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5 hours ago
Spelling counts, kids. Especially on "Jeopardy!" it seems. And that's the hard lesson one young player learned this week on the "Kids Week" version of the long-running game show.
Newtown, Conn.'s Thomas Hurley had to know his chances of taking home first place were slim: He went into Final Jeopardy with just $9,600 ? a nice second place, but compared to the first-place leader Skyler Hornback, of Sonora, Ky., who had $36,600, it was a pittance. It was going to take a big bet on Hurley's part and/or a big loss on Skyler's part to pull this one off.
Then host Alex Trebek read the question: "Abraham Lincoln called this document, which took effect in 1863, 'a fit and necessary war measure.'"?
The good news: Hurley had the right answer. Well, mostly. When the answers were revealed (third placer Shuli Jones of Toronto, Ont. wrote "the second amendment," which was wrong), Hurley's answer came up: "What is the Emanciptation Proclamation." Right answer, wrong spelling of "Emancipation."
And while the "Jeopardy!" judges have been known to let small spelling errors go, that was not the case in this instance. Hurley lost, and can clearly be seen mouthing the word "What?!" before hanging his head in disappointment.
Even worse, he then had to watch as Hornback ? who had already been mentioned as a big Civil War buff ? not only got the answer right, he spelled it right and bet big: $30,000. He ended up with $66,600 ("almost a one-day record for 'Jeopardy!'" gushed Trebek).
For anyone who's ever tried, becoming a contestant on "Jeopardy!" is no cakewalk. To make it onto "Jeopardy!" and get to second place in the final round and lose ? even in part ? based on a single letter, well, that's heartbreaking.?
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After months of anticipation, teases, and leaks, Motorola is finally preparing to answer the question: Will X mark the spot?
On Thursday afternoon Motorola officially unveiled the Moto X, the company's first smartphone conceived of, created and sold completely after it was acquired by Google. After a string of duds in the marketplace, Motorola is banking on a few features for its Moto X to help it thrive in the post-Googorola world: voice control, an ultra-fast camera and the strangest color combinations you've ever seen on a smartphone.
Generally, according to Motorola VP of Product Management Lior Ron, the aim of the Moto X is similar to that of the stated purpose of Google Glass: to get out of the way, and to make interaction with your smartphone more human, more natural.
SPEAK UP
The most gee-whiz feature of the Moto X is what Motorola calls "Touchless Control." Also available on Motorola's recent Droid phones for Verizon, this allows X owners to awaken and operate their smartphone without touching it. Say "OK, Google Now" and the screen unlocks, the display powers on and you are able to instruct the smartphone to complete a number of actions, among them: Making a phone call, sending a text message, searching Google (duh), getting navigation directions, changing the music, checking the weather, setting a reminder and essentially anything else Google's Siri competitor, Google Now, can accomplish.
You don't need to be connected to Wi-Fi or the mobile network for Touchless Control to work. And to prevent pranksters from activating the assistant by saying "OK Google Now" in your vicinity, the phone learns your voice so that it only responds to you.
There are some obvious flaws, of course: It would be nice if it can learn one more person's voice (your wife's, for example), so that someone else could borrow your phone or take control if your mouth is otherwise indisposed. And during a meeting with Motorola, the function was accidentally triggered when a Motorola exec said "OK" without the Google Now. In my brief tests with the Moto X, however, I could only get it to power on when I said "OK Google," and none of my colleagues were able to launch my assistant by speaking the magic words.
(Speaking of touchless: The Moto X also features something called "Active Display," which basically pulses your notification on the screen every few seconds when the phone is asleep. This is done so that you don't have to press the sleep button on your phone to view your notifications; you can also swipe up from that screen to peek at the content of a text message or email without unlocking the phone.)
But back to Touchless Control: If anything, the great obstacle for Motorola's voice feature is Google's speech recognition. Though still far better than Apple's, it still occasionally muddles words and occasionally hears speech when it shouldn't. For this to truly be a killer feature, Google will have to continue tweaking its software until it can flawlessly recognize speech.
QUICK DRAW MCGRAW
Like HTC, Apple and Nokia, Motorola is also heavily promoting its camera. The most distinguishing feature of the Moto X is probably the speed with which you can go from locked display to captured photo; Motorola execs said in a meeting with press that the aim was to get that time down to 2 seconds, from pocket to shutter, versus times of 8 to 10 seconds with other, unnamed phones.
