Here's How To Play More Than 900 Classic Arcade Games Without Spending A Single Quarter | ||
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The internet is an awesome, awesome place. Case in point: Thanks to the Internet Arcade, you can play more than 900 classic arcade games, right from your browser. It's part of a larger project, called the Internet Archive, that's aimed at building a library of all the things on the web. The video game section — which also includes console games — is part of the JavaScript Mess (JSMESS) project. Its goal is to emulate a bunch of video game systems to be played in a web browser. According to the Internet Arcade, "The game collection ranges from early 'bronze-age' video games, with black and white screens and simple sounds, through to large-scale games containing digitized voices, images and music." That means you can play the 1982 hit "Joust," Atari's famous "Millipede," or my favorite, "Arkanoid." And a bunch of stuff in between. Some of the pages give you a little history of the game and a description of how to play. Jason Scott, a developer who worked on this portion of the JSMESS project, writes in a blog post that some of the games might be a little buggy. "Of the roughly 900 arcade games (yes, nine hundred arcade games) up there, some are in pretty weird shape — vector games are an issue, scaling is broken for some, and some have control mechanisms that are just not going to translate to a keyboard or even a joypad," he writes. And, as TechCrunch points out, some of the controls might be a little wonky: "The 5 key lets you insert a coin; the 1 key is usually the Player 1 start button. Arrows are usually used for directional stuff, with CTRL/ALT/SPACE used for the three primary buttons. Beyond that, you’ll have to mash buttons a bit to figure it out (or hit TAB to dive into the key configurations)." Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Bill Gates Warns: The World Is Not Prepared For Epidemics | ||
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The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed $50 million to fight Ebola. That's a lot of money, but not when you consider what Bill Gates is spending to fight the preventable and treatable disease malaria: $200 million this year, reports the Wall Street Journal. Malaria struck down 207 million people in 2012 and killed 627,000, many of them also in West Africa, where Ebola has reached epidemic proportions (over 13,000 cases and growing by thousands a week, the CDC reports). Gates is working to eradicate malaria. So he was in New Orleans at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene conference this week to talk about those efforts. Naturally the talk at the conference quickly turned to his thoughts on Ebola. Gates said he views this outbreak as a warning that the world needs to get its act together to prevent something even more deadly from spreading. The world as a whole doesn’t have the preparedness for epidemics, and we’ve had a few flu scares that got us to do some minor things, but not enough. If this thing had been twice as transmissive, we’d be in a lot of trouble, and there are agents that have a real chance of coming on in the next several decades that are far more transmissive than this is. What’s to stop some form of SARS showing up? The Gates foundation is trying to tackle some of that. His efforts are going toward creating experimental drugs for Ebola. He's also having engineers come up with ways to cool protective suits so people in warm areas of the world like West Africa can wear them longer. But he thinks the world could do things far better. Gates wants to see tools developed that do better disease surveillance, tracking how illness spreads, which he says is "a very doable thing" and for a relatively low cost of "literally for hundreds of millions, not billions, of dollars a year.” He also wants to speed up approval of new drugs during epidemics, such as eliminating the placebo testing portion of clinical trials. Ultimately he wants the Ebola outbreak to teach us how to react against something even more dangerous. "The fundamental lesson shouldn’t be about who did what quarantine when. That’s rounding error stuff compared to true preparedness for a seriously transmissive epidemic." Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Here's What Some iPhone 6 Plus Owners Are Saying About The Phone's Unwieldy Size | ||
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The big question on the minds of iPhone lovers these days is: iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus? So a Reddit user asked iPhone 6 Plus users if they have any regrets about buying the Plus over the 6. The folks who answered basically said that the iPhone 6 Plus is too big for two use cases:
But, even with those complaints, most of them say they wouldn't trade it in for a smaller iPhone 6 because:
Upshot is, unless you are primarily using your iPhone as a phone (without a headset), you'll soon be used to the big size of it and have no regrets. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Hack Your Tinder Profile And Get More Matches — With Science | ||
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When we decide to flirt with someone at a party, we do it almost exclusively based on what they look like. The dating app Tinder is based on the same principal. It's probably why the app has been so successful. And despite how superficial it might sound, there's a lot more science bound up in those few seconds of checking someone out than you might think. Tinder has been hugely successful in the app world — its users login an average of 11 times a day and spend between 7 and 9 minutes swiping left and right (either saying 'yes' or 'no' to a potential match) during a single session. So how exactly do we size up a potential match, whether on our phones or in person? The latest social science research suggests there are a few main things we look for. Checking Someone Out"When was the last time you walked into a bar and someone said: "Excuse me, can you fill out this form and we'll match you up with people here?'" Sean Rad, Tinder co-founder and chief executive told the New York Times. As it turns out, there's a good reason we don't do this. In addition to being super awkward, it would also be pretty unnecessary and potentially misleading. In reality, there may be more we can determine about someone's personality based on how they look than on their answers to a set of predetermined questions like those used by online dating sites. Plus, those answers might lead us astray — in experiments with people who said they valued specific characteristics in a potential mate, none of them proved important once it came down to meeting that person. Tinder, on the other hand, works more like real-life flirting. Based on a quick glimpse, we are able to size up everything from a potential mate's personality to his or her hobbies and interests. Photos may actually be even more accurate than in-person interactions when it comes to judging some specific social characteristics, including extroversion. As opposed to meeting someone at a bar, looking at a photo allows you to evaluate a variety of their characteristics — from their facial expression to their clothing style — before factoring in what they say or how they act. How You're Standing
If you're standing "energetically" in a photo, for example, meaning you're not slouching and your feet are pointed towards the camera, viewers are more likely to pick up on your outgoing personality. Looking neat and composed (which viewers perceive as meaning you're stylish and healthy) can earn you extroversion points too. Viewers also check out whether or not you're smiling (smilers are associated with being more outgoing). People who are frowning or appear straight-faced, on the other hand, are more likely to be deemed introverts. Who You're With
While most people say you should be alone in your main profile photo (no one wants to guess who you are in the three seconds they'll probably spend looking at your photo), your other images might include friends or family. If you're alone in all of them, you might send a message that you prefer to spend your time solo. If you're surrounded by friends, on the other hand, you signal to viewers that you've got an outgoing personality. "A photo of a guy at a bar with friends around him sends a very different message than a photo of a guy with a dog on the beach," Rad told the New York Times. Where You Put Your Arms
In experiments with people who looked at pictures of strangers and determined how confident they were, observers were more likely to rank those standing with their arms behind their backs as confident. People who stood with their arms hanging by their sides, for example, or crossed at their chest, were assumed to have lower self-esteem. Viewers also judged confidence based on whether or not people were slouching or facing the camera in their photos — as with extroversion, standing straight and facing the camera was generally associated with higher self-esteem. Your Facial Features
Women's preferences can change, however, based on the type of relationship they seek. In experiments with women in which researchers asked them if they were more interested in a longterm relationship or a one-night stand, women who just wanted sex preferred the men with more masculine faces — chiseled cheekbones, a stronger jaw line, and more facial hair, for example. Those who were looking for a lifetime partner, on the other hand, tended to prefer men with softer features. Conversely, men typically prefer women with features researchers identify as being more feminine — bigger eyes and fuller lips but a narrower chin and a less angular jaw, regardless of the kind of relationship they're looking for. NOW READ: 5 Ways To Tell If Someone Is Cheating On You Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Whether we're 
Tinder's own researchers say
If you want potential Tinder matches to think you're confident, rest your arms behind you in your photos.
In general, women interested in men prefer they have more facial hair and stronger features, while men looking for female partners prefer bigger eyes and lips but smaller chins and softer jawlines. Your Unsaved Files Are Automatically Stored On iCloud (AAPL) | ||
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Apple is storing Mac users' unsaved files on iCloud, according to Slate's Yael Grauer. Security expert Jeffrey Paul also noticed the feature. Apple told Business Insider that this speaks to its efforts to be transparent with users. OS X Yosemite allows users to see what's on their iCloud in Finder. Paul claims that iCloud Drive started automatically uploading unsaved files with the introduction of OS X Yosemite. Apple clarified to Business Insider, however, that the autosave feature began two operating systems ago with OS X Mountain Lion. Apple also confirmed that the autosave feature not only works on Mac apps like Pages, TextEdit, and Preview, but also on some third-party apps like iA Writer. Grauer points out, however, that users aren't aware of this feature, which might pose a problem. Apple says the details of how iCloud saves files are made clear in the product's Terms of Service agreement, though such agreements aren't always read carefully. Luckily, there are two simple solutions for people worried about their unsaved files: They can either save their files locally before exiting an application, or they can manage exactly what syncs to their iCloud by going to System Preferences > iCloud > Documents & Data. SEE ALSO: Apple Says iCloud Servers Have Not Been Compromised Following Reports Of Hacks In China Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Another Important Microsoft App Is About To Launch: Skype Translator (MSFT) | ||
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Microsoft has begun taking requests for people who want to try out Skype Translator, a service that will translate a Skype conversation between two languages in real time. Skype Translator is a hugely important undertaking for Microsoft. In July, CEO Satya Nadella named it as one of a handful of new technologies that show the new direction he envisions for the company. Microsoft, he says, is no longer all about pushing Windows. Instead it is trying to "reinvent productivity." Last month, Nadella explained this to mean that the company will build a new crop of apps that helps people "get more out of their time." He has repeatedly named four technologies that showcased this vision. Skype Translator is the last of them to become available. The others are: Cortana, Microsoft's answer to Siri, available in the current version of Windows Phone; Power Q&A, an add-on cloud service for Office 365 customers, where you type in a question and it searches through your Office documents to produce a chart in answer; and Delve, an Office 365 tool that rolled out in September, and is supposed to find all the important stuff buried in your documents, calendars, contacts. Should this translation service work well, it would be an incredible technological feather in Microsoft's cap. It involves training its computers to understand conversations, something that's very hard to do, as anyone who uses Siri can attest. Ultimately this service could help Microsoft learn to understand verbal languages so well, it could help power a lot of other voice controlled apps. Those interested in checking out Skype Translator can request to be part of a technical preview. Microsoft says it will be available later this year. There are some restrictions. The technical preview will only be available on PCs or tablets running Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 Technical Preview, although Microsoft promises to support Macs, iOS, and Android at some later point. Plus it is so far offering 12 languages: Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Chinese (Cantonese) French, Italian, Korean, Russian, English, German, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish. SEE ALSO: Microsoft Finally Rolls Out 'Delve,' One Of Its Most Important Products You've Never Heard Of Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Here's What Experts Really Think About Google's Big Plan To Find Cancer Sooner | ||
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Google's moonshot plan to use nanoparticles to detect cancer and other diseases still has a very long way to go, experts in the field told Kevin Bullis at the MIT Technology Review. The company's announcement marks "an intent to do something, not a discovery or a pathway to get there," said Chad Mirkin, the director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology at Northwestern University. The plan, according to The Wall Street Journal, is to coat tiny magnetic particles with substances that will let them track certain molecules, like cancer cells. People would swallow the particles in a pill and use a wearable device to monitor their activity, providing an early-warning system for disease. But while Google has said it will be able to do some of these things "within a few years," many experts are skeptical. Bullis points to some significant technical problems Google will have to solve to turn its vision into a reality, including getting the nanoparticles into the bloodstream, figuring out exactly how to measure their signals, ensuring they won't be rejected by the body, and guaranteeing their safety. Magnetic nanoparticles aren't a new idea. For years, scientists have been experimenting with how they might be used to diagnose, image, and treat a variety of illnesses, especially cancer. But "despite the tremendous advances... it is still too early to predict their success... in the clinical world," researchers wrote in a recent essay assessing the state of the field. And the safety of these particles remains a serious concern. "One of the big hurdles we had with magnetic nanoparticles was their toxicity," Georgia Tech biologist John McDonald told Technology Review. Despite these challenges, there are over 100 people at Google working on this project, and Andrew Conrad, who is leading the team, says they've already done in less than two years what most institutions would accomplish in "a good decade." "We've done a lot, to be quite humble about it," he told Steven Levy at Backchannel. "Enough to give us great confidence that this is all likely to work." PREVIOUSLY: Google Is Making Magnetic Nanoparticles That Will Search For Disease Inside Your Body Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Crisis Management Expert Explains How Richard Branson Can Bounce Back From Virgin Galactic Crash | ||
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Virgin Group chairman Richard Branson spent his Monday speaking with the media in an attempt to build trust with the public in the wake of a fatal Virgin Galactic test flight on Friday. "We need to know exactly what happened to make absolutely certain it will never happen again," Branson said on CBS's "This Morning." According to preliminary findings of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the tail mechanism of the SpaceShipTwo rocket plane was activated prematurely over the Mojave Desert, which may have been responsible for the crash. The ship's copilot died and the pilot is being treated for injuries. For now, Branson says he plans to move forward with Virgin Galactic's mission of commercial space travel, which means he'll need to restore the public's faith in him and his company. We asked crisis management expert Jeff Eller what Branson needs to do to keep his reputation as a strong leader intact. Eller was a media strategist with the Clinton administration in 1993 and '94 and did crisis management consulting with Firestone on the disastrous 2000 tire recall and with General Motors earlier this year in its massive multi-vehicle recall. Here's a look at what Branson, and any other leader in a time of crisis, needs to do to recover quickly. Run to the problem.Shortly after the news broke that the flight crashed on Friday, Branson tweeted that he was immediately on his way to the crash site to be with the team. In his recent book "The Virgin Way," Branson criticized Carnival Corporation CEO Mickey Arison for going on with his day as usual after a Carnival cruise sunk in 2012, killing 32 and injuring many others, and behaving similarly when a cruise ship was stranded at sea less than a year later. Branson writes that being the head of a company means understanding that his employees and the public look to you in times of tragedy. Eller thinks that Branson handled the initial response to the crash well in the face of speculation and even harsh criticism. "He's a strong communicator. He knew he had to carry the load and he did. He was clear, solid, and credible," Eller said. | ||
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Be upfront about what is known and what isn't.
