REPORT: Uber To Announce Spotify Partnership | ||
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Uber will announce a partnership with Spotify on Monday, reports The New York Times' Mike Issac. The partnership will reportedly let Uber customers listen to music from their own Spotify playlists after they order and get in their vehicle. The technical details of how Uber and Spotify intend to accomplish that feature remain unclear. The news comes as some journalists received an invite to an Uber event featuring a yet-to-be-named guest That event teased a "first-of-its-kind partnership." Spotify has been in the news lately, not always in a positive light. The streaming service has become embattled in a public dispute with Taylor Swift, who recently removed her catalogue from Spotify over allegations that she was underpaid. SEE ALSO: Here's How Much Taylor Swift Made In One Year From Streaming On Spotify Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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REPORT: Merger Talks Between Hasbro And DreamWorks Are Over | ||
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That was quick. Deadline reported this week that DreamWorks Animation and Hasbro were in talks to create a combined family entertainment company that would be called DreamWorks-Hasbro, and said the deal is at least 60 days away from being finalized. But according to Variety, citing sources, those talks are now over. The sources say that the reason the talks ended was because of the unfavorable reception Wall Street gave the news on Wednesday. Analysts were wary of the possibility, saying that the move made little sense for Hasbro, among other concerns. "We don't see a plausible argument for why HAS would pay 41% of its current market capitalization for a company which, according to its CEO is facing serious challenges," media analyst Vasily Karasyov of Sterne Agee wrote. "Films profitability continues to decline and the ramp in consumer product revenue the bulls hoped for isn't coming: the revenue stream is down 21% so far in 2014." Neither of the companies officially confirmed to Variety that the talks ended. This isn't the first time that DreamWorks merger talks ended right after they began. In September, Japan's SoftBank was rumored to be interested in purchasing the animation studio. But talks apparently slowed down soon after. SEE ALSO: Comcast Offers A Peek Into How It Wants To Dominate Everyone's Living Room Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Activist Investor Pushing AOL And Yahoo To Merge Actually Owns Shares In Both Companies (AOL, YHOO) | ||
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The activist investor who has been calling for AOL and Yahoo to merge, owns shares in both companies, not just Yahoo. Starboard took a 2.4% stake in AOL during the third quarter, according to a regulatory filing that came out late on Friday, reports the Wall Street Journal. It previously owned a stake in AOL in 2012, which it used to run an activist campaign against that company. Today's filing also reveals that Starboard owns 0.8% of Yahoo, putting it outside the top 10 shareholders in the company, the Journal reports. Starboard sent a letter to Yahoo's board on September 26, suggesting that Yahoo and AOL merge. Although Yahoo is the larger company, Starboard suggested that AOL would be the surviving company. Starboard also had other suggestions for Yahoo, including more aggressive cost cutting and chilling out on acquisitions. The fact that Starboard owns stakes in both companies suggests it has more leverage than originally thought. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Man Billed $1,200 For Reading Email On A Plane | ||
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Want to use an international flight to Singapore to catch up on your email? Better think twice. The WiFi overage charges on Singapore Airlines might cost you as much or more than the flight itself. So discovered Jeremy Gutsche, founder of online trend site, TrendHunter.com who was charged a jaw-dropping $1,171.46 for using 30MB of data on flight to Singapore, he says. He thought he was signing up for a $30 WiFi package. He used it to look at a total of 155 pages, he says, mostly email. He describes: At one point, I spent about an hour uploading one 4mb powerpoint doc. That doc probably cost me $100 to upload, so I hope my team liked it. I actually even emailed them a warning that my upload was taking a while. That email probably cost me $10. And yes, the pricing per mb was disclosed on sign-up, but I bought the $30 package, slept through most the flight, and really didn't think I'd end up a thousand bucks past the limit. Not a very happy landing. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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What Steve Wozniak Got Wrong About The iPhone 6 (AAPL) | ||
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"Apple could have had a much bigger share of the smartphone market if it had a larger-screen iPhone for the past three years," said Wozniak. "It could have competed better with Samsung." Wozniak echoed Apple fans who have been waiting years for the company to release a bigger smartphone. But the Apple cofounder is missing an important point. Apple is almost never first-to-market in any product category. Their strategy is to come up with dramatic, generational improvements to products that others have done not as well. The iPod wasn't the first MP3 player, but it was the first that lots of people wanted to use thanks to features like the scroll wheel and tight integration with iTunes and (later) the iTunes Music Store. The iPhone wasn't the first smartphone. The iPad wasn't the first tablet. That strategy works for Apple. People who wanted larger phones bought Samsung phones (or occasionally other Android phones) when they had no choice. Now, many of them are choosing Apple instead — iPhone 6 sales are going crazy. This isn't the first time a high-profile tech figure has made a comment like Wozniak's. In September, Google chairman Eric Schmidt made a similar remark on Bloomberg TV. "I'll tell you what I think," Schmidt said. "Samsung had these products a year ago." Schmidt and Wozniak are essentially making the same argument. Surely Apple would have sold some phablets if it had come out with them in 2011, but they wouldn't have been as good as the iPhone 6, because the iPhone platform and apps at that time were optimized for smaller screens. So they wouldn't have come close to the sales Apple is getting on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Tim Cook addressed Wozniak's criticism in an interview with Charlie Rose in September: Honestly, Charlie, we could have done a larger iPhone years ago. It’s never been about just making a larger phone. It’s been about making a better phone in every single way. And so we ship things when they’re ready. Apple doesn't want to be first when it can be best. That strategy seems to be paying off on Wall Street. Apple's stock hit a record high this week. SEE ALSO: Here's The Real Reason Apple's Sapphire Supplier Went Bankrupt Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak gave his two cents on the iPhone 6 Humans Have Drilled A Comet For the First Time Ever | ||
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Though the Philae lander has run into a few issues during her time on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, she has completed more than her share of science along the way. She's successfully drilled into the comet, analyzed what she found, and is sending data back now. When the European Space Agency got word from their comet lander that it had bounced its way into a dark corner of the comet, they knew it meant a race against the clock to get that data. Timing was an issue because of the lander's limited battery life — the scientists had to use the battery sparingly to conduct their scientific experiments. Quick to act, the scientists forged forward with their most important experiment, and drilled into a comet for the first time in history, activating perhaps the most important instrument on board Philae: The MUlti-PUrpose Sensors for Surface and Sub-Surface Science instrument, called MUPUS for short On Nov. 14, ESA scientists got word from Philae that the MUPUS drill had successfully hammered into the comet and retracted back, supplying the other instruments aboard the probe with samples that the lander has analyzed and is now in the process of sending data back to mission control. And the proof is this chart below, tweeted out by the lander itself:
There's hope for more experiments by the lander in the future, a very slight hope. The lander had a limited battery life — about 60 hours after touchdown — but also solar panels that can generate power and recharge the battery. When the probe first came to rest on the comet, however, it bounced a few times and ended up moving into a shady area that seems to be under a cliff, where it's not getting enough sun. Right now there's a chance the batteries are just about empty, as indicated in the chart below. All of the instruments on the lander have been shut down, though the probe is still communicating with Rosetta and sending data back to Earth.
The rotation was successfully completed, and scientists are now waiting to learn if it repositioned Philae is charging. Regardless of the future of the probe, the drill itself was a success and the samples were analyzed by the lander, which is currently sending it back to Earth, shown below.
The experimentThe MUPUS probe uses a type of hammering device, shown below, that penetrated the comet's surface and extracted samples to analyze the comet's chemical make up. MUPUS is equipped with a hammer, that nailed a device that resembles an ice pick into the comet. Once it penetrated the surface, the device collected samples of the comet's surface. Here's its hammering action during lab testing:
What they hope to findThe scientists are hoping for a couple of major discoveries from Philae's analysis. "The really big result will be if Rosetta's landing probe... detects 'chiral amino acids'," John Plane, a professor at the University of Leeds in London, said in a statement released by the university. Chiral amino acids are a special type of molecule that, as far as we know right now, only exists in biological systems on Earth. If Philae discovered the presence of these amino acids on a comet, it could be a smoking gun for the origins of life on Earth. Another big question scientists are asking is whether comets were responsible for water on Earth. "Comet impacts are thought to have been one of the principal means by which water was delivered to the early Earth, around 3.6 billion years ago, possibly contributing half the water in our oceans," Stanley Cowley, who studies comets at the University of Leicester, told The Daily Galaxy. CHECK OUT: The Philae Lander Bounced Off The Surface Of The Comet And Is Now Stuck Under A Cliff READ MORE: 'We Do Not Fully Understand What Has Happened' On The Comet Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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The data analysis isn't available yet, but it is coming. These samples the drill collected could ultimately tell us if comets like this one carried the key molecules that culminated the conditions for life on Earth.
As a last-ditch life-saving effort, the Philae team tried to rotate the lander into a sunnier spot earlier today. The landing gear lifted Philae 1.5 inches off of the ground and rotated it carousel style into a new, hopefully sunnier, location which will let it charge its batteries before it freezes to the comet.
Scientists called the momentous occasion when the drill struck ground "ThePinPrick."
