services like insurance for certain groups. “It raises new possibilities for businesses, new ways to empower consumers, but it also creates new challenges that we need to be very mindful of,” Mr. Furman said [<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/06/us/politics/white-house-accelerates-drive-to-improve-data-privacy.html?ref=politics" target="_blank">NYTimes</a>].Themes Paperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179566147787886404noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1829544345299126769.post-28869199584870259132015-02-05T15:36:00.001-08:002015-02-05T15:50:36.722-08:00Google Exec Posts Photos Taken With Nexus 10<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Google's Vic Gundotra is having a nice time trying out some new hardware during his beach vacation. At least that's the view from his profile on Google+, where he posted two pictures taken with something called the "Nexus 10." <br /><br />There currently is no product with that name, but it's been rumored that Google will introduce a new Nexus tablet at the company's event on Monday morning. Also, Korean site Seeko on Thursday posted images of what appears to be a manual for the tablet. <br /><br />The photos Gundotra <a href="https://plus.google.com/photos/+VicGundotra/albums/5803585853084959937">posted</a> have a resolution of 2,048 x 1,536 (3.1 megapixels), but that's simply the maximum resolution for photos uploaded to Google+ via the service's instant upload, and not necessarily the resolution of the camera on board the device. <br /><a href="http://mashable.com/2012/10/21/google-android-press-event/"></a> <br /><br />This isn't the first time Gundotra — Google's senior vice president of engineering who and the key executive behind Google+ — has tipped a new product or service on his Google+ feed. Earlier this month he posted a photo taken with Snapseed, an app made by Nik software, which Google acquired last month. But the Snapseed app for iOS didn't have the ability to export to Google+. Sure enough, an Android preview appeared last week (and has been taken down). <br /><br />At Google's Monday event, the company is expected to reveal the Nexus 10 tablet — a larger version of its Nexus 7 tablet — along with Android 4.2 "Key Lime Pie" software. There may also be a new Nexus smartphone made by LG [<a href="http://mashable.com/2012/10/26/google-nexus-10/" target="_blank">Mashable</a>].Themes Paperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179566147787886404noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1829544345299126769.post-10612332258405519422015-02-04T23:52:00.000-08:002015-02-04T23:52:12.666-08:00Twitter Launches New Advertising Tool for Small Businesses<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Twitter is making it easier than ever for small businesses to advertise on its platform. The company introduced quick promote Wednesday, a new advertising feature that allows businesses to promote tweets directly from their analytics dashboard. <br /><br /><a href="https://support.twitter.com/articles/142101-what-are-promoted-tweets" target="_blank">Promoted tweets</a>, which are normal tweets advertisers pay Twitter to share with a broader audience, have been around for some time but quick promote is meant to make the process simpler to encourage small companies to pay for the advertising service. <br /><br />"Promoting a Tweet takes just a few clicks and your Tweet will automatically be targeted to users who have interests similar to your followers — the audience that is most likely to be interested in your message." Twitter's Buster Benson writes on Twitter's <a href="https://blog.twitter.com/2015/a-faster-way-for-small-and-medium-sized-businesses-to-promote-tweets" target="_blank">small business blog</a>. <br /><br /> Here's how it works: Businesses choose a tweet from their <a href="https://analytics.twitter.com/" target="_blank">analytics dashboard</a> — Twitter recommends using a tweet that already has high engagement— and select "promote this tweet to drive engagements." From there, they can set a budget based on how many people they want to engage with the tweet. <br /><br />Twitter will then automatically target it to users with similar interests. On its part, the social network says users who see promoted tweets on their timelines are 32% <a href="https://blog.twitter.com/2013/survey-how-small-and-medium-sized-businesses-benefit-from-their-twitter-presence" target="_blank">more likely</a> to engage with that company. <br /><br />As Twitter looks to stem its slowing user growth and please investors, the company has been experimenting with ways to attract new users, including a new Instant Timeline feature. The update closely follows news Twitter will begin surfacing promoted tweets to the Flipboard app and Yahoo Japan website, a move that appeared to appeal to investors [<a href="http://mashable.com/2015/02/04/twitter-quick-promote-small-business/" target="_blank">Mashable</a>].<br /> Themes Paperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179566147787886404noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1829544345299126769.post-12064558406378142852015-02-04T23:26:00.000-08:002015-02-05T21:31:13.563-08:00Kobe Bryant has Surgery, expected to be out for 9 months<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Kobe Bryant's season is officially over after having surgery to repair his torn right rotator cuff today. The Los Angeles Lakers also made it official that their superstar doesn't believe his career is finished. Bryant is expected to need nine months to recover from his third straight season-ending injury. <br /><br />If Bryant meets that timetable, he could return to basketball shortly before the start of the 2015-16 season - and the Lakers expect to see him in purple and gold again. Neal ElAttrache and Steve Lombardo performed the two-hour surgery at the Kerlan Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Los Angeles. <br /><br />"I expect Kobe to make a full recovery, and if all goes as expected, he should be ready for the start of the season," ElAttrache said in a statement provided by the Lakers. The Lakers formally declared Bryant out for the year by acknowledging the expected recovery time from his injury, but also effectively confirmed he won't retire and will attempt to play his 20th season in the fall. <br /><br />Bryant, who will be 37 years old this summer, is the NBA's highest-paid player at $23.5 million this season, and he is under contract for $25 million next year. "In my mind right now, he's coming back next year, unless he tells me something different," coach Byron Scott said at practice Wednesday. <br /> <br /> Scott already had acknowledged Bryant was highly unlikely to play again this season for the