This Game Company Sold 30,000 Boxes Of Bull Poop As A Black Friday 'Deal' | ||
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Cards Against Humanity, which bills itself as a "party game for horrible people," decided that it wanted to help potential customers "experience the ultimate savings" on Black Friday by taking its game off its website completely. Instead, though, the site offered a bizarre and hilarious "deal": It sold boxes of bull poop for $6 each. This isn't the game company's first quirky special. Last year, Cards Against Humanity sold its game for $5 more than usual, and ended up getting a huge spike in sales. It's also holding a Ten Days Of Kwanza Or Whatever sale where for $15, customers will get ten mystery gifts throughout December. Here's what you see now on the company's main website:
The company's FAQ page was equally amusing:
(Hat-tip to Ars Technica, where we first saw this story.) SEE ALSO: Here Are Google's Big Holiday Sales Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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This Working Flying Car Prototype Is Absolutely Stunning | ||
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Flying cars might not be science fiction for long. Stefan Klein and Juraj Vaculik, cofounders of a company Slovakian startup called AeroMobil, have created a beautiful prototype that has already been on several successful test flights. We touched base with Klein and Vaculik to hear more about their amazing vehicle. AeroMobil cofounder Stefan Klein first started dreaming up designs more than 20 years ago. Here's one of his sketches from the early 90s. Fast forward almost 25 years, and here's the team with the AeroMobil 3.0. "To marry the car and the airplane is an interesting engineering and design challenge," Klein told Business Insider via email. See the rest of the story at Business Insider  | ||
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The Highest-Paying Jobs At Apple [RANKED] (AAPL) | ||
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Who gets paid more at Apple: designers or engineers? We've assembled a list of some of the top-paid jobs at Apple, based on data gathered from Glassdoor. Salary data on Glassdoor is based on anonymous salary reports that were voluntarily shared by both current and recent employees. Start printing your resume if you see your role on here. 22. Mac Genius Salary: $44,070 Mac Geniuses are super important to the shopping experience at Apple's stores. But they don't receive a lot of love from Apple, it seems (at least in terms of salary). 21. Lead Mac Genius Salary: $55,626 After you've spent a little bit of time at an Apple Store as a Genius, you'll get paid a little bit more. Lead Mac Geniuses get paid about half what a good software engineer at Apple gets paid. 20. Assistant Apple Store manager Salary: $56,046 Apple needs some people to help run its stores. Assistant store managers get paid better than the rank-and-file Mac Geniuses and sales representatives. See the rest of the story at Business Insider  | ||
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THE DRONE GIFT GUIDE: Drones For Every Budget [Up To 55% Off] | ||
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Black Friday is bringing prices down even further — here’s a roundup of deals not to miss. We and our friends at Stack Commerce put together the ultimate guide for getting a drone, and we've got one for every budget. Don't forget to use the code HAPPYBF10 for an extra 10% off. UNDER $75: Extreme Microdrone 2.0 [46% Off] Despite weighing just over an ounce, the Extreme Micro Drone 2.0 (46% off) is impressively equipped with gyro-based stabilization and a camera — in fact, this is the only micro drone in the world with a swiveling lens. Being so compact means it can fly indoors and out, and it can pull 360º flips. A really nice all-rounder that is forgiving on newbies and ships globally for free. Get 46% off the Extreme Micro Drone 2.0 ($74.99 incl. global shipping) Don't forget to use the code HAPPYBF10 for an extra 10% off. UNDER $100: Code Black Drone [55% Off] The Code Black (55% off pre-orders) looks like it emerged from the Batcave, and it has the kind of features the Dark Knight would demand. It is a great out-of-the-box flyer, with a HD camera on board, and it is small enough to fly anywhere. Plus, it can perform the all-important flips. If you order by Dec. 1, the Code Black will ship in time for Christmas, but the price will rise come mid December. Get 55% off the Limited Edition Code Black drone + HD Camera ($89 incl. shipping; pre-order) Don't forget to use the code HAPPYBF10 for an extra 10% off. UNDER $125: Panther Spy Drone [55% Off] At the other end of the scale is the giant Panther Spy drone (55% off), which uses its size for durability. The rotors are surrounded by protective foam, but given that it has gyro stabilization, those guards shouldn’t be needed all that often. It also has a 720p camera, 2.4GHz transmission for good range, and 360º flips in its tricks locker. Get 55% off the Panther Spy drone with HD camera ($110 incl. shipping) Don't forget to use the code HAPPYBF10 for an extra 10% off. See the rest of the story at Business Insider  | ||
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This year is going to be dominated by personal drones. Why? Because they’re incredibly fun to fly, and becoming increasingly affordable. BLACK FRIDAY: Here Are Best Deals On Electronics Today | ||
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Black Friday is the best day to get all those cool electronics you've been eyeing all year. We've rounded up the best products you can find on Amazon today. Printers, TVs, laptops, sound systems — it's all here. So what are you waiting for? All these great electronics are super discounted today.
PrintersCanon PIXvMA MX922 Wireless Color Photo Printer — 50% OFF This Canon printer comes with a scanner, copier, and fax. You'll be able to print wirelessly from your compatible iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Plus there's built-in Auto Duplex Printing: automatically print on both sides of the paper. Rating: 4 Stars
This printer has wireless connectivity — so you can print from basically anywhere in the house. Plus it comes with Single touch Quiet Mode, which reduces operational noise. Rating: 4 Stars
The DYMO label printer enables you to create and print address, shipping, file, folder, and barcode labels. You'll be able to print USPS-approved stamps postage directly from your desktop. Rating: 3.5 Stars
Sound Systems
This comes with a wireless subwoofer that adds rich bass from anywhere in the room. You'll be able to wirelessly stream your music from a smartphone, tablet, or PC via Bluetooth. Rating: 4 Stars
You can connect to your computer, MP3 player, LCD TV, or other stereo sources with this speaker system. The BasXPort technology enhances the low frequency response without having to deal with the bulkiness of a subwoofer. Rating: 4.5 Stars
If you're looking for something smaller, check out these. They're slim, stylish, and are only 5 inches tall. Rating: 4.5 Stars
The Logitech rechargeable touchpad is a mouse substitute. You can click anywhere on the surface — basically wherever your fingers end up. The battery life is long, and it's easily chargeable with a USB. Rating: 4 Stars
The PNY attaché USB is durable, light-weight design of the PNY Attaché. Plus it comes with a key loop that easily attaches to keychains — so you'll never lose it. It can hold approximately 23,674 songs. Rating: 4 Stars Televison Sets Samsung 65-Inch 1080p 3D Smart LED TV — 45% OFF This 65-inch Samsung TV comes with voice control and motion control. Plus it includes accessories like the Smart Touch Remote Control and 2 pairs of 3D actives glasses. Rating: 4 Stars
Samsung 40-Inch 1080p Smart LED TV — 44% OFF
This Samsung TV has Backlight technology, and comes with a universal remote. There's also Wi-Fi for full-web browsing and connects to apps like Netflix and YouTube. Rating: 4.5 Stars
Samsung 60-Inch 1080p 3D Smart LED TV — 41% OFF With stunning picture quality and clear motion rate, this TV is hard to beat. It comes with a Smart Touch Remote Control and 2 pairs of active 3D glasses. Rating: 4 Stars
DVD PlayersSamsung BD-F7500 4K Upscaling 3D Wi-Fi Blu-Ray Disc Player — 33% OFF This Blu-Ray player lets you see clear pictures and comes with built-in Wi-Fi so that you can access streaming content from the web. The 4K Up-Scale provides up to 4 times better resolution that Full HD. Rating: 4 Stars Laptop Computers
If you're looking for a general laptop, this one's your best bet. It's lightweight, thin, and is relatively fast. Plus it's affordable. Score. Rating: 4 Stars
SEE ALSO: 10 Great Docking Stations For Your Phone, Tablet, And Laptop SEE ALSO: 14 Killer Sound Systems That Could Get You Evicted Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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The iPhone 6 Is Killing The Need To Own An iPad | ||
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Pocket, a service that lets people save stories and videos to read/watch later, published data on how user habits are changing thanks to the bigger screens on the iPhone 6. The iPhone 6 has a 4.7-inch screen, and the iPhone 6 Plus has a 5.5-inch screen. The iPhone 5S has a 4-inch screen. The iPad Air has a 9.7-inch screen, and the iPad Mini has a 7.9-inch screen. As you can see in this chart, iPhone 5S users spent just under half of their time reading on the iPad versus the iPhone. But, once they got an iPhone 6, they only spent 28% of their time on the iPad. When they got an iPhone 6 Plus that dropped to just 20% of the time on the iPad. If this trend holds for other apps and services, it spells doom for the iPad. If someone only needs an iPad 20% of the time, Apple is not going to sell very many iPads.
Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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There's An Easter Egg In The New 'Star Wars' Trailer (DIS) | ||
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The trailer for the new Star Wars movie, "The Force Awakens," debuted Friday. And geeks around the internet have already discovered an Easter egg. The end of the trailer shows Han Solo's ship, the Millennium Falcon, the same ship he had in the old movies. It looks like this:
But upon closer inspection, fans have noticed something different. Let's flash back to this moment in 1983's "Return of the Jedi" when Lando Calrissian is piloting the Falcon through the second Death Star on his way to blow it up.
He knocks off the radar dish at the top of the ship! The new Star Wars movie takes place about 30 years after that moment. It looks like Han Solo replaced the old circular dish with a rectangular one. See?
SEE ALSO: An explanation for everything you see in the new Star Wars trailer Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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New Details On Apple's Giant-Sized iPad Might Have Just Leaked (AAPL) | ||
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Apple's much-rumored 12.2-inch iPad isn't expected to debut until 2015, but we may already have some new details about its hardware. Japanese magazine Mac Fan just published schematics that reportedly show the tablet's design, and blog Mac Okatara posted a copy of the document online (via MacRumors). According to the image, Apple's giant tablet would include a 12.2-inch screen and would measure 305.3 x 220.8 x 7mm. This would make it slightly thicker than the iPad Air 2, which is 6.1mm thin. Mac Fan also claims the larger iPad will come with an improved A9 chip, which sounds like it would be the next iteration of the A8X processor found in Apple's current iPad. As for other design tweaks, the Japanese publication says the "iPad Pro" would come with dual top and bottom speakers to enhance the tablet's audio quality. Check out the schematics printed in Mac Fan below.