The instruments on board called The COmetary SAmpling and Composition Experiment (COSAC), have hopefully analyzed the samples, and with any luck ESA has received the data, which they will pour over. Stephan Ulamec, the Philae lander manager, confirmed that COSAC has some material. How Wall Street Tries To Convince Young Techies It's Cool To Work There | ||
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But as banks started to rely more on heavy data and financial engineering technology, demand for engineers on Wall Street has shot up. It takes a lot of work for banks like Goldman Sachs to hire these talented engineering recruits, according to the New York Times. For example, Goldman has to explain at college recruiting events that its engineers don’t just work mere back-office jobs, but actually build meaningful software that gets used by traders every day. It also revamped its website to look more young and fresh, and has been using cool words like “cloud computing” and “data mining” in presentations. One of the biggest challenges has been answering questions about its strict dress code. By nature, it’s almost impossible for Wall Street banks to allow its employees to come into work wearing flip-flops and a hoodie, like many Silicon Valley tech companies do. But these concerns tend to disappear once the question of pay comes up. “As soon as we start talking to the candidates about what our starting packages look like, the lifestyle questions about flip-flops and beanbags really start to go away,” R. Martin Chavez, Goldman Sachs’ Chief Information Officer told the New York Times. The push does seem to be working. The number of bankers with high-level programming background at Goldman Sachs has jumped 43% to 1,223 employees since 2009, the Times reports. Goldman Sachs’ largest division is, in fact, its technology division with 8,000 employees, or roughly 25% of its total workforce, it says. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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For decades, Silicon Valley has been the top destination for many talented computer scientists coming out of college. Tech companies like Google, Apple, and Facebook attracted top talent with ease, offering heavy paychecks with massive stock options and no formal dress code at work. Facebook To Companies: No More Free Ride (FB) | ||
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Facebook will change the news feed to decrease the number of blatant promotional messages people see. The new news feed will take effect this January, and won't reduce the number of paid ads that users see. "The idea is to increase the relevance and quality of the overall stories — including Page posts — people see in their News Feeds," said Facebook on their blog. The move essentially devalues the posts brands push out from their Pages, which may mean more paid advertisement revenue for Facebook. "While Pages that post a lot of the content we mention above will see a significant decrease in distribution, the majority of Pages will not be impacted by this change," said Facebook. The company is defining "promotional" as any Facebook post that repeats the content of an advertisement, solely pushes people to buy a product or download an app, or pushes people to enter a sweepstakes with no other content. So unlike some changes earlier this year, this doesn't seem directed at media companies that use Facebook to publicize their stories. Earlier this week, Facebook made some other changes to give users more control over what they see in their news feeds. SEE ALSO: Mark Zuckerberg Once Sent A Message To Facebook's Staff By Kicking An Engineer Out Of A Meeting Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Ted Cruz Loves Reading His Twitter Trolls | ||
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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a conservative firebrand who is looking at running for president, is a little bit of a Twitter addict. "I'll confess, much to my team's great annoyance: I read Twitter constantly," Cruz said at a press conference Friday afternoon. "In fact, every horrible, nasty thing that some hardcore lefty says about me, I read them." Cruz said he actually enjoyed the "clever" criticism. "I actually like the clever ones. I mean, the nasty ones that are just like, 'You suck.' It's like, okay, 'That was very clever,'" he added sarcastically. "But the funny ones I enjoy." Cruz was speaking at an event condemning government regulation of the internet. It so happens that Cruz drew widespread attention on Twitter earlier in the week when he tweeted that so-called net neutrality is "Obamacare for the internet." Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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How Uber's CEO Blew His Perfect 5.0 Customer Rating Score With Drivers | ||
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When you take a ride in an Uber vehicle, the first things you'll notice when you request a ride on the app are your driver's name, the make and model of your Uber ride, and your driver's rating out of five stars. Uber's rating system goes both ways — after a ride, passengers rate their experience with their drivers, and drivers do the same with passengers. In an interview with San Francisco magazine, Uber's CEO Travis Kalanick admitted that not even he has a perfect 5-star rating as a passenger. From the story: “I was at a 5 for a long time, then I had a string of 4 stars. I don’t know what happened. I think what happened was I was a little stressed at work. I was not as courteous as I should have been.” Customers can see an Uber driver's rating when they use the app, but don't know their own rating, usually. Earlier this summer a hack was exposed that let you view your own Uber passenger rating, but it was quickly shut down by the company. You can read the full story about Kalanick at San Francisco magazine's website. SEE ALSO: Uber CEO Travis Kalanick Is Concerned About Looking Like An 'Asshole' Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Why People Are Scared To Talk About Silicon Valley's Big Diversity Problem | ||
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The issue of diversity is being discussed more than ever in Silicon Valley. Major tech companies such as Facebook, Apple, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Yahoo have come forward to reveal their diversity statistics — showing that most of these tech giants are compromised of white and Asian male employees. The lack of women and minorities in tech isn't a secret, and many advocates are very vocal about it via Twitter and self-made initiatives such as website About Feminism. However, there are also dozens of minorities working in the tech industry that wouldn't dream of speaking up about the topic of diversity. There's apparently an unwritten rule about voicing your concerns when it comes to how minorities are viewed and treated in the tech industry, according to engineers that recently spoke to Bloomberg. Here's the advice Lloyd Carney, CEO of Brocade Communications Systems, who is black, gives to newcomers in the tech industry: "Tell women and people of color directly, 'Don't you dare advocate for diversity. Your career would be over.'" Kate Matsudaira, the founder of career management platform Pop Forms, who has previously worked at Amazon and Microsoft, said she would never complain about sexism in the tech industry on her personal blog. Not because she doesn't believe it's an issue, but because there's a certain stigma around those who frequently voice their opinions on the subject. "I don't want to be grouped into that category of activists," she told Bloomberg. "This sounds so horrible, but there are certain people who say, 'I didn't get the job because I'm a woman,' and I'll look at their resume and know they didn't get the job because they don't have the experience. I never want to be in that group." Matsudaira isn't the only one reluctant to speak out. Kathryn Minshew, co-founder of job search site The Muse, told Wired back in July that female entrepreneurs are worried about "being shamed" for speaking out. That's not to say all women and minority workers are content with silence. Ana Medina, a computer science student at the University of California who experienced some sexist treatment at her first trip to Google's I/O conference, thinks people should be vocal about the topic. "The advice leaves you to think you're probably not the only one who experiences things like this," she told Bloomberg. "The industry shouldn't be like this. It's just not OK." SEE ALSO: This Female Game Developer Was Harassed So Severely On Twitter She Had To Leave Her Home Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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CHART OF THE DAY: Mobile Messaging Is Poised To Overtake Social Networks | ||
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Facebook announced this week that its standalone messaging app, Facebook Messenger, has already surpassed 500 million monthly active users. It’s just one part of a growing trend among users, who are spending more time in messaging apps than ever before. Based on Flurry data charted for us by BI Intelligence, the top four messaging apps are experiencing incredible growth compared to the top four social networks, and will likely overtake those social networks within the next few years. Those messaging apps — WhatsApp, Snapchat, LINE, and WeChat — are all growing their user numbers at a quarterly rate of 15% or higher in 2014. But that’s because messaging apps are much more than just texts: You can play games, share news and videos, call, and even send money to each other.
SEE ALSO: CHART OF THE DAY: People Are Getting More Optimistic About Airbnb Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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David Tepper Bought Alibaba | ||
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David Tepper, founder of Appaloosa Management, bought 725,000 shares of Alibaba in the third quarter, according to government filings. The online retailed was recently spun out of Yahoo and made public in a massive IPO. Tepper, the highest paid hedge fund manager in 2013 taking home $3.5 billion, also lowered his stake in Apple and Citigroup.
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Mark Zuckerberg Once Sent A Message To Facebook's Staff By Kicking An Engineer Out Of A Meeting (FB) | ||
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When Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook about one decade ago, he believed most users would be coming to the site from desktop computers. That all changed in 2012, as the company realized for the first time that more people were visiting Facebook on mobile phones than PCs. From then on, Zuckerberg declared Facebook would be a mobile-first company. And he wanted his employees to internalize that. Carolyn Everson, Facebook's vice president of global marketing solutions for Facebook, shared a story with Bloomberg Media COO Jacki Kelley that illustrated how crucial the "all in on mobile" concept was to Zuckerberg. Following an all-hands meeting in which Zuckerberg emphasized mobile being the company's first priority, the Facebook CEO held a meeting with a senior engineer to go over some product mockups. The engineer showed Zuckerberg these concepts on a desktop computer, and here's how Everson described the situation to Bloomberg: Mark sent him out of his conference room and said, did I tell you we were going to be mobile first? That story spread like wildfire because nobody wants to get thrown out of the conference room of the CEO, and it really sent the message. And he did that. He retrained all 3,000 engineers in how to code in mobile. Today, Facebook says that more than 700 million users are browsing its mobile app every day as of September 2014. Its mobile messaging app just hit the 500 million user mark too. Check out the full video interview from Bloomberg below. SEE ALSO: Here's What Happened When An Employee Told Steve Jobs Something Couldn't Be Done Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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These Big Companies Secretly Favor Obama's Plan For Internet Freedom (F, V, UPS, BAC) | ||
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A handful of big corporations secretly favor the same plan for the open internet that President Obama endorsed on Monday, according to Businessweek. Representatives from Bank of America, Visa, UPS, and Ford have all met with the FCC this summer and said they want the agency to regulate the internet so that all internet service providers (ISPs) will be forced to treat all digital content equally. However, those representatives met with the FCC as part of a group called the Ad Hoc Telecommunications in a seeming effort to shield their identities from ISPs like Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon. ISPs are against Obama's plan to regulate the internet under something called Title II, which would regulate the internet more like telephone lines instead of allowing private companies to have full control. These companies fear that ISPs would have too much power over what content flows over the internet, which could be potentially damaging to all companies that engage in commerce in some for or another online. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Check Out The Shotgun Apple Designer Marc Newson Created (AAPL) | ||
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We're finally getting a close look at the shotgun Apple designer Marc Newson made for Beretta, which was unveiled in London last night, according to Dezeen Magazine. Newson is a close friend of Jony Ive, who heads up Apple's hardware design team. Beretta didn't ask Newson to reinvent the wheel. His take on their model 486 Parallelo is an elegant update to an otherwise decent-looking product. Beretta says the gun's "unique design" is "extremely elegant and instantly recognizable." We'll let you make that call for yourself, but there's no doubt that Newson labored over the details of this product. I mean, just look at it.
Beretta says the engraving, dragon and all, is "a clear homage to Asia as the homeland of the pheasant." Here's a look at the gun's slimmed down forend.
The base model 486 retails for roughly $6,000, so we can expect Newson's version to cost a lot more than that. SEE ALSO: New Apple Designer Marc Newson Made A Beretta Shotgun Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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How Elon Musk Cleverly Manipulated 7 States To Compete For Tesla's Huge Factory (TSLA) | ||
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Behind the scenes, as Musk uttered those words, there were seven states scrambling to submit proposals to host Tesla’s “gigafactory,” the ambitious manufacturing facility required to build the batteries in Tesla’s electric cars for the foreseeable future. According to Fortune’s Peter Elkind, who published the incredible in-depth story on how Musk manipulated several states into bidding on his massive plant powered completely by renewable energy, Musk lured business recruiters from each state by charming them, inviting them to test drive the Model S, restricting their abilities to take notes during his pitches, and then forcing them to submit their proposals in just three weeks' time. Once Tesla received all the proposals from the states — including California, Nevada, Texas, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, and Arizona — Musk informed the states Tesla would make a business decision in “one to two weeks,” but kept them waiting for over a month. Keeping the states’ officials in the dark was part of Musk’s strategy. Joey Grisham, president of an economic development corporation in Texas, says he didn’t even know who he was courting; Tesla was only identified as a “publicly traded high tech company.” But states were aware of the competition between them— and there was even in-state competition. For example, Grisham says he had heard of rumors of Ross Perot Jr. personally pitching a few different sites to Musk. Eventually, Tesla sent “a team of company executives and financial experts” to show a PowerPoint presentation comparing Grisham’s proposed area versus “The Competition,” keeping that leading prospect unnamed.