To do so, Motorola has simplified the process as much as possible. First, they've created a gesture that automatically wakes the phone up to camera mode. If you quickly twist the phone over once or twice, you activate the camera; pressing anywhere on the screen when the camera is on will take a photo. (The Moto X uses some fancy auto-focus technology to do away with the need to tap to focus; if you miss that function, you can turn it on in the settings.)
The camera screen on the Moto X.That's a neat gimmick, but I'm not sure how often I'd use it; and for the first few uses, it was kind of tricky to get the gesture just right. More welcome is the totally clean camera interface: All of the settings have been moved off the screen; they can be fetched by swiping in from the left of the screen, so that almost all you're seeing when you're shooting a photo is the scene in front of you. Zooming in and out is also neat: You just run your finger up or down anywhere on the screen to activate the digital zoom, rather than the scroll bar favored by most smartphone cameras. This is much more intuitive, and easier to use, especially with one hand.
The software is neat, if occasionally uninspiring; it's the hardware where it seems like Motorola could really pick up some customers. Motorola will allow buyers to go to a website and completely customize the look of their Moto X. At Moto Maker, you can choose from 18 different back colors, two front colors and about a dozen colors for the volume buttons and camera lens rim; you can also choose to emboss a signature on the back of the phone (like you can with the iPod) and choose a wallpaper that ships with your phone.
Motorola also announced that, by the end of the year, you will also be able to get a back made of wood. Yes, wood. Real wood. The company claims that this will make it the first wooden smartphone ever.
Motorola promises that, because the smartphone is (you may have heard, thanks to an aggressive PR blitz) built in the United States, you'll have your customized smartphone in your hand 4 days after you order it online.
The 18 colors for the back of the Moto X. Some are very, very dramatic in person. lisa lampanelli lisa lampanelli bronx zoo bronx zoo crash grizzlies april 30 wwe extreme rules 2012
McALLEN, Texas (AP) ? A South Texas business that helps the government recruit foreigners seeking U.S. visas in exchange for $500,000 job-creating investments is being investigated for running a possible Ponzi scheme, according to court documents shedding light on an industry that has boomed in recent years.
Search warrants indicate the FBI has been investigating USA Now Regional Center since at least early last year on suspicion of wire fraud, money laundering and transportation of stolen property. Federal agents searched the company's office and the owners' home in McAllen earlier this month.
USA Now is among hundreds of private businesses designated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to recruit foreign investors to the "EB-5" investor visa program. The so-called regional centers ? which have proliferated amid the nation's economic downturn, but also attracted controversy ? offer investment opportunities to foreigners and then pool their money for development projects ranging from hotels to a Vermont ski resort.
The government's objective is to attract foreign capital and create jobs. But the investors are primarily interested in getting permanent U.S. residency for themselves and their families, and any financial gain from the investment is generally considered a bonus.
No charges have been filed in the McAllen case. The FBI declined comment, citing its ongoing investigation.
The company's attorney, Tony Canales, told The Associated Press that the FBI doesn't understand the business. "We think the government's wrong. We think we can explain it," he said Wednesday, declining to go into details.
Bank records obtained by the FBI show that on the same days investors transferred their $500,000 payments to USA Now, the money was routed through other bank accounts. Those accounts were used to buy a new Mercedes for the company's owner, pay off the owner's civil lawsuit settlement and at least once to repay an investor who wanted out, according to court documents filed this month in federal court in McAllen.
The FBI seized the Mercedes and a pickup truck that it said was purchased with an investor's money, the court records show.
The FBI agent leading the case wrote in his request for the search warrants that he believed it was "a scheme executed by employees of USA Now Regional Center to defraud foreign investors by using investors' funds for personal gain and other illegitimate manners without the investors' knowledge or approval." The agent labeled it a "Ponzi scheme," showing how money from one investor was used to make interest payments to others.
The investigation was first reported by The Monitor newspaper in McAllen.
Congress created the EB-5 program in 1990, and regional centers were added as a pilot program in 1992. Now, more than 90 percent of EB-5 applications are made through regional centers rather than through direct investment.
The advantage to using a regional center is that investors become limited partners without responsibility for managing the business, yet they receive credit for the jobs it creates. That means their investments could be in McAllen while they live in Miami.
There were only 11 of these government-sanctioned businesses nationwide in 2007; now, there are more than 300. The centers became popular sources of investment income for U.S. developers when traditional credit markets tightened during the economic downturn.
Each investment ? $500,000 in economically depressed areas, $1 million elsewhere ? must create at least 10 jobs. But the investment alone does not guarantee the visa.
