A Key Bill Meant To Limit NSA Surveillance Programs Was Just Stopped In Its Tracks | ||
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A bill championed by privacy rights advocates, the tech industry, and the White House was suddenly blocked Tuesday night when it did not receive the necessary votes to proceed in the Senate. The bill, the USA Freedom Act, aimed to rein in some of the National Security Agency's controversial surveillance programs, including its ability to collect so-called metadata in bulk. Many of these programs drew international attention when former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents revealing their existence in 2013. However, when the votes were all counted Tuesday night, the bill received 58 of 100 senators' votes when it needed 60 to clear a procedural hurdle. Though the legislation enjoyed bipartisan support, including from conservatives like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), it also received criticism from both sides of the debate. Some privacy advocates, including Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), felt the legislation didn't go far enough. In particular, Paul took exception to the extension of the controversial Patriot Act. "As Benjamin Franklin put it, 'Those who trade their liberty for security may wind up with neither.' Today's vote to oppose further consideration of the Patriot Act extension proves that we are one step closer to restoring civil liberties in America," Paul said in a statement after the bill failed. The Republican caucus was mostly united against the legislation. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), who like Paul and Cruz is looking at a presidential campaign in 2016, directly warned the bill would empower the Islamic State jihadists (also known as ISIS or ISIL). "As the rise of ISIL has demonstrated, the world is as dangerous as ever, and extremists are being cultivated and recruited right here at home. This legislation would significantly weaken and, in some cases, entirely do away with some of the most important counter-terrorism capabilities at our disposal, which is why I will not support it," Rubio said in a statement. Supporters of the bill nevertheless vowed to keep advocating for the cause. Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vermont), the sponsor of the NSA reform legislation, slammed the Republican caucus in his own statement but insisted he was "not new to this fight" "Tonight, Senate Republicans have failed to answer the call of the American people who elected them, and all of us, to stand up and to work across the aisle. Once again, they reverted to scare tactics rather than to working productively to protect Americans' basic privacy rights and our national security," Leahy said. The White House strongly endorsed the legislation in a statement Monday evening, warning that without its passage, "critical authorities that are appropriately reformed in this legislation could expire next summer." According to the New York Times, the act would have implemented several different reforms: * Require the NSA to "ask phone companies for the records of a specific person or address when it is searching for terrorists, instead of scooping up all the records in an area code or city." * Force the agency to "show why it needs those records, and to disclose how much data is being collecting." * And "create a panel of advocates to support privacy rights and civil liberties in arguments before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court; currently, there is no one to offer opposition to government requests before the court." Update (8:27 p.m.): With additional statements and content throughout. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Man Known For Spy Gadgets Is Selling An Airbnb Party Protection Kit | ||
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2014 has been an amazing year for Airbnb. The site that lets you rent your home to strangers over the internet has become insanely popular, serving over 20 million guest in 800,000 listings in 34,000 cities. While most people have no problems with the service, when things go wrong, they can go very wrong. People have been known to use Airbnb rentals to throw wild parties, even sex orgies, something that Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky admitted to Yahoo's Katie Couric in an interview last summer. But home owners are restricted in what they can do to monitor their property. They aren't allowed to, say, secretly videotape guests to make sure they aren't misbehaving. That's not only a violation of their privacy, and of Airbnb rules, it could be illegal.
The company has created what it says is the first home security system specifically for Airbnb hosts. It calls it "The MORzA Airbnb package." If there's a party going on it will alert you without violating your guests' privacy. It consists of a bunch of sensors that you can put around your house, a smart lock for your door, and an app. You can attach the sensors to doors, for instance. "If the door is opened and closed excessively in a short period of time, a guest might be hosting a party without your permission," the company's marketing materials say. With an optional package, you can add sensors that detect vibration (loud music, dancing) or a tilt sensor that will alert you if an object is being moved (like your couch).
The base package lists for $900 (although it's on sale now for $300) and it requires a $40/month security monitoring service. We haven't tried the tech, so we can't vouch for how well it works. But we like the idea of using technology to solve the problems that an innovative internet startup has created. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Todd Morris, founder and CEO of BrickHouse Security, has come up with an interesting solution. BrickHouse is a
The smart locks let you change codes after each guest leaves. And to help you comply with Airbnb rules and other laws, the package includes a carbon monoxide detector, a smoke/heat/freeze sensor, a flood/freeze sensor, too. Uber: We Won't Look At Rider Data Except For 'Legitimate Business Purposes' | ||
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Uber has posted a new privacy policy on its website that bans employees from accessing riders' trip data except "for a legitimate set of business purposes." The news comes after news broke that an Uber exec suggested the company could dig up personal information on reporters who cover Uber unfavorably. Another journalist says Uber employees warned her that Uber could look at her trip data, as she was researching a story about CEO Travis Kalanick. However, there's no evidence Uber actually did so. Uber provided the following examples of "legitimate business purposes" for looking through trip data.
Uber also said employee access to rider data is closely monitored and that employees who violate the company privacy policy are subject to "the possibility of termination and legal action." SEE ALSO: Uber Employees Allegedly Warned Another Journalist That Uber Could Look At Her Rider Info Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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'Grand Theft Auto 5' Publisher Calls The Graphic Violence In The Game 'Art' | ||
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"Grand Theft Auto 5" is not for the faint of heart. It's graphic. It's gritty and dark. And especially violent. With its move to current-gen consoles, the game now lets you do things from the first-person perspective. Including realistic sex scenes with prostitutes. Whom you can later kill. Forbes calls it "more horrible than ever." But to Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of the game's publisher, Take-Two Interactive, the violence and grit in the game is "art." "This is a criminal setting," he said on Bloomberg TV. "It's a gritty underworld. It is art. And I've embraced that art." He then explained that it's no different from movies or television, which can also be gritty and violent. "We stand shoulder to shoulder with other major motion picture releases, major television shows that explore a similar universe," he said. "So yeah, this is a tough universe because it's a criminal universe." He also said that there's tons of other stuff to do in the game, with "hundreds of hours of gameplay." The "Grand Theft Auto" series has been widely criticized for not just being extremely violent, but particularly violent against women, who are unplayable characters. (You can play as a female character online, however. Although that doesn't seem to be much better.) Watch the whole video on Bloomberg TV below: SEE ALSO: Black Friday Could Be The Day The Xbox One Finally Towers Over The Competition Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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The Apple Watch Seems Alarmingly Complicated (AAPL) | ||
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Apple released WatchKit — its software development tool for Apple Watch — on Tuesday, and one thing sticks out like a sore thumb: there are a lot of ways to interact with it. There are at least fifteen distinct Apple Watch interactions, as pointed out earlier by Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel. There's short look and long look notifications and a separate kind of "pull" notification called glances, which we detailed here, plus vibrating feedback. You can also swipe in several different ways and use a control called force touch, which lets you control the watch based on how hard you press the display. And that's not even the whole list. Users can interact with Apple Watch through the digital crown (the knob on the right-hand side), too. That's a lot of ways to use something you can cover up with your thumb. With over a dozen ways to use Apple Watch, there's a real possibility for consumers to become confused or frustrated by it, which could hamper sales. Apple is known for making devices that are easy for normal people to figure out. Think about the iPod's scroll wheel, or the on-screen keyboard with the iPhone that magically just seemed to work. That sounds like it might not be the case with the Apple Watch. SEE ALSO: This Is How Apple Watch Apps Will Look And Work Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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The 25 Best Tech Employers For Women [Ranked] | ||
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Woman working in tech are likely to be less happy with their employers than their male co-workers, according to new research from Glassdoor. There's been a renewed focus on women's pay caused by Satya Nadella's advice about asking for a raise last month. So Glassdoor wondered if women tech workers are as happy with their companies as their male co-workers. Answer: Not really. Women are less happy than men at 14 of the 25 tech companies Glassdoor examined. They are more happy at 4 companies. Glassdoor's research shows that women in tech are paid well and paid about the same for equal work. Yet, women are still, on average, earning less because there are fewer women in tech. That means fewer experienced women in higher-paying team leadership roles. "Not only is there a difference in pay between men and women in tech, but we also see a gender gap when it comes to employee satisfaction among tech employees," " explains Scott Dobroski, Glassdoor Community Expert. "Women are slightly less satisfied on average than men in four key areas that we track on Glassdoor, including senior leadership, work-life balance, culture and values, and career opportunities," he tells us. We looked through Glassdoor and pulled out women's and men's rankings for 25 tech companies. We've also included salary information where it was available. Zynga: Women employees rate it a 3.1 out of 5 Company name: Zynga Women's satisfaction rating: 3.1 (61 women reporting) Men's satisfaction rating: 3.2 (172 men reporting) Difference: -0.1 (Women employees are a teeny bit less happy with Zynga then men.)
