Buckhorn again raises eyebrows with talk about Tampa Bay Rays' future
TAMPA — Seems like every week Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn is thinking out loud about the future of the Tampa Bay Rays in ways that raise people's eyebrows.
Buckhorn said in a radio interview Tuesday that he believes the team will leave St. Petersburg.
"The Rays and the city of St. Petersburg are going to have to resolve their issues," Buckhorn told J.P. Peterson on WQYK-AM 1010. "There is a contract. And there are ways out of contracts. And there are prices to be paid for breaking contracts.
"But that's got to be between the city of St. Pete and the Rays," he added. "My personal opinion is that they will come. I think the Rays have made it clear that that is not a stadium they want to continue to play in."
If the Rays do leave St. Petersburg, Buckhorn said, and not for the first time, he thinks the best place for them to land would be downtown Tampa.
But asked whether he thinks the Rays will move to Tampa, Buckhorn said, "No. It's my belief that at some point the Rays will leave St. Petersburg … and I absolutely want to be ready when that happens."
On Wednesday, Buckhorn said it's clear that playing at Tropicana Field doesn't work for the team.
What about St. Petersburg itself?
"There may be other locations in Pinellas that work for them," Buckhorn said. "I don't know."
He said he bases his comments on what he has read in the paper and the numbers, not anything from the Rays
To the contrary, Buckhorn said he only met Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg for the first time before throwing out the first pitch at the Rays game Monday night.
"We had a great chat, but it was nothing specific," he said on the radio.
Earlier this week, Buckhorn told the Times he is not talking about the team's future with the Rays, nor with anyone in either the Tampa or St. Petersburg chambers of commerce, nor with any third parties.
"I'm not getting involved," he said.
But he is talking.
This spring, he told St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster, "I'm not going to be the boyfriend in your divorce."
Then last week, he noted that the Rays were sponsoring a big business lunch in downtown Tampa. He told a crowd of 500, "I see the Tampa Bay Rays. Welcome to, uh," then in a whisper, "downtown Tampa."
Now there's this stuff on the radio.
Asked whether making flirty comments doesn't complicate things, Buckhorn said, it shouldn't.
"If you can't have fun with some of these arguably serious situations, you would melt," he said. "Humor is a great way to break the ice and hopefully move the discussion along."
Foster doesn't see it that way.
"Do I think he's helping?" Foster said. "No, I don't, but I understand his role as the mayor of Tampa. And I would appreciate people respecting my role as the mayor of the city of St. Petersburg."
Foster said he believes the economy plays more of a role in determining fan support for the Rays than the Trop or its location. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers didn't blame the city, the stadium, the fans or the bridges when they didn't sell out games last season, he noted.
If anything, Tampa leaders should bring fans over to home games by the busload to demonstrate that the Howard Frankland and Gandy bridges are no big deal, he said.
"That's how we save the team for the region," Foster said.
Times staff writer Marc Topkin contributed to this report.
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For the Boys: Shirley Gray, Shelly Ryan and Mary Ann McCarthy
Shirley Gray, Shelly Ryan and Mary Ann McCarthy play pickup basketball on Kwajalein Atoll
Shelly Ryan poses on a PBYj
Shirley Gray, Shelly Ryan and Mary Ann McCarthy
Office 365 By the Numbers: Is It a Good Value?
Microsoft has officially launched Office 365--the new cloud-based subscription productivity suite. Inevitably, there are a myriad of head-to-head comparisons and face-offs with the rival Google Apps platform, but those are only valuable for an individual or company that is seriously considering a choice between the two. For an organization that has no intention of dropping Microsoft Office, the question becomes one of which path provides the better value.
Let me start with a caveat. The math behind determining the value of Office 365 vs. simply implementing and managing your own servers and Microsoft Office infrastructure internally are subjective. A lot varies by the number of users involved, or the how spread out offices or workers are geographically. And, you have to say Bill Gates backwards three times, and sacrifice a chicken to understand the voodoo math that goes into Microsoft licensing--so my math may be sWhat would it take for you to build your own 'Office 365'? Let's consider the elements involved:
Server(s).First, you need a server or two. You will need to be able to run Exchange Server, SharePoint Server, and Lync server simultaneously, so you need to consider the number of users involved, and calculate the expected load on the server(s) to figure out how much processing horsepower you really need. A small business with only 50 or so users may be able to run all three on a single physical server, while a massive company might need multiple servers for each of the backend Microsoft products.
Software. To run your own 'Office 365' infrastructure, you have to purchase Exchange Server, and SharePoint Server, and Lync Server--along with all of the associated client licenses. You also have to rely on using Outlook / Exchange through the Outlook Web Access interface, and use the free Office Web Apps, or purchase licensed copies of Microsoft Office for all users.
Personnel. Someone has to administer, and maintain this infrastructure. You need an admin with knowledge of Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync to install, configure, deploy, and update the backend servers. The admin would also need to monitor the server and network hardware to make sure it is performing optimally, troubleshoot any problems, and upgrade or replace hardware as necessary.
A small organization can probably get by on a single physical server--perhaps using Hyper-V and multiple installations of Windows Server 2008 to create separate virtual servers for the different products. It would require a server of sufficient capacity, plus the licenses for Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync, and three licenses for Windows Server 2008.
We'll assume $5,000 for a comfortably equipped server. You might be able to get by with less, and you could certainly spend a hell of a lot more. Throw in another $5,000 for the server licenses and associated client access licenses (Again--mileage will vary wildly. See note above about voodoo math and sacrificing chickens). Tack on $50,000 a year for a bargain-basement IT admin and you are looking at investing $60,000 just to get started. And, if you also want the actual Microsoft Office 2010 desktop software installed locally on users PCs, you have to add in another couple hundred dollars per user.
Contrast that against $6 per month per user--$72 per year. You need about 850 users just to reach the break even. For organizations of 500 or less, the math in favor of Office 365 seems to be a no-brainer, and also frees the company to focus on business and leave the tedium of maintaining servers and updating software to Microsoft.