flailing Lakers (12-34), who will match their franchise record for futility if they lose their 10th consecutive game when the Chicago Bulls visit Thursday. But if Los Angeles finishes with a top-five draft pick, the club won't have to give its first-round choice to Phoenix until next year to complete its brutal trade for Steve Nash in 2012. <br /><br />Bryant hurt his right shoulder while dunking last week in New Orleans, deciding on surgery shortly afterward. He is the third-leading scorer in league history and a five-time NBA champion. Bryant averaged 22.3 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.6 assists in 35 games, but made a career-worst 37.3 percent of his shots in a wildly inconsistent 19th season. He also passed Michael Jordan for third place on the NBA's career scoring list, trailing only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone. <br /><br />Bryant's popularity hasn't waned during his injury-plagued stretch. He was voted to the All-Star game for the 17th time this month, and he is still the Lakers' public face despite his recent prolonged absences from the court. <br /><br />Bryant missed the 2013 playoffs after tearing his Achilles tendon late in the regular season, and he played in just six games last season before breaking a bone near his left knee. Although he has played through innumerable injuries in the past, the accumulated wear from nearly two decades in the NBA has caught up to him. <br /><br />Bryant sat out eight games to rest in the past month, and he played under a strict minutes limit. It wasn't enough to protect him from another major injury. Bryant joins Nash, first-round pick Julius Randle and swingman Xavier Henry with season-ending injuries already for the Lakers [<a href="http://tvnz.co.nz/basketball-news/kobe-bryant-has-surgery-expected-9-months-6225684" target="_blank">One News</a>].Themes Paperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179566147787886404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1829544345299126769.post-23225715752535307992015-02-04T21:22:00.000-08:002015-02-05T21:23:57.765-08:00MotoGP: Jorge Lorenzo tops Thursday timesheets in Sepang<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Jorge Lorenzo set the pace on the second day of MotoGP testing at Malaysia’s Sepang circuit on Thursday. The Spaniard clocked a best time of one minute 59.963 seconds on his Yamaha in sizzling temperatures.<br /><br />The 27-year-old had ended the opening day of the test with the third fastest time behind Honda's world champion Marc Marquez and his Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi. Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso clocked the second fastest time in Thursday's session, 0.052 seconds off Lorenzo’s pace.<br /><br />Marquez was third on the timesheets with a time of two minutes 0.146 seconds. Honda's Dani Pedrosa was 0.297 seconds behind Lorenzo in fourth with Rossi, 35, sixth fastest, 0.713 seconds down.<br /><br />The testing session, which consists of 28 riders, ends on Friday, but they will return to Sepang for another three-day session from February 24. The new season officially kicks off in Qatar on March 29, while Malaysia will host the penultimate leg of the championship on October 25 [<a href="http://www1.skysports.com/news/12040/9700339/" target="_blank">Sky Sports</a>].Themes Paperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179566147787886404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1829544345299126769.post-35915001215533845472015-02-02T21:39:00.000-08:002015-02-05T21:40:26.562-08:00MotoGP Valencia: Valentino Rossi takes first pole since 2010<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Valentino Rossi has taken his first MotoGP pole position since 2010, during the final qualifying session of the season at Valencia. The result was especially surprising since the Yamaha star had struggled throughout practice, managing no higher than fifth. But The Doctor pulled pole out of the bag by edging 0.132s ahead of countryman Andrea Iannone Ducati's on his very final lap. <br />
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Iannone's performance was also unexpected given his arm injuries last time at Sepang. Dani Pedrosa completed the front row qualifiers on a day when Repsol Honda team-mate and reigning champion Marc Marquez saw hopes of pushing his pole record to 14 end with a fall in the closing minutes. <br />
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Marquez still has the chance to become the first ever MotoGP rider to win 13 races in a season on Sunday, when he will start from fifth on the grid, just behind Rossi's team-mate Jorge Lorenzo. Rossi is seeking to defend a twelve point advantage over Lorenzo for second in the world championship. <br />
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Pol Espargaro claimed the final place on the second row after getting the better of Monster Yamaha Tech 3 team-mate Bradley Smith. Fellow Englishman Cal Crutchlow will start his last race for Ducati from eighth after outpacing GP14.2 team-mate Andrea Dovizioso. <br />
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Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda), Aleix Espargaro (Forward Yamaha) and wild-card Michele Pirro (Ducati) rounded out the Q2 riders. <br />
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Suzuki will start its first grand prix since 2011 from 20th on the grid with wild-card Randy de Puniet, who suffered a second technical problem in final practice. The other new machine on track - a 2015-spec Honda RC213V-RS for Hiroshi Aoyama - starts 18th after also not progressing beyond Qualifying 1 [<a href="http://www.crash.net/motogp/news/210708/1/valentino-rossi-takes-first-motogp-pole-since-2010.html" target="_blank">Crash</a>]. Themes Paperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179566147787886404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1829544345299126769.post-18113534929478734722015-02-02T19:02:00.000-08:002015-02-06T19:02:52.351-08:00U.S. and Europe Working to End Ukraine Fighting<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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With fighting intensifying in eastern Ukraine and the White House weighing whether to send arms to bolster the government’s forces, Western leaders embarked on a concerted diplomatic effort on Thursday aimed at ending a conflict that has strained relations with Russia.<br /><br />Despite the burst of activity, the prospects of achieving a new peace plan have been clouded by deep suspicion of Moscow’s aims in Ukraine. At the same time, the arrest in Kiev on Wednesday of a senior officer on charges of spying for Russia has raised concerns that the Ukrainian military has been infiltrated, complicating any plans for sending arms to Kiev.