Amazon: Women employees rate it a 3.2 out of 5 Company name: Amazon Women's satisfaction rating: 3.2 (474 women reporting) Men's satisfaction rating: 3.5 (1443 men reporting) Difference: -0.3 (Women employees are less happy with Amazon then men.) Salary information by gender from Glassdoor: Amazon Software Development Engineer I Amazon Software Development Engineer II
HP: Women employees rate it a 3.2 out of 5 Company name: HP Women's satisfaction rating: 3.2 (1,085 women reporting) Men's satisfaction rating: 3.1 (3,730 men reporting) Difference: 0.1 (Women employees are a teeny bit more happy with HP then men.) Salary information by gender from Glassdoor: HP Software Engineer See the rest of the story at Business Insider  | ||
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Here's Exactly How This Founder Knew His Startup Was Dead | ||
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Nick Baum took a huge risk in 2011 when he decided to leave his comfortable job at Google to work on a startup. He had been with the company for roughly five years, working on a range of products spanning YouTube, Google Chrome, and Android, but decided to ditch to start WhereBerry, a social events planning company. As the year wore on, Baum realized WhereBerry wasn't gaining the sort of traction he wanted. WhereBerry's future felt in flux. "It’s always a tough balance," Baum tells Business Insider. "You don’t wanna give up too early, especially when it’s your idea and you built it from scratch. But you also don’t want to sit around forever." Baum remembers exactly how he realized that it was time to kill WhereBerry. "I saw that if I didn’t do anything on it, my friends and other users wouldn’t," he says. "I could generate activity on it, but the activity didn’t happen naturally." Even though the people could get excited about the product, they didn't feel like they needed to use it on a regular basis. So, Baum made the tough decision to shut WhereBerry down. But despite WhereBerry's flop, he wasn't ready to go back to a "real" job at a bigger company just yet. And so StoryWorth was born. StoryWorth aims to bring families closer through story sharing. Once a week, the company sends an evocative prompt question to participants and then stores their answers. "In a way, I think that my situation with WhereBerry is a really good benchmark for StoryWorth," he says. "Right away, it felt very different. If I leave for a month and don’t touch it, people will keep using it because they care about it. I think it was very helpful to have that contrast where right away, I could be like, 'Oh, this is what it feels like to build something that people actually wanna use.'" Users have submitted more than 30,000 stories so far. SEE ALSO: Check Out The Amazing Photo Tool From Google That You Should Start Using Right Now Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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The 'Internet of Things' Will Be The World's Most Massive Device Market And Save Companies Billions Of Dollars | ||
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The Internet of Things (IoT) is beginning to grow significantly, as consumers, businesses, and governments recognize the benefit of connecting inert devices to the internet. In an all-new report from BI Intelligence, we examine what is currently driving growth in the Internet of Things and how various sectors of the economy will embrace IoT innovations. Access The Full Report And All The Data By Signing Up For a Free Trial >> Here are a few of the key findings from the BI Intelligence report:
In full, the report:
For full access to all BI Intelligence reports, briefs, and downloadable charts on the Internet of Things and mobile computing markets, sign up for a free trial. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Apple's Next iPhone Might Have 'The Biggest Camera Jump Ever' (AAPL) | ||
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Apple could make some noticeable and significant changes to the next iPhone's camera system, according to Daring Fireball's John Gruber. Gruber, who has an excellent track record when it comes to Apple product news, said in a recent podcast that the next iPhone's camera could be "the biggest camera jump ever." Blog The Tech Block (via MacRumors) was the first to pick up on this nugget in Gruber's podcast "The Talk Show," which went live on Nov. 15. Gruber, who said he heard this information from "a birdie of a birdie," said the following regarding the next iPhone's camera: The specific thing I heard is that next years camera might be the biggest camera jump ever. I don't even know what sense this makes, but I've heard that it's some kind of weird two-lens system where the back camera uses two lenses and it somehow takes it up into DSLR quality imagery. There's no guarantee that this is true, but what Gruber is describing sounds a bit similar to the camera on HTC's One M8. HTC's phone comes with two lenses so that you can add 3-D effects to photos. Based on what Gruber said, however, it sounds like Apple would use this type of technology to boost image quality rather than adding quirky effects to photos. Over the past several years, Apple has made some incremental improvements to the iPhone's camera. Often times, this has included adding new modes for slow motion, time lapse, and panoramic videos. SEE ALSO: How The iPhone 6's Camera Compares To The Galaxy S5, iPhone 5s, And Moto X Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Facebook Takes A Step Towards Its Own Original Content With A New Breaking Tech-News Wire Feed (FB) | ||
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According to a blog post announcing the feed, FB Techwire, will “act as a resource for journalists to discover original content on Facebook.” That includes highlighting breaking news, first-person photos and videos, and noteworthy Facebook posts by tech influencers and news organizations. Facebook will also highlight commentary from verified Facebook journalists and link out to stories about Facebook products and new features. Techwire is powered by Storyful, a social content discovery and verification tool for newsrooms. Facebook has become a massively important platform for publishers. It sends more traffic to sites than any other single site. And yet, journalists like to whittle away their time on Twitter. And whenever news breaks, Twitter is the go to source for real-time information. Facebook wants to change all of that with its newswire products. FB Techwire is an offshoot of Facebook Newswire, which launched with a similar mission in April, and it functions the same way. The “Techwire” is a Facebook page that you can subscribe to, and “stories” will appear in your feed the same way as posts from friends or other news organizations. Facebook has begun cross promoting FB Techwire posts on Twitter with a new @FBTechwire Twitter account. This is Facebook starting to creep into content creation territory. It's unclear if Facebook plans to have more control over media, or not. But, by creating its own feed it sets itself up to compete with Facebook pages from companies like Techmeme, TechCrunch, and, yes, Business Insider. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Facebook has launched a tech-news focused newsfeed in an attempt to establish itself as a leading source in tech news. 
Here's What It Feels Like To Rocket Into Outer Space | ||
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Many astronauts agree that the few minutes following lift-off are some of the most terrifying moments of space travel. Luckily, former Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who retired last year, is happy to share those thrilling minutes. Here's what riding one of the now-retired space shuttles was really like: While on the launchpad, NASA's space shuttles weighed 4.5 million pounds and towered at a height equivalent to the length of two football fields. To launch something like that into space, it takes:
In the 8.5 minutes it takes the shuttle to reach space, it accelerates from zero to 17,500 miles per hour — 23 times faster than the speed of sound. Hadfield's first-hand account of what that actually feels like will get your heart racing. "Six seconds before launch of the shuttle the engines start to light and when the engines light it bends the whole thing, so you can actually feel the whole vehicle sway away from you as the engines light," explains Hadfield, in this incredible video below.
By 2017, NASA astronauts will hopefully have the chance to launch on American soil with space taxis built by the two corporations: SpaceX and Boeing. Funding for these two programs was just announced in October. CHECK OUT: 20 World-Changing Discoveries Made By Accident READ MORE: Scientists Have Figured Out What Color The Universe Is Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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"You watch the launch pad disappear out the window. By the time we clear it, we're going 100 miles per hour straight up. And you accelerate at just such a brutal manner. The vibration is so high and, it's not like an airliner that kind of flops along through the sky, this thing moves like a tuning fork."
"[At] 45 seconds, you're going faster than the speed of sound straight up and you're accelerating...and it's a brutal physical ride as you're shouldering your way through the air."
"An after two minutes the solids [rocket boosters] have done their job, so these huge candle sticks are out of fuel and they explode off...And now it's liquid drive, and you're just getting pushed above the air faster and faster and faster and getting pinned heavier and heavier and heavier in your seat like something was just pouring sand on you as you get more and more crushed in your chair."
"And it just gets harder and harder to breathe and it lasts another 6 minutes and 40 seconds of this steadily increasing weight on you as you're getting crushed and you're having to fight for every breath. And then suddenly, at 8 minutes and 42 seconds, the gas tank is out of fuel and the engines shut off and you're weightless."
While the The Microsoft Engine That Nailed The World Cup Is Predicting Every NFL Game — Here Are Its Picks For Week 12 | ||
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Microsoft's Cortana had one of its worst weeks of the NFL season, correctly predicting just eight of 14 Week 11 games. It's now 105-56 (65%) on the season. It was a big week for underdogs in low-profile games. the Buccaneers over Redskins and the Texans over Browns were both upsets, based on Cortana's numbers. Cortana is a Windows phone virtual assistant that uses a Bing Predicts algorithm to predict every NFL game. It began at the World Cup, where it correctly predicted 15 of 16 knockout stage games, and now it has moved on to the NFL. It picks games straight-up, not against the point spread. Its 105-56 record is close to the record of Vegas favorites (104-54-3) and Nate Silver's ELO model (111-50). ELO went 8-6 in Week 11, Vegas favorites went 7-6-1. 8-6 is the model's second-worst week of the year. We'll see if it can make a comeback over the next six weeks. Here are Cortana's picks for Week 12 as of Tuesday night. We'll update them throughout the week if they change (Vegas favorites in parentheses):
Cortana and Vegas agree on every game right now. There are only two games with point spreads of three points or less. Here are Cortana's results so far this year:
SEE ALSO: NFL Power Rankings, Where Every Team Stands Going Into Week 12 Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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CHART OF THE DAY: Millennial Males Love Snapchat | ||
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Although Facebook and texting are still popular for sharing most photos and videos, Snapchat has a pretty impressive hold over millennials — especially males in that age group. Goodwater Capital, a VC firm that invests in early stage consumer tech companies, recently released a study based on a survey of 200 mobile users in the US in hopes of better understanding how people share content across various social media. Based on Goodwater’s data, charted for us by BI Intelligence, nearly one of every five men aged 18-29 share their photos and videos through Snapchat — more than Facebook (17%) and way more than Instagram (only 4%). Millennial women still tend to share more through Facebook and Instagram than through Snapchat (24% and 8%, versus 7%). And hardly anybody over 30 said they used Snapchat to share content — Facebook was a far more popular option for them.
SEE ALSO: CHART OF THE DAY: Facebook Has 25X More Advertisers Than Twitter Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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14 Quotes That Show The Ambition And Genius Of Google's Larry Page | ||
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Google CEO Larry Page is driven by a fierce, relentless ambition. He is notoriously unsatisfied by ideas that don't push technology forward by 10x. You can see his big dreams at work within Google X, the company's experimental lab where it's working on smart contact lenses, self-driving cars, internet-bearing balloons, humanoid robots, and more. You can also see it through these quotes. On making a difference: "What is the one sentence summary of how you change the world? Always work hard on something uncomfortably exciting!" On invention versus implementation: "Invention is not enough. Tesla invented the electric power we use, but he struggled to get it out to people. You have to combine both things: invention and innovation focus, plus the company that can commercialize things and get them to people." On making Google products beautiful: "I do think there is an important artistic component in what we do. As a technology company I’ve tried to really stress that." See the rest of the story at Business Insider  | ||
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Uber Employees Allegedly Warned Another Journalist That Uber Could Look At Her Rider Info | ||
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Uber employees allegedly warned San Francisco Magazine editor Ellen Cushing while she was researching a story on CEO Travis Kalanick that the company might look at her rider logs, the magazine reports. The news comes a day after news broke that an Uber exec suggested the company could spend millions digging up dirt on reporters who wrote negative stories about the company. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick threw that exec under the bus Tuesday morning in a tweetstorm about the incident. The San Francisco Magazine editor said she had no evidence that Uber looked at her rider data, acknowledging that her sources might have simply been "overzealous" in their warnings. But her sources allegedly said it wouldn't be very hard to access the information.