The government traces the source of the funds to ensure they're legal and requires the money be at risk. Once the investment is made, the investor is eligible for two years of temporary residency. After that period, if the jobs are created and everything else checks out they can apply for permanent residency. The program is capped at 10,000 visas annually.
If the project isn't built and the jobs aren't created in the required time frame, investors will not get a green card. Depending on how the deal was structured, they may not get their money back. Plus, investors are on their own to judge the prospective projects.
There have been EB-5 debacles in California with a proposed sewage treatment plant, in a South Dakota dairy and a plant in Missouri to produce an artificial sweetener.
There are other investor-type visas, but not all offer permanent residency. Experts say the residency bonus is the primary draw, noting that other routes toward green cards can take many years.
USA Now operates from a suite of offices in downtown McAllen just a few miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. Christopher Bentley, a spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said Wednesday that applications could be temporarily held or processed during ongoing investigations, depending on the specifics of the case.
The company's director of operations, Marco Ramirez, was named in the search warrants and did not return a call for comment on Wednesday. But in a July 2011 interview with The Associated Press, he said the company was focusing on Mexican investors because of their proximity and the deteriorating security situation across the border.
"The biggest reason is security, 60 percent of the families that come through here have had a situation" such as extortion or kidnapping by organized crime, Ramirez said.
At the time of that interview, Ramirez said USA Now had nearly 200 investors and almost $100 million ? just four months after the company had been approved as a regional center by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The government does not release any information about the number of applications filed through individual regional centers nor the number of their clients who successfully obtain visas.
In October 2011, an AP reporter attended a seminar in Mexico City on investment opportunities presented by USA Now. About 45 Mexicans gathered at a luxury tower hotel in an upscale neighborhood to hear Ramirez pitch investment opportunities in South Texas that could earn them permanent residency.
Some wore suits, others were stylishly casual and toting hints of wealth such as iPads and iPhones. One young man asked if money from a trust fund could be used to make the $500,000 investment. Some of the attendees cited security concerns for wanting to both live and invest their money in U.S. rather than Mexico.
Ramirez pitched several opportunities that day including a high-rise condo project, a hospital and a retirement home. He said they charged $40,000 for the application process. When he asked the crowd how many were there "just for the investment," only one person raised a hand.
__
Associated Press writer Larry Kaplow contributed to this report from Mexico City.
Source: http://www.wfaa.com/news/business/217787881.html
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This video frame grab, Mack Turner, left, Boston Stokes, and Stryker Hoffman are shown Tuesday, July 30, 2013 in Layton, Utah. Three sisters from Layton gave birth to three baby boys in the month of July, including two who were born about an hour apart. The cousins were all born in July. Mack and Stryker were born 65 minutes apart on July 27. Boston was born July 3. (AP Photo/Eric Betts, KSL-TV via Deseret News)
This video frame grab, Mack Turner, left, Boston Stokes, and Stryker Hoffman are shown Tuesday, July 30, 2013 in Layton, Utah. Three sisters from Layton gave birth to three baby boys in the month of July, including two who were born about an hour apart. The cousins were all born in July. Mack and Stryker were born 65 minutes apart on July 27. Boston was born July 3. (AP Photo/Eric Betts, KSL-TV via Deseret News)
LAYTON, Utah (AP) ? July is full-fledged baby season for one Utah family.
Three sisters from Layton gave birth to three baby boys in the month of July, including two who were born about an hour apart, The Deseret News reports (http://bit.ly/1co677m ).
Even in baby-centric Utah, that's pretty remarkable.
The trio says they didn't plan on getting pregnant at the same time. Misti Stokes, 24, said she found out first. Her younger sister, Courtnee Hoffman, 21, later asked her if she had a pregnancy test to spare. It was positive.
The sisters told their older sister, Kristal Turner, 25, then asked if she was sad she wasn't expecting, but she said no ? because she was also pregnant.
Stokes gave birth to her baby, Boston, on July 3. Hoffman had her son, Stryker, early Saturday, and Turner's baby, Mack, was born 65 minutes later in the same hospital.
At one point before the birth, Turner passed her mother in the hallways of the Circle of Life Women's Center, part of the Ogden Regional Medical Center. She was on her way to see Hoffman.
"She's like, 'What are you doing? Are you going to see Courtnee?'" Turner said. "And I'm like, 'No, I'm going to have my baby.'"