Nintendo Might Reverse A Major Policy That's Been A Nightmare For Consumers (NTDOY) | ||
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Nintendo's president, Satoru Iwata, told investors during a Q&A that the company might reverse its policy on region locking. Region locking is where a device, or in this case video game or console, is locked for a particular region. That means you can't play a game that's sold in the US in another country, such as China or Japan. Iwata explained that region-locking has existed because of various circumstances having to do with marketing or licensing in the different countries. "The game business has a history of taking a very long time with localization among other things, such as having to deal with various issues of marketing in each particular country, or games that have made use of licensed content that did not apply globally, and had all kinds of circumstances, so to say, that region-locking has existed due to circumstances on the sellers' side rather than for the sake of the customers," he said, as translated by NeoGAF user Cheesemeister. Iwata stopped short of saying that the policy would definitely be reversed, however. "As for what should be done going forward, if unlocked for the benefit of the customers, there may also be a benefit for us," he said. "Conversely, unlocking would require various problems to be solved, so while I can't say today whether or not we intend to unlock, we realize that it is one thing that we must consider looking to the future." Nintendo was actually among the first companies to region lock its consoles, and it looks like it's one of the last to still do it. Sony and Microsoft no longer region locks their consoles. And Nintendo's handheld consoles prior to the DS were also region-free. The Wii U is the only current-gen console that's region-locked. Iwata has even defended the policy as early as last year, according to Ars Technica. Many fans disagree with region-locking. In fact, some even started a petition to get Nintendo to reverse its policies. Of course, region locking might not be a huge deal for a lot of consumers. As NintendoLife points out, most people don't import games from other regions anymore. But the move would prove that Nintendo is finally looking to a future where games are distributed digitally, rather than on cartridges or discs. And, by removing its region locks, games could also be distributed more quickly and efficiently on a global scale. SEE ALSO: There's a 'Minecraft' version of Disney World, and it might be better than the real thing Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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An Entrepreneur Is Selling San Francisco's Most Expensive Home At $39 Million | ||
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A home that has just come on the market for $39 million is now the most expensive listing in San Francisco, Curbed SF reports. The home belongs to chef Roxanne Klein and serial entrepreneur Michael Klein, who founded and sold three telecommunications companies before starting a guitar manufacturer called Modulus Guitars. The Kleins' mansion may be pricey, but it is very chic. There's beautiful molding, lots of antique fireplaces, and plenty of space situated over five floors. The home is located on Broadway, in San Francisco's ritzy Pacific Heights neighborhood. Enter the home through a door in an ivy-covered wall. Built in 1910, the home was restored in 2002 and has lots of beautiful, traditional places to sit. See the rest of the story at Business Insider  | ||
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Here Are All The Ridiculous Domain Names Mike Bloomberg's Lawyers Just Registered For Him | ||
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Billionaire former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's aides appear to have really embraced the new ".nyc" domain name, launched last October. amNewYork reported Monday that the law firm representing Bloomberg's foundation recently purchased at least 400 .nyc domain names related to his name. Though some are more or less normal web addresses — "bloombergfamilyfoundation.nyc" and "officialmikebloomberg.nyc," for example — others border on the absurd, including "MikeBloombergIsADweeb.nyc." Reached for comment, Bloomberg's spokeswoman said she was unaware about the domain name spree until earlier today. She added Bloomberg would be getting rid of the sillier domain names. "It's news to us. This appears to be overly-aggressive legal due diligence, and we're only keeping the straightforward addresses," she said in a statement. According to Domain Name Wire, some of the more ridiculous registrations include: BloombergBlows.nyc MikeIsTooShort.nyc MikeBloombergisaDweeb.nyc MikeBloombergRocks.nyc MikeBloombergblows.nyc MichaelBloombergisaWeiner.nyc F---kbloomberg.nyc BloombergistooRich.nyc getalifemike.nyc BloombergisanAss.nyc Records show the law firm, Willkie Farr and Gallagher LLP, registered the listed addresses in October. The firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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An Artist Has Created A Bunch Of Robots For Ghosts To Play With | ||
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If your house is haunted, chances are you didn't welcome those ghosts into your home. The same cannot be said for a special kind of robot art exhibit now on display at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, NY. Artist Fernando Orellana has constructed a playground for the dead, beckoning the "ghosts" of the recently deceased to come and interact with objects they were once familiar with in their former lives. At first, when Orellana wanted to design an art exhibit designed to detect "ghosts," he wasn't sure how to go about it. "If I were a ghost and I wanted to interact with the world, what facilities are there for me to do that?" Orellana asked himself. Orellana spends a lot of time designing and building robots, so he knew that he wanted to do something with machines, but with a paranormal twist. One day, the idea struck him to use objects to which a person felt a personal connection for during their lifetime. After that, it was a matter of finding those objects, Orellana told Business Insider. Basically, he thought, if ghosts exist, then they might be willing to interact with objects they once knew. To do this, he attended estate sales searching for particular items to which the recently deceased might have held sentimental value. His purchases led to an eclectic variety of objects including bells, a mineral collection, recipe cards, candlestick holders, hammers, a peanut butter-making machine, and even a player piano.
"I bought a couple of bells and made an interface — a little robotic interface — to ring the bell," Orellana said. But if ghosts exist, how can they interact with a robot? This is where Orellana's technical skills come in. How you sense a ghost Each display has a robotic interface for its ghostly visitor. But the robots only work if they sense a supernatural being nearby. Below is an example of one of the displays called "His Butter" in action:
If the machine (shown in the image below) senses a change in any two of these measurements, then it will signal the robot to ring the bell, hammer the nail, play the piano, churn peanuts into peanut butter, or perform whatever task Orellana has designed it for.
So, how often do the robots perform their tasks due to paranormal interference? The unsurprising answer is: never. "They just sit there and wait," Orellana said. To his knowledge, Orellana has never seen his robots interact with the dead, which was no surprise to him. The exhibit is about more than just seeing the robots in action, he said. A leap of faith At some of the stations, Orellana provides an iPad that allows viewers to watch the robots perform their tasks since the ghosts seem to be shying away from playtime. Below is the station called "His Minerals" which lights handmade incense next to an extensive mineral collection that one person left behind.
There is one station on display that does operate on a regular basis. Orellana designed the player piano to play the song "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling" every 90 minutes. "As soon as the song ends, it's over like our lives," Orellana said. "In many ways in cultures, music is connected to paying homage to the dead, remembering them, and that particular tune "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling", is connected also to their ancestors and is a sort of homage ... what this work was about." Editor's note: Yes, we know ghosts don't exist. SEE ALSO: Award-Winning Images Taken By Scientists At Work READ MORE: A Virus Found In Lakes May Be Literally Changing The Way People Think Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Each display in Orellana's exhibit, called "Shadows" that is currently on view at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, NY, is made for a specific ghost. For example, one sale he attended included an extensive bell collection.
Orellana grabbed from pop culture to calibrate his technology for the dead. We know from cable television shows like "Ghost Hunters" that believers think we can sense "ghosts" using multiple instruments including: electromagnetic field readers, temperature gauges, and infrared light sensors. Orellana, therefore, built machines sensitive to these three measurements.
While these exhibits are built for a specific ghost, there's no telling what other supernatural beings might stop by to have some fun.
"The screens serve as a leap of faith," Orellana said. "If you don't click, you're taking a leap of faith in believing this is designed for the dead and will operate at some point. But if you click on the screen, then it means you're a disbeliever and you need to see the object work. You need that gratification." The 13 Best New Apps You May Have Missed | ||
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With over a million apps out there and more launching every day, it can be tough to keep up. To help you find some apps that are fun and make your life a little easier, we've collected the best apps of the past month. From apps that scan your proportions and send you a custom shirt to an app that will introduce you to your own international pen pal, you're bound to find something you'll enjoy.