This forced Grisham, and other states, to negotiate with Tesla in the dark. “As you can tell, we want you in Hutto!” Grisham wrote to the Tesla team after the presentation. “I believe Tesla fits the Austin region and we will do EVERYTHING in our power to help make that a reality!” Other states tried to seduce Tesla: Nevada chartered a 10-passenger Learjet for $10,000, offering to pick up Tesla’s team in California and show them around the state. Tesla agreed to the jet, but “an emergency call halted it” as the plane was taxiing toward the runway. Tesla's team took a commercial plane to Nevada, instead. After narrowing down the list to Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada, Musk upped the ante. Now he didn’t just want 90 acres; he wanted 1,000. This forced all the contenders to become super aggressive, offering to provide massive amounts of energy until the gigafactory could run on its own renewable fuels. Even California, which had been eliminated from contention, “begged Tesla to reconsider, promising to come up with a sweet offer and expedite the dreaded environmental reviews.” Tesla kept asking for more: free land, a 25% electricity discount, and “zero taxes of any sort for 20 years.” In the meantime, Musk was bluffing on earnings calls, saying Tesla planned to break ground on “multiple” gigafactory sites. This forced states to redouble their efforts as they believed they were approaching a deal with the company.
But just as Nevada was about to close the deal, Musk once again upped his demands. He asked for $500 million in cash, instead of some of the tax breaks for electricity. It’s unclear why he changed his mind, but it may have had to do with a deal struck days prior, when the state of Tennessee announced it would give $230 million to Volkswagen to help it build a $600 million plant in Chattanooga. But Nevada, with a budget of $6.5 billion, put everything on halt, sending its 240 construction workers home, and walking away from the deal. In the ensuing earnings call in July, Musk told analysts it had indeed broken ground in Nevada, but said “the ball is in the court of the governor and the state legislature.” Other states kept pitching Tesla in the meantime: Texas Gov. Rick Perry drove a Tesla up to Sacramento to show he was serious about fighting for the factory; the mayor of Tuscon, Ariz., sent a building permit “good for a $3 billion, 5-million-square-foot building at an Arizona address ‘to be determined.’" But even as the posturing ensued, and Nevada became unsure of its position, Tesla couldn’t find any other takers at the $500 million in cash asking price, so it finalized the deal. Tesla would get 980 acres, which were level thanks to the previous groundbreaking effort. The state would pay to extend US Route 50, a major highway, to reach the four-lane road leading to the industrial park, and Tesla would receive $1.1 billion in abatements, including 20 years without having to pay a sales tax on equipment and construction materials, 10 years without property taxes, and a 10-year break on payroll taxes. And it would also receive $8 million in electricity discounts. In return, Tesla agreed to give $37.5 million to local public schools in Nevada starting in 2018, donate $1 million to battery research at the University of Nevada, and wait for its subsidies to kick in only after the company reached its targets for job creation and investment. With all of those subsidies and abatements — as well as a final $195 million in transferable tax credits and the $113 million in highway funds — Nevada's total tally for landing Tesla was a whopping $1.4 billion. The deal was done in August, but other states didn’t know Tesla had made its choice until Labor Day. You can visit Fortune to learn more about this story. SEE ALSO: This 90-Second Video Will Convince You That Tesla Just Unveiled The Future Of Driving SEE ALSO: The Making Of Tesla: Invention, Betrayal, And The Birth Of The Roadster Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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“We’re not quite ready to make a big announcement on the cell and battery gigafactory, but we are exploring a lot of different options right now,” Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk told investors during his company’s quarterly earnings call last November. “If I were to guess, I think we would do that, that soup-to-nuts gigafactory…that factory would most likely be in North America, but we are investigating other options as well.”
In a dazzling act of manpower, Nevada convinced Tesla it would be “the bride.” With Tesla’s money and Nevada’s planners, the state summoned “an armada of 200 earthmovers and graders” to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on the thousand-acre site, displacing more than 3 million cubic yards of dirt in the process. It even had drones flying overhead to take photos and video showing how the project was progressing. State officials later called it a “biblical” show of force. How Silicon Valley Cafeteria Food Got So Gourmet | ||
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Silicon Valley was a completely different world when Fedele Bauccio started his restaurant company in 1986. Called Bon Appetit Management Company, Bauccio's business sought to completely revolutionize the corporate cafeteria. "I was with a public company for many years, so I understood what was going on there, but I was kind of appalled at the state of corporate food — the mystery meat, frozen food. I felt strongly that I could create a restaurant company with talented chefs and change that part of the industry," Bauccio told Business Insider. "That was unheard of in 1986." One of Bon Appetit's first clients was a young company called Oracle, whose CEO, Larry Ellison, wanted to set up a paninoteca, or classic Italian sandwich shop, at the company's Redwood Shores campus. "Being Italian, I said, 'I could do that,'" Bauccio said. "But we knew a sandwich shop wasn't going to last long." What they decided to do instead would change Silicon Valley culture forever. Bon Appetit installed a number of small, customized restaurants — Japanese, Mediterranean, and Indian eateries, for example — situated among the headquarters' many office buildings. Soon, other companies were following suit. "We got lucky because we were in the middle of this startup world in San Francisco and Silicon Valley," Bauccio said. "Once we started doing things with Oracle and others, other companies felt that they should do it also." Bon Appetit currently operates more than 500 cafes across the country, including at offices for Google, eBay, Adobe, LinkedIn, Uber, and Yahoo, among many others. They also operate restaurants at 200 universities and several museums. With more than 30 cafes serving nutritious, free food to about 30,000 employees at their Mountain View headquarters, Google has become the gold standard of dining in Silicon Valley. Each cafe has its own concept — from Mexican cuisine to vegan specialties — and a menu focused on using local ingredients. Variety is key for tech workers, many of whom spend more time in the office than they do out of it. "These people creating new products now — there’s no beginning or end of the day for them. They’re here all the time," Bauccio said. "No one wants to eat in the same place five days a week. It challenged us to create different experiences that create what I call 'casual collisions' — that as people break bread together, they come up with new ideas and innovations." Bon Appetit's latest venture at Google is Kitchen Sync, a health-and-wellness cafe that has its own teaching kitchen run by top-notch chefs. The idea is that employees can learn solid skills for healthy cooking that they can eventually bring them home to their families.
Bon Appetit's most popular venture at Google, however, has been Cafe Baadal, an Indian restaurant with a prix fixe menu and delicious small plates. Googlers can make reservations, and many people stand in line to grab a bite. "It was in an old cafeteria that they had, and we wanted to change it up," Bauccio said. "It's healthy, and the flavors are great."
According to Bauccio, Bon Appetit has a few major concerns when creating new cafes. First, seasonal and fresh ingredients are of supreme importance, and the company insists that chefs use produce grown within 50 miles of a particular cafe. Authenticity is also incredibly important. Before they determine a menu for a particular cafe, Bon Appetit conducts multiple focus groups to make sure they are well acquainted with the culture and demographics of the company. The variety is obviously great for employees, but it's attractive to chefs, too. Unlike in the restaurant industry, chefs who cook in corporate cafeterias work standard hours and enjoy employee benefits. Bon Appetit employs many talented chefs, including several who have won the prestigious James Beard Award. "We now have more resumes than we can use. With us, they can use their love, passion, and soul, and make relationships with local farmers," Bauccio said. "Once we get chefs, they don't leave." SEE ALSO: 22 Mouthwatering Pictures Of Google's Legendary Free Food Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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The iPhone 5S Got Smoked By Windows Phone In A Recent Hacker Contest (HPC) | ||
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Of all the smartphones available, which one protects best against a hackers? Windows Phone did surprisingly well against hackers in a recent contest. So did Google's Nexus 5. The iPhone 5S, not so much. The contest was HP's Mobile Pwn2Own held in Tokyo earlier this week. HP throws a series of these contests in which it invites hackers to break in to specific devices or apps, then pays them for the security holes they find. This contest was focused on popular smartphones. When the hackers took on the iPhone 5S, they broke in through the Safari browser. Once in, they were able to access the data on the phone. HP won't share details of what they did, how or how much of the phone they were able to control until Apple has a chance to fix the hole. But it's not good whenever a hacker can bust through a web browser into other parts of the phone. Two hackers took a shot at the Galaxy S5 through the phone's wireless payment tech, NFC, and succeeded, though HP didn't spell out how much damage they were able to do once in. Maybe the most spectacular hack was against the LG Nexus 5 also against its NFC tech. The hacker was able to force it to Bluetooth pair with another phone, just like from the TV show “Person of Interest.” Scary. The Lumia 1520 Windows Phone didn't stop the hackers completely, either. But it did hold them off surprisingly well. The hacker was able to to get into the phone's browser cookie database, but couldn't bust through to gain full control of the phone. That's a little like a house thief breaking in through your doggy door but getting stuck half-way through it. Another hacker used WiFi to break into a Nexus 5. But like the Windows phone, once in, he couldn't bust out and do more damage. Now that smartphones are so popular, hackers and security companies are ever more interested in them. For instance, just this week security firm FireEye shouted the alert on a flaw in iPhones and iPads that could allow malicious apps to install more malicious apps. Apple says it hasn't seen any of its customers hit by such an attack. SEE ALSO: The 50 Most Powerful People In Enterprise Tech In 2014 Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Why Your Job Interview At This Startup Can Last Up To 22 Hours | ||
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Interviewing for a new job is always a nerve-wracking experience, one fraught with potential mistakes that could ruin your chance at working for your dream company. But take solace in the fact that the interviews you've been on are relatively short, at least when compared to the Australian mobile app development startup Appster. There, candidates go through about 20 hours of interviews and tests in a process that requires them to answer questions ranging from "What would you would do if you were made CEO?" to "How would your tutor in college rate you on a scale of 1-10?" The pressure is enough to make anyone crack, as one prospective employee did when he started yelling at Appster c0-CEO and cofounder Mark McDonald for mispronouncing a name on his rรฉsumรฉ. "You start seeing glimmers of people's personalities they can't hide, things you would never be able to see in a traditional job interview," McDonald tells Business Insider. These cracks are precisely what Appster is looking for. If you're unfamiliar, the company helps people who have an idea for an app by developing software, asking investors for money, and implementing a business plan for them. Now three years old, Appster has grown to 150 employees and has offices in Australia, San Francisco, and India. In this crucial hiring phase, choosing the wrong people could be crippling. McDonald says that he and cofounder Josiah Humphrey initially implemented a fairly standard interview process, only to find that many of the new recruits were not suited to work at Appster and left after about a year. Two years ago, they decided to try something more rigorous, figuring that if they could get more new hires to stick, it would be a huge advantage to them in the long run.