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THE NEW MICROSOFT: Things That Never Would've Happened In The Steve Ballmer Era | ||
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Microsoft is a company in transition. Since August 2013, when Steve Ballmer announced his plans to step down as CEO, the company has done a lot of things that the old Microsoft never would have dreamed of. It's given products and source code away for free, moved fast to release a bunch of new products, and began to dismantle a toxic culture that grew up over the last decade. Most important, Microsoft has accepted the reality that Windows no longer rules the world. Wall Street seems to be pleased with the changes, which started in Ballmer's last few months and have accelerated dramatically under new CEO Satya Nadella — the stock is up 53% since Ballmer said he'd step down. Released a really good version of Office for iPad ... before Windows tablets got one Microsoft was rumored to be sitting on a version of Office for iPad for years. One of the first things that Satya Nadella did after taking over from Steve Ballmer was to finally release it. That happened in March. It wasn't just a simple viewer, or a port of the then-crummy Office for mobile phones, but a completely new twist on the core Office apps — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote — that took full advantage of the iPad's size and touch screen. The reviews were mostly surprised and positive. Meanwhile, there's still no touch-first version of Office for Microsoft's own tablets. Then gave Office for iPad away for free* *Well, kind of free. Originally, iPad or Android tablet users could edit Office files only if they had an Office 365 subscription. Otherwise, they could only view files. But earlier this month, Microsoft announced that consumers no longer needed an Office 365 subscription to use Office on their iPads and Android tablets. But for certain business uses, a subscription is still required. Gave some versions of Windows away for free, too Last spring, announced that it would give Windows away to companies making devices with screens smaller than 9 inches. In other words, Windows Phone and all versions of Windows that run on small tablets and tiny devices will now be free. Giving any version of Windows away would have been heresy in the old Microsoft, but with Android available at no cost, and dominating the market for portable devices, Microsoft had little choice here. See the rest of the story at Business Insider  | ||
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Something Fishy Is Going On With My iMessages... (AAPL) | ||
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Over the last several months I've received a lot of iMessages like these from my friends: "Your message just came from your iCloud?" Or... "You're showing up not as a number but on iCloud." I've had it happen the other way, too. A few weeks ago, my editor Jay Yarow sent me an iMessage, but it came from his @icloud.com email address, not the phone number I have saved under his contact information. In short, it seems like the iPhone is decoupling people's iCloud email addresses from the phone numbers they registered with iMessage. That means unless someone has your iCloud email address saved in their contacts, the message will start a new thread and appear as "stevekovach@icloud.com" instead of "Steve Kovach." I asked on Twitter, and several people told me they've experienced the same issue with other iMessage users. There are few discussions about it in Apple's online support forums too. What's going on? It seems like the issue started happening to some people when Apple released its latest software update for iPhones, iOS 8.1, but we can't be sure. An Apple spokesperson declined to comment. So, how do you fix it? The best solution is to go into your iPhone's settings an unlink your email address from iMessage. It's not ideal, but at least people who have your number stored in their phones won't have to worry about iMessage decoupling it from your iCloud email address. First, go to Settings.
Select Messages.
Select Send & Receive.
Tap to uncheck all the email addresses associated with your iMessage account.
Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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THE FUTURE OF MOBILE: 2014 [SLIDE DECK] | ||
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The future of mobile is being redefined. The smartphone and tablet markets are nearing saturation. The days of heady hardware growth are long gone.
Mobile growth is moving into media, advertising, software, and services. Meanwhile, new devices are expanding the meaning of "mobile." BI Intelligence has created a slideshow that highlights the new markets growing up around the multiscreen consumer. 1. Mobile Commerce 2. Mobile Advertising 3. Mobile Apps 4. Emerging Devices And Platforms 5. Mobile Payments And Banking 6. Mobile Health Only BI Intelligence subscribers can download the individual charts and datasets in Excel, along with the PowerPoint and PDF versions of this deck. Please sign up for a membership here. BI Intelligence is a research and analysis service focused on mobile computing, digital media, payments, e-commerce, and the Internet of Things.    See the rest of the story at Business Insider  | ||
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Barbie Book Titled 'I Can Be a Computer Engineer' Tells Girls They Need A Man's Help To Code | ||
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She is portrayed as an inept programmer who inadvertently plagues her friend’s computer with a virus and can’t fix a bug without help from a man. The book implies that Barbie can only contribute to the design of the game she’s working on, rather than its more complicated technical structure. We first saw the book at The Daily Dot. According to one Amazon reviewer: “Barbie starts out at breakfast stating that she's designing a game but when questioned by her sister Skipper, she admits, ‘I'm only creating the design idea, I'll need Steven and Brian's help to turn it into a real game.’ Literally six sentences into the story, and already Barbie can NOT do it. She immediately admits she doesn't know how to actually do computer engineering, and like a Disney princess, needs a white knight to rescue her.” Naturally, the book has not been well received. The majority of parents reviewing it on Amazon have deemed it worthy of only one star, and the site’s sole three-star review suggests renaming the title “I Can Manipulate Boys Into Programming While I Sit Back and Take Credit.” A user by the name of T writes: “This is possibly the most irresponsible children's book ever published. The title should really be a question: 'Can I be a computer engineer?' and the answer, according to this book, is no! silly Barbie, take all that hard programming stuff to the boys! it will be faster if they just do it for you.” “Once again, women programmers are shafted by the toy industry who insists computers are toys for boys. This has already put generations of women in challenging situations when they enter university computer science programs. This book could do something to change that. but, no.
The book is written by Susan Marenco and published by Random House, and was written to accompany a physical Computer Programmer barbie doll that comes carrying a hot pink laptop. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Barbie is known for her career ambitions, but in a new book called, "
This Is How Apple Watch Apps Will Look And Work (AAPL) | ||
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We're learning more about how the Apple Watch will work when it's released next year, thanks to new info for developers that came out on Tuesday. A document called Human Interface Guidelines show how Apple Watch apps will work and what developers should do (or avoid doing) to make their apps a hit on the platform. Here's what we learned:
Perhaps aware of the limitations they've put on developers, the Human Interface Guide offered some advice. "Enlist the help of a professional graphic designer," said Apple. More detailed information for developers is available here. SEE ALSO: Here's What Businesses Really Want From The iPad Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Facebook Shuttle Bus Driver Explains Why He's Furious About His Job | ||
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Jimmy Maerina has about had it with Facebook. He is one of 70 bus drivers who shuttle Facebook employees from their homes in San Francisco to the company's Menlo Park, California, headquarters 30 miles away. Though their passengers are exclusively Facebook employees, the bus drivers actually work for a company called Loop Transportation, which Facebook pays a fee to get its workers to and from Menlo Park during the week. Maerina says he and his fellow drivers work a grueling schedule, starting their day at a bus depot 15 minutes from Facebook's campus at 5:30 a.m. and finishing at 8:45 p.m. Although the drivers have about five unpaid hours off in the middle of the day, they are prohibited from finding other employment during that time, Maerina says. He adds that many of his coworkers live far enough from the lot that it doesn't make sense to commute all the way home and come back. Because the rest trailer provided by Loop Transportation has only four beds, Maerina says, drivers are forced to sleep in their cars between shifts. For all this, drivers make as little as $17 an hour. Perhaps of more concern, Maerina, who has a wife and two children, says he pays nearly $1,200 a month for Loop's company-sponsored health plan. On Wednesday, the drivers will vote on whether to join a local chapter of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a labor union that represents 1.4 million workers in the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico. If the majority of drivers vote "yes," the union would be able to negotiate on their behalf for higher wages and better working conditions. The union vote represents what could be the climax of a yearlong war Maerina has waged against Facebook and Loop, during which Maerina says Loop has attempted to intimidate drivers from organizing for better pay and Facebook has been complicit in its contractor's actions by failing to stop them. "Facebook needs to open their eyes and decide this treatment can't continue, because their employees' lives are in our hands," Maerina, 54, tells Business Insider. "If it's the last thing I do before I quit my job, I want to see the bus drivers unionized." A spokesperson for Loop Transportation declined to confirm or deny individual allegations, and Facebook did not respond to our inquiry at all. Maerina, who served as union president during a previous driving job at another company, has been trying to organize his fellow Loop drivers since February, in hopes that a union would be able to negotiate with Loop for higher wages, cheaper health benefits, and better working conditions. According to Maerina, Loop sent people to Facebook's campus to speak with drivers about how a union would ultimately hurt their interests, a process that has continued in the months leading up to the vote. Meanwhile, he says Facebook told Loop to give the drivers a $0.75 raise to convince drivers that they didn't need a union to improve their work situation. "I am sure that Facebook is aware of this because if you don't know what the heck is going on in your own home, then the home might not be yours," Maerina says of Loop representatives sent to discourage drivers from unionizing. A Loop spokesperson said the following about its discussions with drivers: "In accordance with federal law, we are cooperating fully with the National Labor Relations Board in advance of the secret ballot election. This includes notifying our drivers of the election and their rights surrounding this issue."