The sisters were in rooms across the hall from each other, both feeling bad they couldn't be with the other to provide support. Nurses helped by keeping each up-to-date on the other's contractions and the babies' heart rates.
"We couldn't go really into each other's room very much, but we would send pictures back and forth and text and ask how each other is doing," Hoffman told the Deseret News.
Their mother was bouncing back and forth between the rooms as each went through the stages of labor, said Dr. Darren Housel, who delivered both babies.
The fact that both babies came naturally, rather than being induced, made it even more remarkable, he said. It was something he hadn't seen before in his 20 years as a doctor.
"We are all kind of baffled that such a coincidental thing would occur," Housel said. "Over 5,000 babies, I can safely say that I've never delivered sisters on the same day. It was cool, a fun experience to be part of."
The three sisters say their bond is now stronger than ever.
"It's been fun to go through it together," Hoffman said.
The three baby cousins were together for the first time Tuesday.
"I really think that there's a reason why all three are born together," Turner said. "They are going to have a great support system for each other."
Utah had the highest birth rate in the country in 2009, U.S. Census data shows. Utah had 19.4 births per 1,000 people. The 3-year-old data is the latest available comparing state's birth rates.
___
Information from: Deseret News, http://www.deseretnews.com
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Bloomberg
A report by nonprofit China Labor Watch said Apple's supplier Pegatron is working employees long hours for little pay.
A report out today by New York-based nonprofit China Labor Watch looked into the working conditions of Apple?s Chinese supplier, Pegatron.
It revealed two pieces of news, one intentionally and one probably less so.
First, the report highlighted Pegatron?s less-than-desirable working conditions at three different factories in China. As in, 11-hour days, six days a week, making about $1.50 an hour. It?s kind of a black eye considering Apple made a big fanfare of investigating its supply chain to improve working conditions.
Both Apple and Pegatron said they would investigate the allegations.
The other revealing detail on the report? Employees working those ridiculous hours are currently building that rumored cheaper iPhone. The report references the new iPhone throughout (well, and the title is ?Apple?s unkept promises: Cheap iPhones come at high costs to Chinese workers?). It also mentioned the low-priced phone is plastic and will soon be released on the market. (Venturebeat does a nice job pulling out all those references here.)
Read the full China Labor Watch report here.
Read Apple's response here.
Shana Lynch is Managing Editor at the Business Journal. Her phone number is 408.299.1831.
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Google today launched the first major update to Zagat since the search giant acquired it in Sept. 2011, updating the website and accompanying mobile apps.
Most notably, this also marks the first time Zagat content is available to all users for free, with no registration required.
The new Zagat features news and videos from local editors, as well as curated lists ("10 Hidden Restaurant Gardens Around DC"), powerful search, and map-based browsing, according to group product manager Gannon Hall.
"These days, the challenge in deciding where to go is not about a lack of information or user reviews, but finding accurate information and trusted opinions so you can quickly make informed decisions," Hall said in a blog post. "You can rely on Zagat's curated lists and summary reviews to cut through the clutter so you can find the perfect spot."
Foodies in Austin, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and London will get the first taste of the updated Zagat, which will soon roll out to 50 more U.S. and international destinations, with more options like shopping, hotels, and other places of interest.
In advance of its expansion, the company will soon make existing ratings and reviews available on Zagat.com.
The updated Zagat mobile app is available now for free download in the Google Play store and the Apple iTunes Store.
Google picked up the famed site almost two years ago, with the intent of collaborating to "bring the power of Google search and Google Maps to [Zagat's] products and users, and to bring their innovation, trust and wealth of experience to our users," Google said at the time.
Google integrated Zagat into Google+ in May 2012 via the Google+ Local app. Last week, however, Google said the iOS version of G+ Local would retire on Aug. 7 since all of the app's features have since been incorporated into Google Maps.
Discover the new Zagat in the company's video below.
Source: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2422426,00.asp?kc=PCRSS05079TX1K0000993
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NCIS fans are still coming to grips with the news:
Cote de Pablo is leaving the series. She will appear on the Season 11 premiere to tie up Ziva's storyline and then go her own way.
And at today's CBS presentation at the Television Critics Association summer press tour, network President Les Moonves made it clear: money was definitely NOT the issue.
"We offered Cote de Pablo a lot of money" Moonves said. "And then we offered her even more money... We really didn?t want to lose her, we love her. We think she?s terrific... Ultimately she decided she didn?t want to do the show. It was her decision... We don?t like losing anybody. We did everything humanly possible [and] exhausted every possibility.?