"Wayfare" pairs you with an international pen pal. People don't keep pen pals very often anymore, but "Wayfare" is trying to fix that. The app pairs you with someone from another country, who you'll get to know over the next seven days through photo challenges and some good old fashioned conversation. "MTailor" is an easy way to order a custom-fitted shirt. Using your iPhone's camera, "MTailor" scans your body's proportions and sends you a custom-fitted shirt right to your doorstep. Shirts start at $69, and you choose the fabric and style of the collar. Price: Free (iOS) See what news stories your friends are reading with "Nuzzel." "Nuzzel" is a news reader for viral news. The app plugs into your Facebook and Twitter accounts so you can see what your friends on social media are reading about in the news. Price: Free (iOS) See the rest of the story at Business Insider  | ||
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Now You Can Use Your iPhone To Skip The Front Desk And Check Directly Into Your Hotel Room (AAPL) | ||
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Your iPhone will soon act as a room key in select hotels, reports Cult of Mac's Buster Hein. Starwood hotels, which operates W Hotels, Aloft, and Element, unveiled SPG Keyless on Monday, a function of their app that allows guests to skip the front desk entirely and head straight to their room. The SPG app is also available for Android. Using the iPhone's Bluetooth connection, the app promises a smooth, keyless entry experience. No more losing your room key. The keyless entry system will roll out in 10 hotels on Nov. 5, in locations like Beijing, New York, and Doha. Starwood hopes to have keyless entry running with 150 hotels by early 2015. Starwood Hotels CEO Frits van Paasschen suggested the new technology would reduce friction for consumers: “Not only does SPG Keyless alleviate a perennial pain point for travelers, but it also transforms the first interaction with our guests from one that is transactional to something more personal. This is just the beginning, because through mobile we have the opportunity to marry high tech and high touch to transform the hotel experience in many exciting ways.” SPG — which stands for Starwood Preferred Guest — is essentially a customer loyalty program. Although it exists as a standalone app now, we wouldn't be surprised to see SPG incorporated into the Apple Pay/Passbook experience in the future. Apple has been rumored to be working on a loyalty program with its Apple Pay retail partners for some time now. The company has already said that physical wallets are on the way out. Starwood isn't the only hotelier getting in on the keyless entry action, either. Hilton Worldwide announced today that they plan to introduce keyless entry into their hotels — which include Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, Conrad Hotels & Resorts and Canopy by Hilton — in "late spring" 2015. SEE ALSO: Apple May Be Working On A Rewards Program For Its iPhone Payment Platform Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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REPORT: Apple Might Kill The iPad Mini (APPL) | ||
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Apple's recently released iPad mini 3 may be its last, if a new rumor turns out to be true. Chinese news outlet UDN (via Phone Arena) reports that Apple will stop making new iPad mini models once it releases its rumored 12-inch iPad. It's possible that Apple will focus on its 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus and a larger 12-inch iPad rather than its 7.9-inch iPad mini. The report, roughly translated from Chinese, seems to cite sources in Apple's Asian supply chain. However, it's important to remain skeptical on this rumor. UDN doesn't provide any background regarding the source of its information. And, although iPad sales fell below what analysts were predicting for Q3 2014, the iPad mini is still incredibly popular. Apple is expected to add a new screen size to the iPad family next year. The device will likely have a 12.9-inch screen, as Bloomberg reported in August, and it's rumored to launch in the second quarter of 2015. SEE ALSO: ANALYST: Apple's New iPad Has An Amazing Screen, But Samsung's Tablet Is Still Better Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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SOURCE: Here's The REAL Reason Taylor Swift Pulled Her Songs From Spotify | ||
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Earlier today, Spotify announced that Taylor Swift had pulled all of her albums off its music-on-demand service. Since then, we spoke to an industry source familiar with firsthand knowledge of why and how this happened, and who is most responsible. This source blamed one person: Scott Borchetta. Borchetta is the president and CEO of Taylor Swift's record label, the Big Machine Label Group. Our source notes Borchetta is trying to sell Big Machine. Reports say he wants $200 million. This source says Borchetta believes the only metric that will matter to potential buyers is the number of albums the label is able to sell. Our source says Borchetta doesn't think the number of plays Swift's songs have on Spotify will move the needle. The source says Borchetta believes that pulling Swift's music off Spotify will create "scarcity" online, and drive CD sales and paid downloads. Our source believes this is poor thinking on Borchetta's part. "[Spotify's] user base is 18-to-24. They’ve never seen a CD before." That might be true, but Swift's new record is on pace to sell 1.3 million copies during its opening weekend, which would be the biggest opening weekend album sales since 2002, a year before the iTunes music store even existed. At $10 a pop, that's $13 million in revenue in one week. Our source says, "You don’t create any scarcity if you take [Swift's albums] off Spotify. If you type 'Taylor Swift MP3' into Google you can get her entire catalogue."
"They did everything they could," says our source. This seems plausible to us. At the WSJ tech conference in Southern California last week, UMG CEO Lucian Grange was adamant that streaming is the future of the music business. He talked about how great it is that, in a streaming paradigm, artists will get paid for their songs throughout their long lives — not just once, when their albums are first published. Our industry source says Spotify was blindsided by the news last week. The source says Spotify never expected to get Swift's latest album, "1989," on its service. It was happy to have — and to heavily promote — the first single only, called "Shake It Off." Swift is very popular on Spotify: 25% of Spotify listeners have streamed her songs. Her songs were on 20 million playlists. This source said that most artists are not able to do what Swift did today and simply pull their music off Spotify. The only reason this happened was that Big Machine has a special deal with Universal Music Group. One reason Borchetta maybe be bent on selling now: 1989 is the second to last Taylor Swift album under her current contract with the label. Our source did not say where Swift herself stood on the Spotify issue. Her family is a part-owner of Big Machine, so she's probably happy to help increase its value. Spotify declined to comment on this story. Big Machine did not respond to an email or several tweets. SEE ALSO: Taylor Swift Admits To Stalking Her Fans' Instagram and Tumblr Accounts Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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This source says that Universal Music Group, which distributes Swift's music for Big Machine, tried very hard to convince Borchetta that his thinking is very old-fashioned and that pulling Swift's music off Spotify is a shortsighted move. CHART OF THE DAY: Lenovo Bumps Xiaomi To Become The Third-Biggest Smartphone Maker In The World | ||
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Xiaomi, the so-called "Apple of China," has been on a roll recently. But even after shipping 18 million handsets in the last quarter, achieving a whopping year-over-year growth of 239% during that period, the Chinese tech company has been unseated from its spot as the third-biggest smartphone maker in the world by Lenovo, which just completed its acquisition of Motorola Mobility last Thursday. According to IDC data charted for us by BI Intelligence, Lenovo is now the third-biggest smartphone maker in the world, after Apple and Samsung. Before the Motorola acquisition cleared, Lenovo had achieved 38% year-over-year growth thanks to expansion in China and other emerging markets, shipping more smartphones in the first three quarters of 2014 than it did in all of 2013 (46 million vs. 45.5 million units, respectively). But now that Lenovo has acquired Motorola, the company has better leverage in the US; Liu Jun, the president of Lenovo Mobile Business Group, says he expects the company to sell more than 100 million mobile devices in the coming year.
SEE ALSO: CHART OF THE DAY: Starbucks' Mobile App Is Going Gangbusters Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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9 Technologies Companies Will Go Nuts For In 2015 | ||
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As 2014 draws to a close, it's time to examine the tech industry's trajectory and predict which trends will explode in the upcoming year. Experts from market research firm Gartner, the IEEE Computer Society, MIT, and other sources have named the tech trends they thought were super hot for businesses in 2014 or are going to become hot in 2015. We've sifted through that information, and have thrown in a few of our own picks to come up with this list of the nine technologies companies will go nuts for in 2015. No. 9: 3D printing Breakthroughs in 3D printing are coming in 2015, which will make this form of manufacturing attractive to nearly any business. One such technology is something known "micro-scale 3D printing," according to MIT. This is where "inks" of different materials can be loaded into 3D printers, allowing them to print a huge range of objects. No. 8: Wearables at work In 2015, wearable computers will start to trickle into the workplace. Smartwatches will keep employees plugged in without constantly looking at their phones. Health wrist devices will encourage employees to participate in group wellness programs. Companies will also start experimenting with smart glasses with custom apps such as repair guides, video conferencing, training videos, and the like. HR software company Kronos and The Workforce Institute recently polled 9,000 people worldwide and found that 73% said they think wearables would be helpful at work. No. 7: Ultra-private devices Computer security is entering a new phase. Passwords won't exactly die in 2015, but our devices will become more secure and private. More devices, including and beyond smartphones, will get fingerprint sensors. (A company called Nok Nok, for instance, offers technology that turns touchscreens and touch pads into a finger print sensor.) While hackers aren't going away, your work software will be wrapped in layers of security. So when a hacker breaks into one app, other apps will know it and guard themselves. The hacker will get limited info and won't get the data stored in other apps. "Every app needs to be self-aware and self-protecting," Gartner says. See the rest of the story at Business Insider  | ||
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The Most Powerful Millennials In Tech | ||
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There's arguably nothing more impressive than founding a company and turning it into a billion-dollar business before you turn 35. And in tech, millennials are taking over. We scoured top CEOs, talent, and billionaires for impressive leaders who were born after 1980. Here are the youngest people making the biggest impact in technology today. Ben Silbermann and Evan Sharp, co-founders of Pinterest Ages: 31 What they've done: Silbermann left Google to found Pinterest, a photo and inspiration platform that some believe will eclipse Facebook, Twitter and even Google in revenue. He co-founded it with Evan Sharp, and their company is now worth more than $5 billion. Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos Age: 30 What she's done: Holmes is the youngest female billionaire in the world who is entirely self-made. Holmes dropped out of Stanford to create Theranos, a company that could revolutionize modern medicine by creating better blood tests. Theranos' company is working on a way to gather a ton of information from just a drop of blood (think a fingerprick) as opposed to a collecting vials and vials of it through needles in the arm. Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, cofounders of Instagram Age: 29 and 28 What he's done: In 2010, Systrom and Krieger cofounded Instagram. Instagram quickly became the most popular mobile photo app and now has nearly 230 million monthly active users, which is roughly the size of Twitter. It was acquired for $1 billion by Facebook in April 2012. Systrom and Krieger are still at the helm of Instagram. See the rest of the story at Business Insider  | ||
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Sprint Reports Disappointing Earnings, Announces 2,000 Job Cuts, And The Stock Is Tanking (S) | ||