The spokesperson also said its drivers made between $17 and $25 an hour, wages the spokesperson says are among the highest in the commuter bus industry. The dispute escalated in August, when Maerina went public with his grievances in a story published by USA Today in which he told reporter Jessica Guynn that he and other drivers were "just barely making it." Maerina has been joined in airing his complaints by Cliff Doi, a fellow driver who has worked for Loop for three years. In a blogpost published by the Teamsters, he says he has little downtime and actually lost vacation days earlier this year because he couldn't get Loop to find someone to cover his shifts when he wanted to take time off. To hold a union vote, federal labor law requires a group of workers to file petition in which 30% of the employees hope to represent express interest in forming a union. Maerina says Loop attempted to fire him for speaking out but that Facebook told its contractor not to do so after USA Today contacted company officials. In addition, the driver says Loop moved its offices from Facebook's campus to a building beside the bus lot that had previously been a room drivers could rest in. The move has led to increased scrutiny of the drivers by management, and Maerina says drivers have been further intimidated by Loop's decision to drug test more frequently than it had in the past. Nonetheless, he says the actual act of driving passengers to and from work is relatively pleasant. He spoke highly of the Facebook employees on his route, saying that some had even written messages on an internal website encouraging the company to make sure the drivers get higher wages. In his estimation, Facebook would do well to cut out the middleman and hire its bus drivers directly, as Google did when it announced last month that it was hiring about 200 security guards who had previously been the employees of a contracting firm. "They're awesome," Maerina says of his passengers. "The only thing that is screwing this up is Facebook." SEE ALSO: Facebook Bus Drivers Want To Unionize Because They Say They're Treated Like 'Servants' Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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The Best Instagram Accounts To Follow | ||
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Instagram launched in 2010, offering people a way to stay connected using images and videos. Since then it has grown immensely, and people from all over the world are using the site to show what they've been up to. But it's also a way for people to show off their creativity. In addition to family and friends, and even celebrities who are active on the site, such as Beyonce, and well-known Instagram accounts, like Humans of New York, there are a ton of other people who are using Instagram to flex some creative muscle, whether it's climbing the highest heights, or simply giving their feeds a dose of cuteness. C+C Mini Factory places mini figurines of various animals, people, and objects into real-life situations. And the results are adorable. Some people look at a Cheeto and see food. But cheesecurlsofinstagram sees art. Japanese hairdresser Jun Kuwabara says he wants to cut "1,000 people's hair while traveling around the world." He doesn't just give haircuts in salons, either. See the rest of the story at Business Insider  | ||
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Uber CEO Throws Uber Executive Under The Bus For The Company's Latest Face-Plant | ||
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Uber's management team has had a lot of foot-in-mouth moments of late. Most recently, Uber SVP Emil Michael made a disturbing comment at a dinner party he thought was off the record. Michael allegedly suggested Uber spend millions of dollars hiring people to investigate the private lives of its most vocal media critics and air their dirty laundry. The comment was targeted at Sarah Lacy, who has taken a strong stance against Uber in recent articles on her website, Pando. Michael's offhand remark was overheard and reported by BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick took to Twitter on Tuesday to clean up Michael's PR mess. He hasn't fired Michael, but he did acknowledge that the comments were inappropriate. Here's the full tweet storm: UPDATE: After a 10-minute pause, the tweetstorm continued. Kalanick added: "I believe that folks who make mistakes can learn from them — myself included. And that also goes for Emil. And last, I want to apologize to [the targeted reporter], Sarah Lacy." Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Tesla's Original CEO Reveals What It's Like To Get Fired By Elon Musk | ||
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In August 2007, Martin Eberhard was in Los Angeles to give a talk at a luncheon put on by the Motor Press Guild, the trade group for publications that cover cars. At that time, he was the CEO of Tesla Motors, and he was getting to be a big deal in the auto industry. "Eberhard will discuss the business case for starting Tesla Motors and the viability of the electric car today and in the future," a press release for the event glowed. "He will also reveal plans for the launch of the company's high-performance, all-electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster." Then Eberhard got a call from Elon Musk, Tesla's chairman of the board and primary investor. Musk sounded nervous. He had some bad news for Eberhard: Michael Marks, an early Tesla investor, would be taking over as chief executive. The Tesla board had held a meeting without him, Eberhard told Business Insider, and decided that it was time for him to step down. "There was no discussion," Eberhard said. "I didn't get to hear what they said. I didn't get to defend myself. I felt totally stranded." Eberhard had an uncle who was a lawyer, so he asked his advice. After realizing that the board meeting violated the company's bylaws, he asked that they have another meeting via conference call so he could actually leave his position. On Aug. 8, 2007, Eberhard resigned from the CEO position and took on a new title, President of Technology. Marks became the interim CEO.
"I never figured out what was said about me to those people," Eberhard said. Though he was still on staff with Tesla, Eberhard was moved off of almost every responsibility, save for troubleshooting and a handful of peripheral issues. Now an employee, he was effectively shut out of the company he founded. Mike Harrigan, who served as VP of marketing for Tesla at the time, told Business Insider that it was classic Musk. Musk "is the kind of boss where day to day you don't know if you have a job or not," he said. "Once he's convinced that you can't do the job, there's no way you can convince him back again," Harrigan added. "That happened many times to many people, and that's what happened with Martin. Once he determined that Martin couldn't be the CEO of Tesla any longer, that was it. He was fired." This story is taken from "The Making Of Tesla: Invention, Betrayal, And The Birth Of The Roadster," an original Business Insider investigative feature. SEE ALSO: The Making Of Tesla: Invention, Betrayal, And The Birth Of The Roadster Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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The 10 Best Bluetooth Headsets On The Market | ||
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A reliable Bluetooth headset makes doing chores and activities that require both hands infinitely easier. The experts at FindTheBest found the best Bluetooth headsets on the market based on a Smart Rating system. The Smart Rating takes six tech magazines' reviews into account as well as other features including voice quality, connectivity, and control features. 10. Jawbone ICON ($60)The Jawbone ICON headset takes two hours to charge and has a wireless range of 33 feet. It has noise cancellation and voice isolation features, but the charge only lasts four hours, which is below the average talk time. 9. Plantronics Pulsar 590A ($119)Like the Jawbone ICON, the Plantronics Pulsar 590A has a charge time of two hours and a wireless range of 33 feet. However, the Pulsar has a 12-hour talk time life — enough to last you the entire work day without having to recharge.
8. Sound ID 510 ($99)The Sound ID 510 has a media playback control feature which allows users to record and play back conversations. The headset has a three hour charge time and a talk time of five hours. 7. Plantronics Voyager Pro+ ($60)Similar to the other Plantronics headset on the list, the Plantronics Voyager Pro+ has a wireless range of 33 feet and a charge time of two hours. The Bluetooth headset has voice dialing and wind cancellation features for a clear calling connection. 6. Jabra BT8010 ($150)The Jabra BT8010 can last up to 300 hours in standby mode, which means that it has a great battery life. When in use, the headset has 10 hours of talk time and a wireless range of 33 feet. It also has lots of control features like voice dialing and media playback. 5. Plantronics Discovery 975 ($99)The Plantronics Discovery 975 has great voice quality because of its echo, wind, and noise cancellation features. It has a wireless range of 30 feet and a talk time of five hours. 4. Plantronics Voyager PRO HD ($45)The Plantronics Voyager PRO HD has a talk time of six hours and standby time of 120 hours. The Bluetooth headset has voice dialing as well as wind and noise cancellation. 3. BlueAnt V1 ($48)The BlueAnt V1 has six control features and five voice quality features which pushes it up the list. The headset has a talk time of five hours, a standby duration of 200 hours, and a range of 33 feet.
2. Jawbone Era ($64)With the second-longest standby time (200 hours), the Jawbone Era is No. 2 on the list. The headset has a sleek design and is great for canceling out background noise for optimal voice quality. The Bluetooth headset can be paired with eight different devices and has a talk time of five hours. 1. Plantronics Voyager Pro ($65)With a Smart Rating of 100, the Plantronics Voyager Pro is the best Bluetooth headset on the market. Don't let the old-school design fool you — the Voyager Pro has exceptional sound quality that can withstand any environment. The headset has a talk time of six hours, standby time of 120 hours, and a wireless range of 33 feet. SEE ALSO: The 10 Best Laptops On The Market FOLLOW US: Business Insider Is on Twitter Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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10 Things You Need To Know Before European Markets Open | ||
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The Takata Airbag Recall Issue Just Got Much Worse. The government announced Tuesday that it's calling for a nationwide recall of millions of cars due to potentially faulty airbags produced by auto parts giant Takata corporation. As many as 16.8 million cars around the world are reportedly affected by the recall. Hong Kong Protesters Tried To Break Into The Parliament Building. Hong Kong police clashed with pro-democracy demonstrators Wednesday after a small group attempted to break into the city's legislature. Repsol Is Searching For Oil Off The Canary Islands. Spanish energy firm Repsol began searching for oil Tuesday in the waters off the Canary Islands, a top holiday destination, despite objections from environmentalists and the local government. Rebels At The Bank Of Japan Have Changed Their Minds. The central bank's board voted 8-1 to keep stimulus at its current level, after a much closer 5-4 vote at the previous meeting, according to the Financial Times. Asian Markets Are Down A Little. Japan's Nikkei ended down 0.32% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng is currently trading down 0.55%. The Shanghai-Hong Kong Stock Exchange Link Has Slowed To A Trickle. Purchases of mainland Chinese stocks have dropped to just a tenth of what they were on Monday, leading some analysts to call the link-up a "ghost train" according to Bloomberg. Central Bank Minutes Are Coming. Minutes from both the Bank of England and Fed are out at 9.30 a.m. GMT and 7 p.m. GMT respectively. Figures on the euro area's construction output in September will also be released at 10 a.m. GMT, giving some idea of the European economy's strength. BNP Paribas Might Face An Insider Trading Probe. According to sources who spoke to the Financial Times, French prosecutors have started a preliminary prosecution against the bank. An Indian Court Found In Favour Of Shell In A $1.4 Billion (£870 Million) Case. The ruling is being seen as a win for pro-business prime minister Narendra Modi in his pursuit of a more corporate-friendly economy. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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The US Senate Rejected The Keystone Oil Pipeline. Iran nuclear talks get down to nitty-gritty | ||
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Vienna (AFP) - Iran and six world powers get down to business in Vienna on Wednesday, groping for the elusive magic formula to secure a milestone nuclear deal that satisfies hardliners in Tehran and Washington. The clock will be ticking though on the second day of a final round of talks, with the deadline for Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany on Monday. "This is a very critical week obviously in Iran negotiations," US Secretary of State John Kerry, expected in the Austrian capital later in the week, said in London on Tuesday. "We hope we get there but we can't make any predictions." Already Kerry has announced he will delay his arrival in Vienna. Late on Tuesday, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Kerry would now travel to Vienna "later in the week", although the exact day had not yet been set. "Secretary Kerry will stay in London tomorrow where he will continue consulting with both the negotiating team in Vienna and his interagency counterparts in Washington," she said. Kerry will then hold separate meetings with the French and Saudi foreign ministers in Paris on Thursday. Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, arriving in Vienna on Tuesday, said that a deal was "possible" and that if the talks fail it will be because the six powers asked for too much. "If, because of excessive demands... we don't get a result, then the world will understand that the Islamic Republic sought a solution, a compromise and a constructive agreement and that it will not renounce its rights and the greatness of the nation," Zarif told Iranian media. But Kerry, who held the latest in a string of meetings with Zarif in Oman last week, put the onus on Iran. "It is imperative that Iran works with us with all possible effort to prove to the world that the programme is peaceful," Kerry said. British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond echoed his comments, calling for more "flexibility by the Iranians to convince us that their intentions in their nuclear programme are entirely peaceful".