An iPad mini 4 may also be in the works, according to Mac Fan, and the magazine says both tablets are likely to launch between April and June of 2015. It's unclear exactly how credible Mac Fan is, so we'll have to wait until next year to learn more. Apple has been rumored to release a larger sized tablet for months, but these bits of speculation became more credible when Bloomberg reported that Apple was working on such a tablet in August. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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How To Use Google To Keep Track Of Your Online Shopping Sprees (GOOG) | ||
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Doing a lot of online shopping for the holidays? Google gives you a quick and easy way to keep track of what you've purchased through your Gmail account. Instead of sorting through your inbox and checking each receipt individually, you can Google "my purchases" and Google will access data from your email. If you've ordered something recently, Google will even give you info about when your packages are scheduled to arrive. Here's what it looks like:
You can also make your results more specific, by Googling "My purchases from Amazon" or "My purchases August 2014" or "My purchases dress." This system doesn't seem to work for every web site (something that I just ordered today from a smaller e-commerce site didn't show up), but it's an easy way to take stock of your recent shopping sprees. (Hat-tip to Google Operating Systems, where we first found this trick.) SEE ALSO: Here's Everything Google Knows About You Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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THE PROGRAMMATIC ADVERTISING REPORT: Real-Time Bidding Is Taking Over The Digital Ad Market | ||
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A new report from BI Intelligence finds that real-time bidding (RTB), a key piece of the programmatic ecosystem, will account for over 33% of U.S. digital ad sales, or $18.2 billion in 2018, up from just $3.1 billion in 2013. Access The Full Report By Signing Up For A Free Trial Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:
The report is full of charts and data that can easily be downloaded and put to use.
Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Automated ad buying and selling tools are increasingly driving digital ad sales in the U.S. That means less human-mediated, manual sales, and more opportunities for ad tech specialists to gain a share of ad spend. Why I Taught A Legendary 'Street Fighter' Moment To My College Writing Class | ||
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Despite spending evenings masquerading as an online warrior named “GentlemanTryken” in Ultra Street Fighter 4, most people throughout my day refer to me as Professor Tullis. I teach English, reiterating to a diverse student population how to format essays, argue logically, and interpret literature. This sounds like an easy gig—and sometimes it is—but there exists an almost insurmountable barrier that tries to prevent me from connecting my love of communication with my students. I've learned to call this blockade “a lack of interest”. The first day of class in Comp. 1 is particularly problematic. Many of my students are fresh out of high school. Some of them have been spoon fed Shakespeare, To Kill a Mockingbird, and other state required texts. More than a few have little knowledge of active reading or good writing. Furthermore, the first day of the semester is usually all business. It's where the professor usually goes over their syllabus and discusses class expectations, which is also extremely important. So how do you shake up the routine in students who've been going through the same day one lecture over and over again, who've grown up in an age where communication is flaunted all around us, but hardly anyone is effectively communicating? My Answer: You show them EVO Moment #37. I gave my class no explanation, and when I was done I asked them to explain what they saw to me. The answers ranged from teenagers who'd played Street Fighter IV casually shouting out a loud “haudoken” before laughing to a student's simplified answer of “the blonde guy was getting beat up, but then he did something that made the screen weird and won." I showed it to them again. Now one of those students with minor experience in fighting games answered, “The Ken player did something like a block. It's where you press back.” “Did it seem impressive?” I asked. That's the important question. A few students chimed in that it must have been because people were screaming. That's good. Their attention to detail is important. “What do you think? Do you think it was a big deal?” A mixture of “no,” “not really,” and “I don't know” flooded the room. I have to admit here that EVO Moment #37 was only part of my focus. What I cared about more was an article written on it by Seth Killian for the Penny Arcade Report. In it, Capcom's former Community Manager completely broke down the famous scene. He expertly weaved a narrative of the dominant Justin Wong against the flailing Daigo Umehara. In the process, he never spoke over the head of his audience, instead choosing to carefully define each piece of the puzzle clearly or compare it to a large sport that the majority of readers would understand. He wrote, “Umehara tends to be a much more aggressive player, and the strain of playing against Wong's ultra-conservative Chun-Li was beginning to show.” Following his play-by-play is easy and enthralling to anyone who appreciates competitive sports. After having my students read through Killian's explanation, I replayed the video. One of my students, now better understanding the full extent of Daigo's brilliance, murmured out, “That's sick.” Surely enough, the others discussed the moment with a much higher appreciation and understanding after Killian's explanation. I asked if anyone knows why I showed them this. Most students remained silent or shook their head. Next, I asked if anyone played a sport other than football or basketball. One replied, “Track.” I told her that I didn't understand track and only perceived it as a bunch of people running in a circle where some happen to run faster than others. She thought it was an ignorant statement. I agreed, but I also asked her how she would explain its subtleties to someone who knows nothing about the sport. Communication is a major problem in a generation that's told it never has to justify itself. It only takes a few minutes on Facebook to see the motivational messages about ignoring people who don't understand you or your life choices, how you never have to defend or explain your actions. It's a wonderful ideal, isn't it? Sadly, it has little basis in reality. The truth is that you could be the smartest person in the room, but if you can't communicate clearly, no one will care to listen. What we say, how we say it, and even what we don't say affects how others perceive us and our passions, but most people continue to funnel themselves into circles of those already initiated in their hobbies. While comradery is great, there is an undeniable importance to apologetics and to a lesser extent minor evangelism. It's how a community grows. Communication is also how we defend ourselves. To give an example, if we're a supervisor for a cyber security department that receives a $400,000 budget during a time when the company posts a loss for the year, the CEO and Human Resources might comb through their budget and wonder, “Why the hell are we giving almost half a million dollars to a bunch of geeks?” Let's say the CEO is an elderly gentleman who uses a computer primarily for e-mail and little else. Agitated and busy, he calls you. You're given ten minutes to explain what your department does and why it needs that money to function. I hope you know how to communicate effectively. But why am I writing all of this to you, the fighting game player? I'm explaining this because growth and perception have always been a major problem for the FGC. We wonder why gaming media outlets often hone in on our scandals. Some argue that the rough and politically incorrect nature of the FGC is part of its grass roots beginnings, that we're actually one of the most racially diverse communities in gaming. We're even extremely generous and selfless in the pursuit of helping others. How many players have we given the chance to be seen domestically or on the national stage through donations? How many families have we helped get through tragedy? How will anyone know this, though, if the FGC refuses to understand the importance of perception and communication? It's up to us to be the salespeople and defenders of our coven. This applies to any group, but especially to ours. The community likes to state that fighting games are one of the easiest to appreciate since the basic ideas are easy to grasp (ex. A player loses when their health reaches zero, and getting hit causes damage, etc); however, the flip side is that it causes the casual spectator to oversimplify what it is they're watching. Though this is anecdotal evidence, I witnessed plenty of gamer friends comment on Street Fighter's boring “fireball spamming." We can reply, “They should figure out the difference,” but how can they know what they don't know? Those we inadvertently turn away through our interactions miss out on one of the finest gaming communities. They miss out on a deep and competitive genre. And, most importantly, we miss out on them. This article was originally published at Event Hubs. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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The Apple Watch Has A Feature Called 'Complications' (AAPL) | ||
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Apple rejiggered its marketing site earlier this week to show off some of the features of the upcoming Apple Watch, and one of the new pages notes a feature called "Complications." That's right — the Apple Watch will have a feature called "Complications." That's not quite as strange as it might seem to those of us who aren't hardcore watch people. The term has been used in watchmaking for some time to refer to small informational features that appear next to the main timekeeping piece. For instance, here's a screenshot of some complications on a watch by luxury watchmaker Maurice Lacroix:
Still, the idea of Complications on the Apple Watch is kind of weird. With a traditional watch, there's only one screen. If you want to show additional information, there's only one way to do it. With the Apple Watch, people will be able to scroll through many different screens. So it seems odd to let users cram additional information into the one default timekeeping screen. This reveals a real problem. The more we learn about the Apple Watch, the more intimidating it's starting to sound. There will be a bunch of different ways to interact with it — swipes, taps, using the little crown to zoom in and out — and there are at least three different types of notifications that apps can display. On one hand, adding features to redefine the category is the path Apple followed with the iPhone. Before the iPhone, smartphones were mainly used for email — that's why the BlackBerry was so popular — and most of them had a crummy web browser that didn't work on most sites. The original iPhone added a better browser and bunch of built-in consumer apps like YouTube and Weather. Then the App Store followed a year later and the floodgates opened. Everybody now expects smartphones to be like miniature portable computers. Who even uses their phones to make phone calls anymore? So Apple wants to reinvent watches for the digital age, just like it reinvented cellphones. But the Watch will have such a small screen, and they're packing so many different features into it, it just doesn't seem like it'll be easy to figure out. With the iPhone, you could pretty much figure out what to do just by looking at the screen. The icons had names. You tapped an icon to get information, like a weather report. When you tried to fill out a form or start an email, the on-screen keyboard appeared. And so on. Same with the original iPod — it was obvious how to use the scroll wheel to flip through menus. We haven't had chance to play with the Watch yet. Jony Ive and his design team are the among best in the business. Maybe Apple has figured everything out so that the device will be simple on the surface then reveal more of itself over time. But from what we're seeing so far, it looks pretty intimidating. SEE ALSO: Investors Are Massively Underestimating The Apple Watch Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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What It's Like Inside One Of Amazon's Massive Warehouses | ||
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Tis the season for holiday shopping. Black Friday followed by Cyber Monday and then several more weeks of last minute holiday shopping make for the most lucrative time of year for online retailers like Amazon. Already, Amazon's Thanksgiving sales were up more than 25% year-over-year, according to ChannelAdvisor. Amazon's magic happens inside its more than 90 fulfillment and sortation centers located all around the world. There are 50 in the US alone, with 15 more sortation centers completed by the end of 2014 (the company spends billions of dollars on its infrastructure). Amazon calls its warehouses "fulfillment centers" or FCs. It also has sortation centers, where prepped packages are sorted before being shipped to individual post offices. Note all the loading docks in the FC below: Amazon's "Peak Season" happens around the holidays. During Peak (November through December), employees sometimes work 12 hour days. See the rest of the story at Business Insider  | ||