Today, McDonald says about 90% of Appster's hires work out in the long run, a number he attributes to the fact that it weeds out people who either do not have the right technical knowledge or are not a good fit for Appster's work-hard, play-hard culture. The process takes about 12 to 15 hours for entry-level employees, while team leaders and middle managers are interviewed for 22 hours. Senior executives can expect to spend about 150 hours being vetted. The process begins when Appster develops a list of technical skills and personality traits a "superstar" in a given role will possess, and creates a detailed scorecard to measure applicants on those qualities. After filling out a short questionnaire and doing a 20-minute screening phone call with human resources, potential hires are brought in to the office for a 90-minute interview with a hiring manager. If they survive this, candidates move on to the meat of Appster's interview process, the grueling "one-day intensive" at its office, for which candidates are usually asked to block out nine hours of their day and sometimes required to come back a second time. First, applicants do a series of 30- to 45-minute interviews with about five members of the team they would be working with. The interviewers score the candidates on the skills the interviewers are most expert in. Then, candidates are taken to dinner and drinks for about 4 hours by two Appster employees — usually a hiring manager and a member of the HR team. There, the prospective employee is asked a series of 150 questions that test industry knowledge ("What will be the biggest trends in mobile technology over the next five years?"), cultural fit ("What would you do if an employee told you a secret that could hurt the business?"), and past performance ("What were your sales figures at your first job out of college?"). Mostly, what Appster wants to hear is that the candidate excelled at every stop along their career, and that their previous bosses would also rate them highly. Of course, Appster follows up with every person an applicant has ever reported to, just to make sure they are telling the truth. "If you actually ask them about their direct reports with the idea that you'll check this later on, people tend to be really honest," McDonald says. If someone makes it through all that and Appster still wants to hire them, the person is given about eight hours of work to do on their own time to prove their competence once and for all. If they succeed at that, and a background check doesn't turn up anything negative, they will at long last receive an offer. "I've been lucky enough to receive offers for all of the past roles I've applied for, but this was quite a daunting experience," says Dane Matheson, who was hired as the company's head of growth strategy a little more than a year ago. "When you actually get the green light, it's extraordinarily rewarding."
Still, Matheson appreciates that Appster goes to great lengths to make sure its talent is top-notch, something he sees as a "badge of honor" for employees. McDonald says he's never had a strong candidate say they didn't want to do the one-day intensive, adding that "A-plus players" tend to like it because they get to reflect on their achievements. Another potentially enjoyable aspect of the marathon interview? Since it has already spent so much time making sure candidates are a perfect fit, McDonald says Appster isn't about to haggle over a few dollars after it has made an offer. "If you're serious about recruiting A-plus players, you need to have this rigorous process," Matheson says. "Otherwise, we won't get people who are the pinnacle of their respective fields — and that's what we need to grow the business properly." SEE ALSO: Here's What To Say When You're Asked About Salary In A Job Interview Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Despite his supreme confidence in himself, Matheson says that 17 hours into the process, he began to get nervous about whether his old bosses would provide him with positive references. Countries Around The World Are Worried About 'Killer Robots' | ||
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Nations are becoming increasingly concerned over the threat of killer robots. In Geneva, 118 nations present at a UN conference agreed about the need to tackle the future threat of these robotic killing systems, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). The nations at the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) conference agreed to further talks in April 2015 over the development of the "lethal autonomous weapons systems." Although no single country has yet developed the technological capacity for killer robots, it's possible they could exist in the near future. “By continuing the talks, countries are acknowledging the many concerns raised by autonomous warfare, but the technology is moving faster than the international response,” Mary Wareham, arms advocacy director at HRW, wrote in a press release. In March, leading roboticist Illah Nourbakhsh warned NPR that the development of autonomous robots could easily lead to military applications. Hypothetically, if researchers built a robot that could climb a ladder or operate power tools, "that robot can manipulate an AK-47. That means that robot can manipulate the controls of all the conventional military machines as well," Nourbakhsh said. The CCW's modus operandi is to"ban or restrict the use of specific types of weapons that are considered to cause unnecessary or unjustifiable suffering to combatants or to affect civilians indiscriminately." These weapons include mines, blinding lasers, and killer robots. Among the 118 nations involved in the CCW are the US, China, Russia, South Korea, the UK, and Israel. One of the main concerns over the development of killer robots is the concern that humans, after becoming disengaged from direct conflict, would become comfortable with the idea of killing. Former U.S. commander General Stanley McChrystal told BBC's Today Program, "There’s a danger that something that feels easy to do and without risk to yourself, almost antiseptic to the person shooting, doesn’t feel that way at the point of impact." The next round of talks within the CCW will be held in Geneva from April 13-17, 2015. SEE ALSO: The moral implications of robots that kill Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Uber CEO Travis Kalanick Is Concerned About Looking Like An 'Asshole' | ||
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Uber's CEO Travis Kalanick is one of the most polarizing figures in Silicon Valley. Uber provides a fantastic service to its users. You push a button and a car comes to pick you up. And a company like Uber doesn't get to a $17 billion valuation without a great CEO. But Kalanick has a reputation as an overly aggressive businessman. The Verge reported this summer that Uber had been sending its "brand ambassadors" undercover to recruit drivers from competing companies like Lyft. He's been characterized as "douchey," and has said some less-than-savory things to the press — he's referred to his business's main opponent as "an asshole named Taxi," and bragged to GQ about how his service has helped him pick up women. San Francisco magazine recently sat down with Kalanick, and noted during his interview he was uncharacteristically mild-mannered. During the magazine's cover shoot, according to San Francisco magazine's Ellen Cushing, Kalanick was concerned about his image, and made it clear he didn't want to look like a jerk.
It appears Uber is trying to tone down the aggressive, ruthless image of Kalanick that's colored tech press for the past few years. Not a bad idea, especially now that Uber is reportedly trying to raise at least $1 billion in new capital. SEE ALSO: Congress Loves Taking Uber, And That's Great News For Uber's Plans For World Domination Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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This One Chart Shows Tesla's Plan To Disrupt The Auto Industry | ||
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The auto industry is home to some of the mightiest names in business — Ford, General Motors, Cadillac. Yet in a nationwide survey from earlier this year, a company that didn't even exist 15 years ago was credited with making the "most loved vehicle in America." The car was the Model S, made by Tesla Motors. As our recent longform investigation into the origin of Tesla reveals, the automaker was able to make a name for itself because the big guys were building cars with only one of two main abilities. But never both. Most people in the industry thought a car could either be relentlessly powerful, like a Ford Mustang, or incredibly fuel efficient, like the Honda Prius. When Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning founded Tesla in 2003, they wanted both. The below graph, taken from Tesla's original business plan, shows that the Roadster was designed to unite the strengths of both speed and efficiency. Along the X-axis are all the super efficient, high mileage cars. Your Toyota Camrys, Honda Civics, Volkswagen Jettas, and the like cluster along that bottom line. Then on the Y-axis there are the rides that accelerate like maniacs, with the Dodge Viper, Chevrolet Corvette, and Porsche Carreras gathering on that vertical line.
So argues the original business plan. "At one end of the spectrum, the Tesla Roadster has higher efficiency and lower total emissions than the best of the most efficient cars," the plan reads. "At the other end of the spectrum, the Tesla Roadster accelerates at least as well as the best sports cars, but it's six times as efficient and produces one tenth of the pollution." Thus the graph's description for the Roadster: disruptive technology. This article is drawn from "The Making Of Tesla: Invention, Betrayal, And The Birth Of The Roadster," an original Business Insider investigative feature. SEE ALSO: The Making Of Tesla: Invention, Betrayal, And The Birth Of The Roadster Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Then, far away from the rest, on the top right is a car combining high efficiency and insane acceleration. A car that would, if all the founders' bets paid off, stand on its own: the Tesla Roadster. Check Out The Amazing Photo Tool From Google That You Should Start Using Right Now (GOOG) | ||
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It's a common problem: You'll go on a vacation or have an amazing weekend with your friends where you snap a gazillion photos, but then you'll never take the time to organize them. Or, you'll create a photo album months later and have trouble remembering specific spots or location names. That's where Google Stories comes in. Google will automatically choose your best photos from a trip or event and arrange them in a fun timeline that you can edit and add captions to. You can then share it through Google+. Weaving together your photos, videos, and places you visited, it essentially makes you a digital scrapbook, a gorgeous travelogue that takes zero effort. Google knows the window for sharing photos is small, so each custom Story will be generated quickly and automatically and you'll get a Google+ notification when it's ready. To get started, first turn on Google Location History, which allows Google to periodically store your smartphone's most recent location data (here's how to do that for Android or iOS). You can also share any photos that you have in Google Drive with Google+ (they will be private unless you choose to share them). Use "Auto Backup," which will save all the photos you take on your phone to Google+ (here's how you can turn it on). Google's Auto Awesome feature which will be on by default, but here's how to check that you didn't turn it off. Then just take a ton of photos! Google's algorithms will automatically use all that data to create a story. It's that simple. What does a Story actually end up looking like? Check out this example by paraglider pilot Thomas de Dorlodot: Stories start with a "front page" to introduce them. You can customize the title to be anything you want:
Google will automatically pull out your best photos and put them in the order they were taken. You can add your own captions to create a fun and cohesive narrative:
If you moved from place to place, Google will add fun animation to represent your travel:
And each location will be noted along with your photos to make remembering your trip even easier:
Although that gives you a taste of what de Dorlodot's story was like, check out the live version here for an even better understanding. Google launched this tool in May. SEE ALSO: 16 Other Incredibly Useful Google Product And Services That You Didn't Know Existed Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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This 5-Year-Old Genius Just Aced A Computer Science Test From One Of The Biggest Tech Companies In The World (MSFT) | ||
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Most people don't take Microsoft's Certified Professional exam until they graduate college, but Ayan Qureshi aced the test when he was only five years old. The boy, now 6, is officially a Microsoft Certified Professional, the BBC reported on Thursday. He's currently the youngest person to successfully pass the test, which is highly regarded in the information technology industry. The previous record was held by Mehroz Yawar, who passed the test when he was six and-a-half in April. The test consisted of multiple choice questions, "hotspot questions, drag-and-drop questions, and scenario-base questions," Ayan told the BBC. Asim also told the BBC that the hardest challenge was explaining the language of the test to his son, but Ayan quickly picked up on it quickly. Microsoft doesn't usually let children as young as Ayan take the test, but made an exception in this case. The test is usually taken by college graduates that want to become IT professionals. Not only did Ayan pass the test, but he completed it well before the two-hour time limit, according to The Mirror. Here's his certificate, which was posted to his Facebook page:
Ayan's father, Asim, told the BBC he introduced his son to computers at age three. Now, Ayan has his own computer lab at home, which includes a network that he built himself.