Even for massive companies where Office 365 ranges from $10 to $27 per user per month--with the default being the $24 plan--the math may still be compelling. It gets tricky when you start dealing in volume license discounts and such, but a larger organization would also require more servers, more licenses, more client access licenses, and--most importantly--more IT admins and support personnel.
The value proposition will be different for each organization, but it is a worthwhile exercise for IT execs to at least run the numbers and figure out if Office 365 makes sense for their business.
Mega Millions ticket bought in Los Angeles worth more than $700K
SACRAMENTO - Although, no one hit the MEGA Millions jackpot last night, one lucky California Lottery player who bought their ticket in Los Angeles matched five of six numbers and won $701,316.The lucky ticket was sold at the Grande's Mini Market at 4350 Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles. The ticket matched the numbers 47, 27, 12, 48 and 17, missing only the Mega number of 33.
The California Lottery reminds winners to sign the back of their ticket, keep tickets in a safe place and contact Lottery officials or visit their local Lottery District Office as soon as possible. Winners have 180 days from the date of the draw to claim prizes.
MEGA Millions is a multistate game, played in California and 41 other states. Players pick five numbers from 1 to 56 plus a Mega number from 1 to 46.
Draw times are Tuesdays and Fridays at 8 p.m. PST.
Tickets are $1 and can be purchased from any of the more than 21,000 California Lottery retailers.
Corn Higher Ahead Of USDA Estimates
CHICAGO—Corn prices jumped amid worries that upcoming estimates from the U.S. will show that grain supplies remain tight.The Department of Agriculture is expected to say Thursday that U.S. corn inventories were 23% lower as of June 1 compared with this time last year. Two separate reports are set to be released, with estimates for grain plantings as well as stockpiles.
Grain crops around the world have struggled with patchy rains and the kind of weather that results in poor yields, deepening worries about global food prices.
The corn markets, in particular, are being watched closely because inventories are the tightest among major crops and a bumper harvest is needed just to keep pace with demand.
Corn futures had rebounded 12% over the past five trading sessions after getting caught up in a broad commodity selloff spurred by concerns about Europe's debt woes.
Lower grains prices weren't sustainable even though investors see commodities generally as risky and vulnerable to concerns about the global financial system, said Jason Britt, president of brokerage Central States Commodities.
"Just because Greece is having a hiccup, it doesn't grow any more corn out there," Mr. Britt said.
Once Greece's parliament passed austerity measures on Wednesday, traders shifted focus back to tight corn supplies.
Corn for July delivery was recently 1.8% higher at $6.9525 on the Chicago Board of Trade after surging as high as 4.5% at the open.
The rally gained traction after the USDA on Monday said that conditions of the U.S. corn crop were deteriorating.
Fresh indications that China was in the market for corn also supported prices.
According to traders, shipping executives and cargo surveyors, China has bought at least 1.7 million metric tons of U.S. corn in the last four months, a figure that includes 700,000 tons contracted in recent weeks.
China became a net importer of corn in 2010 for the first time in 15 years, and its purchases are being watched closely, particularly as supplies in the U.S. run low. The U.S. is the largest exporter and grower of corn.
Analysts expect the USDA to peg 2011 corn plantings at 90.776 million acres. That is in line with the agency's early June estimates that put land sowed at 90.7 million acres, but below the USDA's original estimate in March of 92.178 million acres.
The data will likely reinforce the view that corn plantings have fallen short of expectations. Also, the USDA is expected to report Thursday that estimated corn inventories as of June 1 were 3.324 billion bushels, down 23% from a year ago.
"We need every bushel, every acre, and it's not happening," Mr. Britt said.
Still, analysts at Jefferies say they don't see corn reaching $8 a bushel, a level nearly breached in early June.
Amber Rose Nude Photos Surface
Amber Rose denies allegations that she tried to steal Nicki Minaj‘s boyfriend via a series of nude cell phone pics.Mediatakeout claims photos of the model which leave absolutely zero to the imagination, were sent to Minaj’s boyfriend, Safaree last year.
Sounds like some nasty revenge.
“These blogs do nothing but try to ruin ppls lives I DID NOT send pics to anyones boyfriend pls stop with the lies. Its so ridiculous. smh,” tweeted Amber Rose.
She continued, “Yall been doing this to me for 3 years now it shld be illegal to write fake stories about ppl the media never wants to see anyone happy.”
I’d like to be able to tell you if the photos are real or not, but I can’t hang around long enough to study them.
Boston Business Journal Honors Carbonite as One of Boston's Best Places to Work
BOSTON, June 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Carbonite®, a leading provider of online backup solutions which provide customers with "anytime, anywhere access" to their stored files, has been honored by the Boston Business Journal as the areas' ninth best midsized employer. The ranking was announced during the Best Places to Work awards breakfast, held June 9 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center. Peter Lamson, senior vice president and general manager of the Small Business Group at Carbonite, accepted the award on the company's behalf.
The annual awards recognize a total of 75 local businesses, with 25 in each of three categories - small (20-100 employees), midsized (101-500 employees) and large (more than 500 employees). Rankings were determined by employee responses generated through surveys conducted by the Boston Business Journal and Quantum Workplace during April 2011.
"Carbonite aims to cultivate a culture that our employees are proud of and excited about," said Lamson. "It is encouraging to see that our commitment to our greatest asset - our people - is being celebrated through our second consecutive Best Places to Work award and through our place among Boston's midsized businesses."
The survey project was launched in January of this year by the Boston Business Journal in conjunction with market research firm Quantum Workplace of Omaha, Neb. Companies were evaluated on the results of more than 18,000 employee-satisfaction surveys. Employees answered questionnaires that addressed such factors as their pride in the company, company encouragement, support and recognition of achievement, and relationships with co-workers and supervisors.
Carbonite launched its online backup service in 2006. In 2010, it was ranked the 9th-fastest-growing private company in the U.S. in the Inc. 500 list, and No. 1 in IT Services.