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A Cashier At The Whole Foods I Just Went To Says No One Uses Apple Pay | ||
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One of the most high-profile adopters of Apple's new payment service Apple Pay is Whole Foods. A couple of weeks after Apple Pay launched, payments expert Mike Dudas estimated that Apple Pay already accounted for 1% of all Whole Foods transactions — a startling amount given that Apple Pay is only available on a minority of iPhones, that Apple Pay is new, and that Apple Pay arguably doesn't offer any real advantages over a credit card. This apparent success triggered a burst of enthusiasm about Apple Pay. Well, I shopped at a Whole Foods today for the first time in a while. While I was paying (with a credit card), I asked the cashier how many people used Apple Pay. "Apple Pay?" she asked. "What's that?" I was going to remind her, but then she remembered. "Oh, is that the thing where you pay with your phone? No, no one uses that. Oh, I might have seen one kid once do that, but no one else does." Had the cashier been trained to use Apple Pay? "No," she said. "How do you do it?" I said you needed an iPhone 6 and an authenticated credit card, etc. "Ah," she said. "Well, I only have an iPhone 4." This morning on Twitter, someone said that cashiers at the Whole Foods in Palo Alto, California, say that "75%" of people there use Apple Pay. If that number is exaggerated by a whole order of magnitude, it's still impressive. But at the Whole Foods in Hyannis, Massachusetts — which is not a total digital backwater — it doesn't seem as though Apple Pay is taking the world by storm. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Max Levchin: Photos Reveal The Beauty And Intensity Of Star Entrepreneur's Passion For Cycling | ||
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You may know Max Levchin best as one of the cofounders of PayPal, or the entrepreneur who sold one of his startups, Slide, to Google for millions of dollars. Or you might know him as the mastermind behind the potentially revolutionary companies Glow and Affirm. Perhaps you know that he sits on the board of directors at Yahoo and Yelp. You might not know he’s a fast cyclist. I learned this firsthand when I traveled to California to write a profile of him, share my passion for pedaling with a fellow obsessive, and, yes, test my mettle against his. As he probably has his whole life, Levchin won, and with grace. Up And At 'Em Levchin brings a sharp focus and a high level of intensity to his business life and his cycling. He often wakes up early to go out for a ride, then it’s into the office for a busy day. If he's pressed for time, he'll ride his indoor trainer for an hour. "I try to touch my bike at least once every day," he says. Style Is The Man Levchin’s penchant for the stealth look borders on obsessive, but then again, obsessive is what roadies are. He avoids loud colors and showy brand logos whenever possible. Note the reflective tabs on his Swiss-made Assos apparel, on the back of his thighs and calves. On his left leg he wears a Road ID, which has his name and emergency contacts. Preride Logistics Before we roll out, Levchin tells me about the ride we're doing, Paradise Loop, one of the most popular routes in the Bay Area. He has ridden it more than a hundred times, so he knows each rise, downhill, and turn. He likes that he can test himself repeatedly over certain sections and compare his performance data over time. See the rest of the story at Business Insider  | ||
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We Just Learned A Little More About How The Apple Watch Will Work (AAPL) | ||
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The Apple Watch won't be released until 2015, but the company is already giving us a few new details on how its first smartwatch will work. Apple's marketing page has just been updated to provide a bit more clarity as to how the watch will integrate with your iPhone and Apple's various apps and services. Apple has updated the parts of its Apple Watch product page that talk about its timekeeping, messaging, and health and fitness features. We saw the changes reported earlier today by 9to5Mac. On the timekeeping front, Apple has added a new blurb that explains its Complications feature. (Yes, it's really called "Complications.") This shows you how information such as your alarms, the weather, and when the sun rises and sets will appear on your Apple Watch's home screen. It looks like each icon will appear in a corner of the main watch face, according to the rendering on Apple's website:
Apple also emphasizes how tightly the watch will integrate with your calendar and contacts, so that it shows you context-based reminders. The Continuity feature Apple introduced in iOS 8.1 will also work with the Apple Watch. In the "New Ways To Connect" portion of the Apple Watch product page, Apple shows how you'd be able to start reading email on your watch and then launch your full inbox on your phone.
When it comes to health and fitness, we already knew the Apple Watch would be able to measure how long you've been standing versus sitting throughout the day. However, Apple has added in some other scenarios that illustrate how its watch will monitor your physical activity in everyday life. The Apple Watch will be able to detect when you're climbing a flight of stairs or lifting up your kids, for example. There will also be a Workout app that will suggest workouts and help you track them. Over the past few weeks, we've been learning more about what to expect when Apple's first smartwatch launches in 2015. After Apple officially released its WatchKit toolset for developers last week, we were able to get an idea of the various ways you can interact with the watch. Based on what we've seen, it sounds fairly complicated — there are 15 different gestures you can input to carry out tasks using the watch. We're expecting to learn more as 2015 approaches, as there are still a few burning questions Apple has yet to answer such as pricing for different models. SEE ALSO: Sony Is Secretly Creating A Watch Made Of Electronic Paper Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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THE E-COMMERCE REPORT: Spending Habits, Cross-Device Trends, And The Mobile Web's Importance | ||
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It may come as a surprise that the mobile web is actually a more popular place to shop compared to e-commerce apps, which means having a high-performing mobile site is just as important as having a great app. In a new BI Intelligence report, we look at broad e-commerce trends and then dive into mobile shopping habits and the relative importance of the mobile web and app experiences. We also look at how individual retailers' mobile sites actually perform and at the breakdown of retailer audiences on the browser compared to the app. Access the Full Mobile Commerce Report By Signing Up Today >> Here are some of the key findings from the report:
In full, the report:
To access the Mobile Commerce Report and BI Intelligence's ongoing coverage on the future of retail, mobile, and e-commerce — including charts, data, and analysis — sign up for a risk-free trial.
Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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This Online Game Will Let You Buy Control Over Real Human Beings | ||
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The world of online interaction is getting weirder by the day. There's now a crowdfunding campaign for a game that lets people "control the actions of a human avatar". Like The Sims, but for real. It's called "Omnipresenz" and the Indiegogo project launched on Tuesday. The idea works by an audiovisual stream that grants users access to another human being — who has also signed up to the game — anywhere on earth. The funding statement reads: "Through Omnipresenz you can control the actions of a human avatar (teleguided person) located in a specific area of a big city around the world." Omnipresenz is framed, primarily, as a "charity system" — designed to promote friendliness between human beings. It connects people via a virtual link and "missions" are carried out live. However, it also notes various levels of gameplay modes that appear to propose doing much more. One of them, the "OmniPersonal 1x1", describes the "most deep possible experience" and gives people "an unprecedented 2 hours" of fun. Omnipresenz promotes the game with three main points:
Essentially, it's a "first-person" online game that provides an opportunity to have a social-sightseeing adventure through the eyes of someone else, in real time. As you play, you can ask your avatar to complete tasks and perform actions — though each one requires a payment, of course.
The game gives an example: "For instance, you can propose in the 'Nice Actions Panel' to buy flowers for an old lady in the street". An estimated price for this is €20. On one end, users are taken to a "distant place" by way of an interface, which looks like this:
They control an avatar, who will wear a camera and microphone, and will look like this:
The game is in its early stages. The creators, from Barcelona in Spain, are trying to raise €33,000 to set up Omnipresenz in beta for a month of trials. Donations will go towards coding, production, and the rental of equipment. Read more about the project here and watch the promotion video below. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Here's An Explanation For Everything You See In The New 'Star Wars' Trailer | ||
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The new "Star Wars" trailer is here! For the uninitiated, let's catch up. This movie is called "Star Wars: Episode VII." The subtitle is "The Force Awakens." The story takes place approximately 30 years after "Return of the Jedi," the third movie in the original trilogy that ended with the death of Darth Vader. (You know, the trilogy starring Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill.) Got all that? Now let's break down "The Force Awakens" trailer. We start with a look at the landscape of Tatooine, the desert planet where Luke Skywalker grew up. A menacing-sounding voiceover says "There's been an awakening. Have you felt it?"
Then this guy pops up from the bottom of the frame. Who is he? We don't know! He's a new character, and his name hasn't been revealed yet. He's played by an actor named John Boyega. Most speculate Boyega's character will be the new hero of the next three Star Wars films. This will probably be a coming of age tale about how Boyega's character learns to be a Jedi, just like Luke Skywalker learned in the original trilogy.
What's that outfit he's wearing? It's a storm trooper uniform. Boyega looks around. He's nervous, sweaty, and panicked. If we had to speculate, we'd say Boyega somehow got tangled up with the bad guys and managed to escape to Tatooine.
The trailer then cuts to a shot of this cute little droid. He's probably not very important to the plot, but it does show director JJ Abrams will include the whimsical background characters that made the original trilogy so delightful.
Then things get dark. The stormtroopers are back! We see them in the cargo hold of a ship. The camera is shaky and dramatic as they charge their blaster rifles. It seems like even though Luke Skywalker and crew defeated the Empire in "Return of the Jedi," some loyal factions remain all these years later.
Here's a look at the stormtrooper blaster rifle.
The stormtroopers land on a dark and stormy planet, ready for some sort of battle. (We get another look at this planet a few more seconds into the trailer.)
Next, we get a shot of this woman. Who is she? Again, we have no idea! But she's played by Daisy Ridley. There's a good chance she's the other lead of the film along with Boyega.
If we had to guess, the Ridley and Boyega characters will probably be each other's love interests. Star Wars movies like to put two characters into impossible situations and watch them fall in love. Think back to how Han Solo and Leia got together in the original trilogy.
Ridley rides away on this hovercraft thing. She's also on Tatooine, so this is probably when her character will meet Boyega's character.
Next, the trailer cuts to this X-Wing pilot. See that symbol on his helmet? It's the Rebel Insignia, the symbol all the good guys wore in the original trilogy when they were fighting the Empire. We're not sure who this character is, but it's clear he's a good dude.
Holy smokes! Look at those X-Wings fly over the water! We've never seen this planet in a Star Wars movie before, but it looks like it's the stage for a big aerial battle. On the other hand, it could be the moon of Yavin, where the Rebels blew up the first Death Star in the first Star Wars movie.
Now things get crazy. We see this dark cloaked figure slinking through a snowy forest. This may be the same planet the stormtroopers landed on earlier in the trailer. The voiceover comes back and says, "The dark side..." Who is he? You guessed it. We have no idea.
He has a red lightsaber! That means he's definitely a bad guy. In Star Wars, the Sith, the followers of the Dark Side of the Force, only use red lightsabers. Most think actor Adam Driver is playing the villain in the movie, so this is probably him.But this is no ordinary lightsaber...