He spends about two hours a day learning how to install programs, the BBC reported, and wants to eventally launch his own company when he grows up. SEE ALSO: A 5-Year-Old Boy Found A Big Hole In The Xbox's Security System Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Halliburton ups pressure on Baker Hughes as merger talks stall | ||
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New York (AFP) - The world's second biggest oil services company, Halliburton, is threatening to overturn the board at Baker Hughes after merger talks between the two US companies stalled, the smaller company said. Baker Hughes said Halliburton, which had presented an "unsolicited proposal" last month to buy all outstanding shares, had notified it of its intention to nominate candidates to replace the entire board at the April 2015 annual meeting. The move opens the possibility of a hostile takeover bid by Halliburton. "Baker Hughes considers the notice to be an attempt by Halliburton to pressure the Baker Hughes board into accepting a transaction with Halliburton on Halliburton's terms," said the statement from the world's third-biggest oil services company. Baker Hughes said Halliburton refused to increase its initial offer, which it said the larger company claimed would "produce $2 billion in synergies after any required divestitures." Baker Hughes, based in Houston, Texas, as is Halliburton, did not disclose further details of the offer. "Baker Hughes is disappointed that Halliburton has chosen to seek to replace the entire Baker Hughes board rather than continue the private discussions between the parties," CEO Martin Craighead said in the statement. The possible merger comes amid a drop in oil prices -- at their lowest levels since 2010 -- which could force oil companies to restrict their exploration efforts, something that would directly impact subcontractors like Baker Hughes and Halliburton. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Russian chill permeates G20 as climate campaign revives | ||
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Brisbane (Australia) (AFP) - Russia's Cold War-style standoff with the West sent a chill through G20 summit talks on Saturday, as an ambitious new push on climate change undermined host Australia's focus on action to heat up the world economy. Along with the Ukraine crisis, a surprise pact by the United States and China on global warming has upset Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's desire to emerge from the Brisbane summit with a singular focus on reviving economic growth around the world. President Barack Obama said the Sino-US breakthrough in Beijing this week on reducing carbon emissions proves that a post-Kyoto deal to arrest climate change is achievable, as he unveiled a $3 billion pledge to a UN-backed climate mitigation fund. "If China and the US can agree on this, then the world can agree on this -- we can get this done," he said in a speech in Brisbane. Obama also said the United States cannot "carry the world economy on our back", urging G20 leaders to work harder to create jobs by revving up growth in the aftermath of the worst financial crisis since the 1930s. Addressing the G20 conclave, Abbott ticked off a list of geopolitical challenges ranging from instability in eastern Europe and the Middle East to Ebola in west Africa and fragile economic growth. "This is the world's work that we are engaged on," he said, reminding the G20 leaders that together their countries amount to 85 percent of the planet's gross domestic product and 65 percent of its population. "But the message that should come from us over these next two days is a message of hope and optimism. Yes, our world can grow and, yes, our world can deliver the jobs that our people want," Abbott said. He also urged the leaders to use first names in addressing each other, "because whatever disagreements we might have, I think it helps if there can at least be personal warmth amongst us". Yet the Australian leader himself came into the summit locked in an icy war of words with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the downing of a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet over Ukraine in July. In Brisbane, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon echoed former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev's fears that tensions between Russia and the West had brought the world to the brink of a new Cold War, and urged the G20 to take the issue on. - Putin in the hot seat - Putin faced scrutiny on Friday after the prime ministers of Britain and Australia accused him of being a bully and harbouring imperialist ambitions in the context of the Ukraine separatist crisis. Despite the standoff, Abbott and Putin found time to smile for the cameras as they exchanged a warm handshake ahead of the closed door talks. Moscow hit back at the criticism with strong language against the West that included a warning for France against further delay in handing over a warship promised under a 2011 contract, as Putin and French President Francois Hollande prepared to hold bilateral talks Saturday evening in Brisbane. Interviewed by the TASS news agency, the Russian strongman said his sanctions-hit government was prepared to deal with a potentially "catastrophic" fall in oil prices. Their decline to four-year lows is a boon for growth in other G20 countries but threatens to explode Russia's deficit and is already depressing the ruble, as the economy struggles to fend off the effects of Western sanctions. Putin assailed other G20 countries for imposing the sanctions over Ukraine and the Malaysia Airlines plane incident. But he said he would not raise the topic of sanctions at the G20. "Why should I draw attention to this, ask for something? It's pointless." One point of the Brisbane summit is to flesh out the G20's commitment of lifting economic growth by up to two trillion dollars in the next five years through policy reforms. A draft copy of the "Brisbane Action Plan" to be adopted Sunday said that, owing to worries about sluggish conditions worldwide, the leaders will agree to reforms that could accelerate growth by 2.1 percent, up from a previous target of 2.0 percent. The leaders are also striving to close corporate loopholes that allow some multinational companies to pay a pittance in tax depending on where they are domiciled, after a major dispute erupted over Luxembourg's beneficial tax deals with a slew of companies. The prime minister of Luxembourg at the time was Jean-Claude Juncker, who is now the head of the European Union's executive commission. In Brisbane on Saturday Juncker defended his position over the sweetheart deals, and endorsed a global fight against tax evasion in the works from the G20. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Heavyweight champ Klitschko inches towards Joe Louis' record | ||
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Berlin (AFP) - Wladimir Klitschko chases the 17th defence of his world heavyweight crowns against unbeaten Kubrat Pulev on Saturday with the legendary Joe Louis' record of 25 defences in the division getting closer. The 38-year-old Klitschko has held at least the IBF and IBO heavyweight titles since 2006, adding the WBO title in 2008 by beating Sultan Ibragimov, before a unanimous decision against Britain's David Haye in 2011 gave him the WBA crown. It says as much for Klitschko's longevity as the lack of genuine contenders that the giant Ukrainian has had few peers in the division. Klitschko takes on Pulev in his home town Hamburg's O2 World, near the Imtech Arena where he beat Haye more than three years ago. The Bulgarian has earned his first world title fight by becoming the IBF's mandatory challenger. The 33-year-old has 11 knock-outs in 20 victories on his unblemished record, but sparked animosity when he boycotted Monday's pre-fight press conference having been left fuming after members of his promotional team were denied access. "Because Klitschko is not behaving correctly, he doesn't get my respect," said Pulev. "He isn't afraid and he will be tested (during the bout)." The Ukrainian champion pulled out of the original fight in September due to a bicep injury and was unimpressed by the challenger's pre-fight behaviour. "I cannot believe it. He is ill-advised and it looks like brainwashing," said a bemused Klitschko, who has an impressive record of 52 knock-outs in 62 wins with the last of his three defeats now over a decade ago. "Somebody from his entourage is pulling his strings." Pulev enjoyed knockout wins over Alexander Ustinov and Alexander Dimitrenko in 2012 and his unanimous win over Tony Thompson in August 2013 earned him the right to fight Klitschko. He kept busy last year by forcing both Joey Abell of the USA and Croatia's Ivica Perkovic into retiring in the early rounds of their bouts. "I am going to be dangerous, pressing the action early on Saturday. Wladimir will have to move a lot inside the ring," said Pulev. "This is going to be the most important fight of my career to date." But Klitschko has seen it all before. The champion brushed off the latest extreme efforts by USA boxer Shannon Briggs on Wednesday to earn a shot at the Ukrainian's belts. Briggs, 42, gate-crashed Klitschko's opening training session in Hamburg before being ejected from the building by security guards. "The people don't want Klitschko anymore. I'm the real champ. The world wants to see the Klitschko-Briggs fight," bellowed the American. He also disrupted the press conference before Klitschko's last fight against Australia's Alex Leapai in April, then a scuffle broke out when Briggs approached Klitschko while he was eating in an Italian restaurant in Miami. He even taunted Klitschko, the WBO, IBF, IBO and WBA champion, from a speedboat while the Ukrainian was stand-up paddle surfing in Florida. "I really couldn't care less what he does," said Klitschko, 38, after Briggs' latest stunt. "I will just concentrate on the fight." Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Aussie Wallabies coach Cheika happy to concede tries vs France | ||
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Paris (AFP) - Australia coach Michael Cheika says he is not worried about conceding tries against France in the one-off international at the Stade de France in Paris on Saturday. In two matches since he took charge following the abrupt sacking of Ewen McKenzie, Cheika's Wallabies have conceded nine tries. However they won both games, defeating the Barbarians 40-36 at Twickenham before edging out Wales 33-28 in Cardiff. Former Leinster and Stade Francais coach Cheika, still the head coach of Super Rugby champions Waratahs, says it will take time for his players to master his new defensive strategy so he is not worried about conceding tries. "It's absolutely normal for a team that's had a change in system and also maybe it's been difficult to get united as much because there has been so much going on," said Cheika, whose only change to the Aussie team sees James Horwill come in for Sam Carter at lock. "Defence is a real symbol of how close we are as a team, (whether we're) prepared to tackle for each other. "I know we've made mistakes and we've let in a few tries, and I know this is going to sound stupid but I've liked the way we've done it because we've been trying to go to the new system, which I'm not afraid to say is a more aggressive, more front-foot system. "We're going to make mistakes early, there's no doubt about that. You can't just say I'm going to change the defensive system and not have problems with it because it's the 10 or 12 guys communicating with each other all the time and making live decisions. "So I'm prepared to let a few in if it means getting our system better so that as we get to know each other and get to know the system it becomes really rock solid." Cheika has only been in the job three weeks and he says he has his hands full trying to impose his will on the side and doesn't even have time to think about what his team's opponents will do. - Thomas danger - "We've been really concentrating just on us at the moment. We've watched some tapes of the opposition but for us right now, only being two or three weeks into our own chapter here, the focus we have to put in is just on our game and hope that we have our game organised well enough and it's powerful enough and skilful enough to give the opposition a lot to deal with so we don't have to worry too much about their game. "And I'm saying that with the utmost respect but I think we have to concentrate on ourselves, pick out the main threats of France, watch that on video and make sure we're prepared." One such threat in an unchanged France side is Racing-Metro winger Teddy Thomas, who became only the second Frenchman in history to score a hat-trick of tries on his debut last week against Fiji. But Cheika, who played and coached in France, admits he doesn't know much about the 21-year-old. "He came to prominence after I left France (in 2012) so I haven't seen a lot of him play but I know that one of the most valuable assets in rugby is pace, and it's a very dangerous weapon. "He has pace and we have to make sure he doesn't have a chance to use it." France were whitewashed on their three-match tour to Australia in June, twice losing heavily and conceding almost 100 points over the three matches. But No.8 Damian Chouly says France are desperate to make up for that. "We need to be coherent. We've spoken about it a lot: we lost three matches over there in June and we came away frustrated and disappointed," he said. "There is a slight sense of revenge towards the Australians, of course, but mostly we need to take revenge against ourselves." Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Historic photos of dead Che Guevara resurface in Spain | ||