<br /><br />While the United States has provided weapons to allies in similarly unstable circumstances, including in Afghanistan and Iraq, Russia’s long historical ties to the Ukrainian military and security apparatus present an unusual challenge. <br /> <br />“Very often one cannot tell where the F.S.B. stops and one of our military units begins,” said Semyon Semenchenko, a pro-government paramilitary leader and member of the Ukrainian Parliament, referring to the Russian successor to the K.G.B.<br /><br />Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President François Hollande of France traveled to the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, on Thursday, where they met for more than five hours with President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine. In a statement issued after 1 a.m. Friday, Mr. Poroshenko’s office said the leaders had discussed how to implement a truce agreement in the conflict between the government in Kiev and rebel separatists in the country’s east. The accord was brokered in September but never held.<br /><br />On Friday, Ms. Merkel and Mr. Hollande are to continue to Moscow, to meet with President Vladimir V. Putin to discuss a new initiative from the Kremlin to end the fighting, which has killed more than 5,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands over the past year. The German and French moves were announced as Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Kiev for high-level talks. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. prepared for parallel consultations on Friday with European leaders in Brussels.<br /><br />The Western distrust of Moscow’s aims in Ukraine has its roots in what diplomats say is the Kremlin’s role in the arming, financing and guiding of the separatists in the current surge in fighting in eastern Ukraine, even after helping forge a cease-fire in September. As it did in late summer, they say, the Kremlin is stepping in to end fighting that it instigated, but only after achieving its objective of expanding rebel-controlled territory.<br /><br />Since the accord was signed, the Russian-backed separatists have taken control of about 200 square miles in the east, including the airport at Donetsk, and they are currently threatening Debaltseve, a town that sits astride a critical rail hub.<br /><br />Mr. Kerry did not mince words in a news conference Thursday in Kiev, laying blame for the renewed violence in eastern Ukraine at the door of the Kremlin: “We talked about the largest threat that Ukraine faces today, and that is Russia’s continued aggression in the east.” He called on Moscow and the separatists to “support and honor the commitment they made to implement a cease-fire, to pull back heavy weapons and troops” and to respect Ukraine’s international border with Russia.<br /><br />The accelerated Western diplomatic efforts came as the Obama administration was considering whether to send basic weapons like antitank missiles, battlefield radars, reconnaissance drones and other arms to help Ukraine’s beleaguered forces stave off attacks by the separatists and build pressure on Moscow to seek a political settlement [<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/06/world/europe/kerry-biden-hollande-merkel-ukraine-conflict.html?ref=politics" target="_blank">NYTimes</a>].<br /> Themes Paperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179566147787886404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1829544345299126769.post-77908570505013158262015-02-01T21:32:00.000-08:002015-02-05T21:34:00.155-08:00Lionel Messi hits winner against Villarreal to keep Barcelona in touch <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Lionel Messi struck the winner for Barcelona who twice came from behind to beat Villarreal 3-2 at home and move a point behind the leaders, Real Madrid. Barça dominated possession and Luis Suárez had several early chances but it was Villarreal who took the lead when Denis Cheryshev redirected a Mario Gaspar shot past Claudio Bravo on the half-hour. <br /><br />The Catalan side have been looking more resilient in recent weeks and the in-form Neymar knocked in a rebound before half-time after Rafinha’s shot had been saved by Sergio Asenjo. Luciano Vietto restored the visitors’ advantage after being set up well by Giovani dos Santos but Barça again bounced back quickly. <br /><br />Rafinha was first on to the rebound after Messi’s header had been blocked by Victor Ruiz and then Messi hit a 20-metre shot into the top corner with his weaker right foot after 55 minutes. <br /><br />“This shows this team is prepared for any adverse situation, as it did the other day [at Atlético Madrid] in the Vicente Calderón and now today against a great Villarreal side,” said Luis Enrique, whose team are back to their best less than a month after his job was rumoured to be at risk following an alleged rift with Messi. <br /><br />Barcelona have 50 points from 21 games while Real, who have also played a game fewer, beat Real Sociedad 4-1 on Saturday to stay top. Villarreal are sixth on 38 points [<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/feb/01/lionel-messi-barcelona-villarreal-la-liga" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>]. Themes Paperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179566147787886404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1829544345299126769.post-65316793682193046462015-01-28T19:14:00.000-08:002015-02-06T19:19:26.975-08:00Fidel Castro says I do not trust US, but talks needed for peace <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Fidel Castro does not "trust the US, nor have I spoken with them," the revolutionary icon, 88, said in a letter attributed to him and read out on state television Monday. "That does not represent - far from it - a rejection of peacefully settling conflicts," said the letter, a week after communist Cuba and the United States held landmark talks in Havana as they attempt to normalise ties. <br /> <br /> US President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced on December 17 that the Cold War rivals would work to normalize relations that broke off in 1961. Pope Francis played a central role in mediating the secret negotiations that led to the December announcement. <br /> <br /> In Washington, some Cuban-American lawmakers have criticised Obama, saying the administration had given up too much without securing human rights commitments. <br /><br /> Yet what many observers found most stunning in so much change is that the leader of Cuba's 1959 revolution - a lawyer by training famous for speaking for hours in excruciating detail - has yet to publicly comment about the detente that his brother Raul, 83, has engaged with his old