- Drums of war -
The landmark accord being sought by Monday's deadline, after months of negotiations, is aimed at easing fears that Tehran might develop nuclear weapons under the guise of its civilian activities. It could resolve a 12-year standoff, silence talk of war, help normalise Iran's relations with the West, boost the beleaguered Iranian economy and mark a rare foreign success for US President Barack Obama. In order to make it virtually impossible for Iran to assemble a nuclear weapon, the US, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany (the P5+1) want Iran to scale down its nuclear programme. Iran, which insists its nuclear aims are exclusively peaceful despite failing to declare parts of its programme in the past, wants painful sanctions lifted. Some areas appear provisionally settled. But the big problem is still enrichment -- rendering uranium suitable for power generation and other peaceful uses, but also, at high purities, for a weapon. Iran wants to massively ramp up the number of enrichment centrifuges -- in order, it says, to make fuel for a fleet of future reactors. The West wants the number slashed, saying Iran has no such need in the foreseeable future. Other thorny issues are the duration of the accord and the pace at which sanctions are lifted, an area where Iranian expectations are "excessive", one Western diplomat said.
- Another extension? -
Given the differences, many analysts expect more time to be put on the clock. The alternative -- walking away -- would be "catastrophic", Arms Control Association analyst Kelsey Davenport said. "Given the political capital that both sides have invested... it would be foolish to walk away from the talks and throw away this historic opportunity," Davenport told AFP. For now though, with another extension presenting risks of its own -- fresh US sanctions, not least -- officials insist that they remain focused on getting the job done in time. "An extension is not and has not been a subject of conversation at this point," a senior US official said late Monday.
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Thor star Chris Hemsworth named world's sexiest man | ||
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Washington (AFP) - Australian actor and "Thor" avenger Chris Hemsworth is the world's sexiest man, the US magazine People said Thursday. The honor was announced on the late night US TV show hosted by Jimmy Kimmel on ABC and the magazine itself. With his face at first masked and his voice digitally modified, Hemsworth, 31, speaking from Australia, toyed with playful yes-or-no questions from the American TV audience. Kimmel's instructions and teasers to his crowd: "If you guess correctly, the sexiest man alive will make love to you, so this is big. I will give you three clues. He is sexy, he is a man, he is alive." Is he in a band? No. Over age 35? Wrong, again. "Are you hairy?" a bearded, balding man in the audience asked, smiling "Just up here," the still unknown masked person asked, gesturing to his head. Fast forward: the audience zeroed in on the guy as a non-American, buffed dude who is an actor that has played a superhero in the movies, wielding a hammer: Thor in the Marvel Studios superhero movies? Bingo! Hemsworth's award was a small facial mirror. "Anything you would like to say to the men who lost, specifically Matt Damon?," Kimmel asked, referring to the popular American actor. "I like everything there is about being sexy, to persing the lips the right way to squinting at the essential time. Thank you, Matt, and all the other previous intelligent men. This is based on an IQ test, not just the physical appearance," the actor said. Asked if there was anyone he wanted to thank, Hemsworth said, "my parents, I guess, for putting this together." Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Kenya police carry out fresh raid on Mombasa mosque | ||
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Nairobi (AFP) - Kenyan police officers on Wednesday carried out a fresh raid on a mosque in the port city of Mombasa, police said. "We conducted a security operation in the mosque, we will give details later," said Richard Ngatia, the senior officer in the district of Kisauni where the raid took place. It came just two days after police raided mosques in the same city searching for weapons and radical supporters of Somalia's Al-Qaeda affiliated Shebab militants. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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UN global meet on malnutrition kicks off in Rome | ||
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Rome (AFP) - Political leaders from around the world gathered in Rome Wednesday for a three-day UN conference on malnutrition aimed at tackling a global scourge which afflicts poor and rich alike. Representatives from 190 countries were expected to attend the Second International Conference on Nutrition (CIN2), organised by the UN's food agency (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO) and boasting appearances from leaders including Pope Francis. "We are registering unacceptably high and persistent levels of malnutrition in the world," Leslie Amoroso, a FAO nutrition expert, told journalists ahead of the conference, which will draw together over 100 health and agriculture ministers. "The human costs of malnutrition are very high: 805 million people are undernourished and 161 million children have delayed growth," she said, adding that it was "a global problem which demands coordinated action from numerous sectors." A lot of progress has been made already, with the number of undernourished people in the world dropping by over half in the past two decades, from one billion people in 1992 when the first conference (CIN1) was held, to 805 million in 2014. But malnutrition is not just about hunger: two billion people suffer from deficiencies in nutrients such as vitamin A, iron and zinc -- a condition known as "hidden hunger" by experts -- while 42 million children and 500 million adults are overweight or obese. As poor nutrition "acts like a brake on development," investing in healthy food is proven to "improve productivity and economic growth, reduce health insurance costs and foster education and intellectual capacity," Amoroso said. - Royalty, philanthropists, the pope - Star guests at the conference will include Queen Letizia of Spain, King of Lesotho Letsie III, philanthropist Melinda Gates and economist Jeffrey Sachs, as well as Pope Francis, a fervent campaigner against hunger who is expected to give a speech on Thursday. Delegates will adopt a "Rome Declaration on Nutrition" and "Framework for Action", which FAO said were based on a consensus reached by over 200 national governments after consultations with civil society organizations and the private sector. The declaration focuses not only on access to healthy food but also the growing problem of inactive over-eaters, finding that "dietary risk factors, together with inadequate physical activity, account for almost 10 percent of the global burden of disease and disability." It stresses that "food should not be used as an instrument for political or economic pressure," and that food price volatility can have a knock-on effect on food security and nutrition and therefore "needs to be better monitored and addressed for the challenges it poses." The action framework presents 60 recommendations, including developing and implementing national plans and policies to better nutrition, as well as upping related investments. It stresses the need for universal health coverage, because "for health systems to be able to deliver improvements in nutrition, it is essential that there is access to health services for all, including the most marginalised and most vulnerable." It also urges governments to ensure universal access to safe drinking water and protect children from infections, such as diarrhoea, malaria and intestinal worms. The framework said it backed commitments made by the WHO to reduce deaths from NCDs -- diet related non-communicable diseases -- by 25 percent by 2025, as well as reducing salt intake by 30 percent and halting the increase in obesity prevalence in adolescents and adults. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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World braces for 'rude, spirited' Beaujolais Nouveau | ||
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Paris (AFP) - As the clock strikes midnight Wednesday, corks will pop the world over on new bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau, with oenophiles in Asia getting the first taste of the love-it-or-loathe-it young French wine. Long an annual tradition, winemakers in Beaujolais country in eastern France rush the "primeur" wine to market just a few weeks after harvest, often with only a few days of fermentation to its name. The time difference means the Japanese -- always keen fans of Beaujolais -- will be the first to taste this year's vintage, whose hurried preparation often makes for very mixed reviews. Japan imported 7.9 million bottles last year -- far ahead of the nearest competition, the United States on 1.8 million bottles and Germany on 730,000. Some producers in France have even decided to align their clocks with their biggest fans. "We will celebrate the Beaujolais Nouveau on Skype with our Japanese clients," said Claire Chasselay, 30, a wine producer in Chatillon d'Azergues, in southern Beaujolais. Exports account for around 40 percent of sales of the "primeur" wine, which has a powerful marketing pull even if the taste often leaves critics unimpressed. "Our Japanese clients know us thanks to Beaujolais Nouveau. Now they buy our line throughout the year," said Chasselay. - All different - A note to would-be connoisseurs: Never ask what taste Beaujolais Nouveau will have this year. "And this year's pizza -- what taste will that have?" fires back Chasselay when asked. "There are 2,000 producers in Beaujolais, all small operations, who all make their wine differently." Beaujolais Nouveau has a reputation for a very fruity aroma. In the days when it was mass produced with little care for the quality, it was derisively known as the banana-flavoured wine. "[Banana] is an aroma that can be found naturally in wine," said Melina Condy, another producer. "But for Beaujolais, it was due to a yeast that was added that had a secondary effect on the taste. It is no longer used." For some, making the wine is a great challenge. "The Beaujolais Nouveau is a rude wine -- very young and spirited," said Fabien Chasselay, the family's vinologist. Getting it right though is tough. "It's the most difficult, but it's so much fun to do," said Fabien. "If you finish the process too soon or too late, there is no maturity to fall back on. That's why so much ends up in the trash." Regardless of the risks, the release of the Beaujolais Nouveau has become a fixture of restaurants all over the world. From New York to Beijing, fans will celebrate the tradition invented by wine dealer George Duboeuf in 1967. Some of the most dedicated fans will even travel all the way to Beaujeu, heartland of the region, where thousands of enthusiasts from Japan, America and Europe descend every year. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Minnesota Vikings' Peterson banned for rest of NFL season | ||
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New York (AFP) - Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson was banned for the rest of the 2014 season as NFL chiefs accused the star of showing no remorse for beating his four-year-old son with a tree branch. National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell said the league will not consider reinstating Peterson before April 15 of next year and ordered him to undergo counseling, therapy and treatment. The league players' union said it will appeal and hope to have the case heard by an independent arbitrator. The league, however, has an agreement with the union whereby Goodell would oversee any appeal. Peterson's banishment without pay, which would cost him $4.1 million (3.2 million euros), comes as a result of the injuries inflicted on his young son last May. Whipping the boy with a branch led to severe cuts, welts and bruises. Peterson was charged with reckless or negligent injury to a child in Texas and pleaded no contest to a lesser charge on November 4, avoiding jail time but receiving probation, a $4,000 fine and a requirement to perform 80 hours of community service. "You have shown no meaningful remorse for your conduct," Goodell said in an open letter to Peterson. "When indicted, you acknowledged what you did but said that you would not 'eliminate whooping my kids' and defended your conduct in numerous published text messages to the child's mother. "You also said that you felt 'very confident with my actions because I know my intent.' These comments raise the serious concern that you do not fully appreciate the seriousness of your conduct, or even worse, that you may feel free to engage in similar conduct in the future." Peterson, who said his actions with his son were only imposing the sort of discipline he received in his own youth, skipped a hearing with Goodell last week. The two have not met to talk about the matter.