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Madrid (AFP) - Lost for half a century, historic photographs of Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara shortly after his execution taken by an AFP photographer have come to light in a small Spanish town. The dark-bearded guerilla leader lies on a stretcher with his dead eyes open, his bare chest stained with blood and dirt, in the eight black and white photographs taken after he was shot by the Bolivian army in October 1967. The photographs belong to Imanol Arteaga, a local councillor in the northern Spanish town of Ricla. He inherited them from his uncle Luis Cuartero, a missionary in Bolivia in the 1960s. "He brought back the photographs when he came for my parents' wedding in November 1967," said Arteaga, 45. "My aunt and my mother told me a French journalist had given them to him." He and his aunt found the photos among Cuartero's belongings after the missionary died in 2012. "I remembered he had photographs of Che Guevara and my aunt said: 'Yes, I know where they are," Arteaga said. "They were in boxes with a load of photos of Bolivia." - Death of a revolutionary - Other rare colour photographs of Guevara's body by AFP correspondent Marc Hutten, taken after it was laid out by Bolivian soldiers, were published in the international media at the time. But one of the newly discovered shots seems to have been taken at a different moment. In it, Che appears with matted hair and a jacket crudely buttoned around his chest. The missionary's stash of pictures also includes a photo purportedly of the body of Guevara's revolutionary companion Tamara Bunke, laid on a stretcher with her face disfigured. An Argentine-born doctor, Ernesto "Che" Guevara came to world prominence as a senior member of Fidel Castro's revolutionary regime in Cuba. Hunted by the CIA, he was captured by the military in Bolivia on October 8, 1967, and executed the following day. His body was displayed to the press in the village of Vallegrande before being buried in secret. Arteaga believes it was Hutten who gave the photographs to Cuartero, possibly as a means of getting them quickly out of the country. "He asked my uncle to take the photos because he was the only European leaving Bolivia at that moment." After Arteaga rediscovered the pictures, he said, "I searched on the Internet for 'French journalist Che dead', and Hutten's name came up, along with some photos that are just like mine." After Cuartero took the photos, his family had no further contact with Hutten, who died in March 2012, shortly before the missionary himself. Arteaga had the photographs examined by an expert who said they were printed on a kind of paper that has not been made for decades, confirming that they date to the 1960s. "Hutten told us he had sent four or five reels of photos to AFP in Paris," said Sylvain Estibal, current head of photography for the Europe and African region at the world news agency. But when Hutten passed through Paris a few months after Guevara's death, he found that "only a few of his photographs" from that batch had made it to his editors, Estibal said. "Where the others ended up is still a mystery." Arteaga said he spoke to his beloved uncle every day for the last 14 years of his life, but that whole time "the photographs were left unmentioned". "What matters to me is that these photos were my uncle's. They have sentimental value," Arteaga said. "But now I realise they have historical value too." Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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'Cold War' fears over Ukraine overblown, say experts | ||
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Paris (AFP) - Secret "Russian subs" off Sweden, tit-for-tat sanctions, NATO fighters scrambling to intercept Russian warplanes: relations between the West and Moscow over Ukraine have sparked incidents reminiscent of the Cold War that terrified the world for decades. Even Cold War doyen Mikhail Gorbachev used the highly symbolic 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall to warn the world was "on the brink of a new Cold War", adding that "some are even saying that it has already begun". And it's not just former leaders. Finland's Prime Minister Alexander Stubb also sounded the alarm, saying that Russia's actions over Ukraine were bringing the world to the "brink of a Cold War." But while experts agree that the current situation is extremely dangerous, they say it is very different to when the two nuclear-armed superpowers faced off, seemingly only minutes away from all-out global destruction. Instead of a Cold War, experts see a period of geopolitical rebalancing after years of the United States assuming the role of sole superpower. "Saying that we're in a Cold War is to misunderstand the situation," says Vladimir Evseev, director of the Moscow-based think-tank NCO Public Political Studies Center. "This isn't a Cold War, but a period of transition. Western domination is coming to an end. The West can no longer impose its will on the world," added the expert. - 'Expansionist, ideological power' - Several factors in the current tension between Washington and Moscow differ from the terrifying limbo that existed between the superpowers until the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, experts say. Firstly, the Cold War was more than a conflict between two competing superpowers, it was a battle of ideology, a battle of ideas, which simply no longer exists, Evseev told AFP. "There are ideological differences, but the Iron Curtain no longer exists and it cannot exist in our time." Quite simply, as unpalatable as Vladimir Putin's Russia is to the West at the moment, it is a long way from being the Soviet Union that antagonised Washington and Europe for decades. "The Soviet Union was an expansionist, ideological power with global ambitions and deep hostility to Western interests," wrote analysts Samuel Charap and Jeremy Shapiro in a recent commentary in Current History. "Post-Soviet Russia is unpleasant, and has transgressed a number of key international norms in the past year, but it is not the Soviet Union." Seismic changes have also taken place politically and economically since the collapse of the Iron Curtain, making it impossible to talk of a re-run of the Cold War. Despite sanctions over Ukraine, the Russian and Western economies are deeply intertwined and politically, Moscow and the West work together on several other thorny issues, notably on preventing Iran acquiring a nuclear bomb. "The most important difference today is the factor of China," said Sergey Radchenko, an expert on Russia and the Cold War at Britain's Aberystwyth University. "Today, China is the greatest assurance Russia has that it will not be isolated, neither politically nor economically. The difference is great, and the gist of it is that the West will find it a lot more difficult to deter Russia through a show of force," Radchenko told AFP. - 'Cold peace' - So what do we have if not a Cold War? Camille Grand from the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research says he prefers the term "Cold Peace". "We're in a new post-Cold War architecture where the idea that cooperation is the natural way of dealing with Russia is no longer valid," he told AFP. "In the long term, Russia does not have the means to be a superpower. That is a sort of illusion to please the Russian people." The West has to realise that it has entered a new period in geopolitics and "stop wasting our time hoping it will go back to normal," said the analyst. However, Radchenko points out one similarity with that period in history: the conflict in Ukraine is being "pursued through proxies". "In this sense, what we are seeing in East-West relations today is a replay of the Cold War -- yes, on a smaller scale but with equally dangerous possibilities of escalation." Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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China calls for swift movement on BRICS development bank | ||
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Brisbane (Australia) (AFP) - China on Saturday urged BRICS nations to speed up the creation of a development bank as an alternative to the Western-dominated global financial system. The BRICS group of emerging economic powers -- which also includes Brazil, Russia, India, and South Africa -- agreed in July to form the New Development Bank to finance infrastructure projects and an emergency reserve fund. The Chinese have already chosen a site for the future Shanghai headquarters of the US$50 billion facility and China's vice finance minister Zhu Guangyao is keen to get moving. "All (countries) share the view that they should speed up the process to have it completed as quickly as possible," he said on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Australia. "And each country will identify feasible projects for the bank as quickly as possible, so that at the moment the bank is launched it will be able to immediately carry out (financing) processes." Chinese state media has said the BRICS bank aims to reduce Western dominance of the global financial system, while criticising multilateral agencies like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. For the past 70 years, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have been the pillars of the world's economic system, coming to the rescue of countries in trouble and supporting development projects, respectively. But the Bretton Woods institutions are regularly criticised for their inability to reflect the growing and important contributions of the major emerging economies to the global economy. Since their creation in 1944, the IMF and the World Bank have only been led by Americans and Europeans. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Cumberbatch, 'Gone Girl' win Hollywood honors | ||
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Los Angeles (AFP) - Britain's Benedict Cumberbatch and A-list veteran Julianne Moore took top honors at the Hollywood Film Awards, billed as the official start of Tinseltown's annual prizes season. The best film award went to thriller "Gone Girl" starring Ben Affleck as a husband accused of murdering his wife, played by Rosamund Pike. Other British stars also had a good night, with those picking up prizes including Keira Knightley, Jack O'Connell and Eddie Redmayne, for his portrayal of paralyzed physicist Stephen Hawking. Cumberbatch was named best actor for his role as World War II Nazi code-breaker Alan Turing in "The Imitation Game," with costar Knightley also earning best supporting actress. "Oh my, oh my, oh my," said the heartthrob "Sherlock" actor, accepting his prize at the Palladium theatre in downtown Hollywood, adding backstage that "this is just the beginning, so who knows?" when asked about the looming awards season. Moore, a three-time Oscar nominee for previous films, was named best actress for "Still Alice," a heart-rending film about a linguistics professor stricken with Alzheimer's Disease. Best supporting actor went to Robert Duvall for his title role in "The Judge" with Robert Downey Jr, who presented him with his prize. The top ensemble award went to "Foxcatcher," a rare dramatic outing for comic actor Steve Carell, in a real-life story centered on the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul. Briton O'Connell was named best new Hollywood actor for his role in Angelina Jolie's "Unbroken." The actress-turned-director welcomed him on stage saying "Aye up me duck" -- a reference to his northern English vowels. The awards, which have trademarked the term "The Official Launch of the Award Season," were televised for the first time this year by CBS, rival to ABC which broadcasts the Academy Awards and NBC which airs the Golden Globes. Industry journal Variety noted archly that the awards were "more mystery than suspense," as it is unknown who actually votes for the winners, and may well be a small group of industry insiders. Hollywood heavyweight producer Harvey Weinstein, known for his peerless command of awards season campaigning, said the Hollywood Film Awards were of growing importance. "This year because it's televised, it's going to be super big. Very important awards tonight, very big indication of stuff," he said on the red carpet.
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Obama warns Asian territorial disputes could 'spiral into confrontation' | ||
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Brisbane (Australia) (AFP) - US President Barack Obama on Saturday warned of the dangers of outright conflict in Asia, at a time when China is squaring off against rival claimants to various territories. In a speech at Brisbane's University of Queensland, Obama reviewed the stunning economic progress seen in East Asia since World War II. "Yet alongside this dynamism, there are genuine dangers that can undermine this progress," he said, citing North Korea for one and adding: "Disputes over territory -- remote islands and rocky shoals -- that threaten to spiral into confrontation."