A beat after the main part of the lightsaber ignites, the two side of the hilt do too. It looks like a medieval sword.
The voiceover finishes: "...and the light." The screen goes black for a beat and then we're back on Tatooine with the Millennium Falcon flying through the air doing some crazy maneuvers. The Millennium Falcon is Han Solo's ship from the original trilogy. Ford is already confirmed to be in the new movie, so it's safe to say he's the guy flying the ship.
It turns out the Millennium Falcon is trying to escape Tatooine while fighting a bunch of TIE fighters. Remember: TIE fighters are the aircraft the Empire had in the original trilogy.Now for some wild speculation: It's possible Han Solo was already on Tatooine at the same time as Boyega and Ridley's characters. Maybe they convince him to help them escape. It'd be very similar to the way Han Solo helped Luke Skywalker escape the Empire on Tatooine in the first movie. A nice balance!
And that's it! Finally, we see the title of the movie: "The Force Awakens."
So, what the heck does that title mean? Some more speculation: At the end of the prequel trilogy, the movies that came out in the late 90s/early 2000s that explained how Darth Vader became Darth Vader, almost all of the Jedi were killed by the Empire. In the next trilogy, Luke Skywalker becomes the first of a new generation of Jedi. In the new trailer, the creepy voiceover guy alludes to a resurgence in the Force, meaning a lot of new potential Jedi and Sith are starting to show up across the galaxy. Boyega's character is likely one of the new Jedi. Driver's character is likely one of the new Sith. What's missing?A lot. Remember, Hamill, Fisher, and Ford are all coming back to reprise their original roles. Many have speculated that Hamill's character, Luke Skywalker, will return to teach the new generation of Jedi. Expect him to play the same kind of wise old master that Obi Wan Kenobi was in the very first Star Wars movie. Other characters like R2-D2, C-3P0, and Chewbacca are also confirmed to be in the new movie. Still, we have no clue who the new characters played by Boyega, Ridley, Driver, and more will be. Here's a look at the new cast:
Now watch the trailer: Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Netflix CEO: Broadcast TV Will Die Within 16 Years | ||
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The days of broadcast TV are numbered according to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings. Hastings said that while traditional broadcast TV has served a purpose in the past, on-demand streaming will cause broadcast TV to die off within the next 16 years. "It's kind of like the horse, you know, the horse was good until we had the car," Hastings said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "The age of broadcast TV will probably last until 2030." With over 53 million users, Netflix is largely responsible for changing how consumers watch TV shows and movies, and the company is already in the process of disrupting how movies will make their official debut. Netflix will debut the sequel to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" the same day as it hits IMAX theaters, a move which Hastings said is "breaking the stranglehold that movie theaters have" on how movies are released. You can read more about Hastings' vision for the future of streaming over at The Hollywood Reporter. SEE ALSO: 17 iPhone-Only Apps That Will Make Your Android Friends Jealous Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Sarkozy tipped to lead party in new charge for French presidency | ||
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Paris (AFP) - France's former president Nicolas Sarkozy was on Saturday tipped to win the leadership of his right-wing UMP in party elections, a position seen as a potential springboard back into high office. The 59-year-old broke the worst-kept secret in French politics when he announced his political comeback in September, presenting himself as the saviour of his bitterly divided conservative opposition party. There are no doubts about his aim, if yet unstated: to win back the keys to the Elysee palace which he lost in a humiliating poll defeat to Francois Hollande in 2012. "Staying in the background when everything is going so badly would be cowardice, the opposite of my idea of political commitment," Sarkozy told a political meeting on the eve of the vote. The energetic former leader has criss-crossed the country to drum up support for his candidacy at the head of the party all the while slamming the "mediocrity" of Hollande's deeply unpopular Socialist government. Pollsters expect Sarkozy to sail through the election despite his much-heralded return to politics largely seen as having fallen flat, with his tangle of legal woes continuing to dog him. UMP members began voting by internet on Friday night, and polls close at 8:00pm (1900 GMT) on Saturday. Results are expected shortly after. The vote pits Sarkozy against main rival Bruno Le Maire -- a former minister and senior party figure -- and lawmaker Herve Mariton. However a victory still does not guarantee him a shot at toppling Hollande in presidential elections in 2017. Sarkozy has as many devotees as rivals in the deeply split party, which is currently run by a trio of former prime ministers appointed after former leader Jean-Francois Cope was forced to resign in May over a campaign funding scandal linked to Sarkozy's last election bid. This means the real battle comes when Sarkozy will have to fight off party heavyweights at UMP primaries due in 2016. Chief among these is his former colleague turned arch-foe Alain Juppe, a popular politician and one-time prime minister who served as defence and then foreign minister under Sarkozy.
- 'An act of revenge' -
Deeply unpopular at the time of his 2012 election defeat and known as the "bling-bling" president for his flashy style, Sarkozy is hoping to capitalise on the fact that his "Mr Normal" successor Hollande is now even more disliked by French voters than he was. "There are still a lot of people out there who cannot stomach the man, which is partly why (President Francois) Hollande was elected," said Andrew Knapp, an expert in French politics at Britain's University of Reading. "But Sarkozy I think has grasped this brutal logic that getting hold of a party may not guarantee you the presidency, but not getting hold of the party almost rules you out." Knapp said Sarkozy's bid for the presidency is "partly an act of revenge for a defeat which he has never fully accepted". With Hollande's unpopular Socialist government taking a whipping in opinion polls, experts say the 2017 election is seen as likely to be a race between the UMP candidate and far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen. For Le Pen, the messy state of mainstream parties is the gift that keeps on giving: a recent poll showed she would win the first round of voting in 2017 with 30 percent. "We should not lose sight of the fact that at the moment the leading candidate is Marine Le Pen," said Knapp. For Sarkozy, the presidency also offers immunity from prosecution for a tangle of legal woes in which he has always denied wrongdoing. "That raises other questions. Can Sarkozy really run a presidential campaign over the next two-and a-half years while periodically receiving summonses?" asked Knapp.
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Six charged over $1.28 billion drug bust in Australia | ||
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Sydney (AFP) - Six men have been charged over what Australian police said on Saturday was one of the largest drug busts in the country's history, worth up to Aus$1.5 billion (US$1.28 billion). Australian Federal Police said the men were charged over their involvement in the attempted importation of almost three tonnes of MDMA and crystal methamphetamine, also known as ice, into Sydney. Police will allege that the drugs, detected by Customs officers, were hidden in a container shipped from Germany which had been filled with furniture and unmarked boxes. "This seizure represents the second largest seizure in Australian history, which proves law enforcement agencies are working harder than ever to keep drugs out of our community," said commissioner Andrew Colvin. Authorities said after the drugs were discovered, police allowed the shipment to be delivered to an address in western Sydney. They arrested the six men, all Australian residents, as they accessed the boxes. "The importation of these substances into the community is being orchestrated by serious and organised crime groups," said Australian Customs and Border Protection Service chief executive Roman Quaedvlieg. The six men, who range in age from 23 to 34, have all been charged with attempting to possess a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug. The charges attract a possible penalty of life imprisonment, police said. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Taiwan votes in key elections ahead of presidential polls | ||
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Taipei (AFP) - Voters go to the polls Saturday in Taiwan's largest ever local elections, with the Beijing-friendly ruling party facing a rout in a key test ahead of the 2016 presidential race. Opinion polls suggest the Kuomintang (KMT) are heading for heavy losses as they struggle with growing fears over Chinese influence, a slowing economy and a string of food scandals. Leadership elections are due in early 2016 with China policy a key issue as embattled President Ma Ying-jeou -- who came to power in 2008 on a Beijing-friendly platform -- must step down at the end of his second four-year term. Around 15,000 polling stations opened at 8:00 am (0000 GMT), with 18 million people eligible to vote and a record 11,130 seats at every level of local government up for grabs. Ma smiled and waved at reporters when asked if he was confident about his party's performance as he voted in the capital Taipei, but made no comment. Turnout is expected to be between 65 and 70 percent and campaigning has been intense, with mass rallies, giant floats and firework displays. The KMT faces humiliation in key strongholds, including Taipei and the central municipality of Taichung. "Many young people are concerned about job prospects and high housing prices so I hope to see change and new thinking in the government to make things better for us," graduate student Mark Hsu told AFP outside a polling station in the capital.
- 'Too close to China' -
The KMT currently dominates 15 of Taiwan's 22 cities and counties, while the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) holds seven. Of the six larger municipalities -- the most hotly contested seats -- the KMT controls three in the north and one in the centre, against the DPP's two in the south. Ma ended the DPP's eight-year rule in 2008 when he was elected on a pledge to boost the economy and trade with China. He has overseen a marked improvement in previously frosty ties between Taipei and Beijing. However, the public has grown increasingly anxious over China's influence on the island. A proposed trade pact with the mainland sparked mass student-led protests and a three-week occupation of Taiwan's parliament earlier this year. The DPP has traditionally been sceptical over closer ties with Beijing and has criticised the KMT for lack of transparency over trade deals with China as well as incompetence in handling domestic issues. Taiwan and China split in 1949 at the end of a civil war but Beijing still claims the island as part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary. "I support the DPP because I think the Ma government is leaning too close to China and opening up trade too much... many factories have moved to China and many Taiwanese young people can't find jobs," a retired businessman surnamed Hsiao told AFP at a polling station in Taipei. Emotions were high at election-eve rallies, with tearful candidates kissing and hugging their families and supporters as crowds waved flags and chanted the popular slogan "Get elected!" Ma urged supporters in the capital to vote for KMT candidate Sean Lien in the Taipei mayoral race -- Lien has been lagging behind independent candidate Ko Wen-je in opinion polls. "It's an extremely important choice for Taipei and Taiwan," Ma said at a rally late Friday. DPP chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen also made an island-wide tour in a final push for votes Friday. "Tomorrow we will use our votes to tell the incompetent and arrogant government that we've had enough," she told a crowd in central Taiwan. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Arsenal and Liverpool seek to halt Premier League drift | ||
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London (AFP) - Brendan Rodgers has challenged his Liverpool players to kick-start the club's spluttering campaign against Stoke on Saturday. Reds boss Rodgers has been forced to answer questions about his job security for the first time in his reign after Liverpool plummeted to 12th in the Premier League following successive defeats by Newcastle, Chelsea and Crystal Palace. They also suffered a setback in the Champions League in midweek, conceding an 88th-minute equaliser to draw 2-2 at Ludogorets Razgrad, but can still secure a place in the knockout phase by beating Basel at home next month. Rodgers is keeping calm while the flak flies and he remains hopeful Liverpool will get back on track if they can secure a morale-boosting victory at Anfield on Saturday. "We are hoping our season has really begun the other night but it will only count if we take it into Saturday's game," Rodgers said. "Everything has been hunky dory for 18 months but it is a different hand we have been dealt this year, a different deck of cards. "I said to the players the other night what has gone before has gone. "We got the result the other night: a good performance, we were competitive, the structure of the team was good and we will take it into a difficult game against Stoke." Like Liverpool, Arsenal have fallen out of title contention over recent weeks, with the Gunners now 15 points behind leaders Chelsea following consecutive losses. Arsenal's poor form has seen manager Arsene Wenger's 18-year stewardship called into question as rarely before, amid concerns that a climate of tolerated under-achievement has infiltrated the club. However, Wednesday's 2-0 victory over Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League saw Arsenal reach the last 16 for the 15th consecutive season, boosting morale ahead of Saturday's trip to West Bromwich Albion. "We have to show character and that is what makes me really happy for the next few games, because we have to sharpen up in the Premier League as well," said Arsenal's German centre-back Per Mertesacker. "Saturday is a good chance to show to everyone that we are still alive. We have to come back in the Premier League and that is the next target." Victory over Dortmund came at a cost, with Spanish midfielder Mikel Arteta joining a host of players on the sidelines after injuring his calf. Jack Wilshere has been ruled out for three months after undergoing ankle surgery, but goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny should return from the hip injury he sustained in last Saturday's 2-1 loss at home to Manchester United.