About Carbonite
Carbonite is a leading provider of online backup solutions for consumers and small and medium size businesses. More than 1 million subscribers in over 100 countries rely on Carbonite to provide easy-to-use, affordable, unlimited and secure online backup with anytime, anywhere data access. The Carbonite software runs on both the Windows and Mac platforms.
Carbonite has backed up more than 100 billion files, restored more than 7 billion files and currently backs up more than 200 million files each day. For more information, please visit www.carbonite.com, twitter.com/carbonite, or facebook.com/CarboniteOnlineBackup.
SOURCE Carbonite
Woodburns in Food Lion postponed
In a decision reserved only for complex cases, the Calvert County Board of License Commissioners, or Liquor Board, deferred a ruling Thursday night on whether to allow the wine and beer license holders of Woodburns Beverages to transfer the license from the closed Woodburns of Solomons to the Lusby Food Lion supermarket chain store.“It’s been our policy to make a decision immediately following a hearing,” Chairman J. Allen Swann said after hearing almost three hours worth of support and opposition for the transfer. “I think there’s a very good chance of appeal no matter which way it goes. We want to make the best, the properest decision.”
At the start of the hearing, Swann addressed the full house, admitting a decision would not be easy because Maryland’s liquor laws are not always clear-cut. “A lot of things are left up to the discretion of the board. If it was black and white on paper we wouldn’t be here,” he said, adding that Thursday’s hearing was one of the largest crowds he has seen.
After more than 50 years in business, Woodburns closed April 16. Now, Thomas F. McKay, president of Woodburns Food and secretary and treasurer of Woodburns Beverages, plans to open again in the Food Lion in the shopping center off H.G. Trueman Road. The specialty meats and cheeses for which the store is known will be sold along with the other produce in the Food Lion grocery store, and Woodburns Beverages will consist of a cornered-off section of the store where wine and beer will be shelved.
Customers would purchase the alcohol at the Food Lion registers, but McKay, who has owned Woodburns for 20 years, said all of the profits would go to Woodburns, and Lusby Food Lion store manager Mike Wetherald assured the board no one younger than 19 would be able to sell alcohol at the registers. Also, all employees would be required to undergo training and pass a test related to the sale of alcohol and tobacco before the register would allow them access. Self-checkout aisles would not allow alcohol to be scanned without an attendant’s approval. Liquor sale certification training is scheduled for all employees this week, he said.
Wetherald said he never has had any liquor sale violations, and he used to work for Woodburns. Food Lion Director Rick Winningham, who has been in charge of supervising the sale of beer and wine at grocery stores in Virginia and also never has had any violations, said the Woodburns section of the Lusby store would be up and running within a matter of days once the license transfer is approved.Board member Alonzo Barber said he was concerned that while loopholes in the law may allow for this scenario to take place, there are state regulations that prohibit the sale of alcohol in chain stores to protect the smaller liquor businesses around them. Putting wine and beer in a chain store where customers can buy it with their groceries, he said, “that’s like the gold mine.”
Winningham said he believes this specific situation, transfering a small business that sells alcohol and placing it inside a chain supermarket, is a first in Maryland, although Food Lions in Easton, Salisbury and Mitchellville have been granted liquor licenses. This would be a first for Calvert.
McKay’s attorney, Mark Davis, said there would be no change in ownership under the transfer and the stockholders would remain the same, with McKay owning 45 percent of the company, his sister, Elizabeth Johnson, who will continue to supervise the store when it relocates to Food Lion, owning another 45 percent, and Susan Jones of Lusby at 10 percent.
McKay said he believes the transfer is necessary because it is the only alternative for Woodburns to stay in business and, when he took over the company, he promised its former owners, Edgar and Isabel Woodburns, that he would not let the business die.
“I committed to him at the time that we would do everything we could to try and keep Woodburns alive,” he said, showing the board two memorial plaques for Edgar and Isabel that hung outside of the Solomons store and will continue to hang outside of the new location.
However, Leda McKay of Lusby, the Woodburns’ daughter, was among the transfer’s protestors at the hearing.
“I feel very strongly about this issue,” she said, adding that her parents believed in shopping local and that the small businessman was the “backbone” of the community. “This proposal seems to be an underhanded and shady way to do business, and it will open the door for other chain stores to have a liquor license.”
Also among the protestors were Mike and Carolyn Hart of Patuxent Wine & Spirits, who organized a group of opposition to the transfer. With them that night were the owners of Lusby Liquors and Ranch Liquor. Hart has argued that small business owners will suffer from the competition of the chain supermarket in their neighborhood. Carolyn McHugh, president and CEO of the Calvert County Chamber of Commerce, defended the stores, siding against the transfer in a letter to the board and during the hearing.
Equatorial Guinea wins over fans
Equatorial Guinea, one of the most obscure countries to qualify for a major international soccer tournament, put on a show in a bizarre but entertaining game Wednesday, winning over the fans who ventured to a stadium that will soon host its first men's Bundesliga games. The crowd didn't care that Equatorial Guinea had three of its best players removed from the Women's World Cup, two due to persistent gender questions, one to nationality issues. They didn't care that the country's government was recently ranked among the 12 most corrupt in the world by watchdog Transparency International. They didn't care that many of the remaining players, though naturalized citizens, were born elsewhere, often in Brazil.They didn't even care that most of the team's shots seemed as likely to hit a tunnel or even the roof of the steeply pitched Augsburg stadium as they were to hit the net. Equatorial Guinea played with the reckless abandon of an MLS or WPS All-Star Game but with equal effort on defense, outrunning Norwegian attackers and sliding to block shots.
And in the end, the fans gave the team a rousing ovation despite its 1-0 loss in a game that saw 49 shots, 26 from the upstarts, including 15 from the green-braided, quicksilver Genoveva Anonma.
"As a trainer, I despair when I see these opportunities that are not used," said Equatorial Guinea coach Marcelo Maria Frigerio, himself Italian-born and Brazilian-schooled. "We could've scored four goals."
Anonma, the most accomplished player remaining from the Equatorial Guinea roster purge, took up a free-floating and free-shooting role, with many of her shots from long distance. She opened the second half by shooting from within the center circle, just a touch or two after kickoff.