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Tsunami Warning After 7.3 Magnitude Quake Strikes Indonesia | ||
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A powerful, 7.3 magnitude earthquake has been recorded off the Moluccas in Indonesia on Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey said, and a tsunami warning was issued for the area near the quake. The epicenter is said to be about 83 miles northwest of Ternate. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said hazardous tsunamis were possible within 300 km (185 miles) of the quake's epicenter. The center said there was no danger of a Pacific-wide tsunami.
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REPORT: Uber To Announce Spotify Partnership | ||
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Uber will announce a partnership with Spotify on Monday, reports The New York Times' Mike Issac. The partnership will reportedly let Uber customers listen to music from their own Spotify playlists after they order and get in their vehicle. The technical details of how Uber and Spotify intend to accomplish that feature remain unclear. The news comes as some journalists received an invite to an Uber event featuring a yet-to-be-named guest That event teased a "first-of-its-kind partnership." Spotify has been in the news lately, not always in a positive light. The streaming service has become embattled in a public dispute with Taylor Swift, who recently removed her catalogue from Spotify over allegations that she was underpaid. SEE ALSO: Here's How Much Taylor Swift Made In One Year From Streaming On Spotify Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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REPORT: Merger Talks Between Hasbro And DreamWorks Are Over | ||
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That was quick. Deadline reported this week that DreamWorks Animation and Hasbro were in talks to create a combined family entertainment company that would be called DreamWorks-Hasbro, and said the deal is at least 60 days away from being finalized. But according to Variety, citing sources, those talks are now over. The sources say that the reason the talks ended was because of the unfavorable reception Wall Street gave the news on Wednesday. Analysts were wary of the possibility, saying that the move made little sense for Hasbro, among other concerns. "We don't see a plausible argument for why HAS would pay 41% of its current market capitalization for a company which, according to its CEO is facing serious challenges," media analyst Vasily Karasyov of Sterne Agee wrote. "Films profitability continues to decline and the ramp in consumer product revenue the bulls hoped for isn't coming: the revenue stream is down 21% so far in 2014." Neither of the companies officially confirmed to Variety that the talks ended. This isn't the first time that DreamWorks merger talks ended right after they began. In September, Japan's SoftBank was rumored to be interested in purchasing the animation studio. But talks apparently slowed down soon after. SEE ALSO: Comcast Offers A Peek Into How It Wants To Dominate Everyone's Living Room Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Fast food targeting black kids in US | ||
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Washington (AFP) - Fast-food restaurants in the United States are "disproportionately" targeting black children and kids in middle-income and rural areas, according to a newly published study. Researchers at Arizona State University and University of Illinois at Chicago looked at 6,716 fast-food outlets nationwide to check the extent of indoor and outdoor marketing aimed at youngsters. Marketing towards children ranged from free toys to ads featuring sports celebrities and cartoon characters, as well as play areas and promotions for kids' birthday parties. "Majority black communities, rural areas and middle-income communities are disproportionately exposed (to child-directed marketing) and specifically to indoor displays of kids' meal toys, a popular strategy among chain restaurants," the study said. "In light of these findings, it is important to urge the fast-food industry to limit children’s exposure to marketing that promotes consumption of unhealthy food choices." The enduring popularity of fast food is widely seen as contributing to an obesity crisis in the United States, where one in three adults are considered obese, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In February, a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association reported a 43 percent fall in obesity rates among children aged two to five -- raising hopes that obesity might be on the wane. Arizona State University nutrition professor Punam Ohri-Vachaspati, who led the study, told AFP that it was difficult to speculate why the fast-food industry has been targeting some communities over others. "However, based on previous research, we know that these communities are more likely to consume fast food, have poorer access to healthy options and have higher rates of obesity," she said, adding that she hoped the findings would encourage fast-food companies to limit marketing to children.
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Thousands in Mexico protest over student massacre | ||
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Chilpancingo (Mexico) (AFP) - Thousands of teachers and students took to the streets in Mexico to demand justice for 43 young men feared to have been massacred by drug-gang hitmen working in cahoots with corrupt police. Carrying pictures of the trainee teachers who vanished on September 26, the protest in Chilpancingo, capital of the crime-plagued state of Guerrero, was led by some of the anguished parents, who refuse to believe their children are dead. Some demonstrators wielded sticks, pipes and riot shields stolen from police, but there was no repeat of the violence that has broken out at several other rallies this week. "This is a social fight, they say we're violent but it's how we have to respond to the murders, kidnappings and collusion with organized crime that goes unpunished," said one teacher, his face hidden by sunglasses and a bandana emblazoned with a skull. Authorities say the students were abducted in Iguala, in Guerrero state, by police and handed over to a drug cartel before being murdered and set alight -- a claim contested by the victims' families. "We cannot give up, someone has to answer for these crimes," local activist Osmin Valdez said. Activists say the students were attacked by police and abducted amid fears they planned to disrupt a speech given by the wife of local mayor Jose Luis Abarca, who was arrested on November 4. The case has outraged Mexicans accustomed to horrific violence witnessed since former president Felipe Calderon launched a crackdown on drug gangs in 2006. Protests have rocked a number of Mexican cities this week, with the Guerrero state congress set ablaze on Tuesday in the escalating demonstrations. Mexico's Senate on Thursday voted to sack the head of the country's National Human Rights Commission, Raul Plascencia, over his handling of the crisis that has rattled the government of President Enrique Pena Nieto. Plascencia will be replaced by former prosecutor Luis Raul Gonzalez. Outgoing rights chief Plascencia has also been rebuked for a recent investigation into the military's killing of 22 gang suspects in the central Mexican town of Tlatlaya. According to NGO Human Rights Watch, Mexico's rights situation is critical. Some 100,000 people have died or gone missing since Calderon launched the offensive against drug gangs eight years ago. Separately, religious officials said Friday the remains of a Ugandan priest who traveled to Mexico as a missionary were found in Guerrero, along with another 12 bodies in a clandestine grave. The corpses were discovered on October 29. "The remains of Father John Ssenyondo were fully identified," a spokesman for the diocese of the state capital Chilpancingo told AFP on condition of anonymity. The priest, who was apparently killed by a bullet in the head, was reported missing on April 30. He was allegedly gunned down for refusing to baptize a child whose parents were not married. The mass grave was found independently from the search for the missing students. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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REPORT: Halliburton Moves To Overthrow Rival's Board | ||
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Halliburton has moved to overthrow the board of their rival Baker Hughes, according to The Wall Street Journal. This comes after talks of merging between the two reportedly hit a snag. The WSJ notes that Friday was deadline day to nominate directors to Baker Hughes's board. The Journal says "Baker Hughes’s directors are all up for election every year, meaning Halliburton could seize control with one fell swoop." “Baker Hughes is disappointed that Halliburton has chosen to seek to replace the entire Baker Hughes board rather than continue the private discussions between the parties,” Baker Hughes CEO Martin Craighead told the Wall Street Journal. Late Friday, a report from Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, said that merger talks between the two sides have stalled over concerns regarding price and the potential sale of assets. Bloomberg said the two sides anticipate they would need to sell up to $10 billion in assets for the deal to receieve regulatory approval. News of the talks, first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday afternoon, sent Baker Hughes shares sharply higher, and after trading near $49 on Thursday afternoon, the stock closed Friday's session at $59.89. In after hours trade on Friday, Baker Hughes shares were down about 2%. Halliburton shares, meanwhile, were down about 1%. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Activist Investor Pushing AOL And Yahoo To Merge Actually Owns Shares In Both Companies (AOL, YHOO) | ||
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The activist investor who has been calling for AOL and Yahoo to merge, owns shares in both companies, not just Yahoo. Starboard took a 2.4% stake in AOL during the third quarter, according to a regulatory filing that came out late on Friday, reports the Wall Street Journal. It previously owned a stake in AOL in 2012, which it used to run an activist campaign against that company. Today's filing also reveals that Starboard owns 0.8% of Yahoo, putting it outside the top 10 shareholders in the company, the Journal reports. Starboard sent a letter to Yahoo's board on September 26, suggesting that Yahoo and AOL merge. Although Yahoo is the larger company, Starboard suggested that AOL would be the surviving company. Starboard also had other suggestions for Yahoo, including more aggressive cost cutting and chilling out on acquisitions. The fact that Starboard owns stakes in both companies suggests it has more leverage than originally thought. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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'A Most Violent Year' Is A Gripping Take On The American Dream | ||
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"A Most Violent Year" may be slow, but it's never dull. With his third feature, J.C. Chandor has crafted a beautiful, subtle film that functions both as an absorbing drama and a thoughtful examination of the adage "desperate times call for desperate measures." The film is quite deliberately set in New York City, 1981, allegedly the most brutal year on record for violent crimes in the city. It follows Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac doing his best "Young Al Pacino" impression) and his wife Anna (Jessica Chastain, who is excellent but mostly relegated to the sideline here) through the toughest month of their lives. Abel is a budding entrepreneur and the owner of a heating oil company, and the film opens with Abel striking a lucrative deal for a property that has the power to take his business to the next level. The deal, however, is contingent on Abel coming up with the $1.5 million in 30 days, which may not have been a problem at a different time but is a huge threat now considering Abel's drivers are getting robbed like clockwork and the city's DA is actively bringing charges against his business for corrupt practices. While Abel isn't exactly innocent, he's a truly honorable man doing the best the can. His wife is a gangster's daughter, and ever since Abel took over the company from her corrupt family, the DA can't seem to keep his nose out of their operation. Abel's philosophy, as he so deftly puts it, is that "the result is never in question, just the path you take to get there." Abel believes there are always two paths that lead to the same result, and one of those paths is "most right." Despite his wife's insistence to continue cooking the books (she has an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality regarding organized crime), Abel is resolute in making it to the top of his industry through his own hard work and determination. Despite the constant hardships thrown his way, Abel consistently does all he can to excel and be successful.
The performances in the film are all top-notch, and Oscar Isaac turns in his second Award-worthy performance in two years. He may have been royally snubbed at last year's Academy Awards, but his performance in the Coen Brothers' "Inside Llewyn Davis" is about as good as it gets. His take on Abel in "A Most Violent Year" is the polar opposite of Llewyn — the man has some serious range. What's so exciting about the role is how gradually his true character is revealed; we are never quite sure what Abel is capable of so each scene drips with dramatic tension. As the story progresses, we learn more about his values, and by the end of the picture, we have watched him blossom and become fully realized. When given a chance, Chastain is a scene stealer, but she simply doesn't have enough to do here. The legendary Albert Brooks (who was terrific in 2011's "Drive") shines in an almost unrecognizable turn as Abel's lawyer. Besides the stellar performances, the photography, editing, and meticulous pacing help make the film incredibly efficient. The period look and costume design mesh perfectly with the cinematography, and Chandor has proven yet again that he is a top-notch director and really makes every shot count.