- Treatment to tell timeline -
The 30-year-old rusher, whose 2,097 yards in 2012 was the second-best one-year total in NFL history, owns the league record for most rushing yards in a game with 296. For his NFL career, Peterson has 10,190 rushing yards and 86 touchdowns. Barring an appeal win, the length of Peterson's punishment will depend upon his work with an NFL-mandated treatment counselor from New York, not the one who Peterson said he has been seeing. "The timing of your potential reinstatement will be based on the results of the counseling and treatment program set forth in this decision," Goodell told Peterson. "We are prepared to put in place a program that can help you to succeed, but no program can succeed without your genuine and continuing engagement." Peterson may now have to wait until next July to return to the field. With Peterson sidelined after the opener, the Vikings are 4-6 this season, sharing last in the NFC North division, three games out of a playoff berth with six games remaining in the campaign. The Vikings said in a statement: "We respect the league's decision and will have no further comment at this time."
- Child could not fight, flee -
Goodell, criticized for a weak response to domestic abuse in punishing former Baltimore Ravens rusher Ray Rice earlier this year, made it clear he was aware of the victim's perspective in this case of criminal physical abuse. "The difference in size and strength between you and the child is significant and your actions clearly caused physical injury to the child," Goodell said. "While an adult may have a number of options when confronted with abuse -- to flee, to fight back, or to seek help from law enforcement -- none of those options is realistically available to a four-year old child." The union's statement called the suspension of Peterson by the NFL "another example of the credibility gap that exists between" NFL agreements and actions. "The NFLPA will appeal this suspension and will demand that a neutral arbitrator oversee the appeal," the union said. The NFL players union said Peterson was told he would be reinstated with time missed as his punishment. Peterson said his agreement to the exempt list move was with that understanding but a grievance on those terms was rejected Tuesday by an arbitrator, keeping Peterson on the exempt list and getting paid rather than potentially reactivated while he plans his appeal. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Kerry delays trip to Vienna for Iran nuclear talks | ||
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London (AFP) - US Secretary of State John Kerry has pushed back his trip to Vienna where international negotiators are in final talks on Iran's nuclear programme, his department said. Kerry, who has been in London since Monday evening, was due to arrive mid-week in the Austrian capital to complete negotiations with the "5+1" group (United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany) and Tehran. Leaders hope to seal a landmark agreement by the November 24 deadline after months of negotiations but substantial differences remain between Iran and Western powers. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Europe's chief negotiator Catherine Ashton resumed discussions Tuesday in Vienna, along with representatives of 5+1, ahead of the arrival of their six foreign ministers. But Kerry will now travel to Vienna "later in the week", state department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki indicated, adding that the exact day had not yet been set. "Secretary Kerry will stay in London tomorrow where he will continue consulting with both the negotiating team in Vienna and his interagency counterparts in Washington," she said late Tuesday. "He will travel to Paris on Thursday morning where he will have separate meetings with Saudi Foreign Minister Saud and French foreign Minister Fabius on the Iran nuclear negotiations." Speaking earlier in London Kerry said it was "imperative that Iran works with us with all possible effort to prove to the world that the programme is peaceful". "This is a very critical week obviously in Iran negotiations," he added. "We hope we get there but we can't make any predictions." Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Clashes as Hong Kong protesters attempt parliament break-in | ||
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Hong Kong (AFP) - Hong Kong police clashed with pro-democracy demonstrators Wednesday after a small group attempted to break into the city's legislature, with tensions spiking as court-ordered clearances of protest sites get under way. Around 100 police used pepper spray and batons as they battled hundreds of protesters, some in helmets and waving umbrellas -- a symbol of their movement -- in an angry confrontation that broke out in the early hours. Officers made four arrests. "Police strongly condemn such acts by the protesters, which disrupted public order," the police force said in a statement. The clashes were sparked when a group of around a dozen protesters smashed their way through a side entrance to the southern Chinese city's Legislative Council using metal barricades as improvised battering rams. "Smash it open then get inside," one protester was heard saying in footage aired by the local TVB channel. A regular session of the chamber was cancelled on Wednesday and visitor tours of the complex were suspended, the government said in a statement. Demonstrators have been camped on three major Hong Kong thoroughfares for seven weeks, demanding free leadership elections for the semi-autonomous city, but public support has ebbed as the weeks pass with little progress. The authorities moved in for the first time to take down some barricades at the main protest camp Tuesday after a court granted an order to remove obstruction at the area, which is close to the legislative building. "We want to escalate our protest," a masked protester told TVB. "The government has not responded to the demands of protesters and residents." Police scouring the building on Wednesday took away at least one demonstrator who remained on the site as the working day began, according to the Apple Daily newspaper. Beijing insists that candidates for the 2017 vote for the city's top post must be vetted by a loyalist committee -- an arrangement the protesters say will ensure the election of a pro-Beijing stooge. The protests have largely been peaceful but have been punctuated with scuffles and clashes, and police used tear gas on large crowds at the main Admiralty protest site in late September. Student protest leaders said after the latest confrontation that their movement is committed to non-violence. "It's not something we like to see... We call on occupiers to stick firm to peaceful and non-violent principles and be a responsible participant of the umbrella movement," said 21-year-old Lester Shum from the Hong Kong Federation of Students. A former British colony, Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" deal which guarantees civil liberties not seen on the mainland, including freedom of speech and the right to protest. But concerns have been growing that these freedoms are being eroded, and frustrations have also been building over growing inequality in the freewheeling financial hub. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Netflix to launch in Australia, New Zealand in March | ||
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Sydney (AFP) - US online entertainment powerhouse Netflix ended months of speculation Wednesday in announcing it is moving into the Australian and New Zealand market from March. Netflix has pioneered online streaming of original content, including TV shows and films, challenging traditional network and cable broadcasters. "Internet-connected users in Australia and New Zealand will be able to subscribe to Netflix and instantly watch a curated selection of popular movies and TV shows," the company said in a statement. Netflix has more than 50 million subscribers around the world and Australia and New Zealand will bring the number of countries and territories with the service to more than 50. Full details on the pricing and content for Australian and New Zealand subscribers have not yet been announced, but Netflix said at launch offerings would include "Marco Polo", "BoJack Horseman and, among its children's titles, "All Hail King Julien". "Australia and New Zealand have been a long time coming for us," Netflix's Cliff Edwards told The Sydney Morning Herald. "Both countries are great locations for us, we know that people have been very enthusiastic ... we hope that enthusiasm will grow when we launch in March." Australian residents are currently blocked from accessing the US website but reports suggest many side-step this to access original content such as "House of Cards" and "Orange Is the New Black".
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REPORT: NBA Star Dwight Howard Investigated For Alleged Child Abuse | ||
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Houston Rockets star center Dwight Howard is under investigation for allegedly abusing his own child, according to USA Today. The allegation is coming from Cobb County, Georgia for an incident that was reported on October 1, 2014. Initially the investigation didn't yield any results, but in the last 24 hours, more information has come to light. Now the case is back under the microscope. TMZ broke the story, and says this of the investigation: "... the Dept. of Children and Families in Florida (DCF) determined there wasn't enough evidence of child abuse to go forward, but it turns out the incident occurred in Georgia. Howard admits he hit his kid with a belt, but says he didn't know it was wrong because he was hit as a kid." NBA executive vice president of communications Mike Bass told USA TODAY Sports, "We are aware of the allegations concerning Dwight Howard and are in the process of independently gathering the facts." Dwight Howard's Attorney has issued this statement, according to USA Today: "The Florida Department of Children and Families thoroughly examined all of the evidence and determined that the claims of child abuse were not substantiated. The case was closed in September. "(The child's mother) Royce Reed is now shopping her baseless allegations to authorities in Georgia after the Florida DCF case was closed. Even though the allegations have already been found to have no merit, when a complaint about the welfare of a child is made to law enforcement, an investigation is commenced. We are confident the Georgia authorities will reach the same conclusion as the Florida authorities. The truth is on our side. "It is appalling to see a mother use her son as a pawn against his father in attempt to extract money, which is what is happening in this case. While Royce Reed continues on her aimless quest with the media, Dwight Howard will continue to act in the best interest of his children and do whatever is necessary to protect them."
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A Key Bill Meant To Limit NSA Surveillance Programs Was Just Stopped In Its Tracks | ||
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A bill championed by privacy rights advocates, the tech industry, and the White House was suddenly blocked Tuesday night when it did not receive the necessary votes to proceed in the Senate. The bill, the USA Freedom Act, aimed to rein in some of the National Security Agency's controversial surveillance programs, including its ability to collect so-called metadata in bulk. Many of these programs drew international attention when former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked documents revealing their existence in 2013. However, when the votes were all counted Tuesday night, the bill received 58 of 100 senators' votes when it needed 60 to clear a procedural hurdle. Though the legislation enjoyed bipartisan support, including from conservatives like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), it also received criticism from both sides of the debate. Some privacy advocates, including Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), felt the legislation didn't go far enough. In particular, Paul took exception to the extension of the controversial Patriot Act. "As Benjamin Franklin put it, 'Those who trade their liberty for security may wind up with neither.' Today's vote to oppose further consideration of the Patriot Act extension proves that we are one step closer to restoring civil liberties in America," Paul said in a statement after the bill failed. The Republican caucus was mostly united against the legislation. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), who like Paul and Cruz is looking at a presidential campaign in 2016, directly warned the bill would empower the Islamic State jihadists (also known as ISIS or ISIL). "As the rise of ISIL has demonstrated, the world is as dangerous as ever, and extremists are being cultivated and recruited right here at home. This legislation would significantly weaken and, in some cases, entirely do away with some of the most important counter-terrorism capabilities at our disposal, which is why I will not support it," Rubio said in a statement. Supporters of the bill nevertheless vowed to keep advocating for the cause. Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vermont), the sponsor of the NSA reform legislation, slammed the Republican caucus in his own statement but insisted he was "not new to this fight" "Tonight, Senate Republicans have failed to answer the call of the American people who elected them, and all of us, to stand up and to work across the aisle. Once again, they reverted to scare tactics rather than to working productively to protect Americans' basic privacy rights and our national security," Leahy said. The White House strongly endorsed the legislation in a statement Monday evening, warning that without its passage, "critical authorities that are appropriately reformed in this legislation could expire next summer." According to the New York Times, the act would have implemented several different reforms: * Require the NSA to "ask phone companies for the records of a specific person or address when it is searching for terrorists, instead of scooping up all the records in an area code or city." * Force the agency to "show why it needs those records, and to disclose how much data is being collecting." * And "create a panel of advocates to support privacy rights and civil liberties in arguments before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court; currently, there is no one to offer opposition to government requests before the court." Update (8:27 p.m.): With additional statements and content throughout. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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US Senate blocks government surveillance reform bill | ||
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Washington (AFP) - The US Senate has blocked a sweeping overhaul of a National Security Agency program that would have ended the government's controversial collection of data about American citizens. The vote marks a blow for President Barack Obama, who had supported the reforms, and sets up a showdown in coming months as key surveillance provisions expire in mid-2015.