So there you have it, readers.
Opposite new competition in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and The Originals, NCIS Season 11 kicks off on Tuesday, September 24. It's unknown at this time how Ziva will be written out.
But bring some Kleenex.
Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.
Source: http://www.tvfanatic.com/2013/07/cbs-president-on-cote-de-pablo-leaving-ncis-we-really-tried/
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In response to the EU directive that forbid its members from cooperating, giving money, scholarships, or research grants to organizations in Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon ordered that any request from the European Union regarding Judea, Samaria, and Gaza be turned down.
A spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, Maja Kocijancic, responded to Yaalon by saying, "The EU is concerned by reports in the Israeli media that the Israeli Minister of Defense has announced a number of restrictions affecting EU activities supporting the Palestinian people.?
She said, "We have not received any official communication from the Israeli authorities. Our delegations on the spot are seeking urgent clarifications.?
Just in the last week, several funding projects the EU wanted to implement in the Palestinian Authority have been nixed by Israel as well as eight requests by EU officials to travel into PA-assigned areas.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BreitbartFeed/~3/EqvNV29TuvY/story01.htm
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WARSAW, Poland (AP) NATO's top commander in Europe says it's crucial for the alliance to have a security deal with Afghanistan on a post-2014 military presence there, but October is not the deadline.
Gen. Philip Breedlove, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, said in a telephone interview Friday it is "absolutely critical" to have the bilateral security agreement (BSA).
However, Breedlove said the October dateline mentioned this week by Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is not key.
The agreement would allow NATO and its allies to offer training and support in Afghanistan after allied combat troops withdraw in 2014.
"October would be a great date," Breedlove said from NATO headquarters in Belgium "But what is most important is to have the BSA signed as soon as possible."
APThis story has been automatically published from the Associated Press wire which uses US spellings
Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10904057&ref=rss
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22 hours ago
How do you reduce the number of highway accidents? Just tell all the cars to look out for each other.
As far out as that may sound, that's exactly what the National Transportation Safety Board recommended this week, following a fatal bus crash, and it's part of a fundamental shift in the automotive world.
Cars are already equipped with cutting-edge innovations such as accident-avoidance lasers and smart parking. Soon, they'll get wireless car-to-car communications, and even city-wide traffic control. And while most of these innovations will steer us to safer roads, they also raise some concerns over privacy and security the likes of which the century-old auto industry has never seen.
"It's clear the next few years will see greater expansion of in-car infotainment and navigation offerings, and technologies requiring communication between cars," Ray Wert, former editor-in-chief of the Jalopnik car blog, told NBC News.
"Some of that push will come from governmental regulation, while some will come from consumer demand. Either way, it's coming. And fast."
Built-in high-tech tools are nothing new, of course. Cruise control in some vehicles has for years been able to track other cars on the road ? using radar, lasers or something more exotic ? and adjust their speed or stop entirely if a collision is likely. Similar tech is sometimes used to warn drivers when they're drifting out of their lanes, perhaps when nodding off or trying to mop up spilled coffee.
More impressive are the automated parking systems already available from cars made by Ford, Toyota and others. Using a button or smartphone app to tell your car to park itself sounds very sci-fi ? but for those with a fundamental inability to parallel park (you know who you are), it's a welcome reality.
The real next step in this surge of semi-automated, semi-aware cars is vehicle-to-vehicle communication.
"Effective countermeasures are needed to assist in preventing intersection crashes," notes the NTSB's official report on the crash. "For example, systems such as connected vehicle technology could have provided an active warning to the school bus driver of the approaching truck as he began to cross the intersection."
But how would such a system work?
German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence
A group of connected cars navigates an intersection without stopping for one another.
The picture above (from the EO connected car project, covered in the video at top), illustrates how wirelessly connected vehicles can share the same space. They wouldn't just be beaming their plans directly to oncoming cars as they approach an intersection. Instead, they could also connect to a larger network that plans the cars' paths like an air traffic control system.
Bad visibility, blind spots, fatigue ? these could be compensated for with a system that can tell you exactly how far away the next car is, and whether it's safe to go. The benefits of such a system, with every car aware of and communicating with every other car, are difficult to overstate. Any number of things might have prevented the crash in New Jersey, but such an inter-vehicle connection, preventing collisions in low-visibility areas, might have been a lifesaver.