The fans gave an excited "Ohhhhhh!" when an Equatorial Guinea player found herself in space, especially after some of Anonma's nifty stutter-steps. Then a disappointed "Awwwww!" when the resulting shot or cross went 20 yards wide of its target.
Norway fans were waving flags as the game started but didn't know what to make of the action between this exuberant African team and their own national side, with three starters coming into the game with less than 10 caps. The most experienced players by far were the defensive midfield tandem of Trine Ronning and Ingvild Stensland, each with more than 100 caps, and goalkeeper Ingrid Hjelmseth, who bobbled several balls but was named player of the match for sheer volume of work (eight saves).
Early in the second half, a Norwegian breakthrough seemed inevitable. The signs of life from Norway's attack roused the team's fans from their shocked slumber, and "NOR-GE!" chants could be heard through the stadium.
But substitute Lene Mykjaland, a veteran of WPS play, was forced to limp off the field after inspiring the Norwegian attack. And Anonma got back into action. She turned a defender and shot just wide. She beat a defender to a through ball and had a shot, her 13th, saved by the onrushing Hjelmseth. The ball bounced tantalizingly wide on the ensuing corner kick.
Her next shot, her 14th of the game, missed the far post by more than 10 yards.
Anonma, who has faced gender questions of her own, plays in Germany's Frauen-Bundesliga and scored 13 goals last season with FF USV Jena. Even with her European experience, Anonma had more exuberance than polish. With two players bearing down on her in her own end, she booted the ball out of play for a deep throw-in near the corner.
"Genoveva had some very good moments during the match," Frigerio said. "She wasn't really stable throughout the game. I think she has a lot more potential. But don't forget -- this is a World Cup, and it's an emotional thing. Because of the emotions, sometimes you lose your focus."
Her teammates also brought more speed and flash than skill and poise. A giveaway at the back nearly gave Norway a first-minute goal.
And the Norwegian breakthrough indeed came through a defensive breakdown. Goalkeeper Miriam failed to get to Leni Kaurin's cross as it rolled through the six-yard box. Stensland fell, missing an easy tap-in, but Emilie Haavi was unmarked for the easy conversion.
At last the Norwegian flags returned to public view among the crowd of 12,928, which continued to cheer and chant as Equatorial Guinea chased the equalizer by shooting even more frequently.
At the final whistle, Norwegian players quickly ran to applaud their fans. Equatorial Guinea players gathered in a circle for a couple of minutes. When they broke up and applauded the fans, the crowd rose for one last ovation for a team that surely will not win the World Cup but will be well worth the price of admission.
Google Takeout lets you easily export your data from Circles
The Data Liberation Front (DLF), a left-wing guerrilla group of Googlers, has finally launched its first service: Google Takeout. Just sign in, select which Google services you want to back up, and then click Creative Archive. Each of the services will be tidily backed up to a zip file in open formats that can be imported into other, non-Google web services. To start with, Takeout only supports the easy exporting of Buzz, Picasa, your Google Profile, Contacts, and Circles — Google’s recently-launched Facebook competitor — but the eventual plan is to provide easy exporting for every Google service.
If you haven’t heard of them before, the DLF is a group and a website that helps you extract your data from Google’s web services into open, easily-transferable file formats. You can then take your email or docs or RSS feeds and import them into an installed program, or Microsoft or Yahoo’s equivalent web service. Curiously enough, though, the DLF is an engineering team at Google. The idea isn’t that they want you to transfer your data away from Google — they just think it’s important that you can. It’s basically Google’s way of showing that the data it holds in its massive database is yours, and you’re free to do what you like with it; it’s the embodiment of Google’s corporate Don’t Be Evil motto, in other words.
The timing of Google Takeout is highly suspect — but in a good way. Just last night, Google launched Google+, along with its Facebookesque Circles service. Facebook makes it notoriously hard for users to extract their data and photos, while Google Takeout and the Data Liberation Front will ensure that Circles remains very open. Having said that, Facebook recently crossed the 750 million user mark, and scant few have complained about the difficult privacy controls or the inability to export data in open formats. Circles will undoubtedly be popular among certain groups — and Takeout is definitely a juicy sweetener — but whether it can actually draw significant numbers of users away from Facebook remains to be seen.
Google +1 Spreads Around the World
Google +1, the social recommendation feature that lets users indicate their favorite pages, is picking up steam. Google is continuing to push the feature – in both its webmaster button form and the social search results connected to +1s – by releasing the feature in numerous additional countries.
+1's Increasing Momentum
The thought that Google +1 was part of a larger social construct has gained both more weight and some contradictory evidence with the release of Google+ – the actual Google social site that we've been bleeding for over the last year (editor's note: check back for more coverage on Google+ later today on Search Engine Watch). While +1s are likely to get an integration with the Google social network, much in the same way that Facebook Likes are integrated with the Facebook news stream, the +1 feature is also meant to stand alone.The +1 experiment started in March, webmasters got the button to add to their site earlier this month, Google has since added a +1 button to numerous properties (such as product pages and Blogger widgets), +1 counts – some of which are localized – are appearing in search results, and the product is continuing to gain momentum. As part of that snowball effect, Google is spreading +1 around the world.
Spreadtrum Communications Latest Target In Muddy Waters Report
HONG KONG (Dow Jones)--Shanghai-based, U.S.-listed Spreadtrum Communications Inc. (SPRD) has become the latest target of Muddy Waters LLC, after the broker declared a short position in the shares, citing a "high risk of material misstatement" in the chip designer's 2010 and 2011 financial accounts. Muddy Waters posted on its website Tuesday a copy of the nine-item letter sent to the Spreadtrum's chairman.
The document focused on the key management changes, including the resignation of the company's founder and chief executive, as well as its chief financial officer, both of whom stepped down in the span of a few months in the first half of 2009.
In a statement released in Shanghai on Wednesday, Spreadtrum said it would hold a conference call shortly before the start of U.S. trading hours. No reasons or topics were specified for the call, which was scheduled for 8 a.m., EDT.