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Sprint announced earnings for last quarter Monday. It posted a loss of $0.19 per share and announced that it will cut 2,000 jobs. The stock is down about 6% in after-hours trading. Net operating revenue for the quarter was almost $8.5 billion. The operating loss was $192 million. Sprint also lost 272,000 post-paid subscribers. The carrier has been going through an odd transition lately as it faces increased competition from T-Mobile, a smaller rival. AT&T and Verizon are also growing and doing well. Sprint attempted to buy T-Mobile this summer, but abandoned those plans after determining it wouldn't be approved by US regulators. Instead, Sprint's then-CEO Dan Hesse stepped down and Marcelo Claure got the job. Now Sprint and T-Mobile are battling to become the nation's third-largest wireless carrier. (AT&T and Verizon are so big that it'd be tough for T-Mobile or Sprint to catch up any time soon.) Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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9 Critical Moments That Shaped Mark Cuban's Extraordinary Career | ||
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Mark Cuban got into entrepreneurship at age 12, going door to door selling garbage bags. His technology companies made him a millionaire at 31 and a billionaire at 40. He then became a public figure as the outspoken owner of the Dallas Mavericks and a leading investor on ABC's hit show "Shark Tank." But Cuban didn't know all of this would happen when he was just a kid trying to make a buck. Looking back at his life, we can see how he smartly seized all these opportunities. 1978: Cuban puts himself through college. Cuban skipped his senior year of high school and went straight to the University of Pittsburgh. He transferred to Indiana University after his freshman year. But there was one problem: He had to pay for school. Cuban, ever the social butterfly, relied on his charisma to get his tuition and rent paid — he gave dance lessons, threw massive parties, and opened up a bar called Motley's Pub, where nights regularly got crazy. "Hey," he told Deadspin, "it was the '70s." 1981: After school, Cuban heads back to Pittsburgh to work for Mellon Bank. He helped the bank join the just-starting digital revolution. "Back then a lot of smaller regional banks still did everything on paper," Cuban told Forbes. "Mellon had a department that went in and converted them to computerized systems. That's what I did. A lot of my peers at Mellon were just happy to have a job. I wanted to be more entrepreneurial." 1982: Cuban leaves Pittsburgh for Dallas. "Some college buddies of mine had told me to come to Dallas — that the weather was great, that there were jobs, and that the women were amazing," Cuban told Forbes. Dallas would become the base of Cuban's enterprises, from founding companies to bringing a championship to a previously bottom-rung pro sports franchise. But first he tried his hand at tending bar — and realized that he wasn't that great at working for people. See the rest of the story at Business Insider  | ||
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These 16 Beautiful Images Show How The Hubble Telescope Has Transformed Our Understanding Of The Universe | ||
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Even if you know nothing about astronomy, you've likely heard the name Hubble in reference to the Hubble Space Telescope. This telescope, which uses a series of high-resolution cameras to observe the visible universe, has captured the hearts of the public with its stunning images and the hearts of the scientific community with its wealth of data collected over the last 24 years. Many wonders of our universe, including the nature of dark matter, formation of stars, and atmospheric composition of exoplanets, have been observed either indirectly or directly by Hubble. Here is a series of beautiful Hubble images that also taught us something about the incredible, mysterious, and unique universe in which we live. Eric Goldschein contributed to an earlier version of this post. In 2006, Hubble set its sites on the mesmerizing Orion Nebula and discovered 16 planets nuzzled within its beautiful confines. Before the Kepler Spacecraft launched in 2009 and began searching the galaxy for exoplanets, the number of known planets outside of our solar system was limited. This Hubble discovery was a momentous find that strongly hinted at the prevalence of planets throughout our universe. What you're seeing at the center of this Hubble image is a very important type of luminous star called a Cepheid variable. Before Hubble, astronomers had only a vague idea of the age of the universe. But by using the patterns by which these stars brighten and dim over short periods of time, astronomers obtained extremely accurate distances to these objects, which helped them pin down the 14-billion-year age of the universe. We can't see dark matter, but we know it's there thanks to Hubble. The is a real Hubble image of a galaxy cluster with false coloring superimposed on top. The false blue indicates where most of the cluster's mass is located but also where few galaxies lie. This suggests that there is a large clump of dark matter at the center of the cluster. See the rest of the story at Business Insider  | ||
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Internet Freaks Out After Senator Tweets About Doing 'U Kno What' At Dairy Queen | ||
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Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) drew widespread attention on Twitter Monday afternoon when he made a mysterious proclamation about a Dairy Queen franchise in Iowa.
However, Grassley's spokeswoman told Business Insider the senator was most likely referring to eating the company's blended "Blizzard" sundaes. "I presume he means ice cream or maybe more specifically, a Blizzard," she said, attaching a photo of the senator enjoying some Dairy Queen ice cream. Grassley, who personally tweets from his account, is well known for his sometimes confusing tweets. That reputation didn't stop some other people from making fun of the Dairy Queen comment, however: — Elizabeth West (@Limeylizzie) November 3, 2014 Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Grassley's tweet instantly led to many jokes including some suggesting he was discussing doing something inappropriate at Dairy Queen. I Tried Plated, The DIY Food-Delivery Site Started By A Couple Of Wall Street Guys Who Didn't Want To Get Fat | ||
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I don't know how to cook. Well, that's not true. I know how to make chili. But it's San Francisco summer right now, and a hot bowl of chili when it's 80 degrees outside does not sound too appetizing. That's why I decided to give Plated a try. (Click here to see what Plated is like.) Plated is like a do-it-yourself food-delivery service, much like Blue Apron. You go to the website and enter your ZIP code. You can also let Plated know whether you have any dietary restrictions, or if you simply just don't like something. Which days your food gets delivered depends on where you live. Each week, there are seven menu items created by Plated chefs: four meat and fish dishes, and three vegetarian options. It costs around $12-$15 per plate, and you need to order a minimum of four plates. If you spend $50, however, you get free shipping (shipping costs around $6). So it's worth tacking on a dessert for around $4 so you don't have to pay the extra fee. You can order a la carte, or you can sign up for a weekly subscription, which comes with its own perks, such as 20% off all plates. You even get a couple bonus plates if you refer a friend. And that's it; a box full of portioned ingredients lands on your doorstep, and you're able to start cooking. Nick Taranto, the co-CEO of Plated and former Goldman Sachs employee, said he started the company because he was feeling depressed about gaining weight and being unhealthy. "When I was living on West 14th Street and taking the E train to Goldman Sachs it got so bad that a homeless man handing out papers in the train station would look at me and say, 'cheer up young man'," he told Business Insider in an interview in February. He and his friend Josh Hix started Plated in 2012, and since then it has grown to making deliveries in 80% of the continental US, according to the Plated website. And it's raised more than $21 million from investors. The site makes it easy to opt in or out of some foods. My family doesn't eat meat, so we opted to skip the beef. You can choose how many plates you want delivered, as well as what days you want the delivery to be sent. If you have a subscription, you can let Plated know if you want to skip a week altogether. This was my order for the week. For the purposes of this story, I decided to tackle the squid ink pasta with calamari and the bread pudding for dessert. See the rest of the story at Business Insider  | ||
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31 Awesome Inventions Made By Ordinary Chinese People | ||
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It's widely recognized that American inventors such as Alexander Bell, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford helped turn the American dream into a reality. But these days, many inventors are coming from a different economic juggernaut — China. According to China Daily, 210,000 invention patents were given out in the country last year, a 25% increase over 2011. In this slideshow we've included pictures from China's DIY inventors: industrious men and women inventing in their backyard. (An earlier version of this story was written by Rebecca Baird-Remba and Adam Taylor.) He Liang took ten years modifying this suitcase vehicle which has its own motor and can reach speeds of over 12 miles an hour. It can travel 30-40 miles on one one charge. Tao Xiangli, a self-taught inventor, built this remote controlled humanoid robot out of scrap metal and electronic wires that he bought from a second-hand market for $49,037. Tao ran into a problem, though, when he realized the robot was too big to get out of his front door. This 7.8 feet tall home-made motorcycle cost its creator, Abulajon, $1,300 to create. It weighs 600 pounds and can reach speeds of 25 miles per hour. See the rest of the story at Business Insider  | ||
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10 Things You Need To Know Before European Markets Open | ||
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Good morning! Here are the major stories from around the world, ahead of the open in London, Paris, and Frankfurt. The Nikkei Rallied. Japan's main index of stocks closed up 2.73%, following Friday's announcement of a boost to QE. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng is currently down 0.09%. BMW Beat Estimates With A 17% Profit Jump. Demand for the BMW X5 saw BMW earnings rise by more than analysts expected, climbing to €2.26 billion. Sprint Shares Tanked After Disappointing Earnings. The US telecommunications firm reported a loss of $192 million (€153 million) and said it would lay off 2,000 people. The European Commission's Growth Estimates Are Coming. At 10 a.m. GMT, the European Commission is releasing its latest estimates for EU growth. At 3 p.m. GMT, factory order numbers from the US are out. Economists are expecting a 0.6% drop in September. Japan's Electronics Firms Are The Big Winners Of The Booming Nikkei. On Tuesday, Sony jumped 11.05%, Panasonic soared 5.97%, and camera maker Olympus was up 5.36%. Hyundai And Kia Will Be Paying The US Government $100 Million. The carmakers got slapped with the bill for selling cars with a worse fuel economy than the companies advertised. US Voters Will Be Heading To The Polls. Many organisations are forecasting a 70% chance that the Republican party will retake the Senate. Business Insider's Brett Logiurato breaks down what that means. The US Department Of Justice Is Investigating JP Morgan. It's the latest in a long line of banks to be stung by probes over forex trading. JP Morgan is estimating legal costs could run as high as $5.9 billion (€4.7 billion). South Africa Is Preparing a $2 Billion (€1.6 billion) Privatisation Programme. In an interview with the Financial Times, finance minister Nhlanhla Nene said that government discussions about a major-part privatisation have begun, but refused to name the companies the country is thinking of selling. Blackstone Is Nearing An $8 Billion Deal (€6.4 billion) To Sell Its Real Estate Arm. According to Bloomberg, Blackstone is closing in on the sale of IndCor Properties. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Japanese electronics giants surge as yen hits 7-year low | ||
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Tokyo (AFP) - Shares in some of Japan's biggest electronics firms surged Tuesday as the yen hit a seven-year low in response to the surprise decision last week by country's central bank to ramp up its stimulus programme. The Bank of Japan's announcement Friday to widen its asset-purchase scheme sent the yen tumbling to 114 against the dollar by Monday lunchtime, while the Nikkei soared, with exporters the main winners. On Tuesday, Sony jumped 11.05 percent to end at 2,301.0 yen, Panasonic soared 5.97 percent to 1,383.0 yen, camera maker Olympus was up 5.36 percent at 4,125.0 yen, while Sharp's gains were more modest, rising 2.55 percent to 281 yen. The Nikkei closed 2.73 percent higher, its best finish since late 2007. In forex trade, the yen was at 113.33 yen, down from 113.99 yen in New York Monday but still up from 112.72 yen late Monday in Asian trade. A weak yen is good for major Japanese exporters as it makes them more competitive abroad and inflates their repatriated profits. "The BoJ endorsed a weak yen in a sense," said Hirokazu Kabeya, senior strategist at Daiwa Securities. He added that it was "natural" for Sony and its rivals to jump in line with the yen's movements. "They're rising along with the overall market," he added. The Nikkei, which began Friday trade below its 2013 close, soared over the past couple of sessions thanks to the BoJ easing, which will see huge amounts of yen pumped into markets. The rise for Sony stood out as it came despite the firm reporting after trade Friday a whopping $1.0 billion six-month loss. However, it did revise up its full-year sales guidance. Sharp and Panasonic both said they were in the black in the April-September period. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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The 10 Most Important Things In The World Right Now | ||