And industry observers say this kind of technology is almost here. "We're in the final stages of testing, and it's up to us to say 'Yes, we are going to do this,'" said Egil Juliussen, IHS automotive technology analyst, in an interview with NBC News. Juliussen cautions that automakers have to be willing ? or required ? to take on such a system en masse.
"I think the decision should be that it is mandatory on all cars," he said. "If it's on just one car, it's useless."
The benefits are easy to imagine. A 2012 study found that cars working together on the road could increase efficiency by as much as 273 percent. This could be done both by careful routing at the city or even state level, but also by "platooning" vehicles closely together if they're headed to the same destination, increasing fuel efficiency.
But it's not just about getting to the game on time or shaving 10 minutes off your commute. Beyond preventing collisions while narrowing gaps between cars, this level of organization could route drivers around points of congestion, notify them of hazardous road conditions, and in case of accidents or car trouble, alert AAA or emergency responders instantly.
Nevada DMV
One of Google's self-driving cars receives the first autonomous vehicle license plates in Nevada.
As this sort of system ramps up, accompanied by creature comfort features such as car-to-car messaging, performance-tweaking apps, and free parking space notifications, we will edge closer to the holy grail of intelligent vehicles: the totally autonomous car.
Though the real thing is still a bit far off, it's not for lack of investment. Google is likely the farthest along: Its self-driving cars have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles on their own through country and city with nary an accident.
The complex array of cameras and sensors on board may be too big and expensive to include on an entry-level Honda today ? but you could have said the same thing about touchscreens and keyless entry a few years ago as well, and now these once-futuristic options are standard on budget cars. As for upsells, it only costs $395 to equip a Ford Focus Titanium with automatic parking, and a $1,750 technology package on a new Toyota Avalon will get you radar-assisted cruise control and smart "pre-collision" braking. It's only a matter of time before wireless car-to-car options become as prevalent ? and affordable.
With all this increased connectivity, however, comes new risks. Stories of high-end cars being stolen with nothing more than a tweaked wireless key fob are common enough. And if your car is connected to the Internet (which many already are), the data is vulnerable to hacking. An upcoming presentation at this year's Defcon hacking conference is widely expected to lay bare many automotive vulnerabilities.
Yet even if you manage to secure the vehicle against hackers, who's to say your data is safe from, say, the NSA? Juliussen thinks we're not quite prepared for this.
"I really think that the U.S. needs to have much better privacy laws. The black box [which records crash data in newer cars] is bringing that up in a major way," he said. "It's up to Congress to do that ... you can't do it without."
Luckily, there's time. As Juliussen notes, even if wireless car-to-car networking were mandated on all new vehicles, it would take 10 years or more before it would really work well. Hopefully a decade is enough time to work out all of the kinks.
Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is coldewey.cc.
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Remember Motorola's S10-HD Bluetooth headphones? Don't worry if you didn't, since you're probably going to get another chance to enjoy them in the next few weeks. The Google-owned phone manufacturer has sent a remarkably similar set of Bluetooth headphones through the FCC that are packing that same wraparound design. Now that the gear has been passed fit for human consumption, we figure we'll see them making their way to retail soon -- maybe as part of some big event, perhaps?
Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio/Video, Mobile, Google
Source: FCC
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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) ? Pope Francis showed his rebel side Thursday, urging young Catholics to shake up the church and make a "mess" in their dioceses by going out into the streets to spread the faith. It's a message he put into practice by visiting one of Rio's most violent slums and opening the church's World Youth Day on a rain-soaked Copacabana Beach.
Francis was elected pope on a mandate to reform the church, and in four short months he has started doing just that: He has broken long-held Vatican rules on everything from where he lays his head at night to how saints are made. He has cast off his security detail to get close to his flock, and his first international foray as pope has shown the faithful appreciate the gesture.
Dubbed the "slum pope" for his work with the poor, Francis received a rapturous welcome in the Varginha shantytown, part of a slum area of northern Rio so violent it's known as the Gaza Strip. The 76-year-old Argentine seemed entirely at home, wading into cheering crowds, kissing people young and old and telling them the Catholic Church is on their side.
"No one can remain insensitive to the inequalities that persist in the world!" Francis told a crowd of thousands who braved a cold rain and stood in a muddy soccer field to welcome him. "No amount of peace-building will be able to last, nor will harmony and happiness be attained in a society that ignores, pushes to the margins or excludes a part of itself."
It was a message aimed at reversing the decline in the numbers of Catholics in most of Latin America, with many poor worshippers leaving the church for Pentecostal and evangelical congregations. Those churches have taken up a huge presence in favelas, or shantytowns such as Varginha, attracting souls with nuts-and-bolts advice on how to improve their lives.