Spreadtrum's shares fell as much as 34% mid-session on Tuesday after news of the Muddy Waters report, but later pared back losses to end 4.6% lower. The weakness persisted in after-hours trading however, with the shares eroding a further 2.2%.
Earlier this month, Toronto-listed Sino-Forest Corp. (SNOFF, TRE.T) saw its share price collapse after research by Muddy Waters raised questions over its books, and may have sparked Paulson & Co., run by hedge-fund titan John Paulson, to sell off its holdings in the company.
Among concerns highlighted in the Muddy Waters' report on Spreadtrum were the firm's sharp rise in revenue during the third quarter of 2009, numbers that point to improving business conditions around the time founder Ping Wu resigned as chief executive officer in February.
"Why would the board have lost confidence in Mr. Wu when the sales pipeline was so promising?" said the letter, written by Muddy Waters chief Carson Block.
The letter also asked for details on Spreadtrum's market-share growth by product types in 2010. Block pointed out that some companies in the sector were experiencing headwinds, while competitor Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) saw only modest growth.
Google+ social network aims to face down Facebook
Remember way back in February of 2010, when Google introduced a social media service called Google Buzz, and all the bloggers marveled that Google was so boldly taking on Facebook? Well, that didn't work out so well. Now Google is really taking on Facebook, and not just in a half-hearted kind of way. Witness the unveiling of Google+, a full-featured social network that aims to "bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software.""Today, the connections between people increasingly happen online," Google executive Vic Gundotra wrote in a statement announcing Google+. "Yet the subtlety and substance of real-world interactions are lost in the rigidness of our online tools. In this basic, human way, online sharing is awkward. Even broken. And we aim to fix it. We’d like to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software."
RELATED: With Office 365, Microsoft says, hey, Google, get off of my 'cloud'
Check the video below for more details, but basically Google+ is a more layered version of Facebook, built around something dubbed "Circles." The idea is simple: You don't have just one kind of friend, and you shouldn't have just one kind of online social circle. So unlike Facebook, Google+ allows you to create a whole bunch of circles – co-workers, for instance, or best friends – and share content and comments specifically with each circle. Meanwhile,
Google+ will also get the so-called "Sparks" feature, which is essentially a variation on the Facebook "like" functionality: See something you like, and you can instantly post it to your profile. Of course, since this is Google we're talking, the Sparks button will likely be omnipresent. But have no fear! Google is really stressing the security thing.
"You and over a billion others trust Google, and we don’t take this lightly," Gundotra wrote. "In fact we’ve focused on the user for over a decade: liberating data, working for an open Internet, and respecting people’s freedom to be who they want to be. We realize, however, that Google+ is a different kind of project, requiring a different kind of focus – on you." That "different focus" comes by way of a dynamic and varied table of security and privacy options – something it took Facebook a long time to do. In fact, Ben Parr writes over at Mashable, just about everything Google+ does is about facing down Facebook.
"The two companies are in heated competition for talent, page views and consumers," Parr writes. "While Google controls the search market and has a strong presence on mobile with Android, it hasn’t been able to crack the social nut. Its most successful social product, YouTube, had to be acquired, and it still ranks as one of the most expensive acquisitions in the company’s history."
After OpenOffice and Hudson, will Oracle stick with open source?
In recent weeks, Oracle has taken two premier open source technologies gained through the company's 2010 acquisition of Sun Microsystems -- the OpenOffice.org productivity suite and the Project Hudson continuous integration server -- and donated them to the Apache Software Foundation and Eclipse Foundation, respectively.
As the world's second-largest commercial software vendor (behind Microsoft), Oracle was not surprisingly eager to find another home for some of these open source technologies, which by definition lack the potential to bring in the boatloads of licensing revenue Oracle seeks.
[ Read InfoWorld's special report: "A year later: Did Oracle ruin or save Sun?" | Stay abreast of open source trends and news with the Technology: Open Source newsletter, only from InfoWorld. ]
Oracle still has other prominent open source properties from Sun, including the NetBeans IDE and MySQL database. Could these technologies meet the same fate as OpenOffice.org and Hudson? Probably not, analysts contend.
Why Openoffice.org and Hudson were disposable
The reason: Oracle had specific reasons for turning over OpenOffice.org and Hudson to others, and those reasons aren't about getting rid of open source technology per se, analysts tell InfoWorld. Both OpenOffice and Hudson had forked, with OpenOffice.org spinning out LibreOffice and Hudson splintering off into Jenkins. "The cases are more representative of Oracle's struggles to find its footing in the open source world than portfolio pruning," says Forrester Research analyst John Rymer. "In each case, project leaders threatened to start competing projects rather than work under Oracle's leadership. Oracle struggles with this kind of open source community turmoil and conflict."
Getting rid of the projects was one way to end that struggle in the cases, suggests IDC analyst Al Hilwa: "The Hudson case is unique because a conflict ensued and I think Oracle did its best to repair the damage. The Eclipse approach taken is a great way out of that issue and should be seen as an invitation to the Jenkins team to fold the code back in. ... The OpenOffice situation was clearly a form of conflict as well, and they essentially dealt with it in a similar way [as Hudson] just recently. You could say that they have learned a few new things on how to better handle open source projects."
With Hudson and OpenOffice, Oracle concluded there was no meaningful revenue at risk in donating the projects but that both efforts still had indirect value, Rymer says. By pushing them off to Eclipse and Apache, Oracle could continue to influence them, he asserts, without having to take on the cultural struggles: "Oracle sees Eclipse, Apache, and IBM as having a good feel for open source politics and communications."
Oracle's open source plans focus on those it thinks can make money
Whereas Sun used open source licensing to win community goodwill and encourage hardware sales, Oracle's business plan has been to figure out better ways to make money directly from the software, Hilwa says: "Oracle is being much more decisive about its open source projects than Sun ever was."
As the world's second-largest commercial software vendor (behind Microsoft), Oracle was not surprisingly eager to find another home for some of these open source technologies, which by definition lack the potential to bring in the boatloads of licensing revenue Oracle seeks.