- Fabregas buoyant -
Second-place Southampton's 1-1 draw at Aston Villa last Monday means that Chelsea's advantage at the summit has swelled to six points ahead of their visit to 14th-place Sunderland. Jose Mourinho's side cruised into the Champions League last 16 with a breezy 5-0 win at Schalke on Tuesday and in-form midfielder Cesc Fabregas says their football is as enjoyable to create as it is to watch. "We have a very young, talented team," said the former Barcelona player, who has already contributed 10 goals to the Chelsea cause this term. "The mood is great and hopefully it will grow as the season goes on because you know that for the next two months it's going to be really, really tough -- a lot of games." Southampton's hold on second place faces a stiff test over the next fortnight, with successive games against Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester United on their schedule. Third-place City arrive at St Mary's on Sunday, buoyed by a stunning 3-2 victory over Bayern Munich on Tuesday that breathed fresh life into their Champions League campaign. United, meanwhile, have crept into fourth place, five points behind City, after their smash-and-grab victory at Arsenal last weekend. Louis van Gaal's side host Hull City on Saturday, when victory would enable the 20-time champions to register a third consecutive league victory for the first time since December 2013.
Fixtures Saturday (1500 GMT unless otherwise stated): Burnley v Aston Villa, Liverpool v Stoke City, Manchester United v Hull City, Queens Park Rangers v Leicester City, Sunderland v Chelsea (1730 GMT), Swansea City v Crystal Palace, West Ham United v Newcastle United, West Bromwich Albion v Arsenal (1245 GMT)
Sunday: Southampton v Manchester City (1330 GMT), Tottenham Hotspur v Everton (1600 GMT) Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Latin America TV's 'Little Shakespeare' dies at 85 | ||
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Mexico City (AFP) - Mexico's iconic television comedian Roberto Gomez Bolanos, who enchanted generations of Latin American children by playing an orphan who lived in a barrel and a goofy superhero, died aged 85. Gomez Bolanos died in the Caribbean coast resort of Cancun, where he retired years ago due to respiratory illnesses, said the Televisa network, where the actor spent his entire career. The cause of death was not given. "Televisa laments the death of Don Roberto Gomez Bolanos, 'Chespirito,' an essential figure of Mexican televisions," the broadcaster wrote on Twitter. Gomez Bolanos -- whose nickname Chespirito meant "Little Shakespeare" for his short stature and prolific writing -- created some of the most popular television shows in the history of Latin America. In "El Chavo del Ocho" ("The Kid from the Eight"), Gomez Bolanos played a mischievous orphan who always wore a hat with ear flaps and slept in a barrel in the courtyard of a working-class housing complex. Another famous character was "Chapulin Colorado" (Red Grasshopper), a red-hooded superhero with antennas and armed with a yellow and red hammer. His victory catch-phrase was, "They didn't count on my cleverness!" His shows had millions of viewers from Mexico to the Andes and the tip of South America, as well as in Portuguese-speaking Brazil.
- 'A great Mexican' -
Tributes poured in shortly after his death was announced. "Mexico has lost an icon, whose work has transcended generations and borders," Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto tweeted. Edgar Vivar, an actor in "El Chavo del Ocho," was in tears as he spoke about his friend on Televisa. "I'm in a state of shock. I didn't think that it would affect me so much," Vivar said. "I will always remember him with a smile." Brazilian football star Ronaldinho, who plays for Mexican club Queretaro, said: "Rest in peace, eternal Chavez (Chavo) and Chapulin! A great Mexican who was part of my childhood and that of many Brazilians." Televisa is planning to hold a massive tribute at Mexico City's 105,000-capacity Azteca Stadium.
- Overcoming fears -
Born to a Mexico City middle-class family on February 21, 1929, Gomez Bolanos grew up dreaming of being a football player, but he also showed a knack for boxing in school. His father, a painter and illustrator for newspapers, died when Gomez Bolanos was eight years old. He studied engineering but, at the age of 22, he began to write ads for an advertising company before writing radio, television and film scripts. His television show "Chespirito," which began to air when he was 40 years old, was on the air for 25 years. His comedies masked deep fears that haunted him since childhood. "Courage does not consist in lacking fear, but overcoming fear," he once said. "The Red Grasshopper knew that he was small, weak, stupid, clumsy. (...) But he would confront problems. That's a hero." Gomez Bolanos is the father of six children he had with his first wife. He spent the last years of his life with his second wife, Florinda Meza, who played Dona Florinda, a grumpy, apron-wearing housewife with curlers in her hair in "El Chavo del Ocho."
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Pope heads to Istanbul in symbolic visit | ||
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Istanbul (AFP) - Pope Francis on Saturday heads to Istanbul for the second leg of his first trip to Turkey, in a richly-symbolic visit set to include a tour of a mosque and a meeting with the Orthodox ecumenical patriarch. Francis will touch on several aspects of the extraordinary heritage of Turkey's largest city, which as Constantinople was the capital of the Christian Byzantine world until the Muslim Ottoman conquest of 1453. He will begin his visit with a tour of Hagia Sophia, the great Byzantine church that was turned into a mosque after the conquest of Constantinople but then became a secular museum for all in modern day Turkey. His every gesture will be scrutinised later in the day when he visits the Sultan Ahmet mosque, known as the Blue Mosque, one of the greatest masterpieces of Ottoman architecture. When his predecessor Benedict XVI visited the mosque in 2006, he assumed the Muslim attitude of prayer and turned towards Mecca in what many saw as a stunning gesture of reconciliation. The Vatican later made clear he had not actually prayed in the mosque but was "in meditation". Pope Francis could make a similar gesture. Later in the day the leader of the world's Roman Catholics will celebrate holy mass at the Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Istanbul. He will then hold an ecumenical prayer in the Orthodox Church of St. George and a private meeting with Patriarch Bartholomew I, the "first among equals" of the world's estimated 300 million Orthodox believers. Francis and Bartholomew -- who enjoy warm relations -- will seek to narrow the differences between the two Churches that date back to the great schism of 1054. "We are eagerly awaiting the visit of our brother, Pope Francis," Bartholomew said ahead of the visit. "It will be yet another significant step in our positive relations as sister Churches." Turkey's own Christian community is tiny -- just 80,000 in a country of some 75 million Muslims -- but also extremely mixed, consisting of Armenians, Greek Orthodox, Franco-Levantines, Syriac Orthodox and Chaldeans. Of these only the small Franco-Levantine and Chaldean communities regard the pope as the head of their churches.
- 'Rising Islamophobia' -
The pope held talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Friday, calling for dialogue between faiths to end the Islamist extremism plaguing the Middle East. The pope's visit is seen as a crucial test of his ability to build bridges between faiths amid the rampage by Islamic State (IS) jihadists in Iraq and Syria and concerns over the persecution of Christian minorities in the Middle East. "Inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue can make an important contribution... so that there will be an end to all forms of fundamentalism and terrorism," he said. Erdogan -- who welcomed Pope Francis as the first foreign dignitary to his controversial new presidential palace outside Ankara -- for his part issued a strong warning about rising Islamophobia in the world. "Islamophobia is rising seriously and rapidly. We must work together against the threats weighing on our planet -- intolerance, racism and discrimination," said Erdogan. Some 7,000 police will reportedly be on hand to supervise the pope's two-day visit to Istanbul. Amid heavy security, he was not expected to show the close contact with crowds that have been such a feature of his past trips.