The Varginha visit was one of the highlights of Francis' weeklong trip to Brazil, his first as pope and one seemingly tailor-made for the first pontiff from the Americas.
The surprise, though, came during his encounter with Argentine pilgrims, scheduled at the last minute in yet another sign of how this spontaneous pope is shaking up the Vatican's staid and often stuffy protocol.
He told the thousands of youngsters, with an estimated 30,000 Argentines registered, to get out into the streets and spread their faith and make a "mess," saying a church that doesn't go out and preach simply becomes a civic or humanitarian group.
"I want to tell you something. What is it that I expect as a consequence of World Youth Day? I want a mess. We knew that in Rio there would be great disorder, but I want trouble in the dioceses!" he said, speaking off the cuff in his native Spanish. "I want to see the church get closer to the people. I want to get rid of clericalism, the mundane, this closing ourselves off within ourselves, in our parishes, schools or structures. Because these need to get out!"
Apparently realizing the radicalness of his message, he apologized in advance to the bishops at home.
Later Thursday, he traveled in his open-sided car through a huge crowd in the pouring rain to a welcoming ceremony on Copacabana beach. It was his first official event with the hundreds of thousands of young people who have flocked to Rio for World Youth Day. Vatican officials estimated the crowd at 1 million.
Cheering pilgrims from 175 nations lined the beachfront drive to catch a glimpse of the pontiff, with many jogging along with the vehicle behind police barricades. The car stopped several times for Francis to kiss babies ? and take a long sip of his beloved mate, the traditional Argentine tea served in a gourd with a straw, which was handed up to him by someone in the crowd.
After he arrived at the beach-front stage, though, the crowd along the streets melted away, driven home by the pouring rain that brought out vendors selling the plastic ponchos that have adorned cardinals and pilgrims alike during this unseasonably cold, wet week.
In an indication of the havoc wreaked by four days of steady showers, organizers made an almost unheard-of change in the festival's agenda, moving the Saturday vigil and climactic Sunday Mass to Copacabana Beach from a rural area 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the city center. The terrain of the area, Guaratiba, had turned into a vast field of mud, making the overnight camping plans of pilgrims untenable.
The news was welcome to John White, a 57-year-old chaperone from the Albany, New York, diocese who attended the past five World Youth Days and complained that organization in Rio was lacking.
"I'm super relieved. That place is a mud pit and I was concerned about the kid's health and that they might catch hypothermia," he said. "That's great news. I just wish the organizers would have told us."
Francis' visit to the Varginha slum followed in the footsteps of Pope John Paul II, who visited two such favelas during a 1980 trip to Brazil, and Mother Teresa, who visited Varginha itself in 1972. Her Missionaries of Charity order has kept a presence in the shantytown ever since.
Like Mother Teresa, Francis brought his own personal history to the visit: As archbishop of Buenos Aires, then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio frequently preached in the poverty-wracked slums of his native city, putting into action his belief that the Catholic Church must go to the farthest peripheries to preach and not sit back and wait for the most marginalized to come to Sunday Mass.
Francis' open-air car was mobbed on a few occasions as he headed into Varginha's heavily policed, shack-lined streets, but he never seemed in danger. He was showered with gifts as he walked down one of the slum's main drags without an umbrella to shield him from the rain. A well-wisher gave him a paper lei to hang around his neck and he held up another offering ? a scarf from his favorite soccer team, Buenos Aires' San Lorenzo.
"Events like this, with the pope and all the local media, get everyone so excited," said Antonieta de Souza Costa, a 56-year-old vendor and resident of Varginha. "I think this visit is going to bring people back to the Catholic Church."
Addressing Varginha's residents, Francis acknowledged that young people in particular have a sensitivity toward injustice.
"You are often disappointed by facts that speak of corruption on the part of people who put their own interests before the common good," Francis told the crowd. "To you and all, I repeat: Never yield to discouragement, do not lose trust, do not allow your hope to be extinguished."
It was a clear reference to the violent protests that paralyzed parts of the country in recent weeks as Brazilians furious over rampant corruption and inefficiency within the country's political class took to the streets.
Francis blasted what he said was a "culture of selfishness and individualism" that permeates society today, demanding that those with money and power share their wealth and resources to fight hunger and poverty.
"It is certainly necessary to give bread to the hungry ? this is an act of justice. But there is also a deeper hunger, the hunger for a happiness that only God can satisfy," he said.