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Man Known For Spy Gadgets Is Selling An Airbnb Party Protection Kit | ||
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2014 has been an amazing year for Airbnb. The site that lets you rent your home to strangers over the internet has become insanely popular, serving over 20 million guest in 800,000 listings in 34,000 cities. While most people have no problems with the service, when things go wrong, they can go very wrong. People have been known to use Airbnb rentals to throw wild parties, even sex orgies, something that Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky admitted to Yahoo's Katie Couric in an interview last summer. But home owners are restricted in what they can do to monitor their property. They aren't allowed to, say, secretly videotape guests to make sure they aren't misbehaving. That's not only a violation of their privacy, and of Airbnb rules, it could be illegal.
The company has created what it says is the first home security system specifically for Airbnb hosts. It calls it "The MORzA Airbnb package." If there's a party going on it will alert you without violating your guests' privacy. It consists of a bunch of sensors that you can put around your house, a smart lock for your door, and an app. You can attach the sensors to doors, for instance. "If the door is opened and closed excessively in a short period of time, a guest might be hosting a party without your permission," the company's marketing materials say. With an optional package, you can add sensors that detect vibration (loud music, dancing) or a tilt sensor that will alert you if an object is being moved (like your couch).
The base package lists for $900 (although it's on sale now for $300) and it requires a $40/month security monitoring service. We haven't tried the tech, so we can't vouch for how well it works. But we like the idea of using technology to solve the problems that an innovative internet startup has created. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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21 Head Turning Cars At This Year's LA Auto Show | ||
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This the month's Los Angeles Auto Show will mark the official start of the 2014-15 North American auto show season. Automakers from around the world will bring their latest and greatest design concepts and production cars to show off for the Southern California crowd. Although the concepts exhibited at the show represent a glimpse into the future of the automotive industry, other, more production-ready vehicles will give the public a chance to see what's soon headed to their dealer showrooms. The annual show kicks off on November 18th and will run until 30th of the month at the L.A. Convention Center. The Maserati Alfieri debuted to rave reviews earlier this year at the Geneva Motor Show. The 460 horsepower concept car was built to commemorate the company's 100th anniversary, though we believe a production version could arrive soon. Another head turning concept is the Nissan Blade Glider — also one of the coolest names at the show. The Blade Glider is an all-electric concept car based on the revolutionary Nissan-powered Delta Wing race cars that took to the track at the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance sports car race. The Infiniti Q80 Inspiration arrived on the world stage in style at the Paris Motor Show last month and is now making its North American debut. The sleek fastback concept may be a hint at what to expect from the Japanese luxury brand's next flagship sedan. See the rest of the story at Business Insider  | ||
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Uber: We Won't Look At Rider Data Except For 'Legitimate Business Purposes' | ||
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Uber has posted a new privacy policy on its website that bans employees from accessing riders' trip data except "for a legitimate set of business purposes." The news comes after news broke that an Uber exec suggested the company could dig up personal information on reporters who cover Uber unfavorably. Another journalist says Uber employees warned her that Uber could look at her trip data, as she was researching a story about CEO Travis Kalanick. However, there's no evidence Uber actually did so. Uber provided the following examples of "legitimate business purposes" for looking through trip data.
Uber also said employee access to rider data is closely monitored and that employees who violate the company privacy policy are subject to "the possibility of termination and legal action." SEE ALSO: Uber Employees Allegedly Warned Another Journalist That Uber Could Look At Her Rider Info Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Anand Set Up A Beautiful Checkmate In Game 8 Of The World Chess Championship But Couldn't Pull It Off | ||
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On Tuesday, Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand played to a draw in Game 8 of the World Chess Championship in Sochi, Russia. The score now stands at 4.5-3.5 in Carlsen's favor. There are only four games left to play. On its face, Game 8 wasn't all that exciting: it lacked the fireworks of earlier games, the blunders of Game 6, and the sheer length of Game 7 (122 moves! Just two shy of the longest WCC game ever!). But Game 8 contained at least one amazing moment, of particular appeal to amateur players. For more serious players, Game 8 also pointed to a new direction in one of chess' most famous and popular opening at the Grandmaster level. ANOTHER QUEEN'S GAMBIT DECLINED! Playing white, Anand once again opened with the move 1. d4, a "Queen's Pawn" game. I've covered this first move in previous recaps, of Games 1 and 3. Anand won Game 3 in crushing fashion, after losing in equally crushing fashion to Carlsen in Game 2. Game 1 ended in a draw. The opening in the game was the Grunfeld Defense, but in Games 3 and Game 8, 1. d4 led to the Queen's Gambit Declined, an incredibly important opening at the elite level of the game. I'm not a big fan of 1. d4 openings as white personally — I find it confusing, disorienting, and almost disturbing to do battle on the queenside. As black, I'm okay with 1. d4, but I generally try to the play the Grunfeld, rather than the QGD or its sister opening, the Queen's Gambit Accepted. However, watching Anand weave a lovely mating attack in the QGD really made me appreciate what I think is actually one of the coolest things about the opening: its capacity to seem like all the action is on the queenside, then suddenly morph into a checkmate opportunity on the kingside. The mates are beautiful and otherworldly — unlike the more direct mates that can arise from kingside attacks. Anyway, GMs never get mated on the board — they always resign first, when they see it coming, or when they know that their position is lost. For amateurs, however, and especially players rated below 1500 (Anand and Carlsen are both above 2700), mates routinely occur, so it's good to know how to set them up and deliver them out of different openings. Obviously, Anand didn't mate Carlsen. But for a very brief sequence of moves, it was in the air. THE POWER OF A QUEEN AND A BISHOP Queens and bishops like to work together, at certain points of the game. The key is to have long, open diagonals on the board, so that both pieces can exploit their ability to move diagonally as many spaces as they want. I'll try to explain why Carlsen as black refuted Anand's attacking chances with some innovative ideas, but let's enjoy Anand's smooth setup for a moment. Here's the position, on move 17:
Anand has placed his queen on the c2 square and maneuvered his bishop to b1. That's a lot of power on what's called the b1-h7 diagonal. Uncontested by black (and in this position it's black's move), the queen can come all the way across the board in one move and check the black king by landing on h7 (the black king can't capture the white queen because the bishop backs up the attack). Black's king runs to the g8 square, and white delivers mate with the queen by moving to h8. The black king has no escape. But of course black is contesting the h7 square, with the knight on f6. This is an absolutely classic checkmating problem for white against a castled black king, defended by a knight on f6: How to get rid of the knight? And look at the position! Anand can take out the knight by capturing it with the bishop on g4. He did do this, but when Carlsen took back with his own bishop, the flaw in the white checkmating formulation is revealed: the black king can now get to the e7 square and evade mate. Anand then attacked the black bishop by bringing his knight to e4, compelling the bishop to retreat. But in the process he blocked his queen's access to the h7 square.
NOT GONNA HAPPEN It's wasn't out of the question for something crazy to happen at the board: both Carlsen, 23, and Anand, 44, were probably very tired after their marathon Game 7, and in fact Carlsen actually looked at one point like he was sleeping. At the post-match press conference, he didn't deny that he wasn't — and to make matters worse his manner can sometimes be so languid and seemingly disengaged that he looks like he's snoozing.
The type of mating combinations I've outlined are rare in GM play — the best players generally see them coming, and besides, the QGD has been so deeply studied that even though it can lead to a position like the one we saw in Game 8, black's setup is designed to defuse the threat. Here's the position again:
Note that Carlsen has a rook on e8, giving his king some breathing room, and a bishop on e7, which allows Carlsen to maintain control of the critical f6 square. Carlsen used the opening to locate these pieces accordingly, specifically to counter the mating threat on h7 and h8. This type of approach, undertaken in the opening phase of the game, is why chess players obsess over "opening theory." If Carlsen's rook and bishop were elsewhere, the position could be much better for white. The arrangement proves that, contrary to received wisdom, Carlsen is working on a better grasp of thorny opening theory — he's becoming far more than a player who just plays an established opening, gets a relatively equal position, and then tries to nurse small advantages through to a grueling endgame. In Game 8, Anand's attack ran out of resources and concluded uneventfully after both players completely evened out their strength on the board. AHEAD TO GAME 9 Wednesday is a rest day. On Thursday, Carlsen and Anand will be back at the board, and Anand will have the black pieces this time. If you want a prediction, I think that Anand will aim for another draw and throw himself into his next chance with white. Earlier in the match, I said that Anand needed to go for wins with white and black, but he's tried that twice now as black with the aggressive Sicilian Defense and he hasn't succeeded. Ultimately, he could use an easy draw in Game 9, to enable him to preserve enough energy at this point to press hard for a win with white in Game 10, even the match, and set the stage for two final games in which he could play for a draw as black in Game 11 and pull out all the stops for Game 12 with white. Carlsen, clearly, will simply need to hang on to his current 1-point margin to retain the title. This has been an amazing World Championship Match so far. And now it's come down to the final stages, when strategies about how to win, or how not to lose, will become very important. You can watch the replay of Game 8 here. And you can review the game at ChessBase.