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Ray Rice domestic violence suspension overturned | ||
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Los Angeles (AFP) - Former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice, who was suspended indefinitely earlier this year after punching his now-wife, won his appeal, meaning he could return to the National Football League. Rice is now a free agent and eligible to sign with another team, the NFL Players Association said Friday. The 27-year-old Rice had been sacked by the Ravens and kicked out of the NFL indefinitely in September after the emergence of video showing him punching his then-fiancee Janay in a casino elevator in February, knocking her unconscious. The incident was one of several examples of violent off-field behavior that have roiled the hugely popular and lucrative NFL, sparking criticism from fans, sponsors and even US lawmakers. "I made an inexcusable mistake and accept full responsibility for my actions," Rice said in a statement. "I will continue working hard to improve myself and be the best husband, father and friend while giving back to the community and helping others to learn from my mistakes." The decision is a huge setback for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who was criticized for his handling of the case, as many felt the punishment initially given to Rice was too lenient. - 'Fair and transparent' - "This decision is a victory for a disciplinary process that is fair and transparent," the NFL Players Association said in a statement. A former federal judge, Barbara Jones, presided over the appeal hearing earlier this month in New York as an arbitrator appointed by Goodell. Rice and his wife both testified. Rice, who helped the Ravens to a Super Bowl victory in 2013, was initially suspended for two games when a first video of the incident surfaced. But a second video, which showed him punching Janay in the head, sparked a nationwide furor and prompted both the Ravens and the NFL to take tougher action. The union argued the league violated labor laws by increasing Rice's punishment after the video surfaced. "While we take no pleasure in seeing a decision that confirms what we have been saying about the Commissioner's office acting arbitrarily, we hope that this will bring the NFL owners to the collective bargaining table to fix a broken process," it said. - 'Drunk and tired' - In a first-person account given to ESPN and published Friday, Janay Rice said the altercation between the former high-school sweethearts happened after a booze-fuelled night of partying at the Revel Casino in Atlantic City. Janay said she never considered leaving her husband, blamed herself in part for what happened, and added she finds it "hard to accept" being labeled a victim. Janay said their party of six drank at least two bottles of alcohol at a club inside the casino. The party then moved to a late-night restaurant where she and Rice began arguing. "We were drunk and tired," Janay said. "As we were arguing, he was on his phone and not looking at me. I went to reach for his phone, and when he grabbed it back, he spit on me and I slapped him." The two got into an elevator and then, Janay said what occurred is "still foggy" for her. "The only thing I know -- and I can't even say I 'remember' because I only know from what Ray has told me -- is that I slapped him again and then he hit me. I remember nothing else from inside the elevator," she said. "The next thing I do recall is being in the casino lobby surrounded by cops. The police separated us and arrested us." - 'Going pretty well' - Rice's wife said "nothing like this" had ever happened before, and that their relationship was "going pretty well" before the incident. She has only seen the first video and chose not to watch the second one. "I asked him why he left me on the floor like that. I asked him how he felt when he saw that I was unconscious. He told me he was in shock," she said. The couple were married on March 28, one day after Rice was indicted for aggravated assault. Less than a week earlier, they had attended a news conference together. "I know some people disagreed with me publicly apologizing. I'm not saying what Ray did wasn't wrong. But at the same time who am I to put my hands on somebody?" She says one moment in their seven-year relationship wasn't going to change things and she never had second thoughts about marrying Rice. "I still find it hard to accept being called a 'victim'," Janay said. "I want people to know how much we love each other and how far we've come." Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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A Crime Surge Has Accompanied Wyoming's Oil Boom | ||
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DOUGLAS, Wyo. (AP) — Law enforcement officials in east-central Wyoming say they're seeing more crimes committed by workers newly arrived to the area's booming oil fields and don't have enough police and jail space to handle the problem. Serious crimes including aggravated assault and larceny are up 17 percent in the Douglas area since 2009, according to the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation. Emergency calls are up 9 percent from last year. Drug arrests are up from 37 in 2009 to 64 last year. And police were involved in two vehicle pursuits in September — the first in the city in three years, according to the Douglas Police Department. "The industry is not picky," police Sgt. Matthew Schmidt said. "They need people who can physically stand the job, so they're not concerned about their conviction records." The increase is nothing like the violent crime that spiked in North Dakota communities after oil production in the Bakken field surged several years ago. Still, local law enforcement agencies already are showing signs of strain. The Douglas Police Department is short two officers as city employees quit to work in the oil fields, the Casper Star-Tribune reports. Meanwhile, the Converse County Sheriff's Office is sending prisoners to Wheatland because their numbers exceed the number of local jail cells. Many people Schmidt arrests already have felony convictions, ranging from a fourth domestic battery to multiple DUI arrests. Schmidt said he tends to see much higher numbers when transient workers breathe into his breathalyzer. Their blood-alcohol concentrations sometimes reach 0.3 percent, more than four times the legal limit for driving, he said. In one of the recent pursuits, the driver topped 100 mph before flipping his car in a construction zone. In the other, a drunken driver destroyed 30 feet of fence near Douglas High School. Both pursuits involved energy industry workers, Schmidt said. "I think a lot of them, they know they're going to be here for a little while, so they're decent," he said. "There are others that come in and know they're not going to be here for a while and there's no reason for them to have a stake in this community." ___ Information from: Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune, http://www.trib.com
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It's Clear That Race Is America's Deepest Problem | ||
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RIOTS are rarely so widely anticipated. By 8pm on November 24th, when the prosecutor in Ferguson, Missouri, announced the grand jury’s decision not to charge a police officer with a crime for shooting an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown, cops in riot gear were already in place and barriers surrounded municipal buildings. Mr Brown’s parents and Barack Obama called for calm. Yet soon America’s TV screens were full of burning police cars, crowds coughing on tear gas, and young black men throwing bricks and smashing shops. America’s history of racial injustice looked as potent as ever. That would be the wrong conclusion to draw. Looking back at the riots in Los Angeles in 1992 that followed the acquittal of four white police officers who had savagely beaten a black motorist, Rodney King, a lot has changed. America has a black president. The LA riots, which left 53 dead, happened in one of America’s great cities, and sparked violence in others. This time the focus was a struggling suburb; in Los Angeles black teenagers protested peacefully alongside white ones. Blacks plainly still suffer prejudice across America: they account for 86% of the vehicle stops made by police in Ferguson. But America’s race problem is increasingly one of class. Blacks’ biggest problem is now poverty, which is most visible in places such as Ferguson. Like many post-war suburbs across America, Ferguson is stuck between the prosperous white exurbs of St Louis and the city’s somewhat revitalised centre. In 1990 its population was three-quarters white; by 2010, it had become two-thirds black. The sub-prime mortgage crisis hit it hard. Many of its homeowners still owe more than they own. Solving the problems of places like Ferguson is less about passing more anti-discrimination laws than about rekindling economic growth and spreading the proceeds. But there are also ways of making politics and policing work better that would contribute greatly to racial harmony in America.
The police are not an armyFerguson’s political institutions have not kept up with its demography. Of the city’s six-member council, five are white. The hapless mayor, James Knowles, is a white Republican who was re-elected in 2013 in an election in which fewer than one in eight eligible voters turned out. He is in charge of the police force, in which three out of 53 officers are black. Such disparities feed the belief—held by blacks across the country—that both justice and law-enforcement systems are racist. Police brutality reinforces that belief. If there was one lesson from the attack on Rodney King, it was that police officers should behave like civilians, not an occupying army. Around 500 people were killed last year by the police—though since nobody counts, nobody really knows. In Ferguson, bad policies help to explain why distrust turns to anger. Take, for example, the way the town is financed. In 2013 a fifth of Ferguson’s general revenues—some $2.6m, in a city of 21,000 people—were derived from fines and asset confiscation. That is equivalent to $124 a year for every man, woman and child in the city.
Paying fines, even for minor traffic offences, can involve queuing for hours. Those who miss court dates can be jailed until they pay, accumulating more fines along the way. Slowly but surely, the justice system has become an elaborate mechanism for criminalising poverty. Smaller cities should stop using their police forces and courts as tax-collectors. Police shootings should be taken much more seriously, and the federal government should stop enabling small police forces to buy military-grade weapons. Proper gun control laws would help: policemen who fear they will be shot are more likely to kill suspects. In their absence, body-mounted cameras might constrain police behaviour. Efforts should also be made to increase voter turnout. Ferguson, like many small cities, holds its municipal elections at odd times in odd-numbered years, when little else is on the ballot. If they coincided with national elections, more people would be paying attention. And attempts to restrict voting—by banning Sunday polls, restricting voting hours and requiring people to produce ID—should be resisted. Such measures will not inspire great speeches. But the fact that the answers to America’s racial problems now lie in a more vibrant economy and the nitty gritty of politics and policing is itself a form of progress. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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This Game Company Sold 30,000 Boxes Of Bull Poop As A Black Friday 'Deal' | ||
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Cards Against Humanity, which bills itself as a "party game for horrible people," decided that it wanted to help potential customers "experience the ultimate savings" on Black Friday by taking its game off its website completely. Instead, though, the site offered a bizarre and hilarious "deal": It sold boxes of bull poop for $6 each. This isn't the game company's first quirky special. Last year, Cards Against Humanity sold its game for $5 more than usual, and ended up getting a huge spike in sales. It's also holding a Ten Days Of Kwanza Or Whatever sale where for $15, customers will get ten mystery gifts throughout December. Here's what you see now on the company's main website:
The company's FAQ page was equally amusing:
(Hat-tip to Ars Technica, where we first saw this story.) SEE ALSO: Here Are Google's Big Holiday Sales Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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US protesters force closure of mall near Ferguson | ||
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St. Louis (AFP) - US protesters forced a crowded St Louis mall to close for around two hours on Friday, demanding a boycott to post-Thanksgiving shopping and justice for an unarmed black teenager killed by police. Scores of demonstrators, including young children, shouted "No justice, no peace," and "Stop shopping and join the movement" at the St Louis Galleria Mall. Around 100 people lay on the floor for four and a half minutes to symbolize the more than four hours that 18-year-old Michael Brown lay in the road after being shot dead by a white police officer in the St Louis suburb of Ferguson. In New York, police made "several" arrests at a protest in front of Macy's flagship store in Herald Square, a spokesman said, without explaining why the demonstrators had been detained. About 200 people gathered in support of the boycott of "Black Friday", which comes the day after America's Thanksgiving holiday and sees stores offering steep discounts, leading to often-frenzied consumer spending. In the San Francisco Bay area, protestors severely disrupted the BART mass transit system for more than two hours by blocking off a train station in Oakland, officials said. The protestors chained themselves together at the West Oakland station, forcing trains to be stopped into and out of San Francisco, briefly stranding crowds including many heading to malls seeking Black Friday bargains. The protests came four days after a Missouri grand jury decided not to indict the officer who killed Brown, sparking arson and looting in Ferguson. At the St Louis mall, shoppers and store staff looked bemused, while others filmed or photographed the protest, or else clapped and shouted their support. When police officers told AFP they were clearing the building, the protesters had already left. The management office confirmed that the shopping center reopened at 3:15 pm, around two hours after stores were told police were closing the building. Although most shops reopened, others kept their doors locked and shutters down even after the mall was back in business. It was not immediately clear how much business had been lost. Shop staff said police had ordered the closure for public safety. "It ain't my decision," said Luke, a shoe store manager who didn't want to give his last name. "The police thought it was in the best interest of our customers and our product to close down," he added. Protesters claimed success. "It is now a movement and it is spreading across the country and around the world. Black Friday is the next step," said journalist and activist Kymone Freeman from Washington. "Hopefully we'll see more of this. I think Black Friday protests will continue throughout the Christmas season," he added. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Leaders Are Fiddling While Europe Burns | ||
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Europe is in dire economic straits. Growth in the euro zone is stuck below 1%, unemployment is above 11% and inflation is hovering around 0.4%, far from the European Central Bank’s 2% goal and dangerously near outright deflation. This week the Paris-based OECD rich-country club warned that the euro zone was mired in stagnation, and added that it was dragging down the world economy. Even the pope has joined in, calling the European Union “elderly and haggard”. Such a situation surely calls for an urgent and decisive response. On November 26th the European Commission’s new boss, Jean-Claude Juncker, duly unveiled what he sees as the centrepiece of his presidency: a grand investment plan worth €315 billion ($392 billion) that officials are claiming is the best way to create extra demand in Europe. Yet although Mr Juncker’s headline number sounds impressive, the sums behind it are puny. And the chances that it will kick-start growth, as Brussels is suggesting, are minimal (see article). For a start, the plan will not begin until mid-2015 at the earliest. The extra spending that it hopes to engender will then be spread over three years. Furthermore, most of Mr Juncker’s €315 billion is based on financial engineering, using public guarantees of small sums in the hope of leveraging in a lot more private capital—some of which would have been lent anyway to other projects. Even the €16 billion that is being touted as “new money” is illusory; almost all of it is being recycled from unspent bits of the EU budget. Another chunk comes from that hardy perennial, expansion of the European Investment Bank (EIB), but this institution is notoriously slow and cautious about any risky projects. The commission hopes that national governments will support its investment plan with contributions of their own. But the chances of that happening seem remote when Germany, by far the biggest and most creditworthy, is talking only of spending €10 billion on public investment over three years, and even then without relaxing its promise to balance the budget next year.