enemy. <br /><br /> Obama has called on Congress to lift the US embargo on Havana, and used executive powers to ease some travel and trade restrictions. He has also given the State Department six months to review whether Cuba should remain on the terror list. <br /><br /> Fidel Castro stepped aside in 2006 during a health crisis. Cuba is the Americas' only one party Communist-ruled country [<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/cuba/11371163/Fidel-Castro-I-do-not-trust-US-but-talks-needed-for-peace.html" target="_blank">The Telegraph</a>]. Themes Paperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179566147787886404noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1829544345299126769.post-75725654310861700892015-01-14T15:34:00.000-08:002015-02-04T20:30:02.450-08:00Hackers Break into Twitter Account of US Military Command <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkaqn32fPxkPcgf5n4jDJn5fxACM-sRz9gufI8kC3e6TqfgToei4zVc8WAhkC3PgaKMYoEFSVoOFiHyefLL-CInFQ36MuFDP4eVIF9VSWvw3QpPNnZ_GmSPi2g-h6UpkTVog3cpA5vN2m1/s1600/Twitter+iPhones.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkaqn32fPxkPcgf5n4jDJn5fxACM-sRz9gufI8kC3e6TqfgToei4zVc8WAhkC3PgaKMYoEFSVoOFiHyefLL-CInFQ36MuFDP4eVIF9VSWvw3QpPNnZ_GmSPi2g-h6UpkTVog3cpA5vN2m1/s1600/Twitter+iPhones.png" height="220" width="320" /></a></div>Hackers claiming to be working on behalf of Islamic State militants briefly seized control of the Twitter and YouTube sites of the military’s US Central Command. The Pentagon swiftly suspended the sites and said no classified material was breached.<br /><br />The Twitter site was filled with threats that said “American soldiers, we are coming, watch your back.” Other postings appeared to list names, phone numbers and personal email addresses of military personnel as well as PowerPoint slides and maps.<br /><br />Most of the material was labeled “FOUO,” which means “For Official Use Only,” but none of it appeared to be classified or sensitive information, suggesting the hackers did not breach classified material.<br /><br />One of the documents appeared to be slides developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory, a federally funded research and development centre focused on national security. The slides appeared to depict what it called “scenarios” for conflict with North Korea and China.<br /><br />The tweets came shortly after US Central Command posted its own tweets about the US and partner nations continuing to attack Islamic State terrorists in Iraq and Syria and one repeating a report that said France will deploy an aircraft carrier to the fight.<br /><br />The hackers titled the Twitter page CyberCaliphate with an underline that said “i love you isis.” And the broader message referred to the ongoing airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria and threatened, “We broke into your networks and personal devices and know everything about you. You’ll see no mercy infidels. ISIS is already here, we are in your PCs, in each military base.”<br /><br />It added: “US soldiers! We’re watching you!”<br /><br />The intrusion on the military Twitter account carried the same logo, CyberCaliphate name and photo that appeared on the Albuquerque Journal’s website in late December when one of its stories was hacked.<br /><br />Some IS militant videos also were posted on the YouTube site, purporting to show military operations and explosions. “This is something we’re obviously looking into, and something we take seriously,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.<br /><br />But he cautioned against comparisons to the broader hack attack against Sony. “There’s a pretty significant difference between what is a large data breach and the hacking of a Twitter account,” he said.<br /><br />A senior defence official confirmed that the two accounts were compromised and said US Central Command was taking appropriate measures to address the matter. The US military suspended the Central Command Twitter site and terminated the YouTube site. <br /><br />This is not the first time that US government websites or other accounts have been hacked. It was not clear whether the site was attacked by the insurgent group or by sympathiser [<a href="http://www.breakingnews.ie/world/hackers-break-into-twitter-account-of-us-military-command-657808.html" target="_blank">Breaking News</a>]. Themes Paperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179566147787886404noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1829544345299126769.post-11633852595485206152015-01-08T23:13:00.000-08:002015-02-04T20:30:02.523-08:00The countries with the most and least Internet freedom<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM3Gx3L4w-RqyL_0Jh9rKZTaZyIhjQDQsDovb9hxO4vW6moyuron55gIV1mnxxvRvyzbQf4kEH-dzFjr25SYVBRt1M9N5r25RbIseLvrtbB4lhcRX2b5-s4p1ihibGxjXZIr1BdtxYJ-4Z/s1600/Internet+Freedom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM3Gx3L4w-RqyL_0Jh9rKZTaZyIhjQDQsDovb9hxO4vW6moyuron55gIV1mnxxvRvyzbQf4kEH-dzFjr25SYVBRt1M9N5r25RbIseLvrtbB4lhcRX2b5-s4p1ihibGxjXZIr1BdtxYJ-4Z/s1600/Internet+Freedom.jpg" height="218" width="320" /></a></div>Internet freedom around the world has declined for the fourth year in a row, as more countries introduce aggressive online censorship measures, according to a new report. <br /><br /><a href="https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/freedom-net-2014#.VJCkaYrF_e0" target="_blank">Freedom on the Net 2014</a>, the fifth-annual report released by independent watchdog organization <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/" target="_blank">Freedom House</a> last week, found that of the 65 countries assessed, 36 experienced a negative trajectory in online freedom between May 2013 and May 2014. This was due to factors such as blocked social networks, aggressive online surveillance and cyberattacks, and the intimidation and arrests of journalists and digital activists. <br /><br />The report analyzed three main factors in each country: obstacles to Internet access, limits on content and violations of user rights. <br /><br />Iran remained the country with the lowest degree of Internet freedom, despite hopes of reform when President Hassan Rouhani took office in August 2013. Although the new administration has embraced social media, Iranian citizens still don't have access to websites the government finds politically sensitive, such as Twitter and Facebook. <br /><br />The report also pointed to Iranian authorities sentencing people to "lengthy prison terms for promoting Sufism online, among other digital activities." In May 2014, six young Iranians were arrested for recording a viral YouTube video of them dancing to Pharrell's song "Happy." They were subsequently given "suspended sentences" of six months in prison (the