SEE ALSO: Carlsen And Anand Play A Titanic 122-Move Game 7 At The World Chess Championship SEE ALSO: Vishy Anand Strikes Back To Crush Magnus Carlsen And Win Game 3 Of The World Chess Championship Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Miss Honduras Has Vanished Days Before The Miss World Competition | ||
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Reigning Miss Honduras, Maria Jose Alvarado, vanished with her sister, Sofia Trinidad, after a party last Thursday. The pair had been celebrating a friend's birthday near their home town of Santa Barbara, where student Alvarado, 19, was spending time with her parents before flying to Britain to represent her country. The missing women were last seen getting into a vehicle as they left the party. Police chief Jose Coello originally said they were not treating the pair's disappearance as a crime. But it emerged on Monday four people including Trinidad's boyfriend had been arrested and were being questioned as the last-known people to see them alive. Mr Coello confirmed: "Four people are under arrest. They include the owner of the party venue and Sofia Trinidad's boyfriend. They are being investigated." The case has caused consternation in the notoriously violent central American country, home to the most dangerous city on the planet. San Pedro Sula, just over 30 miles from Santa Barbara, is the murder capital of the world with more than 1,200 killings a year among its nearly one million inhabitants. Its murder rate of 169 per 100,000 people far surpasses anything in North America or much larger cities like Lagos or Sao Paulo. Alvarado describes herself on a Miss World website profile as an aspiring diplomat who enjoys playing volleyball and football in her spare time. She beat 18 contestants to win the Miss Honduras crown in April. She missed an appointment on Sunday evening to try on the dress she hopes to win Miss World with. The women's mother Teresa de Jesus pleaded last night: "Open your hearts and understand my pain. "There is an all-powerful God that sees everything and I hope you set them free." Miss World is due to start on Thursday, with 120 contestants competing for the crown. The grand finale takes place on December 14 at ExCeL London. Swiss-born medical student Carina Tyrrell, 24, a qualified ski instructor and competition level gymnast, is representing England. Scotland is represented by media and marketing student Ellie McKeating, 20, from Glasgow. Ireland's representative is business studies student Jessica Hayes, 20, from Cork.
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Police in Honduras are hunting for a missing beauty queen due to fly to London later this week for Miss World 2014.
The Terrifying Takata Airbag Recall Just Got Much Worse | ||
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The terrifying Takata airbag recall that once included only regions of the US with high humidity has now expanded to include the entire country. The Federal Government announced Tuesday that it's calling for a nationwide recall of millions of cars due to potentially faulty airbags produced by auto parts giant Takata corporation. As many as 16.8 million cars around the world are reportedly affected by the recall. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said, " its latest decision is based on the agency’s evaluation of a recent driver’s side air bag failure in a vehicle outside the current regional recall area and its relationship to five previous driver’s side air bag ruptures, all of which are covered by existing regional recalls." The recall stems from a series of incidents dating as far back as 2002 where Takata-built airbags have deployed with such excessive force that portions of the the airbag's housing blow loose and shower the car's occupants with shrapnel. As many five deaths and nearly 140 injuries have been attributed to Takata's airbags. NHTSA is also calling for Takata, along with 10 car makers including BMW, Ford, Honda, Toyota, General Motors, Chrysler, Mazda, Nissan, Mitsubishi, and Subaru to submit detailed reports under oath on its planned and ongoing airbag testing outside of the current recall areas. Federal regulators are also calling for Takata and the automakers to submit reports on Takata's changes to its airbag propellants. “We now know that millions of vehicles must be recalled to address defective Takata air bags and our aggressive investigation is far from over,” said NHTSA Deputy Administrator David Friedman. “We’re pushing Takata and all affected manufacturers to issue the recall and to ensure the recalls capture the full scope of the problems.” This latest expansion of the recall will only further compound Takata's already struggling share prices which is down more than 50% from its 52-week high. SEE ALSO: Here's Why The Ongoing Airbag Recall Is Terrifying Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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These Pictures Of Clint Eastwood Through The Years Make Aging Look Easy | ||
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There's something fascinating about photo sets that show people getting older. One of our favorite examples is Clint Eastwood, an 84-year-old movie star who has been on screen for decades. From his uncredited role in a 1955's "Revenge Of The Creature" to directing "Jersey Boys" in 2014, this is a guy who makes aging look easy. Also he's 6' 4" tall. First, here's a yearbook picture. 1955: 25-year-old Eastwood has an uncredited bit part in 'Revenge Of The Creature.' 1956: Here's a still from 'Star In The Dust.' See the rest of the story at Business Insider  | ||
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Senate Vote Puts Keystone Pipeline On Ice | ||
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A bill to approve the Keystone XL pipeline was defeated in the Senate on Tuesday. The Senate voted 59-41 putting the bill one vote shy of the 60 it needed to reach the White House. President Barack Obama did not support the bill to approve the pipeline, which would have carried petroleum from Canada's oil sands to the Gulf Coast. The White House has not indicated whether he would have vetoed the bill if it was approved. However, last week, Obama spoke out against the bill during a trip to Asia and his comments were widely seen as a sign he would ultimately block the pipeline. The Republican-led House of Representatives passed a vote to approve the pipeline on Nov. 14 and GOP senators pushed to pass similar legislation. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), who is set to become the majority leader next year following the GOP's Senate takeover in the midterm elections earlier this month, issued a statement after the vote vowing he would take up the matter again when his party is in control. "Tonight, Senate Democrats once again stood in the way of a shovel-ready jobs project that would help thousands of Americans find work — a remarkable stance after an election in which the American people sent a clear message to Congress to approve serious policies like the Keystone XL Pipeline and get the Senate working again," McConnell said. "Unfortunately, many Senate Democrats failed to hear that message. But once the 114th Congress convenes, the Senate will act again on this important legislation, and I look forward to the new Republican majority taking up and passing the Keystone jobs bill early in the New Year." After the Senate vote, the Republican National Committee issued a statement criticizing Democrats for blocking the pipeline. "Today Democrat dysfunction once again prevailed over a job-creating project voters overwhelmingly support and is firmly in the national interest," the statement said. One Democrat, Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana was aggressively lobbying on behalf of the bill. Landrieu is currently in a tough runoff race to keep her seat against Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy, who authored the House pipeline bill. Due to the large number of oil industry jobs in Louisiana, the pipeline is quite popular with voters there. Louisiana's Senate runoff is scheduled for Dec. 6 and polls indicate Landrieu is facing an uphill battle. The RNC characterized the Senate vote as proof Landrieu is "only effective when it comes to delivering for President Obama." "Louisianans can send another strong message to President Obama by firing Senator Landrieu and replacing her with the effective, pro-energy leadership of Bill Cassidy," the statement said. The pipeline was strongly opposed by environmental groups. Following the Senate vote, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune released a statement praising the Senate vote. "We applaud the Senators who stood up for the health of our families and our climate by fighting back against this big polluter-funded sideshow. There’s no good reason the Senate should have wasted all this time on yet another meaningless push for Keystone XL," said Brune. "Since day one, the decision on the pipeline has belonged to President Obama, and he has repeatedly said he will reject this pipeline if it contributes to the climate crisis. As there is no doubt that it does, we remain confident that is precisely what he’ll do." Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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'Grand Theft Auto 5' Publisher Calls The Graphic Violence In The Game 'Art' | ||
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"Grand Theft Auto 5" is not for the faint of heart. It's graphic. It's gritty and dark. And especially violent. With its move to current-gen consoles, the game now lets you do things from the first-person perspective. Including realistic sex scenes with prostitutes. Whom you can later kill. Forbes calls it "more horrible than ever." But to Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of the game's publisher, Take-Two Interactive, the violence and grit in the game is "art." "This is a criminal setting," he said on Bloomberg TV. "It's a gritty underworld. It is art. And I've embraced that art." He then explained that it's no different from movies or television, which can also be gritty and violent. "We stand shoulder to shoulder with other major motion picture releases, major television shows that explore a similar universe," he said. "So yeah, this is a tough universe because it's a criminal universe." He also said that there's tons of other stuff to do in the game, with "hundreds of hours of gameplay." The "Grand Theft Auto" series has been widely criticized for not just being extremely violent, but particularly violent against women, who are unplayable characters. (You can play as a female character online, however. Although that doesn't seem to be much better.) Watch the whole video on Bloomberg TV below: SEE ALSO: Black Friday Could Be The Day The Xbox One Finally Towers Over The Competition Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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The Apple Watch Seems Alarmingly Complicated (AAPL) | ||
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Apple released WatchKit — its software development tool for Apple Watch — on Tuesday, and one thing sticks out like a sore thumb: there are a lot of ways to interact with it. There are at least fifteen distinct Apple Watch interactions, as pointed out earlier by Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel. There's short look and long look notifications and a separate kind of "pull" notification called glances, which we detailed here, plus vibrating feedback. You can also swipe in several different ways and use a control called force touch, which lets you control the watch based on how hard you press the display. And that's not even the whole list. Users can interact with Apple Watch through the digital crown (the knob on the right-hand side), too. That's a lot of ways to use something you can cover up with your thumb. With over a dozen ways to use Apple Watch, there's a real possibility for consumers to become confused or frustrated by it, which could hamper sales. Apple is known for making devices that are easy for normal people to figure out. Think about the iPod's scroll wheel, or the on-screen keyboard with the iPhone that magically just seemed to work. That sounds like it might not be the case with the Apple Watch. SEE ALSO: This Is How Apple Watch Apps Will Look And Work Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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US Senate rejects Keystone pipeline by one vote | ||
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Washington (AFP) - The US Senate on Tuesday narrowly rejected a bill that would have approved construction of the Keystone XL pipeline to bring crude oil to Gulf coast refineries from Canada's controversial tar sands. Supporters of the long-delayed project, a top Republican energy priority, came up one vote short of the 60 needed for approval in the 100-member chamber. The pipeline, which became a political football in the aftermath of November's midterm elections, is likely to get another vote after the new Republican-controlled Congress convenes in January. But the rejection of the bill marked a blow to US lawmakers seeking a powerful bipartisan achievement. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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