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1. In a tentative deal, Russia might convert Iran's giant stockpile of uranium into fuel rods for the country's only nuclear power plant, which would simultaneously relive Western concerns that the uranium could be used to make a nuclear weapon. 2. Iraq is on "high alert" for Jihadist attacks. 4. French researchers have developed a 15-minute test for the Ebola virus, called eZyscreen, which uses a drop of blood or urine to quickly diagnose patients. 5. Taylor Swift had pulled all of her albums off Spotify, reportedly a move to boost CD sales to make the singer's record label more attractive to potential buyers. 6. Venezuela announced it will raise the minimum wage by 15% starting in December to protect workers from runaway inflation. 7. The Navy SEAL who shot Osama bin Laden has reportedly been identified and will be the subject of a Fox News documentary released later this month. 8. Canada launched its first airstrikes against Islamic State fighters in Iraq on Sunday. 9. Germany's Protectionist won Australia's Melbourne Cup on Tuesday. 10. Bill Gates, who this year has donated $50 billion to fight Ebola and $200 million to combat malaria through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, warned that world is completely unprepared for epidemics. And finally... An Australian man jumped onto a whale as it was being eaten by sharks — and immediately regretted his decision. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Good morning! Here's what you need to know for Tuesday. UN aims to eliminate statelessness within 10 years | ||
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Geneva (AFP) - Ten million people worldwide have no nationality, leaving them in a devastating legal limbo, the UN refugee agency said Tuesday, launching a campaign to eradicate statelessness within a decade. "Every 10 minutes a new stateless person is born," UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres told reporters in Geneva, describing the situation as "absolutely unacceptable" and "an anomaly in the 21st century." With its "I Belong" campaign, UNHCR aims to highlight the "devastating life-long consequences of statelessness" and push countries to rectify their laws to ensure no person is denied a nationality. "Often they are excluded from cradle to grave, being denied a legal identity when they are born, access to education, health care, marriage and job opportunities during their lifetime and even the dignity of an official burial and a death certificate when they die," the agency said in its report. "Statelessness makes people feel like their very existence is a crime," Guterres said. People can become stateless due to a range of reasons, like discrimination based on ethnicity, religion or gender, or when a nation state falls apart. War and conflict also often make it difficult to register births. The report does not count the case of the Palestinians, since the UN General Assembly had recognised the State of Palestine, Guterres said. The problem for many of the 4.5 million of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and the millions more living as refugees around the world is that the State of Palestine has yet to approve its nationality laws, he said, insisting that this "very specific situation" required a "political solution". The largest number of stateless people are to be found in Myanmar, which denies citizenship to some one million Rohingya Muslims, according to Guterres. Myanmar considers the Rohingya illegal migrants from Bangladesh, which in turn considers the ones who cross the border illegal migrants from Myanmar. In both countries, the group viewed by the UN as one of the world's most persecuted peoples faces widespread restrictions, including curbs on movement, education and marriage. When nation states break apart, people are often also left in limbo, with more than 600,000 people for instance still left stateless after the disintegration of the Soviet Union more than 20 years ago. In situations of war, conflict and turmoil, it also often becomes difficult to register births, especially among refugees, leaving them stateless. A full 70 percent of babies born to Syrian refugees in neighbouring Lebanon and Jordan have for instance not received legal birth certificates, Guterres said. A number of countries, including Iran and Qatar, also deny women the right to pass their nationality on to their children on an equal basis with men, "a situation that can create chains of statelessness that span generations," UNHCR warned. - 'Statelessness is inhuman' - The world's perhaps most famous stateless person was Albert Einstein, who remained stateless from 1896, when he renounced his German citizenship, until 1901, when he became Swiss. In an open letter, Guterres, UNHCR special envoy and Hollywood star Angelina Jolie, UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, Nobel Peace Prize laureates Shirin Ebadi and Desmond Tutu and others described what living without a nationality can mean. "Statelessness can mean a life without education, without medical care or legal employment," the letter said, adding: "Statelessness is inhuman. We believe it is time to end this injustice." The campaign aims to gather 10 million signatures with the petition in its bid to eradicated statelessness within the next 10 years. The good news, UNHCR said, was that much progress had already been made towards resolving the issue, with more than four million stateless people gaining a nationality in the past decade due to legislative and policy changes. A court ruling in Bangladesh in 2008 had for instance allowed 300,000 stateless Urdu-speakers to become citizens. "Unlike many armed conflicts, it is wholly within the power of every concerned government to resolve statelessness," Guterres said. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Struggling Liverpool faced with rampant Ronaldo | ||
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Madrid (AFP) - Cristiano Ronaldo will be aiming for another record as the Champions League's all-time leading scorer when Real Madrid host a Liverpool side short on confidence at the Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday. Ronaldo's opener in the European champions' 3-0 win at Anfield two weeks ago took him to within one goal of Madrid legend Raul's 71 Champions League goals. A 12th consecutive victory in all competitions would allow Real to seal their place in the last 16 with two games to spare in Group B. Liverpool are tied with Swiss champions Basel and Champions League debutants Ludogorets Razgrad in a battle for second place on three points. However, despite suffering a sixth defeat of the season at Newcastle United on Saturday, Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers insisted his side won't be overawed by the task in front of them. "We've worked very hard over a couple of years to get to this level," he said. "To play Real Madrid at the Bernabeu tells us that we've been doing okay. But, of course, we're in a transition phase. We want to be better and we need to be better. So the game Tuesday night is a wonderful game for us. "We're still very much in the group to qualify, which is the objective. It's a big ask playing against arguably the best team in the world at the moment. "But we'll go into it with confidence. The players will be back up again after Saturday's result and we'll go into that game looking to get something from it." By contrast, Madrid moved to the top of La Liga for the first time this season with a 4-0 thrashing of Granada on Saturday, taking their goal tally in their 11-game winning streak to 46. "We need to continue this run and we're very happy with the way we're playing. We're in incredible form," said midfielder Luka Modric. "We want to be comfortable in games and we played well against Granada from the kick-off. The team wants more and the more goals we score the more we want." Modric's partnership with Toni Kroos in central midfield has rightfully received a lot of praise for their part in turning Madrid's fortunes around after an uncertain few weeks following the departures of Xabi Alonso and Angel di Maria. "Xabi Alonso was an excellent player for us, but Kroos and I are playing better and better every game," added the Croatian. "We're steadily getting to know each other and we know what we want to do on the pitch. I think that we're playing very well defensively." The hosts should also be bolstered by the return of Gareth Bale after five games out with a pelvic muscle injury. The form of Isco and James Rodriguez during Bale's absence is likely to mean that the Welshman will start on the bench, but Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti dismissed suggestions Bale's return posed him a selection dilemma. "Everyone thinks that Bale is a problem, but I think he is a player that will help us to be even better," said the Italian. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Mexico general fighting drug cartels shot dead | ||
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Mexico City (AFP) - Mexican authorities have confirmed that a general tasked with taming violence in Mexico's drug cartel-plagued northern border with the United States was shot dead with his wife. The Tamaulipas state security task force said in a statement that gunmen killed General Ricardo Cesar Nino Villareal and his wife as the couple drove in the neighboring state of Nuevo Leon on Saturday.
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Protectionist wins Melbourne Cup | ||
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Melbourne (AFP) - Germany's Protectionist, ridden by English jockey Ryan Moore, won Australia's two-mile (3200m) Melbourne Cup at Flemington on Tuesday. Protectionist, beautifully ridden by Moore, finished full of running to beat England's Red Cadeaux with New Zealand's Who Shot Thebarman third. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Republicans scent Senate as US midterms arrive | ||
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Washington (AFP) - With Senate control on the line, US Democrats hope they don't get steamrolled by Republicans in Tuesday's midterms, but most signs point toward President Barack Obama's party suffering crippling election setbacks. Recent polls show Republicans pulling ahead in the battle for power in Washington despite races in Alaska, North Carolina and other states remaining very close, and they expressed confidence in the home stretch of one of the most pivotal midterm elections in years. Democrats currently hold a 55-45 Senate advantage. So if Republicans, who already hold the House of Representatives, take a net six seats in the Senate, Obama will spend his last two years in office facing a hostile Congress as he contends with the Ebola crisis, Islamic extremists and improving the economy. "We intend to be a responsible governing Republican majority," the party's top Senator Mitch McConnell told ABC News as he barnstormed his state of Kentucky. The veteran politician is locked in the tightest race of his career with resilient Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes, but two weekend polls showed McConnell extending his lead. "The wind is at our backs," Senator Rand Paul, a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate, told CNN on Sunday. "I think people are ready for new leadership." Republicans have hammered home their message that a vote for Democrats is a vote for a tarnished Obama and his policies, in particular his still-unpopular health care reform. "This is a referendum on the president," Paul told NBC. In the House of Representatives, where all 435 seats are in play, experts predict the Republicans will gain more seats. Three top forecasters now give Republicans between a 70 percent and 77 percent chance of winning the Senate as well.
- Iowa in focus -
But however successful the Republicans are, a complete picture may not emerge on Tuesday. There are strong prospects for runoffs in Louisiana and Georgia, where rules require a second round if winners do not earn more than 50 percent of the vote. Add to that a probable days-long ballot count in remote Alaska, where there is an unpredictable and tight race, which would also delay matters. Louisiana's runoff is December 6, but a Georgia runoff would be on January 6, three days after the start of the new Congress. Polls -- and history -- show that Republicans would have the advantage in overtime in both states, although there would be intense ground games and ad wars, especially if the fate of the Senate were still up in the air. While both parties have rolled out their surrogates to rally voters, Obama -- all too aware of his status as a lightning rod for Republican criticism -- has largely steered clear of the campaign trail. And his Tuesday schedule shows a president seeking to appear above the fray, scheduling a series of meetings on defense and Ebola -- but no last-minute stumping for Democrats. In heartland Iowa, The Des Moines Register newspaper put Republican Joni Ernst a full seven points ahead (51-44 percent) of congressman Bruce Braley, who is struggling to keep the Senate seat in Democratic hands. "It just shows the momentum that we have here in Iowa," Ernst, an Iraq war veteran, told Fox News. "People are rejecting the failed policies of congressman Braley and they want a new direction for America." Other data suggested the race was dead even there. A Quinnipiac University poll Monday showed Ernst and Braley tied at 47 percent.