director was given one year), and 91 lashes. <br /><br />Syria, China, Cuba, Ethiopia and Uzbekistan follow Iran in terms of Internet freedom. <br /><br />In contrast, Iceland ranked first as the nation with the most Internet freedom. The government there doesn't blog social media platforms or content and 97 percent of households are connected to the Internet. Estonia, Canada, Australia, Germany and the United States made the top five in the index, after Iceland. <br /><br />An extensive study published in November showed that 83% of Internet users around the world believe affordable access to the Internet should be a basic human right. <br /><br />The following chart, created by <a href="http://www.statista.com/chart/3033/internet-freedom-index/" target="_blank">statistics portal Statista</a>, shows the five countries with the most Internet freedom and the five countries with the least Internet freedom [<a href="http://mashable.com/2014/12/17/internet-freedom-countries/" target="_blank">Mashbale</a>].Themes Paperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179566147787886404noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1829544345299126769.post-84586118426537389962015-01-06T18:22:00.000-08:002015-02-04T20:30:02.535-08:00Twitters Problems With Delayed Timelines Have Been Resolved<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW1EMki5NXbz_V5jDxIZvUKtuyQAynRyvYJCBflkr8p0LghZt5NrtOiB0E75i9-ul-vmxH-_l23IUJEFBtA5CbIm1-VkfHUw3HAeW7ofmL0DsWOJ7-T9UepA0V083z2bv_bbMn-HvV0-iU/s1600/Twitter+Smartphone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW1EMki5NXbz_V5jDxIZvUKtuyQAynRyvYJCBflkr8p0LghZt5NrtOiB0E75i9-ul-vmxH-_l23IUJEFBtA5CbIm1-VkfHUw3HAeW7ofmL0DsWOJ7-T9UepA0V083z2bv_bbMn-HvV0-iU/s1600/Twitter+Smartphone.jpg" height="220" width="320" /></a></div>It's not just you. Twitter had problems with what the company said was "an issue with tweeting and a delay in timelines." <br /><br />The issue, that affected Twitter for mobile, Twitter.com and third-party Twitter clients, was resolved after one and a half hours on Monday. <br /><br />Some of the issues included delayed mentions, missing retweets or favorites, delayed or nonexistent timeline updates and disjointed direct messages. <br /><br />Twitter <a href="http://status.twitter.com/post/107269077628/timeline-delivery-issue" target="_blank">said on its status website</a> that it had experienced issues, noting that engineers were "working on it," before later updating it to say the problem had been fixed. The company did not say what caused the issue. <br /><br />"Between 16:51 and 18:30 PST today, users experienced a delay in tweets appearing in their timelines. This issue has been fully resolved," Twitter wrote [<a href="http://mashable.com/2015/01/05/twitter-timeline-delays-2015/" target="_blank">Mashable</a>]. Themes Paperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179566147787886404noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1829544345299126769.post-71534363428128253522015-01-04T15:40:00.000-08:002015-02-04T20:30:02.593-08:00Facebook Apologizes After Year in Review Stirs up Bad Memories for Some Users<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3WFDw-uU3hSrWRVh7M0ZzFT3jfnhqujEXUOi3kWrIflaaS00xAs4G56UBVKr5cELXgg6XIJfGTY9ULce8KWvv5M5cqhxyyp6wopw8uAWizJ5QcWFjxdgB6uq0Ol0rXJnXpC5bGAVaUmM8/s1600/Facebook+Smartphone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3WFDw-uU3hSrWRVh7M0ZzFT3jfnhqujEXUOi3kWrIflaaS00xAs4G56UBVKr5cELXgg6XIJfGTY9ULce8KWvv5M5cqhxyyp6wopw8uAWizJ5QcWFjxdgB6uq0Ol0rXJnXpC5bGAVaUmM8/s1600/Facebook+Smartphone.jpg" height="228" width="320" /></a></div>While scrolling through your Facebook News Feed this holiday season, you probably encountered the typical statuses from friends: photographs of families opening gifts and inevitably, a few "Year in Review" posts, a photo slide of highlights from your Facebook Timeline over the past year. <br /><br />Unfortunately, Facebook's algorithm for choosing the images wasn't very thoughtful, dishing out good memories along with the bad. <br /><br />The Year in Review gathers your most-engaged-with posts from 2014, and compiles them into a chronological photo album complete with cheesy clip art. Initially, The Washington Post reported that the feature's default tagline was, "It’s been a great year! Thanks for being a part of it." <br /><br />Because the algorithm chooses the default photos and moments that had the most interaction, it also includes sad memories. However, users are given the option to customize their Year in Review prior to sharing. <br /><br />Web design consultant and writer Eric Meyer's Year in Review highlighted the death of his young daughter; he wrote about the negative experience in a post on his website titled "Inadvertent Algorithmic Cruelty." <br /><br />And I know, of course, that this is not a deliberate assault. This inadvertent algorithmic cruelty is the result of code that works in the overwhelming majority of cases, reminding people of the awesomeness of their years, showing them selfies at a party or whale spouts from sailing boats or the marina outside their vacation house. <br /><br />But for those of us who lived through the death of loved ones, or spent extended time in the hospital, or were hit by divorce or losing a job or any one of a hundred crises, we might not want another look at this past year. <br /><br />According to The Post, Facebook's product manager for Year in Review, Jonathan Gheller, reached out to Meyer and personally apologized. <br /><br />"[The app] was awesome for a lot of people, but clearly in this case we brought him grief rather than joy," Gheller reportedly said. "We can do better — I'm very grateful he took the time in his grief to write the blog post." <br /><br />In addition to sad memories, users also criticized Year in Review for its overwhelming presence on Facebook. Many are annoyed at how pushy the feature is, constantly reminding users of its existence.<br /><br />CORRECTION, Dec. 27, 2014: A previous version of this article incorrectly spelled the name of web consultant and writer Eric Meyer as "Eric Weber." It has now been changed to reflect the correct spelling [<i><a href="http://mashable.com/2014/12/27/facebook-year-in-review/" target="_blank">Mashable</a></i>]. Themes Paperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179566147787886404noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1829544345299126769.post-34834146633642396022015-01-02T18:29:00.000-08:002015-02-05T00:25:03.901-08:00The Features That Would Actually Improve the iPhone 6<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAZBFdXp-kZhHJcEyOwjxRj0L9PfIsvAKbI9rDd-Fc8EV6jPm8dcr9XHhl3EHoKKNSczvbHFDFLYb_f_bNCYX-AdA7wdbNmlZi6hSD2Za-mZNU5dcw9L5zBM1-KM2vxTkHM7tZvMW_bI6g/s1600/iPhone+6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAZBFdXp-kZhHJcEyOwjxRj0L9PfIsvAKbI9rDd-Fc8EV6jPm8dcr9XHhl3EHoKKNSczvbHFDFLYb_f_bNCYX-AdA7wdbNmlZi6hSD2Za-mZNU5dcw9L5zBM1-KM2vxTkHM7tZvMW_bI6g/s1600/iPhone+6.jpg" height="220" width="320" /></a></div>