Not enough, Jean-ClaudeMr Juncker is not solely to blame for the timidity of his plans. The commission has little money of its own. Although its budget should be better spent—it remains ludicrous to devote 40% of it to farm subsidies—it adds up to less than 1% of the EU’s total GDP. His proposed European Fund for Strategic Investments, the vehicle that aims to lure in private capital, and the expansion of the EIB may both be worthwhile ideas. Yet passing the necessary laws, finding the right projects and then raising the finance will take months or, more likely, years. For Mr Juncker to present this package as the answer to today’s stagnating economy is at best disingenuous, at worst dishonest. It may also be dangerous, because it will offer cover for governments to keep up their fiscal retrenchment at a time when they should be doing the opposite. As the ECB president, Mario Draghi, has repeatedly argued in recent months, the sickly euro-zone economy calls for decisive action on three fronts at once: a looser monetary policy, faster and deeper structural reforms by national governments, and a more supportive fiscal policy. On the first the ECB is, albeit too slowly and cautiously, embarking on a form of quantitative easing akin to that practised by other central banks. On the second, even France and Italy are, belatedly and somewhat reluctantly, following the euro zone’s periphery in making structural reforms that should, eventually, boost growth. But on the third, little is being done.
In the present climate of near-recession, sticking to its balanced-budget target for 2015 is foolish. Germans often respond by invoking worries about “moral hazard”: the fear that, if they were to relax their fiscal stance, countries like France and Italy would fail to push through much-needed but politically challenging structural reforms. Yet those reforms are much harder to make in the absence of growth. In any case Germany itself is now on the edge of recession. If growth in the euro zone does not revive soon, and even worse if deflation were to set in, the single currency would be in peril. Were it to fail, Germany would suffer grievously. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Speaking in Washington last month, Mr Draghi declared that European governments with fiscal space should use it. When he added pointedly “you decide to which country this sentence applies” he clearly meant Germany. Black Friday gets holiday shopping season in high gear | ||
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Washington (AFP) - Black Friday, the biggest US shopping "holiday," kicked off with expectations that lower gasoline prices and higher consumer confidence could mean better year-end retail sales than last year. But there was little sign of the buying fever of years past, after many retailers started Black Friday sales early, turning Thursday's Thanksgiving Day holiday into what the industry has dubbed "Gray Thursday". "Gray Thursday is cannibalizing from Black Friday," Chris Christopher, director of consumer economics at IHS Global Insight, said in a phone interview. Christopher said that anecdotally he had heard that stores action was "relatively thin." Many customers have already taken advantage of heavy discounts in early November to get their shopping out of the way, he said. And, according to the research firm's data, there will be about 10 million fewer people receiving a paycheck on Black Friday than last year. The median household income, adjusted for inflation, is about eight percent below its 2007 level, with most of the income growth seen by the top five percent of earners. Big retail chains like Walmart, Target and Macy's opened their doors at 6:00 pm Thursday (0100 GMT Friday) in hopes of boosting their weekend sales, even before many Americans had finished the traditional turkey holiday feast. Walmart said Friday that more than 22 million customers flocked to their stores on Thursday, the same as in 2013. "Online shopping started while turkeys were still in the oven and yesterday was our second-highest online sales day ever -- topped only by Cyber Monday last year," said Laura Phillips, senior vice president of merchandising at Walmart, the world's largest retailer. Target said the Thanksgiving weekend got off to "a strong early start" with the discount chain for the first time offering special Black Friday deals on Wednesday. Shoppers were snapping up TVs, headphones and other electronics. BestBuy's website went down intermittently Friday, with a message saying "We're sorry. BestBuy.com is currently unavailable. Check back soon." The company explained that "a concentrated spike in mobile traffic triggered issues that led us to shut down BestBuy.com in order to take proactive measures to restore full performance." The National Retail Federation forecasts more than 140.1 million shoppers for the Thanksgiving weekend Thursday through Sunday, slightly below last year's expectations survey. "We are encouraged by what we've seen thus far with eager Thanksgiving Day and early Black Friday shoppers," said Matthew Shay, NRF chief executive on Friday. New vehicle sales were expected to rev up during Black Friday deals. "Shoppers continue to return to the dealership as economic conditions remain favorable, with the unemployment rate at its lowest in six years and with consumer confidence nearing pre-recession levels," said Alec Gutierrez, senior analyst for Kelley Blue Book.
- Falling gasoline prices dividend? - In addition to the improving economy and healthy job gains, consumers may see more money in their pockets to spend as gasoline prices fall, mostly due to declining crude oil prices. As of Monday, the average price at the pump was $2.82 per gallon, 47 cents lower than a year ago, "and the lowest price heading into a Thanksgiving holiday since 2009," according to the Department of Energy. IHS Global Insight's Christopher said that "even though consumer spending on gasoline is slightly less than three percent of disposable income, it plays a more significant role on consumer mood." Christopher was forecasting this year's holiday retail sales will increase 4.2 percent year-over-year, compared with 3.1 percent gains in both 2012 and 2013. He noted that last year's holiday retail sales, at $579.3 billion, were weighed down by the federal government shutdown in October and an unusually cold December. Consumer Reports said that Americans' shop-'til-you-drop Black Friday fever may be fading, after a poll showed more than half of them saying they will not be shopping at all. Fifty-three percent of respondents said they did not plan to shop anytime during the five-day stretch between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday, the promoted online shopping day. Among the 47 percent who plan to buy gifts, 38 percent will be doing so exclusively online compared with 30 percent who intend to shop strictly at stores. "The change in shopping behavior from mall to mouse has a lot to do with convenience. People hate crowds. Men, in particular, are eschewing stores for the Internet," said Tod Marks, senior project editor at Consumer Reports. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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This Working Flying Car Prototype Is Absolutely Stunning | ||
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Flying cars might not be science fiction for long. Stefan Klein and Juraj Vaculik, cofounders of a company Slovakian startup called AeroMobil, have created a beautiful prototype that has already been on several successful test flights. We touched base with Klein and Vaculik to hear more about their amazing vehicle. AeroMobil cofounder Stefan Klein first started dreaming up designs more than 20 years ago. Here's one of his sketches from the early 90s. Fast forward almost 25 years, and here's the team with the AeroMobil 3.0. "To marry the car and the airplane is an interesting engineering and design challenge," Klein told Business Insider via email. See the rest of the story at Business Insider  | ||
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Here's What You Can Earn Working At Apple (AAPL) | ||
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Who gets paid more at Apple: designers or engineers? We've assembled a list of some of the top-paid jobs at Apple, based on data gathered from Glassdoor. Salary data on Glassdoor is based on anonymous salary reports that were voluntarily shared by both current and recent employees. Start printing your resume if you see your role on here. 22. Mac Genius Salary: $44,070 Mac Geniuses are super important to the shopping experience at Apple's stores. But they don't receive a lot of love from Apple, it seems (at least in terms of salary). 21. Lead Mac Genius Salary: $55,626 After you've spent a little bit of time at an Apple Store as a Genius, you'll get paid a little bit more. Lead Mac Geniuses get paid about half what a good software engineer at Apple gets paid. 20. Assistant Apple Store manager Salary: $56,046 Apple needs some people to help run its stores. Assistant store managers get paid better than the rank-and-file Mac Geniuses and sales representatives. See the rest of the story at Business Insider  | ||
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China Just Knocked Off The Range Rover Evoque And Jaguar Land Rover Is Not Happy | ||
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Range Rover's Evoque crossover SUV has been one of the company's most popular offerings. Suffice to say, the people at Jaguar Land Rover (Range Rover's parent company) were not happy when a Chinese car company unveiled a remarkably similar knock-off. Called the Landwind X7, the Evoque facsimile made its debut recently at the Guangzhou Auto Show in southern China. Jaguar chief designer Ian Callum recently tweeted out these photos of the Landwind. The bemused design legend wryly points out the uncanny aesthetic similarities between the two.
Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Marseille beat Nantes to cement top spot | ||
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Paris (AFP) - Florian Thauvin scored one goal and set up another as Ligue 1 leaders Marseille beat Nantes 2-0 at the Stade Velodrome on Friday evening. Thauvin deftly converted a Dimitri Payet cross and then saw his free-kick headed home by Rod Fanni as Marseille opened up a two-goal lead before half-time and held on to claim a seventh consecutive home victory, their best run at the Velodrome since their 2009-10 title-winning campaign. The result ensured that they will go into December on top of the table although reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain can trim their lead back to one point with a win at home to Nice on Saturday afternoon. "Nantes are a good, well disciplined side. It was tougher than usual for us but we managed to keep our run going," goalkeeper and captain Steve Mandanda told beIN Sports. "Victories breed confidence. We believe in ourselves and it would be good to finish strongly before the winter break. "We are aware that the road is long and there are very good teams out there, but we remain focused, humble and will work hard to win as many matches as possible between now and the end of the season." Nantes came into the game in fourth place thanks to a fine sequence of nine matches undefeated, their best run since they last won the title in 2001. The Canaries were first to threaten when a Remi Gomis shot from 20 yards tested Mandanda in the home goal, but it was OM who opened the scoring 24 minutes in. Payet, playing against his old club, did well to dig out a cross from the right flank and Thauvin got in front of Issa Cissokho to flick the ball into the net with the outside of his boot. Marcelo Bielsa's side have made a habit of starting games well this season and that was the 11th time they had found the net in the opening half-hour of matches. Ligue 1's leading scorers have also been grateful to Mandanda for some fine goalkeeping and to luck at times though and that was the case in the 36th minute when the French international saved from Georges-Kevin Nkoudou, with the Nantes winger then unable to net the follow-up as he lost his balance. And three minutes after that Marseille doubled their lead, Fanni meeting Thauvin's right-wing free-kick at the near post and heading the ball past Remy Riou for his first Ligue 1 goal in nearly two years. Nantes won in Marseille 12 months ago, a result that led to OM coach Elie Baup being sacked, but they never really looked capable of getting back into this game in the second half, even if Mandanda was called into action again to keep out a thumping Jordan Veretout shot. Elsewhere this weekend, Monaco will look to build on their midweek Champions League win at Bayer Leverkusen when they go to in-form Rennes, while third-placed Lyon travel to face local rivals Saint-Etienne. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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Brazil exits recession with Q3 growth of 0.1% | ||
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Brasília (AFP) - Brazil's economy exited recession with growth of 0.1 percent in the third quarter, the government said Friday, a tepid result that is nevertheless welcome news for struggling President Dilma Rousseff. The data came a day after Rousseff, who has battled to reignite growth in the world's seventh-largest economy, named a new economic team featuring market-friendly bank executive Joaquim Levy as finance minister. The finance ministry welcomed the news, underlining that the industrial sector had posted growth of 1.7 percent. "The economy has begun the process of returning to growth, albeit at a still-modest pace," it said. The services sector has also started to expand again, said the government statistics institute. However, compared with the same period last year, GDP was still down 0.2 percent in the third quarter. Brazil's economy contracted by 0.2 percent in the first quarter and 0.6 percent in the second, officially entering recession. The malaise forced Rousseff onto the defensive as she waged a hard-fought re-election battle last month. Fending off opponents' attacks of her economic record with promises to take a new policy direction, she narrowly won a new four-year term, which starts in January. The president is deeply unpopular with the business community and markets, not least owing to heavy government intervention in economic policy. Her government is also mired in a huge corruption scandal at state-owned oil giant Petrobras, which has already led to the arrests of a clutch of top businessmen amid claims that dozens of politicians, chiefly Rousseff allies, received massive kickbacks on contracts. Levy's appointment as finance minister was a clear effort to woo back the confidence of the financial community. Nicknamed "Scissorhands" for his steely budgetary management, he was previously chief executive officer of Bradesco Asset Management (Bram), part of Brazil's second-largest private bank. Rousseff also named former deputy finance minister Nelson Barbosa as planning minister. Central bank chief Alexandre Tombini kept his post through the shake-up. Levy, 53, a University of Chicago-trained economist, vowed Thursday to rein in the government's books, while Tombini vowed to tackle inflation, which is stubbornly hovering above the official target ceiling of 6.5 percent.
- 'Wait and see' -
Analysts downplayed the significance of Friday's growth figure, saying any real change in direction would depend on the new economic team. "This figure is practically flat. We can't say it's recovering, but we also can't say it's falling," said Leandro Martins, a consultant at Walpires Corretora in Sao Paulo. "We have to wait and see what the new economic team is going to do going forward," he added. Alex Agostini, chief economist at Austin Rating, said the data showed the "fragility" of the Brazilian economy. "This 0.1 percent is weak, and worse still if you consider that there was a contraction of 0.2 percent compared to the same period the year before. It's a reflection of irresponsible fiscal policy," he said. The new economic team "opens positive expectations that they are going to put the fiscal house in order," he said. "They have the know-how. But we don't know if the government will give them the autonomy to do it."
- Slashed forecasts, downgrade threat -
Rousseff, 66, has struggled to rekindle the economic magic of her predecessor and mentor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who presided over strong growth during his eight-year administration -- peaking at 7.5 percent in 2010, the year Rousseff was elected. Under Rousseff, Brazil has posted growth of 2.7 percent in 2011, 1.0 percent in 2012 and 2.5 percent last year. This year, the central bank is forecasting growth of just 0.7 percent, it said in September, slashing its previous forecast of 1.6 percent. The International Monetary Fund also cut its 2014 growth forecast for Brazil, from 1.3 percent to 0.3 percent. Amid this bad news, ratings agency Moody's revised its outlook for Brazil from stable to negative, indicating the country was at risk of losing its investment-grade credit rating. Markets took little comfort in Friday's growth figures, with Sao Paulo's stock market chalking up its second day of losses to close down 0.10 percent. The real fell 1.56 percent to 2.57 to the dollar. Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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THE DRONE GIFT GUIDE: Drones For Every Budget [Up To 55% Off] | ||
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Black Friday is bringing prices down even further — here’s a roundup of deals not to miss. We and our friends at Stack Commerce put together the ultimate guide for getting a drone, and we've got one for every budget. Don't forget to use the code HAPPYBF10 for an extra 10% off. UNDER $75: Extreme Microdrone 2.0 [46% Off] Despite weighing just over an ounce, the Extreme Micro Drone 2.0 (46% off) is impressively equipped with gyro-based stabilization and a camera — in fact, this is the only micro drone in the world with a swiveling lens. Being so compact means it can fly indoors and out, and it can pull 360º flips. A really nice all-rounder that is forgiving on newbies and ships globally for free. Get 46% off the Extreme Micro Drone 2.0 ($74.99 incl. global shipping) Don't forget to use the code HAPPYBF10 for an extra 10% off. UNDER $100: Code Black Drone [55% Off] The Code Black (55% off pre-orders) looks like it emerged from the Batcave, and it has the kind of features the Dark Knight would demand. It is a great out-of-the-box flyer, with a HD camera on board, and it is small enough to fly anywhere. Plus, it can perform the all-important flips. If you order by Dec. 1, the Code Black will ship in time for Christmas, but the price will rise come mid December. Get 55% off the Limited Edition Code Black drone + HD Camera ($89 incl. shipping; pre-order) Don't forget to use the code HAPPYBF10 for an extra 10% off. UNDER $125: Panther Spy Drone [55% Off] At the other end of the scale is the giant Panther Spy drone (55% off), which uses its size for durability. The rotors are surrounded by protective foam, but given that it has gyro stabilization, those guards shouldn’t be needed all that often. It also has a 720p camera, 2.4GHz transmission for good range, and 360º flips in its tricks locker. Get 55% off the Panther Spy drone with HD camera ($110 incl. shipping) Don't forget to use the code HAPPYBF10 for an extra 10% off. See the rest of the story at Business Insider  | ||
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BLACK FRIDAY: Here Are Best Deals On Electronics Today | ||
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Black Friday is the best day to get all those cool electronics you've been eyeing all year. We've rounded up the best products you can find on Amazon today. Printers, TVs, laptops, sound systems — it's all here. So what are you waiting for? All these great electronics are super discounted today.
PrintersCanon PIXvMA MX922 Wireless Color Photo Printer — 50% OFF This Canon printer comes with a scanner, copier, and fax. You'll be able to print wirelessly from your compatible iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Plus there's built-in Auto Duplex Printing: automatically print on both sides of the paper. Rating: 4 Stars
This printer has wireless connectivity — so you can print from basically anywhere in the house. Plus it comes with Single touch Quiet Mode, which reduces operational noise. Rating: 4 Stars
The DYMO label printer enables you to create and print address, shipping, file, folder, and barcode labels. You'll be able to print USPS-approved stamps postage directly from your desktop. Rating: 3.5 Stars
Sound Systems
This comes with a wireless subwoofer that adds rich bass from anywhere in the room. You'll be able to wirelessly stream your music from a smartphone, tablet, or PC via Bluetooth. Rating: 4 Stars
You can connect to your computer, MP3 player, LCD TV, or other stereo sources with this speaker system. The BasXPort technology enhances the low frequency response without having to deal with the bulkiness of a subwoofer. Rating: 4.5 Stars
If you're looking for something smaller, check out these. They're slim, stylish, and are only 5 inches tall. Rating: 4.5 Stars
The Logitech rechargeable touchpad is a mouse substitute. You can click anywhere on the surface — basically wherever your fingers end up. The battery life is long, and it's easily chargeable with a USB. Rating: 4 Stars
The PNY attaché USB is durable, light-weight design of the PNY Attaché. Plus it comes with a key loop that easily attaches to keychains — so you'll never lose it. It can hold approximately 23,674 songs. Rating: 4 Stars Televison Sets Samsung 65-Inch 1080p 3D Smart LED TV — 45% OFF This 65-inch Samsung TV comes with voice control and motion control. Plus it includes accessories like the Smart Touch Remote Control and 2 pairs of 3D actives glasses. Rating: 4 Stars
Samsung 40-Inch 1080p Smart LED TV — 44% OFF
This Samsung TV has Backlight technology, and comes with a universal remote. There's also Wi-Fi for full-web browsing and connects to apps like Netflix and YouTube. Rating: 4.5 Stars
Samsung 60-Inch 1080p 3D Smart LED TV — 41% OFF With stunning picture quality and clear motion rate, this TV is hard to beat. It comes with a Smart Touch Remote Control and 2 pairs of active 3D glasses. Rating: 4 Stars
DVD PlayersSamsung BD-F7500 4K Upscaling 3D Wi-Fi Blu-Ray Disc Player — 33% OFF This Blu-Ray player lets you see clear pictures and comes with built-in Wi-Fi so that you can access streaming content from the web. The 4K Up-Scale provides up to 4 times better resolution that Full HD. Rating: 4 Stars Laptop Computers
If you're looking for a general laptop, this one's your best bet. It's lightweight, thin, and is relatively fast. Plus it's affordable. Score. Rating: 4 Stars
SEE ALSO: 10 Great Docking Stations For Your Phone, Tablet, And Laptop SEE ALSO: 14 Killer Sound Systems That Could Get You Evicted Join the conversation about this story »  | ||
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