[ Read InfoWorld's special report: "A year later: Did Oracle ruin or save Sun?" | Stay abreast of open source trends and news with the Technology: Open Source newsletter, only from InfoWorld. ]
Oracle still has other prominent open source properties from Sun, including the NetBeans IDE and MySQL database. Could these technologies meet the same fate as OpenOffice.org and Hudson? Probably not, analysts contend.
Why Openoffice.org and Hudson were disposable
The reason: Oracle had specific reasons for turning over OpenOffice.org and Hudson to others, and those reasons aren't about getting rid of open source technology per se, analysts tell InfoWorld. Both OpenOffice and Hudson had forked, with OpenOffice.org spinning out LibreOffice and Hudson splintering off into Jenkins. "The cases are more representative of Oracle's struggles to find its footing in the open source world than portfolio pruning," says Forrester Research analyst John Rymer. "In each case, project leaders threatened to start competing projects rather than work under Oracle's leadership. Oracle struggles with this kind of open source community turmoil and conflict."
Getting rid of the projects was one way to end that struggle in the cases, suggests IDC analyst Al Hilwa: "The Hudson case is unique because a conflict ensued and I think Oracle did its best to repair the damage. The Eclipse approach taken is a great way out of that issue and should be seen as an invitation to the Jenkins team to fold the code back in. ... The OpenOffice situation was clearly a form of conflict as well, and they essentially dealt with it in a similar way [as Hudson] just recently. You could say that they have learned a few new things on how to better handle open source projects."
With Hudson and OpenOffice, Oracle concluded there was no meaningful revenue at risk in donating the projects but that both efforts still had indirect value, Rymer says. By pushing them off to Eclipse and Apache, Oracle could continue to influence them, he asserts, without having to take on the cultural struggles: "Oracle sees Eclipse, Apache, and IBM as having a good feel for open source politics and communications."
Oracle's open source plans focus on those it thinks can make money
Whereas Sun used open source licensing to win community goodwill and encourage hardware sales, Oracle's business plan has been to figure out better ways to make money directly from the software, Hilwa says: "Oracle is being much more decisive about its open source projects than Sun ever was."
Newsweek cover with Princess Diana at 50 is creepy
(CBS/AP) On the cover of Newsweek this week, Princess Diana is alive, well and walking with her daughter-in-law, Catherine, Duchess of Cornwall. It's an interesting idea but the computer-generated image is creepy.The article inside was written by Diana biographer and longtime provocateur Tina Brown. She's also Newsweek's editor-in-chief, having taken over after her online publication, the Daily Beast, merged late last year with the decades-old publication.
"What would she have been like?" Brown writes of Diana, who would have turned 50 on Friday, nearly 14 years after her death in a Paris car crash. "Still great-looking: that's a given."
The magazine's new issue also features an imagined Diana Facebook page and a slideshow comparing the fashion styles of Diana and Middleton, who married Diana's oldest child, Prince William, in April.
About the cover, a Los Angeles Times headline asked, "Shocking, brilliant or just plain cheap?" An Atlantic Wire headline added, "How Creepy Is Princess Diana's Ghost on the Cover of Newsweek?"
Brown's answer: Not at all.
"We wanted to bring the memory of Diana alive in a vivid image that transcends time and reflects my piece," she said in a statement Tuesday.
Has Google Learned From Social Failure
With Google+, it looks like the search giant may have finally built a social product that people will use.
Shortly after Google announced the new social networking service, executives Bradley Horowitz and Vic Gundotra (who are leading the company's social efforts) spoke with Adweek about the lessons they've learned from past failures, both inside and outside Google. The company's most infamous social fumble was its product Google Buzz, which many users saw as a violation of their privacy—as did the Federal Trade Commission. Horowitz said that's symptomatic of of larger problem that he called "overfriending": When you're friends with too many people on a service like Facebook, then you don't want to share anything private. Google+, on the other hand, introduces the idea of Circles. Users divide their connections into categories like "friends" and "acquaintances", then they share things (a comment, say, or a photo) with whichever circle they want.
"We've built a product that's good for a shout and good for a whisper," Horowitz said.
There are other pieces to Google+, like Hangout, a video chat service, and Sparks, where users can find and share content around their interests. And unlike Buzz, Google+ feels easy-to-use and intuitive, rather than overwhelming and confusing—at least judging from an hour or two of poking around. (The service is not yet open to most people, and can only be accessed by those invited to do so; an Adweek editor received a press invite.) Users just drag-and-drop their friends into different circles, then when they're ready to share things, they select the appropriate circle from a menu, or choose to share with everyone.
As people wrap their heads around the Circles concept, there will probably be some confusion. For example, it may not be clear that the relationships aren't reciprocal. You can list someone as a close friend, but that friend might say they're only an acquaintance, or leave you out of their Circles entirely. Still, the system is much simpler than Facebook's rather Byzantine privacy controls.
Here's the bigger question: If people like Google+ as a product, will they switch over even though all their friends are still on Facebook? Gundotra thinks they will—he noted that it's normal to belong to multiple online social services, so people don't have to choose between Facebook or Google. And, he argued, Google+ will become even more useful as new features are added in the coming months, especially as it's integrated with existing Google services.
Integration brings a new set of risks—one reason people freaked out about Buzz was the fact that it was part of Gmail. Gundotra said that gradually inviting users into a "field test" will help Google find the right balance between sharing and privacy.
And, he argued, these kinds of social projects are crucial for Google's future, like it or not.
Katharine McPhee Promotes 'Smash' in 'The Voice'
American singer Katharine Hope McPhee, who finished as runner-up in American Idol Season 5, made an appearance at NBC's The Voice to promote her upcoming new musical drama Smash. McPhee talked about NBC’s new show where she will appear alongside FlashForward star Jack Davenport and Will & Grace’s Debra Messing.
McPhee also said she would be performing her own version of one of Coach’s several hits. McPhee said she would also be performing her own version of Christina Aguilera's Beautiful on the new show, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Smash, which is a musical drama, revolves around a group of characters who come together to put on a Broadway musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe. But before that can happen, the people who will try to bring it all together must deal with their own personal acts.