Apple lovers will finally get their hands on the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus on Friday, and the reviews have been glowing. <br />
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But if you preordered one or plan on waiting in massive lines, you should know: There are a few things missing from the new devices. <br />
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CollegeHumor took note of the new features, or lack thereof, and made this bittersweet parody expressing how everybody feels about the new phones (you know, the things nobody actually wants to admit).<br />
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Apple lovers will finally get their hands on the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus on Friday, and the reviews have been glowing. <br />
<br />
But if you preordered one or plan on waiting in massive lines, you should know: There are a few things missing from the new devices. <br />
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CollegeHumor took note of the new features, or lack thereof, and made this bittersweet parody expressing how everybody feels about the new phones [<a href="http://mashable.com/2014/09/18/college-humor-iphone-6-parody/" target="_blank">Mashable</a>]Themes Paperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179566147787886404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1829544345299126769.post-53914909700009437452014-12-23T16:38:00.000-08:002015-02-04T20:30:02.663-08:00Based on Statistics Only 11% of Silicon Valley Executives are Women<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjor9MJp51aLbPMlNS08sz14JKR7eO1JwqEn45B_4-_p8zFoQnHgKxxHgyAUGeukqPMHyMR5tMSZd23ODpdkoM3RH-ZV9eX0NrtLANzY4ugfXe0_zpS31Y_GrsmF92-zDkA7RPWvyeYl1fi/s1600/Marissa+Mayer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjor9MJp51aLbPMlNS08sz14JKR7eO1JwqEn45B_4-_p8zFoQnHgKxxHgyAUGeukqPMHyMR5tMSZd23ODpdkoM3RH-ZV9eX0NrtLANzY4ugfXe0_zpS31Y_GrsmF92-zDkA7RPWvyeYl1fi/s1600/Marissa+Mayer.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></a></div>Gender inequality in Silicon Valley is no secret. The tech scene is often criticized for its gender gap in pay — research shows that men with graduate or professional degrees earn 73% more than women with the same credentials. <br /><br />But it extends beyond salary — women are drastically underrepresented in Silicon Valley leadership positions, too. <br /><br />According to the recent Gender Diversity in Silicon Valley [PDF] report, published by law firm Fenwick & West, women make up a measly 11% of executives within the Silicon Valley 150, the Bay Area's top tech companies. That's compared to 16% in the S&P 100, the leading U.S. companies across various industries. <br /><br />In Silicon Valley, women also make up only 10% of directors, 10% of committee members and 8% of committee chairs — all less than half of what's seen in the S&P 100. A dismal 9% of women are named executive officers in both the Silicon Valley 150 and the S&P 100. <br /><br />"We hope this survey of gender diversity in Silicon Valley will stimulate more discussion and serve as a resource for measuring how well women are faring at the senior levels of leadership in the Silicon Valley workplace," the report states. <br /><br />The following chart, created by statistics portal Statista, compares the percentages of women in leadership positions in Silicon Valley and the leading U.S. companies [<i><b><a href="http://mashable.com/2015/01/01/silicon-valley-gender-equality/" target="_blank">Mashable</a></b></i>].Themes Paperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179566147787886404noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1829544345299126769.post-84100003407796923802014-12-10T18:28:00.000-08:002015-02-04T20:30:02.676-08:00Mark Zuckerberg say Facebook is Thinking about a Dislike Button<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpeIrKU3IIVYzMbS_xbh9uViZl6fvAMBWvhiFgt0HVOrKd3uyPkQvuRBa4Jkil3GsAStQ9JqFMBZMvkxd8Y49gN1yJQ1xeP2_RDoOpdUEtc6X9QQvDlwkVxJRb5yfAIDT3Yyj7INyUDa2p/s1600/Mark+Zuckerberg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpeIrKU3IIVYzMbS_xbh9uViZl6fvAMBWvhiFgt0HVOrKd3uyPkQvuRBa4Jkil3GsAStQ9JqFMBZMvkxd8Y49gN1yJQ1xeP2_RDoOpdUEtc6X9QQvDlwkVxJRb5yfAIDT3Yyj7INyUDa2p/s1600/Mark+Zuckerberg.jpg" height="211" width="320" /></a></div>Facebook is considering ways users can express their feelings beyond the Like button, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during a Q&A at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park Thursday. "We're thinking about it," Zuckerberg said when asked whether the social network would ever add the long-requested dislike button. <br /><br />He quickly clarified that such a button likely wouldn't say "dislike" on it. Instead, he said, people often want to react to posts they see on Facebook with sentiments other than "like." <br /><br />"Everyone feels like they can just push the Like button, and that's an important way to sympathize or empathize with someone," Zuckerberg told the audience. But there are times when you may want the simplicity of a one-click response but a "like" doesn't feel appropriate, he added.<br /><br />"We need to figure out the right way to do it so it ends up being a force for good, not a force for bad," he said — because a "dislike" or other negative sentiment could easily be used for the wrong reasons. It's worth noting this isn't the first time Zuckerberg has claimed to be "thinking about" a dislike button— he's made similar comments as far back as 2010. <br /><br />The Facebook CEO also defended the social network's recent controversial real names policy, which requires Facebook users to identify themselves by their legal names, saying it encourages accountability among users. <br /><br />"It's part of building a safe community," he said. "On Facebook, most people refer to themselves by their real name and that's a very important part of our culture." "On Facebook, most people refer to themselves by their real name and that's a very important part of our culture." <br /><br />The goal, Zuckerberg added, is to make the social network a "reflection of real world relationships" and that the real name policy "grounds everyone in that reality." He also addressed another recent controversy: Facebook's experiments. Specifically, the highly cited emotional manipulation study that experimented with hiding various posts on users' news feeds to see whether it would affect their mood. <br /><br />"Testing is a really important part of how Facebook works overall," Zukerberg