While it definitely features some of the best performances of the year, the film itself feels too understated and not flashy enough (think "The Master" and "Inside Llewyn Davis") to garner any serious attention from the Academy. It will likely get the performance nominations, but not much else. That being said, "A Most Violent Year" is so rich and deeply layered that it will receive plenty of rave reviews and stand the test of time. Watch the trailer below. SEE ALSO: Jake Gyllenhaal Goes Psycho In His Dark New Movie 'Nightcrawler' Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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The film's brutally honest take on the American Dream is refreshing and thought-provoking. The audience is asked to mediate on what it takes to become a success and question how big a role corruption and compromise play in the matter. The film's grimly twisted finale is pure cinema at its finest — it's scary, exciting, and engaging but also intellectually stimulating. 
There are a couple of suspenseful action sequences thrown in the mix that should be totally jarring in context but are so masterfully handled that they work. There's an emotional depth attached to the action, as the audience is pulling for Abel and wants him to succeed, which makes the scenes that much more impactful. Man Billed $1,200 For Reading Email On A Plane | ||
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Want to use an international flight to Singapore to catch up on your email? Better think twice. The WiFi overage charges on Singapore Airlines might cost you as much or more than the flight itself. So discovered Jeremy Gutsche, founder of online trend site, TrendHunter.com who was charged a jaw-dropping $1,171.46 for using 30MB of data on flight to Singapore, he says. He thought he was signing up for a $30 WiFi package. He used it to look at a total of 155 pages, he says, mostly email. He describes: At one point, I spent about an hour uploading one 4mb powerpoint doc. That doc probably cost me $100 to upload, so I hope my team liked it. I actually even emailed them a warning that my upload was taking a while. That email probably cost me $10. And yes, the pricing per mb was disclosed on sign-up, but I bought the $30 package, slept through most the flight, and really didn't think I'd end up a thousand bucks past the limit. Not a very happy landing. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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What Steve Wozniak Got Wrong About The iPhone 6 (AAPL) | ||
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"Apple could have had a much bigger share of the smartphone market if it had a larger-screen iPhone for the past three years," said Wozniak. "It could have competed better with Samsung." Wozniak echoed Apple fans who have been waiting years for the company to release a bigger smartphone. But the Apple cofounder is missing an important point. Apple is almost never first-to-market in any product category. Their strategy is to come up with dramatic, generational improvements to products that others have done not as well. The iPod wasn't the first MP3 player, but it was the first that lots of people wanted to use thanks to features like the scroll wheel and tight integration with iTunes and (later) the iTunes Music Store. The iPhone wasn't the first smartphone. The iPad wasn't the first tablet. That strategy works for Apple. People who wanted larger phones bought Samsung phones (or occasionally other Android phones) when they had no choice. Now, many of them are choosing Apple instead — iPhone 6 sales are going crazy. This isn't the first time a high-profile tech figure has made a comment like Wozniak's. In September, Google chairman Eric Schmidt made a similar remark on Bloomberg TV. "I'll tell you what I think," Schmidt said. "Samsung had these products a year ago." Schmidt and Wozniak are essentially making the same argument. Surely Apple would have sold some phablets if it had come out with them in 2011, but they wouldn't have been as good as the iPhone 6, because the iPhone platform and apps at that time were optimized for smaller screens. So they wouldn't have come close to the sales Apple is getting on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Tim Cook addressed Wozniak's criticism in an interview with Charlie Rose in September: Honestly, Charlie, we could have done a larger iPhone years ago. It’s never been about just making a larger phone. It’s been about making a better phone in every single way. And so we ship things when they’re ready. Apple doesn't want to be first when it can be best. That strategy seems to be paying off on Wall Street. Apple's stock hit a record high this week. SEE ALSO: Here's The Real Reason Apple's Sapphire Supplier Went Bankrupt Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Humans Have Drilled A Comet For the First Time Ever | ||
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Though the Philae lander has run into a few issues during her time on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, she has completed more than her share of science along the way. She's successfully drilled into the comet, analyzed what she found, and is sending data back now. When the European Space Agency got word from their comet lander that it had bounced its way into a dark corner of the comet, they knew it meant a race against the clock to get that data. Timing was an issue because of the lander's limited battery life — the scientists had to use the battery sparingly to conduct their scientific experiments. Quick to act, the scientists forged forward with their most important experiment, and drilled into a comet for the first time in history, activating perhaps the most important instrument on board Philae: The MUlti-PUrpose Sensors for Surface and Sub-Surface Science instrument, called MUPUS for short On Nov. 14, ESA scientists got word from Philae that the MUPUS drill had successfully hammered into the comet and retracted back, supplying the other instruments aboard the probe with samples that the lander has analyzed and is now in the process of sending data back to mission control. And the proof is this chart below, tweeted out by the lander itself:
There's hope for more experiments by the lander in the future, a very slight hope. The lander had a limited battery life — about 60 hours after touchdown — but also solar panels that can generate power and recharge the battery. When the probe first came to rest on the comet, however, it bounced a few times and ended up moving into a shady area that seems to be under a cliff, where it's not getting enough sun. Right now there's a chance the batteries are just about empty, as indicated in the chart below. All of the instruments on the lander have been shut down, though the probe is still communicating with Rosetta and sending data back to Earth.
The rotation was successfully completed, and scientists are now waiting to learn if it repositioned Philae is charging. Regardless of the future of the probe, the drill itself was a success and the samples were analyzed by the lander, which is currently sending it back to Earth, shown below.
The experimentThe MUPUS probe uses a type of hammering device, shown below, that penetrated the comet's surface and extracted samples to analyze the comet's chemical make up. MUPUS is equipped with a hammer, that nailed a device that resembles an ice pick into the comet. Once it penetrated the surface, the device collected samples of the comet's surface. Here's its hammering action during lab testing:
What they hope to findThe scientists are hoping for a couple of major discoveries from Philae's analysis. "The really big result will be if Rosetta's landing probe... detects 'chiral amino acids'," John Plane, a professor at the University of Leeds in London, said in a statement released by the university. Chiral amino acids are a special type of molecule that, as far as we know right now, only exists in biological systems on Earth. If Philae discovered the presence of these amino acids on a comet, it could be a smoking gun for the origins of life on Earth. Another big question scientists are asking is whether comets were responsible for water on Earth. "Comet impacts are thought to have been one of the principal means by which water was delivered to the early Earth, around 3.6 billion years ago, possibly contributing half the water in our oceans," Stanley Cowley, who studies comets at the University of Leicester, told The Daily Galaxy. CHECK OUT: The Philae Lander Bounced Off The Surface Of The Comet And Is Now Stuck Under A Cliff READ MORE: 'We Do Not Fully Understand What Has Happened' On The Comet Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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How Wall Street Tries To Convince Young Techies It's Cool To Work There | ||
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But as banks started to rely more on heavy data and financial engineering technology, demand for engineers on Wall Street has shot up. It takes a lot of work for banks like Goldman Sachs to hire these talented engineering recruits, according to the New York Times. For example, Goldman has to explain at college recruiting events that its engineers don’t just work mere back-office jobs, but actually build meaningful software that gets used by traders every day. It also revamped its website to look more young and fresh, and has been using cool words like “cloud computing” and “data mining” in presentations. One of the biggest challenges has been answering questions about its strict dress code. By nature, it’s almost impossible for Wall Street banks to allow its employees to come into work wearing flip-flops and a hoodie, like many Silicon Valley tech companies do. But these concerns tend to disappear once the question of pay comes up. “As soon as we start talking to the candidates about what our starting packages look like, the lifestyle questions about flip-flops and beanbags really start to go away,” R. Martin Chavez, Goldman Sachs’ Chief Information Officer told the New York Times. The push does seem to be working. The number of bankers with high-level programming background at Goldman Sachs has jumped 43% to 1,223 employees since 2009, the Times reports. Goldman Sachs’ largest division is, in fact, its technology division with 8,000 employees, or roughly 25% of its total workforce, it says. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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EU's Juncker defends position, urges fight against tax evasion | ||
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Brisbane (Australia) (AFP) - European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker urged a global fight against tax evasion Saturday while defending his position after revelations top companies paid less tax during his time as Luxembourg premier. "I really do think that on the international, on the global level, we have to fight all together against tax evasion," he told reporters ahead of the G20 summit in Brisbane. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Facebook To Companies: No More Free Ride (FB) | ||
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Facebook will change the news feed to decrease the number of blatant promotional messages people see. The new news feed will take effect this January, and won't reduce the number of paid ads that users see. "The idea is to increase the relevance and quality of the overall stories — including Page posts — people see in their News Feeds," said Facebook on their blog. The move essentially devalues the posts brands push out from their Pages, which may mean more paid advertisement revenue for Facebook. "While Pages that post a lot of the content we mention above will see a significant decrease in distribution, the majority of Pages will not be impacted by this change," said Facebook. The company is defining "promotional" as any Facebook post that repeats the content of an advertisement, solely pushes people to buy a product or download an app, or pushes people to enter a sweepstakes with no other content. So unlike some changes earlier this year, this doesn't seem directed at media companies that use Facebook to publicize their stories. Earlier this week, Facebook made some other changes to give users more control over what they see in their news feeds. SEE ALSO: Mark Zuckerberg Once Sent A Message To Facebook's Staff By Kicking An Engineer Out Of A Meeting Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Low-battery comet probe alive and uploading data: ESA | ||
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Paris (AFP) - Europe's comet probe Philae was sending science data to Earth late Friday, said mission controllers who had feared its battery may run out before it could make final contact. "Stable comms w/ @Philae now reestablished - telemetry & science data are flowing from the surface" of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the European Space Agency posted on its Twitter feed. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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That Big Oil Merger Between Baker Hughes And Halliburton Might Not Happen After All (BHI, HAL) | ||
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The big oil merger between Baker Hughes and Halliburton might not happen after all. Late Friday, a report from Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, said that merger talks between the two sides have stalled over concerns regarding price and the potential sale of assets. Bloomberg said the two sides anticipate they would need to sell up to $10 billion in assets for the deal to receieve regulatory approval. News of the talks, first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday afternoon, sent Baker Hughes shares sharply higher, and after trading near $49 on Thursday afternoon, the stock closed Friday's session at $59.89. In after hours trade on Friday, Baker Hughes shares were down about 2%. Halliburton shares, meanwhile, were down about 1%. Bloomberg's report said an alternative for Halliburton could be to make an unsolicited offer for Baker Hughes and nominate a slate of directors to its board. This report comes after Baker Hughes on Friday morning confirmed the talks. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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