- Wildcards in mix -
An incumbent president's party historically fares badly in elections in the middle of his second term, and Tuesday is expected to be no different. But Vice President Joe Biden said he does not "agree with oddsmakers" and felt Democrats could hold the Senate, a sentiment the White House said Obama shared. With Republican voters showing greater enthusiasm, Obama has regularly exhorted Democrats to head to the polls. One Democratic casualty could be Senator Mark Udall of Colorado, a swing state where early ballots show challenger Cory Gardner with an eight-point advantage. There are also wildcards in the mix. Independent Greg Orman could oust Republican Senator Pat Roberts in Kansas, and he has said he could caucus with either Democrats or Republicans. Polls open in eastern states beginning 6:00 am (1100 GMT).
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Latin America's traffic far deadlier than crime | ||
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Montevideo (AFP) - Tourists and locals panicked by Latin America's high crime rates face a far deadlier regional threat, with automobile accidents claiming more lives each year than the region's notorious underworld. Whether in Bogota or Caracas, the scene is the same: motorcycles zigzagging between cars like skiers on a fast-paced slope. "Look," a Montevideo taxi driver grumbles to himself after speeding through a right turn and nearly ploughing down a pedestrian, "she thinks she owns the road." The story is the same across Latin America, where crosswalk lights are more decorative than functional, speed limits are ignored, right of way to pedestrians is a myth and traffic lights are disdained. On Friday, 14 Jehovah's Witnesses died in Honduras when a bus ran off the road due to "speed and recklessness," local authorities said. And nine people were killed and more than 39 wounded Sunday in two bus accidents on Venezuelan roads. Such stories are common in Latin American, where in 2013, 16 in 100,000 people died in road accidents, according to the International Automobile Federation (FIA). In France -- a country known for its high rate of deadly accidents -- the number fell closer 6.4 deaths per 100,000 people, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a 2013 report. And in Iceland, the rate was at 0.3 people. Worst off is the Dominican Republic, with 41.7 deaths per 100,000 residents, according to WHO.
- "Mootoo-taxi!" -
Causes for the high rates are many: non-compliance with rules, a proliferation of motorcycles... and general bad habits. "Why wear a helmet when it's hot?" Leandro Perillo, an FIA official, told AFP in Montevideo. Bikers shouting "Mootoo-taxi!" weave through traffic in Caracas, where entire families carrying luggage can be seen traveling on one bike -- wearing no helmets. The result? Motorcycle passengers account for 25.73 percent of Venezuelan road accident deaths, according to the Road Safety Observatory. The majority of Latin American countries have vastly more road accident deaths than homicides, according to UN statistics on murder, even though crime registers at the top of their populations' major concerns. In Uruguay, "it's more likely that you won't return home due to a car accident than assault or murder" Pablo Inthamoussu, executive secretary of the country's National Road Safety Unit, told AFP. Largely considered the safest country in South America, Uruguay's road accident death rate is 21.5 people per 100,000 residents per year, compared with 7.9 for homicide. And yet, two out of five Uruguayans said that insecurity is the country's biggest problem according to the latest report from the Latinobarometro institute. "The population doesn't take into consideration the extent of the problem. Road safety is not part of their concept of insecurity," Inthamoussu said. Across the region only Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Panama have more murders than deaths due to road accidents. Laws exist and can be quite severe in some countries, but they are difficult to enforce. Cuba, Peru, Colombia and Uruguay are among the countries making the biggest effort to enforce rules and educate the population, reducing tolerance thresholds for drinking and driving and increasing traffic police.
- Ravines and old cars -
In Lima, buses circulate at breakneck speeds. "I'm afraid whenever I get in one; we've already had multiple accidents," Victoria Aguilar, a cook, told AFP. And that's not to mention the cars, coaches and trucks full of passengers that crash in ravines in the Andes in Peru and Bolivia. Argentina is no exception either: Road accidents are the country's number one cause of death of people between age one and 32. "Neither war nor natural disaster is responsible for such tragedy," said Alberto Silveira, president of the NGO Let's Fight for Life, which advocates to help prevent traffic accidents. Meanwhile in Cuba, the problem also lies in an ever-aging fleet of antiquated cars, the majority of which are Lada and Moskvitch models from the Soviet era and older American models from the 1950s. Ideal for tourist photos, these rusting relics pose just another threat on the road.
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Hollywood aims to reclaim crown as world film capital | ||
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Los Angeles (AFP) - Los Angeles famously calls itself the Entertainment Capital of the World. But the reality is, many filmmakers have long since fled to cheaper locations in London, New York, Canada and elsewhere. Now Hollywood is battling to win back its title. "Film audiences often think of California as the home of the film and television industry," said a recent report by Film LA, which hands out filming permits in the West Coast city which is home to Tinseltown. But, it added: "Today this belief is rooted more in history than in fact with respect to feature films." "We outsourced one of our most beloved commodities," added Tom Nunan, who teaches at UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television and is the founder of Bull's Eye Entertainment, a production company. Over the last 15 years, film production has slumped by nearly 50 percent in California, once the cradle of the world's biggest film industry. Last year, the vast western US state played host to only eight percent of the biggest 25 film productions of the year, excluding animated movies. The new "Star Wars" movie is being shot in London, Pierce Brosnan's latest crime thriller "November Man" was filmed in Zagreb, while French director Luc Besson went to Taiwan to make "Lucy" with Scarlett Johansson. The productions are huge money-spinners for the cities and countries which host them: last year the 108 biggest films generated some $7.6 billion in local spending and tens of thousands of well-paid jobs, according to Film LA.
- Canadian offensive -
And that goes without counting thousands of hours of TV programming: last year 21 of 23 major TV shows were made outside of California. Canada has led the way in attracting film and program makers, throwing down the gauntlet by offering tax credits worth some 40 percent of a movie's budget. "We started to get used to the idea that if you want to get it done, you have to do it in Canada," said Nunan. The Canadian example was rapidly followed and imitated by some 40 US states and a dozen or so countries, even if in reality most major film shoots are shared between about 10 or so key locations or countries around the world. Tax breaks are not enough: you also have to offer costume designers, set makers, make-up artists and all the other craftspeople trained to the high standards demanded by a Hollywood production. The United States remains the country with the biggest major productions (70 out of 108 in a survey last year), ahead of Canada (15) and the United Kingdom (12). France hosted one. In terms of cities, London is at the top of the global league table, currently hosting eight of the 10 biggest movies at its state-of-the-art studios like Pinewood. It is followed by Vancouver, New York and Paris. Even within the US, California lags behind Louisiana, which played host to 18 of the 108 biggest films last year. New York and Georgia are also snapping at the Golden State's heels. The Big Apple notably attracted 29 major TV shows last year, against only seven a decade previously, highlighting the effectiveness of its tax breaks strategy. In a bid to regain the initiative California tripled its tax credits this year for filmmakers, to $330 million per year compared to $100 million per year previously. The strategy has immediately borne fruit: in the third quarter of 2014 TV production in the City of Angels surged by 31 percent year-on-year. "While we are still trying to reclaim our share of television production, we're encouraged," said the head of Film LA, Paul Audley, announcing the new figures. "With the new tax credit taking effect next July, we see strong potential for growth in local TV work ahead," he added. Nunan underlined that, despite the gloomy figures, Hollywood remains at the heart of the global show business industry. "Hollywood is still the entertainment capital of the world, because the ideas of consequence, decision makers of consequence are located here," he said. "Production doesn't equal dominance in this industry. Ideas equal dominance," he said. "At the end of the day there is still an enormous global influence generated out of Los Angeles." "It's going to be the entertainment capital indefinitely," he added.
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I Watched A Lot Of Sports This Weekend, Here Are The Best Things I Saw | ||
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Through the years I have put together a nice little setup in my home office that allows me to watch a LOT of sports. Luckily I have a job here at Business Insider that allows me to justify the operation. It also helps that I have a very understanding wife. In short, I have access to eleven different cable and satellite tuners at any one time in addition to events that are streamed online. While I do not watch everything, I am able to record a lot of events on any given day. Here is what my recording schedule looked like on a recent Saturday, for example.
Obviously I cannot watch all of these games, but I do watch a lot and I have the others if something comes up and I need to check them out. In theory, I could watch 11-12 games at once between the television in my office and the three monitors I have dubbed Lucky, Dusty, and Ned. However, a more typical setup will have a big game on the TV with four other games on Dusty which looks like this. The result is sometimes chaotic and occasionally confusing, like this weekend when I twice mistook Maryland for Rutgers (they both wear red, play in the northeast, and have mediocre football teams and were playing at the same time, so it is an easy mistake, right?). But I also get to see a lot of cool, fun, and occasionally funny things. Here are some of my favorites from this past weekend. The weekend always starts with the always entertaining College Gameday signs on ESPN, although I think this one would have been better if it read "I'm wearing adult diapers so I can stand here for three hours holding a sign that says 'I'm wearing adult diapers'."
Brent Musburger may or may not have done his appearance on Gameday as the John Cusack character in "Grosse Point Blank."
And Lee Corso made his weekly pick, but accidentally put the Horned Frogs mascot head on backwards. Hilarity ensued.
Saturday started with Texas A&M wearing some very cool throwback helmets based on the leather helmets they wore in the 1920s.
Maryland captains had a questionable moment when they refused to shake hands with the Penn State captains. Iowa had a cool tribute to military members that included a camo decal on one side of their helmet while the other side was left blank.