The series will feature original music by composers Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. NBC opted to hold the show for mid-season in order to pair it up with the hit reality show The Voice on Monday nights, according to New York Times.
Smash is an upcoming American National Broadcasting Company (NBC) series set to premiere in the 2011/2012 mid-season. Smash stars Debra Messing (Will & Grace), McPhee (American Idol) and Oscar winner Anjelica Huston (Prizzi's Honor).
Smash was written and created by Theresa Rebeck and developed by Robert Greenblatt. Executive producers of Smash are Steven Spielberg and Craig Zadan & Neil Meron (producers of Chicago and Hairspray), and songwriters are Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (Hairspray).
The show is a production of Uni
Smash was written and created by Theresa Rebeck and developed by Robert Greenblatt. Executive producers of Smash are Steven Spielberg and Craig Zadan & Neil Meron (producers of Chicago and Hairspray), and songwriters are Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (Hairspray).
The show is a production of Universal Media Studios in association with Dreamworks. The pilot was said to have cost $7.5 million to produce, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
versal Media Studios in association with Dreamworks. The pilot was said to have cost $7.5 million to produce, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
McPhee also said she would be performing her own version of one of Coach’s several hits. McPhee said she would also be performing her own version of Christina Aguilera's Beautiful on the new show, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Smash, which is a musical drama, revolves around a group of characters who come together to put on a Broadway musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe. But before that can happen, the people who will try to bring it all together must deal with their own personal acts.
The series will feature original music by composers Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman. NBC opted to hold the show for mid-season in order to pair it up with the hit reality show The Voice on Monday nights, according to New York Times.
Smash is an upcoming American National Broadcasting Company (NBC) series set to premiere in the 2011/2012 mid-season. Smash stars Debra Messing (Will & Grace), McPhee (American Idol) and Oscar winner Anjelica Huston (Prizzi's Honor).
Smash was written and created by Theresa Rebeck and developed by Robert Greenblatt. Executive producers of Smash are Steven Spielberg and Craig Zadan & Neil Meron (producers of Chicago and Hairspray), and songwriters are Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (Hairspray).
The show is a production of Uni
Smash was written and created by Theresa Rebeck and developed by Robert Greenblatt. Executive producers of Smash are Steven Spielberg and Craig Zadan & Neil Meron (producers of Chicago and Hairspray), and songwriters are Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (Hairspray).
The show is a production of Universal Media Studios in association with Dreamworks. The pilot was said to have cost $7.5 million to produce, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
versal Media Studios in association with Dreamworks. The pilot was said to have cost $7.5 million to produce, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Numbers soar at lido as hot spell nears 30C
Cambridge basked in sizzling temperatures yesterday – as health chiefs issued hot weather warnings.
With 90F (30C) almost reached in the city, the lido on Jesus Green was packed with people looking to cool off.
But the heat proved too much for animals and birds at Shepreth Wildlife Park.
Rebecca Willers, animal care manager, said: “To keep the animals cool in this extreme heat, we have been freezing bloodsicles for the tigers, showering the emus with cool water and freezing fruit into blocks of ice for the primates to play with.”
Health chiefs at NHS East of England urged people to look after themselves – and others – during the hot spell after the Met Office issued a Level 2 heatwave alert.
Dr Anne McConville, acting regional director of public health with NHS East of England, said: “Dehydration is one of the biggest causes of illness during hot conditions so it is essential to make sure you drink plenty of water, wear a sun hat and T-shirt and avoid long periods sitting in direct sunlight, especially in the middle of the day.
“Always apply plenty of sunscreen to yourself and your children, and look after the elderly and those suffering from long-term conditions by checking on them regularly and making sure they are staying cool and drinking plenty of fluids.”
As the Cambridge University rooftop weather service measured the top temperature at just below 90F (30C) yesterday afternoon, with 100 per cent sunshine, forecasters warned thunderstorms last night would bring the hot weather to an abrupt end.
The Environment Agency and Met Office have issued a warning about the risk of flash flooding in the Eastern region today.
They said heavy and thundery showers were expected to develop last night, which could result in localised flooding. Between 25 and 50mm of rain was predicted in some places.
Amateur weather forecaster Peter Martin, 57, who runs a weather watch website from Saffron Walden, said temperatures would gradually fall during the week, with rain expected on Sunday – good news for rail operators after train timetables went into meltdown yesterday.
The heat affected overhead power lines, causing train cancellations between London Liverpool Street and Suffolk and Essex.
Dr Who star Karen Gillan caught naked in hotel corridor
There’s never a Tardis around to whisk a girl away when she needs one.Doctor Who star Karen Gillan could have done with just that when she reportedly got stranded naked in a hotel corridor at 7am after a night partying.
The flame-haired beauty, 23, who plays the Time Lord’s assistant Amy Pond, was allegedly found trying another guest’s door while she was on the week-long promotional junket.
One claimed Karen was “whimpering” at his door. He said: “I went to the peephole then I saw this woman naked, trying to wrap towels around her and not having much luck. She started to whimper and knock on my door.
Show boss Stephen Moffatt and Matt Smith, who plays the Doctor, were also on the trip.
Last night, a spokesman for BBC Worldwide, the corporation’s commercial arm, said: “We’re unaware of this alleged incident.”
A BBC source added: “BBC Worldwide does not use licence fee income to operate – so this international publicity trip was not funded by the licence fee payer.”
Russian double agent who betrayed ‘sexy spy’ Chapman gets 25-yr jail term
A Moscow district military court has handed down a 25-year sentence in absentia to Alexander Poteyev, the Russian double agent who fled to the US after betraying the espionage ring which included Anna Chapman.
Poteyev, a former Afghan war veteran and long-serving officer in Russia's foreign intelligence service (SVR), who is still believed to be hiding in the US, was found guilty of state treason and desertion, The Guardian reports.