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Associated Press writer Bradley Brooks contributed to this report.
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Nicole Winfield on Twitter: www.twitter.com/nwinfield
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rebel-pope-urges-catholics-shake-dioceses-001425111.html
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The Nexus 7 was a rather swell device when it was officially launched last year, and now we've had the opportunity to play with the next-gen version, which bumps the swellness factor a notch or two. The tablet, which boasts a 1080-quality display (1,920 x 1,200, to be precise) and Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, is being shown off after this morning's Breakfast with Sundar event -- which we suppose means we're now at brunch. We've grabbed a few images of the new tablet, seen below, and have added some early impressions after the break. Meet us there to see what we think.
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DETROIT (AP) ? A federal judge agreed with Detroit on Wednesday and stopped any lawsuits challenging the city's bankruptcy, declaring his courtroom the exclusive venue for legal action in the largest filing by a local government in U.S. history.
The decision by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes was a major victory for Detroit, especially after an Ingham County judge last week said Gov. Rick Snyder ignored the Michigan Constitution and acted illegally in approving the Chapter 9 filing. That ruling and others had threatened to derail the case.
Retirees had sued, claiming the bankruptcy threatened their pensions that are protected by the constitution.
"If these actions are not stopped, the city would be irreparably harmed. ... These litigants will have due process. They will have their day in court," Detroit attorney Heather Lennox said during two hours of arguments by the city, pension funds and unions.
Rhodes said there's nothing in federal law or the U.S. Constitution that gives a state court a shared role in a bankruptcy.
Questions about Detroit's eligibility to overhaul itself through bankruptcy "are within this court's exclusive jurisdiction," he said.
The courtroom was jammed with lawyers representing some of the thousands of creditors as well as rank-and-file city employees and retirees eager to know the outcome. Some wore T-shirts that said, "Detroit vs. Everybody."
Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr, who recommended bankruptcy, sat in the front row. Outside the courthouse, protesters held a banner with a message for Wall Street: "Cancel Detroit's debt. The banks owe us."
Detroit has about 21,000 retired workers who are owed benefits ? including former officer workers at city hall, police, paramedics, sanitation crews, firefighters and bus drivers ? with underfunded obligations of about $3.5 billion for pensions and $5.7 billion for retiree health coverage.
There are three lawsuits in state courts challenging the bankruptcy. They mostly focus on a provision in the Michigan Constitution that says public pensions "shall not be diminished or impaired." Pensions have not been frozen or reduced in the bankruptcy so far, but officials say there are shortfalls in the funds and that payouts could be at risk.
Sharon Levine, an attorney for a union that represents city workers, urged Rhodes to let those lawsuits run their course. She said there's no federal insurance for public pensions once they're broken, unlike pensions at private employers.
"Our members who participate at most are at or below $19,000 a year. There is no safety net," Levine said.
Snyder signed off on Detroit's bankruptcy, calling it the only "feasible path" for a city whose population has plummeted to 700,000 from 1.8 million decades ago. Detroit's $18 billion in long-term debt has become an urban millstone.
In March, the governor appointed Orr, a bankruptcy expert, as Detroit's emergency manager. Orr had sweeping powers to reshape city finances but recommended bankruptcy after failing to reach any significant deals with creditors, including Wall Street bankers and Detroit pension funds. Many of those creditors, however, accused him of being inflexible and believe bankruptcy always was the plan.
Detroit has more than double the population of Stockton, Calif., which had been the largest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy before Detroit trumped it last week.
Retirees and city employees are concerned. Lt. James Edwards, who has worked 18 years at the fire department, attended the court hearing Wednesday.
"It seems as though we're going to end up being the patsy for a lot of bad decisions that have been made over the years," he said. "You base your life decisions on promises made to you when you came on the job."
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Follow Ed White at http://twitter.com/edwhiteap
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/judge-stops-lawsuits-against-detroit-bankruptcy-182538474.html
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Verizon dropped three new Motorola Droids on us this morning. We've had a good look at the Droid MAXX, the Droid Ultra and the Droid Mini, but sometimes a video is worth a thousand words ... errr pictures. Dan got to spend some quality time with a presenter and the new Droids, and we've got 8 minutes of video for you.
Things like the new camera, Droid Zap and the new lost phone features are covered, and there's also a good look at active notifications. It's something you'll not want to miss, so head past the jump and have a look.
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/QpTXjPo17C8/story01.htm
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