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Here's How To Play More Than 900 Classic Arcade Games Without Spending A Single Quarter | ||
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The internet is an awesome, awesome place. Case in point: Thanks to the Internet Arcade, you can play more than 900 classic arcade games, right from your browser. It's part of a larger project, called the Internet Archive, that's aimed at building a library of all the things on the web. The video game section — which also includes console games — is part of the JavaScript Mess (JSMESS) project. Its goal is to emulate a bunch of video game systems to be played in a web browser. According to the Internet Arcade, "The game collection ranges from early 'bronze-age' video games, with black and white screens and simple sounds, through to large-scale games containing digitized voices, images and music." That means you can play the 1982 hit "Joust," Atari's famous "Millipede," or my favorite, "Arkanoid." And a bunch of stuff in between. Some of the pages give you a little history of the game and a description of how to play. Jason Scott, a developer who worked on this portion of the JSMESS project, writes in a blog post that some of the games might be a little buggy. "Of the roughly 900 arcade games (yes, nine hundred arcade games) up there, some are in pretty weird shape — vector games are an issue, scaling is broken for some, and some have control mechanisms that are just not going to translate to a keyboard or even a joypad," he writes. And, as TechCrunch points out, some of the controls might be a little wonky: "The 5 key lets you insert a coin; the 1 key is usually the Player 1 start button. Arrows are usually used for directional stuff, with CTRL/ALT/SPACE used for the three primary buttons. Beyond that, you’ll have to mash buttons a bit to figure it out (or hit TAB to dive into the key configurations)." Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Bill Gates Warns: The World Is Not Prepared For Epidemics | ||
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The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has committed $50 million to fight Ebola. That's a lot of money, but not when you consider what Bill Gates is spending to fight the preventable and treatable disease malaria: $200 million this year, reports the Wall Street Journal. Malaria struck down 207 million people in 2012 and killed 627,000, many of them also in West Africa, where Ebola has reached epidemic proportions (over 13,000 cases and growing by thousands a week, the CDC reports). Gates is working to eradicate malaria. So he was in New Orleans at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene conference this week to talk about those efforts. Naturally the talk at the conference quickly turned to his thoughts on Ebola. Gates said he views this outbreak as a warning that the world needs to get its act together to prevent something even more deadly from spreading. The world as a whole doesn’t have the preparedness for epidemics, and we’ve had a few flu scares that got us to do some minor things, but not enough. If this thing had been twice as transmissive, we’d be in a lot of trouble, and there are agents that have a real chance of coming on in the next several decades that are far more transmissive than this is. What’s to stop some form of SARS showing up? The Gates foundation is trying to tackle some of that. His efforts are going toward creating experimental drugs for Ebola. He's also having engineers come up with ways to cool protective suits so people in warm areas of the world like West Africa can wear them longer. But he thinks the world could do things far better. Gates wants to see tools developed that do better disease surveillance, tracking how illness spreads, which he says is "a very doable thing" and for a relatively low cost of "literally for hundreds of millions, not billions, of dollars a year.” He also wants to speed up approval of new drugs during epidemics, such as eliminating the placebo testing portion of clinical trials. Ultimately he wants the Ebola outbreak to teach us how to react against something even more dangerous. "The fundamental lesson shouldn’t be about who did what quarantine when. That’s rounding error stuff compared to true preparedness for a seriously transmissive epidemic." Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Japan's Admire Rakti favourite for Melbourne Cup | ||
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Melbourne (AFP) - Topweight Admire Rakti is favourite to win Australia's iconic Aus$6 million ($5.3 million) Melbourne Cup on Tuesday, as he bids to become only the second Japanese stayer to win at Flemington. The seven-year-old stallion is the pre-post 4-1 bookies' choice for the 3200-metre (two-mile) handicap race after his storming victory in the lead-up Caulfield Cup a fortnight ago. Admire Rakti was only penalised half a kilogramme (1.1 pounds) for that win and has drawn favourably at barrier eight in the 24-strong field. The Tomoyuki Umeda-trained galloper will be trying to emulate Delta Blues' win over Pop Rock in an historic Japanese one-two finish in the 2006 Melbourne Cup. Umeda was delighted to receive the same gate as Admire Rakti's Caulfield Cup victory, even though he came into seven on that day. "It is a lucky number," Umeda said. "There is no change in the horse and he is just as good as he was before the last run (in the Caulfield Cup). "He has had the one gallop since and he is still good." Admire Rakti stormed into calculations for the Melbourne Cup with his powerful finish to narrowly win the Caulfield Cup over 2400 metres (1.5 miles). Admire Rakti, ridden by Hong Kong-based jockey Zac Purton, won by a long neck from New Zealand mare Rising Romance with the 3-1 favourite Lucia Valentina a further half length away in third. Umeda rates Lucia Valentina as the main danger in Tuesday's race. "Because all competitors are strong, mainly the Caulfield Cup third (placegetter) because we run together and she's only got 53 kilos," Umeda said. "She is the one we have to beat." The last Melbourne Cup winner to carry 58kg was champion Australian mare Makybe Diva in 2005. Delta Blues had two kilogrammes less when he won a year later.
- European pick: Protectionist -
Delta Blues prevailed by a half-head over stablemate Pop Rock in 2006 for trainer Katsuhiko Sumii and owner Katsumi Yoshida and back then it was only the second time a Japanese horse had tackled Australia's greatest race. The German-trained Protectionist, the third-favourite at 13-2, is rated the pick of the European contenders for Tuesday's Cup. Protectionist, trained by Andreas Wohler and to be ridden by English jockey Ryan Moore, shouldered 59kg when a close fourth in the Herbert Power Stakes (2400 metres/1.5 miles). The five-year-old won the Prix Kergorlay in France in August, a race that Americain (2010) and Dunaden (2011) both contested before their wins in the Melbourne Cup. "The three weeks has just been perfect and we could not be happier with his progress (since Power Stakes)," Wohler said. "He has tightened up but still has the same weight so he lost maybe a bit of fat and put some muscle on. "I think he is fairly handicapped for the race and hopefully he proves it on Tuesday." Newmarket trainer Ed Dunlop is back again with Red Cadeaux for a fourth tilt at the Melbourne Cup after two second placings behind Fiorente (2013) and Dunaden (2011). "I hope it's a truly-run race for everyone. Fiorente was a supremely impressive winner last year, and there's no doubt the best horse won the race," Dunlop said. "On ratings, we ran the best race of our life aged eight. He's nine this year, and can we do it again? I like what I see. He looks in good nick." The global Godolphin stable will have two runners in this year's Melbourne Cup, Cavalryman and Willing Foe. Godolphin have had 19 runners in the Cup since 1998, finishing second twice and third three times. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Kobe Bryant Perfected A Shooting Technique After Watching A Cheetah | ||
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Incredibly competitive and insatiably curious, Kobe Bryant is known for getting insights on how he can improve from everywhere. Talking with the New York Times, he recently revealed that he even learned a basketball technique while watching cheetahs on the Discovery Channel: "When you watch me shoot my fadeaway jumper, you’ll notice my leg is always extended. I had problems making that shot in the past. It’s tough. So one day I’m watching the Discovery Channel and see a cheetah hunting. When the cheetah runs, its tail always gives it balance, even if it’s cutting a sharp angle. And that’s when I was like: My leg could be the tail, right?"
It seems like a silly source of inspiration, but Bryant's fadeaway jumper is practically unguardable, and it's become something of a signature move over the course of his career. In a YouTube mix of Bryant's patented jumper, still-shots show Bryant's form is consistent and his leg is helping his balance:
Given the Lakers' lack of talent surrounding Bryant this season, we'll likely get to see Bryant shoot his fadeaway jumper plenty of times. SEE ALSO: One Play That Shows Perfectly Just How Bad The Lakers Will Be This Season Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Somebody Made A Huge 'R.I.P. Taylor Swift' Mural In Downtown Manhattan | ||
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Taylor Swift has been named the "global welcome ambassador" of New York City and that has brought with it some very interesting reaction. La Petite Mort, a vintage clothing store on Manhattan's Lower East Side, had the idea to commission a local graffiti artist to paint a memorial for Taylor Swift on the gate outside their store, according to The Huffington Post. They posted a photo to their Instagram account with an explanation in the caption, which made their message quite clear.
From the caption: We here at LPM have nothing but love for Taylor Swift. Rather, our comment is on the whitewashing and gentrification of New York. While we realize and appreciate that New York is ever changing, when a starving artist once representative of the New York spirit is replaced by the modern 19 million dollar condo owner who drinks lattes we have to shake our heads. We worked with a true NY graffiti legend (Chico LES) to paint our take on the situation. Chico got his start painting memorial murals in the lower east side in the 80's. While Taylor Swift is alive and well, and we wish her no harm, she did kill off yet another piece of that broken New York spirit. The idea of her being our spokesperson is DEAD and we expressed that through a ny artist. RIP TAYLOR SWIFT. #RIPTAYLORSWIFT #chico #chicoles #nyambassador #taylorswift #w2ny #bodegas #stoops #lattes #houston #graffiti #newyork #nyc #les #fbf #instagood #lapetitemort #LPM #37orchard Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Here's What Some iPhone 6 Plus Owners Are Saying About The Phone's Unwieldy Size | ||
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The big question on the minds of iPhone lovers these days is: iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus? So a Reddit user asked iPhone 6 Plus users if they have any regrets about buying the Plus over the 6. The folks who answered basically said that the iPhone 6 Plus is too big for two use cases:
But, even with those complaints, most of them say they wouldn't trade it in for a smaller iPhone 6 because:
Upshot is, unless you are primarily using your iPhone as a phone (without a headset), you'll soon be used to the big size of it and have no regrets. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Hack Your Tinder Profile And Get More Matches — With Science | ||
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When we decide to flirt with someone at a party, we do it almost exclusively based on what they look like. The dating app Tinder is based on the same principal. It's probably why the app has been so successful. And despite how superficial it might sound, there's a lot more science bound up in those few seconds of checking someone out than you might think. Tinder has been hugely successful in the app world — its users login an average of 11 times a day and spend between 7 and 9 minutes swiping left and right (either saying 'yes' or 'no' to a potential match) during a single session. So how exactly do we size up a potential match, whether on our phones or in person? The latest social science research suggests there are a few main things we look for. Checking Someone Out"When was the last time you walked into a bar and someone said: "Excuse me, can you fill out this form and we'll match you up with people here?'" Sean Rad, Tinder co-founder and chief executive told the New York Times. As it turns out, there's a good reason we don't do this. In addition to being super awkward, it would also be pretty unnecessary and potentially misleading. In reality, there may be more we can determine about someone's personality based on how they look than on their answers to a set of predetermined questions like those used by online dating sites. Plus, those answers might lead us astray — in experiments with people who said they valued specific characteristics in a potential mate, none of them proved important once it came down to meeting that person. Tinder, on the other hand, works more like real-life flirting. Based on a quick glimpse, we are able to size up everything from a potential mate's personality to his or her hobbies and interests. Photos may actually be even more accurate than in-person interactions when it comes to judging some specific social characteristics, including extroversion. As opposed to meeting someone at a bar, looking at a photo allows you to evaluate a variety of their characteristics — from their facial expression to their clothing style — before factoring in what they say or how they act. How You're Standing
If you're standing "energetically" in a photo, for example, meaning you're not slouching and your feet are pointed towards the camera, viewers are more likely to pick up on your outgoing personality. Looking neat and composed (which viewers perceive as meaning you're stylish and healthy) can earn you extroversion points too. Viewers also check out whether or not you're smiling (smilers are associated with being more outgoing). People who are frowning or appear straight-faced, on the other hand, are more likely to be deemed introverts. Who You're With
While most people say you should be alone in your main profile photo (no one wants to guess who you are in the three seconds they'll probably spend looking at your photo), your other images might include friends or family. If you're alone in all of them, you might send a message that you prefer to spend your time solo. If you're surrounded by friends, on the other hand, you signal to viewers that you've got an outgoing personality. "A photo of a guy at a bar with friends around him sends a very different message than a photo of a guy with a dog on the beach," Rad told the New York Times. Where You Put Your Arms