explained. He initially defended the test saying the company thought it "had a responsibility to the community" to investigate issues that could affect the "emotional or psychological wellbeing" of users. "We could have done it a lot better," he said. <br /><br />Zuckerberg was also asked about his New Year's resolutions, which included becoming fluent in Mandarin. He revealed his goal for 2014 was to send one thank-you note a day, and said he's still not sure about his 2015 goal [<a href="http://mashable.com/2014/12/11/facebook-dislike-button-3/" target="_blank">Mashable</a>].Themes Paperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179566147787886404noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1829544345299126769.post-71617348586001113252014-11-24T18:33:00.000-08:002015-02-05T00:24:10.472-08:00Instagram is Worth $35 Billion, According to Citigroup<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNQhES5MkFdZ5qMIQ1HhCp6cIlEs3kWh2601-TfDBegAFQN1jbQBLvsbp4mwkC-k69vamUDSdS8jYsWGg6r2F3VdlkgFr6ctcL-Xpjud5bjl1uzWNBuIZN4yktB8dD4qBgnNFcoORdWrDR/s1600/Instagram.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNQhES5MkFdZ5qMIQ1HhCp6cIlEs3kWh2601-TfDBegAFQN1jbQBLvsbp4mwkC-k69vamUDSdS8jYsWGg6r2F3VdlkgFr6ctcL-Xpjud5bjl1uzWNBuIZN4yktB8dD4qBgnNFcoORdWrDR/s1600/Instagram.jpg" height="211" width="320" /></a></div>
When Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion in April 2012, the price tag came as a shock to many. A little more than two years later, Citigroup said Instagram is worth $35 billion, a number that the bank called "conservative" in a research note on Facebook issued Friday. <br />
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It is another piece of good news in what has been a stellar 2014 for Instagram. The photo-sharing app recently hit 300 million active users, putting it ahead of Twitter. At $35 billion, Instagram would also be worth more than Twitter, which currently has a market cap around $23.3 billion. <br />
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Citi's analysts added, however, that the valuation is speculative and dependent on efforts to generate more money from the app. <br />
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"While Instagram is still early in monetizing its audience and data assets, and its financial contribution to [Facebook] is minimal today, we believe that it is quickly gaining monetization traction, and would contribute more than $2bn in high-margin revenue at current user and engagement levels if fully monetized," Citi analysts wrote in the note. <br />
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Facebook has not been in a rush to fully monetize Instagram, rolling out its first ads in late 2013, and recently adding video ads. While Facebook has not disclosed how much money Instagram is generating, Citi's analysts said it could conceivably bring in $2.7 billion in 2015. <br />
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A Forrester Research study found that users are far more engaged on Instagram than other social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter. Facebook has become a particularly frustrating platform for marketers, as the site has scaled back how much reach brands can have on the site's News Feed [<a href="http://mashable.com/2014/12/19/instagram-citigroup-35-billion/" target="_blank">Mashable</a>].Themes Paperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179566147787886404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1829544345299126769.post-44916281305533398312014-11-08T18:28:00.000-08:002015-02-04T20:30:02.768-08:00This App Answear if Your Hidden Facebook Photos Were Never Really Hidden<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqAOPgVENNUTUuqpC2yANq0eoiEpcsEX4uS9R_onk9DbWCLgxkU52QmqYVRELNUKSjHaqRnfnykXtZzzPih8vctGTHqkbwPOn9AzFLSVMBXGQJ-lj586LRHoUq43szrReQyC7yjSKRIe7M/s1600/Facebook+Photos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqAOPgVENNUTUuqpC2yANq0eoiEpcsEX4uS9R_onk9DbWCLgxkU52QmqYVRELNUKSjHaqRnfnykXtZzzPih8vctGTHqkbwPOn9AzFLSVMBXGQJ-lj586LRHoUq43szrReQyC7yjSKRIe7M/s1600/Facebook+Photos.jpg" height="204" width="320" /></a></div>Hiding photos on Facebook may not actually work as well as you think it does. Picturebook, a browser extension now available in the Chrome web store, claims to allow you to "view hidden photos of anyone on Facebook"— even if you aren't friends with them. <br /><br />Sounds like a Facebook creeper's dream, right? But though Picturebook's description is technically true, it is also misleading. No app or browser extension — this one included — is able to change the privacy settings of someone else's photo. What Picturebook is really doing: surfacing photos that you could have seen anyway, even if a user tagged in them hid them from their timeline. <br /><br />Say a friend tags you in an unflattering photo. You can make it go away by selecting "hide from my timeline." But this only prevents people from viewing the photo within your timeline; it doesn't actually remove or block the photo in any way. If the photo's privacy setting was set to "public", anyone could have found it anyway. <br /><br />Other users will still be able to see the photo by visiting your friend's timeline, or simply by searching for it.Picturebook takes advantage of this loophole and surfaces photos you've been tagged in, regardless of whether you've hidden them. <br /><br />In short, Picturebook makes it just a little easier to find what you could have found anyway. It's worth pointing out that Facebook reminds users every time they hide a photo that it is still viewable from others' news feed, from search, and from other places on Facebook. <br /><br />The only way to really hide your hidden photos from this tool is by untagging yourself. First, select "hidden from timeline" from the drop down menu under the photo's date. From there, select "Report/remove tag" from the popup window that appears, then select "remove tag."<br /><br />This removes the tag, which will prevent photos from appearing on your timeline, or on the Picturebook extension. The photo itself will still appear elsewhere on Facebook; only the person who posted it can remove it. <br /><br />If you're still worried about old photos showing up, now may be a good time to revisit your privacy settings, to make sure you're only sharing what you want. The social network recently made privacy settings more accessible with a new Privacy Basics page, intended to make this process easier [<a href="http://mashable.com/2014/12/29/picturebook-chrome-extension/" target="_blank">Mashable</a>].Themes Paperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179566147787886404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1829544345299126769.post-36608993927107787332014-10-22T18:17:00.000-07:002015-02-04T20:30:02.838-08:00Google Planning a new Nexus Phone with new Design and Prices<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpe54WChpcATDO2DPgtCPd4kztBE2cxglxjHdmvIQrBZEEaOoTLy8SOgo0YIuRwURVat17rKJO8lvwBtFGlp_tghKvwalRBi_GVxAp_VieVHBvrEdM31HmC_V0vR1gPtWaOudB2ZclJWHw/s1600/Google+Nexus+7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpe54WChpcATDO2DPgtCPd4kztBE2cxglxjHdmvIQrBZEEaOoTLy8SOgo0YIuRwURVat17rKJO8lvwBtFGlp_tghKvwalRBi_GVxAp_VieVHBvrEdM31HmC_V0vR1gPtWaOudB2ZclJWHw/s1600/Google+Nexus+7.