In experiments with people who looked at pictures of strangers and determined how confident they were, observers were more likely to rank those standing with their arms behind their backs as confident. People who stood with their arms hanging by their sides, for example, or crossed at their chest, were assumed to have lower self-esteem. Viewers also judged confidence based on whether or not people were slouching or facing the camera in their photos — as with extroversion, standing straight and facing the camera was generally associated with higher self-esteem. Your Facial Features
Women's preferences can change, however, based on the type of relationship they seek. In experiments with women in which researchers asked them if they were more interested in a longterm relationship or a one-night stand, women who just wanted sex preferred the men with more masculine faces — chiseled cheekbones, a stronger jaw line, and more facial hair, for example. Those who were looking for a lifetime partner, on the other hand, tended to prefer men with softer features. Conversely, men typically prefer women with features researchers identify as being more feminine — bigger eyes and fuller lips but a narrower chin and a less angular jaw, regardless of the kind of relationship they're looking for. NOW READ: 5 Ways To Tell If Someone Is Cheating On You Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Your Unsaved Files Are Automatically Stored On iCloud (AAPL) | ||
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Apple is storing Mac users' unsaved files on iCloud, according to Slate's Yael Grauer. Security expert Jeffrey Paul also noticed the feature. Apple told Business Insider that this speaks to its efforts to be transparent with users. OS X Yosemite allows users to see what's on their iCloud in Finder. Paul claims that iCloud Drive started automatically uploading unsaved files with the introduction of OS X Yosemite. Apple clarified to Business Insider, however, that the autosave feature began two operating systems ago with OS X Mountain Lion. Apple also confirmed that the autosave feature not only works on Mac apps like Pages, TextEdit, and Preview, but also on some third-party apps like iA Writer. Grauer points out, however, that users aren't aware of this feature, which might pose a problem. Apple says the details of how iCloud saves files are made clear in the product's Terms of Service agreement, though such agreements aren't always read carefully. Luckily, there are two simple solutions for people worried about their unsaved files: They can either save their files locally before exiting an application, or they can manage exactly what syncs to their iCloud by going to System Preferences > iCloud > Documents & Data. SEE ALSO: Apple Says iCloud Servers Have Not Been Compromised Following Reports Of Hacks In China Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Another Important Microsoft App Is About To Launch: Skype Translator (MSFT) | ||
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Microsoft has begun taking requests for people who want to try out Skype Translator, a service that will translate a Skype conversation between two languages in real time. Skype Translator is a hugely important undertaking for Microsoft. In July, CEO Satya Nadella named it as one of a handful of new technologies that show the new direction he envisions for the company. Microsoft, he says, is no longer all about pushing Windows. Instead it is trying to "reinvent productivity." Last month, Nadella explained this to mean that the company will build a new crop of apps that helps people "get more out of their time." He has repeatedly named four technologies that showcased this vision. Skype Translator is the last of them to become available. The others are: Cortana, Microsoft's answer to Siri, available in the current version of Windows Phone; Power Q&A, an add-on cloud service for Office 365 customers, where you type in a question and it searches through your Office documents to produce a chart in answer; and Delve, an Office 365 tool that rolled out in September, and is supposed to find all the important stuff buried in your documents, calendars, contacts. Should this translation service work well, it would be an incredible technological feather in Microsoft's cap. It involves training its computers to understand conversations, something that's very hard to do, as anyone who uses Siri can attest. Ultimately this service could help Microsoft learn to understand verbal languages so well, it could help power a lot of other voice controlled apps. Those interested in checking out Skype Translator can request to be part of a technical preview. Microsoft says it will be available later this year. There are some restrictions. The technical preview will only be available on PCs or tablets running Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 Technical Preview, although Microsoft promises to support Macs, iOS, and Android at some later point. Plus it is so far offering 12 languages: Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Chinese (Cantonese) French, Italian, Korean, Russian, English, German, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish. SEE ALSO: Microsoft Finally Rolls Out 'Delve,' One Of Its Most Important Products You've Never Heard Of Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Here's What Experts Really Think About Google's Big Plan To Find Cancer Sooner | ||
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Google's moonshot plan to use nanoparticles to detect cancer and other diseases still has a very long way to go, experts in the field told Kevin Bullis at the MIT Technology Review. The company's announcement marks "an intent to do something, not a discovery or a pathway to get there," said Chad Mirkin, the director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology at Northwestern University. The plan, according to The Wall Street Journal, is to coat tiny magnetic particles with substances that will let them track certain molecules, like cancer cells. People would swallow the particles in a pill and use a wearable device to monitor their activity, providing an early-warning system for disease. But while Google has said it will be able to do some of these things "within a few years," many experts are skeptical. Bullis points to some significant technical problems Google will have to solve to turn its vision into a reality, including getting the nanoparticles into the bloodstream, figuring out exactly how to measure their signals, ensuring they won't be rejected by the body, and guaranteeing their safety. Magnetic nanoparticles aren't a new idea. For years, scientists have been experimenting with how they might be used to diagnose, image, and treat a variety of illnesses, especially cancer. But "despite the tremendous advances... it is still too early to predict their success... in the clinical world," researchers wrote in a recent essay assessing the state of the field. And the safety of these particles remains a serious concern. "One of the big hurdles we had with magnetic nanoparticles was their toxicity," Georgia Tech biologist John McDonald told Technology Review. Despite these challenges, there are over 100 people at Google working on this project, and Andrew Conrad, who is leading the team, says they've already done in less than two years what most institutions would accomplish in "a good decade." "We've done a lot, to be quite humble about it," he told Steven Levy at Backchannel. "Enough to give us great confidence that this is all likely to work." PREVIOUSLY: Google Is Making Magnetic Nanoparticles That Will Search For Disease Inside Your Body Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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29-Year-Old Male Fan Won't Stop Sending Pumpkins, Rocks, And Jewelry To Teen Superstar Ariana Grande | ||
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Teen star Ariana Grande has been showered with strange gifts by a very persistent fan, TMZ reports. 29-year-old Massachusetts resident Tom Normandin has been sending the star items like a huge pumpkin, animal calendars, and several mirrors from K-Mart. TMZ says Normandin "has been told by authorities to stop sending items to the singer, or he could face criminal charges for harassment." Other gifts include a $200 anklet from Kay Jewelers, and a rock. SEE ALSO: Singer Rita Ora Claims Twitter Was 'Hacked' After Failing To Get Fan Response Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Here's What Happens When Doctors Play God | ||
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My father documented the details of the patient’s illness and his actions in a six-page typed document that he wrote in October 1996—shortly after the event—and placed with his journals. When my father’s infectious diseases team first realized that the patient had died, he decided, “unilaterally and without any discussion,” and in “total disregard of the concept of patient autonomy,” not to call a code, which would have summoned the chest team to begin resuscitation efforts. But when he left the floor, other staff members had misgivings. That my dad could essentially get away with aborting two resuscitations on a patient with no DNR order was a testament to the enormous respect and authority he had at his hospital.
In justifying his actions as “correct and merciful,” my father used familiar language. When my dad told me the story, it was a frightening and jarring moment. I was, in fact, firmly on the side of his physician colleagues. Even though I had enormous respect for his clinical expertise, his actions had been far too godlike for me. Certainly such behavior would never have been permitted at my hospital. Ever dutifully documenting major events in his journals, my father confirmed that during that conversation I had, indeed, been “aghast.” Excerpted from The Good Doctor: A Father, A Son, and the Evolution of Medical Ethics by Barron H. Lerner, (Beacon Press, 2014). Excerpted with permission by Beacon Press. SEE ALSO: Find Out How Much Money Your Doctor Took From Drug Companies Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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In this excerpt from 
5 Things You Didn't Know About The Company Testing Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo | ||
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Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo crashed last week during a test flight conducted by the private space company's development partner, Scaled Composites. The Virgin Spacecraft broke-up in mid-air after suffering what the company called an "in-flight anomaly." SpaceShipTwo's pilot — 43-year-old Peter Siebold — was able to use his parachute to escape the craft, but he sustained injuries and was airlifted by helicopter from the California desert to a hospital. His co-pilot — 39-year-old Michael Alsbury — was killed in the crash. Both pilots were part of the Scaled Composite test team that was trained to fly SpaceShipTwo. The company has endured tragedy before. In 2007, a rocket motor exploded during a ground test, killing three employees and injuring another three. You may have heard of Virgin Galactic and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson. But Scaled Composites is a more obscure name. However, without Scaled Composites, there would be no Virgin Galactic as we now know it. Here are five things you may not know about the Mojave, Calif.-based company: 1. Scaled Composites was founded in 1982 by pioneering aviation engineer Burt Rutan. Rutan served as Scaled's chief technology officer until his retirement in 2011. The company has been a subsidiary of Northrup Grumman since the defence giant purchased the firm in 2007. 2. The company specializes in the design, production, and flight testing of air and spacecraft built from special non-metal composite materials. 3. Scaled — in association with Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's Mojave Aerospace Ventures, which invested $28 million— designed and built SpaceShipOne in 2003. A year later, SpaceShipOne won the coveted Ansari X Prize, worth $10 million in cash, to build a reusable manned spacecraft. SpaceShipOne is now on permanent display at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington, D.C. 4. Scaled Composites teamed up with Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic to form The Spaceship Company to design, build, and test future spacecraft. Virgin Galactic acquired Scaled Composites' 30% stake in The Spaceship Company in 2012. Overall, the Virgin Group has invested something on the order of $100 million in the effort to bring short trips to the edge of space within the reach of wealthy tourists. 5. Scaled-founder Rutan has teamed up with Paul Allen once again. This time, the company and its founder will help Allen's Stratolaunch Systems to put cargo into orbit by launching rockets from a large airframe based on the WhiteKnightTwo mothership that Virgin Galactic used to launch SpaceShipTwo. Allen's new investment level hasn't been disclosed. SEE ALSO: Richard Branson Vows To Continue With Space Travel Despite Friday's Disaster Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Crisis Management Expert Explains How Richard Branson Can Bounce Back From Virgin Galactic Crash | ||
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Virgin Group chairman Richard Branson spent his Monday speaking with the media in an attempt to build trust with the public in the wake of a fatal Virgin Galactic test flight on Friday. "We need to know exactly what happened to make absolutely certain it will never happen again," Branson said on CBS's "This Morning." According to preliminary findings of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the tail mechanism of the SpaceShipTwo rocket plane was activated prematurely over the Mojave Desert, which may have been responsible for the crash. The ship's copilot died and the pilot is being treated for injuries. For now, Branson says he plans to move forward with Virgin Galactic's mission of commercial space travel, which means he'll need to restore the public's faith in him and his company. We asked crisis management expert Jeff Eller what Branson needs to do to keep his reputation as a strong leader intact. Eller was a media strategist with the Clinton administration in 1993 and '94 and did crisis management consulting with Firestone on the disastrous 2000 tire recall and with General Motors earlier this year in its massive multi-vehicle recall. Here's a look at what Branson, and any other leader in a time of crisis, needs to do to recover quickly. Run to the problem.Shortly after the news broke that the flight crashed on Friday, Branson tweeted that he was immediately on his way to the crash site to be with the team. In his recent book "The Virgin Way," Branson criticized Carnival Corporation CEO Mickey Arison for going on with his day as usual after a Carnival cruise sunk in 2012, killing 32 and injuring many others, and behaving similarly when a cruise ship was stranded at sea less than a year later. Branson writes that being the head of a company means understanding that his employees and the public look to you in times of tragedy. Eller thinks that Branson handled the initial response to the crash well in the face of speculation and even harsh criticism. "He's a strong communicator. He knew he had to carry the load and he did. He was clear, solid, and credible," Eller said. | ||
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