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>This is an example of a Blogger post, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many posts as you like in order to share with your readers what is on your mind. <br /><br />This is an example of a Blogger post, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many posts as you like in order to share with your readers what is on your mind. <br /><br />This is an example of a Blogger post, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many posts as you like in order to share with your readers what is on your mind. <br /><br />This is an example of a Blogger post, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many posts as you like in order to share with your readers what is on your mind. <br /><br />This is an example of a Blogger post, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many posts as you like in order to share with your readers what is on your mind. Themes Paperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179566147787886404noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1829544345299126769.post-67903366208728635142014-10-10T20:32:00.000-07:002015-02-04T20:30:02.849-08:00Google X’s Astro Teller Says Wearables Still Need A Killer App<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0olhOXykVj5TZM7HqgYo0ZqnhV73sWqRiDQXi3il1ie-cI856NFPhEU2mpNArFqxevIEWFl1Ai4GY5F8AtlgANNS9i_hq6BS7CEzVEajA6_B1pJx0vdLObcrkith7eQtk8gcRoKGfIRQ/s1600/Google+X.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0olhOXykVj5TZM7HqgYo0ZqnhV73sWqRiDQXi3il1ie-cI856NFPhEU2mpNArFqxevIEWFl1Ai4GY5F8AtlgANNS9i_hq6BS7CEzVEajA6_B1pJx0vdLObcrkith7eQtk8gcRoKGfIRQ/s1600/Google+X.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>Back in November, I had a chance to visit Google’s Mountain View headquarters to chat with Astro Teller, the head of Google X’s so-called “moonshot” projects, about the past, present, and future of wearables. <br /><br />I opened the interview with a blunt question: “Which do you want to talk about first, the wrist or glasses?” He immediately called me out: “That presupposes that the only interesting things we’re working on are watches and glasses.” <br /><br />Teller made it clear that just because Android Wear and Google Glass are prominent in Google’s public efforts, they’re not the only thing the search giant is looking at when it thinks of putting gadgets on our bodies. <br /><br />“[Humans] have spent that last several thousand years working on wearbles. We’ve got rings, glasses, we wear things for armor, for protection from the elements, to signal our status to other people. And we’re going to co-opt a lot of those things, where wearables are going to end up being the interface between us in the world,” he told me during our 30 minute chat. One interesting line of research Google has looked at includes using rings to “train” our brains for things like navigation using slight vibrations whenever you face a certain direction. <br /><br />I see the current wearables ecosystem as a spectrum. At one end, there’s single-purpose gadgets that are essentially pedometers, heart rate trackers, and blood-oxygen sensors that have existed for decades — only now, they’re sending all that data to the cloud via Bluetooth connections to our smartphones. At the other end, there’s Google Glass, Android Wear, the Apple Watch, and their ilk: general-purpose devices that Google has said could one day replace the metal and glass slabs we keep in our pockets. <br /><br />When I asked Teller where he thinks the successful wearables of the future will fall on that spectrum, he said that there’s likely going to be an evolution in the space from one use case that initially takes off to more general-purpose devices in the years to come.<br /><br /><br />He compared the process to the decades-long adoption of desktop computing. “VisiCalc and WordPerfect were the killer apps of their day, but Google and Facebook make them look small in comparison.” The way Teller sees it, those applications were what made computers a reasonable purchase for the first tens of millions of customers — but you couldn’t look at them and predict the applications valuable to billions today. <br /><br />So what are the Visicalc and Wordperfect of wearables? Teller says that there’s a few uses that seem like they could bring in the mass of users necessary for wearables to become a meaningful platform. In the very near term, there’s fitness and health: from fitness trackers to the fashion-focuses bands, every major player in wearables has at the very least included things like step-tracking or heart-rate measurement (with varying degrees of accuracy). <br /><br />Fitness has the advantage of being something that becomes habitual: if exercise is a big portion of your life, you’ll keep using that smart band with some regularity. The biggest hurdle for this category is the tendency for people to try out gadgets like the Nike FuelBand or a Fitbit and one day decide to just leave it on the desk or in a drawer — it’s a category that’s in a constant struggle against human laziness. <br /><br />Another option is information security and environmental personalization — in terms of both our physical and digital spaces. <br /><br />“I think wearables in general have as their best calling, to better understand our current state and needs and to express those back to the world. It’s crazy that you have to tell your phone or your computer or your house or your car “It’s me!” hundreds of times a day. Wearables will solve that problem. They haven’t yet, but they will.” <br /><br />Regarding the current appreciation (or, more accurately, lack thereof) of Google Glass in popular culture, Teller isn’t phased by the haters. “There’s about a 0% chance that in 10-20 years we don’t access our digital world through our glasses, but I would be shocked if we don’t also have watches,” he says, though he acknowledges that the consumer market might not be where Google finds the killer app for its eye wear [<i><a href="http://techcrunch.com/2014/12/29/google-xs-astro-teller-says-wearables-still-need-a-killer-app/" target="_blank">TechCrunch</a></i>].Themes Paperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12179566147787886404noreply@blogger.com2