Chapman and Poteyev's wife, Marina, appeared as witnesses during the trial, and in its judgment the Moscow district military court revealed that he had sent a text message to the latter after leaving Russia, saying: "Mari, try to take this calmly. I'm not going away for a while, I'm going away forever. I did not want to, but I had to. I will start a new life. I'll try to help the children."
29-year old Chapman and nine other sleeper agents known as "illegals" were captured in June 2010 in America after they had been under US intelligence surveillance for several years. The spies were deported to Russia in July, in exchange for four people who were allegedly linked to MI6 and the CIA and were serving different terms in Russian prisons.
Lisa Ray’s Bollywood: ‘almost like a guilty pleasure’
When actress and cancer survivor Lisa Ray, 39, was a young girl growing up in Etobicoke, Ont., her Bengalese dad would take her every weekend to an Indian grocer in Rexdale to pick up the ingredients for a traditional South Asian feast. There, Ray and her mother would peruse the shelves stocked-to-overflowing with the gaudily packaged Bollywood films that were an intriguing mystery to the Toronto-born girl and her Polish mother.The women of the Ray household started renting the flicks –that her father disliked, but her mother, who couldn’t understand a word of Hindi, was entranced by, primarily because of the sheer spectacle of song, dance and pageantry. Ten years later, at the tender age of 16, Ray found herself in Bombay (now Mumbai), where she fast became one of India’s most sought-after models. Soon, the offers from Bollywood poured in. But she was hesitant about a career in an industry that seemed to an Indo-Canadian girl – particularly then – so kitschy. Eventually, the brunette beauty capitulated, appearing in 2001’s Kasoor. Soon afterwards, however, exhausted from the noise and frenetic pace of India, the actress moved back to Canada to focus on art-house-film roles. Ironically, it was her turn in Kasoor that caught filmmaker Deepa Mehta’s eye, and Ray’s first starring role back in her native country was Mehta’s spoof Bollywood Hollywood, followed by her poignant performance in the same director’s Oscar-nominated Water.
As the International Indian Film Academy Awards come to Toronto this weekend, Ray reflects on the magic and mayhem of the industry in her own words.
MOM AND BOLLYWOOD AND ME
When I was a kid, we’d rent Bollywood movies, and my mom and I would watch them. My dad didn’t bother because he was very disdainful of them for many different reasons. He grew up in the Bengali community, which considers itself to be the intellectuals, the visionaries of India, regardless of whether that’s true or not. Bengal also produced the great, serious filmmaker Satyajit Ray, who is considered one of the masters in India.
But my mom and I would watch the movies for the action, more than the storylines, which are more or less interchangeable. We had our favourite actors and actresses. I certainly never aspired to be a part of Bollywood films. To my eye and taste, the actual storylines and the quality of production are not that impressive. The appeal to me was simply the songs, dancers and costumes.
MOVIES ‘KIND OF LIKE FAST FOOD’
I was just in a play for Luminato called Taj, with the Indian actor Kabir Bedi, a very renowned, very worldly and wise Indian actor. We were rehearsing the play in Mississauga, in a complex that was quite close to a couple of Indian grocery stores. One day, we were walking to lunch and Kabir saw in the shop windows, dahl, rice and Bollywood films, a slew of them. And he giggled and said to me, “My God, when you’re making a Bollywood film, you’re consumed by the sheer amount of effort involved – you’re shooting when it’s too hot, cold, dusty, dirty and chaotic. You go through all that, and here your final product is probably given away free with a sack of dahl.” We chuckled together because Bollywood films are kind of like fast food. They’re easy, quick consumption.
Aprilia Pits RSV4 Against Nissan GTR
The magnificent Aprilia RSV4 Factory APRC SE Italian superbike is a new generation of fast bikes that are packed with electronic systems which are supposed to make the most of the engine’s output and enhance the overall performance. Aprilia claims their RSV4 has the most sophisticated set ever fitted to a road legal bike. So to test it out, they’ve devised a race between the bike and a car that is also stuffed with electronic controls, Nissan GTR. Both vehicles are completely stock. So, which one do you reckon will win the battle?
Five Call of Duty: Black Ops Apps
With new games, there are great applications to assist them, for Call of Duty Black Ops we have five apps to look through and let you know our views. The popular Call of Duty games will always have extra information for you to discover, and various information that you might find a great help through apps.Black Ops Ultimate Utility lite for iOS iPhone is a free application, which is always the best to start with. This app contains a K/D calculator that will help you divide your Kill/Death rate to see how many more you need to move your K/D higher. Using this free app you will also be able to rate yourself in comparison to other players. Keep your values saved in the app and chat with other participants. Each week you will get updated polls and news, so you can find out what is the best weapon and lots more.
Next up is Duty Black Ops Guide also for iOS iPhone, this one is £0.59 and comes with cheats, hints, tips, secrets, specials, achievements and more. This app is designed to help you master the game, so you can show your friends handy tips and techniques. With the COD Black Ops Strategy Guide, you will be able to find exactly what you are searching for and share your own discoveries that might have been missed. Giving this app feedback helps it become more useful to other gamers.
Cheats for Call of Duty Black Ops on iOS iPhone is another quite similar app available for £0.59. In this app you will obtain the most used cheats, tricks and tips, meaning their probably the best cheats to use. There are all the Zombie maps and easy “Frag Master” achievement, one of the drawbacks of this app is that it is an unofficial version and is not endorsed by or affiliated with the creator of this video game or its licensors. With no screen shots and all characters, their respective owners trademark their names, places, and other aspects of the video game described within this application.
The Untold Guide, Call of Duty: Black Ops HD version is for iOS iPad and is also £0.59. This has an untold guide, as you can keep up with the latest news and progress further in the game, getting a different perspective; this app also has a disclaimer. The fifth app we looked at is the Black Ops Random Class Generator for iOS iPhone also available for £0.59. This app will mix things up a bit especially if you have grown tired of the same old weapons and specials. You can use a randomly generated set-up to give yourself a bit more competition, with just the touch of a button you can randomly choose one of over 3.8 million possible class combinations. There are hours of HD videos including tons of tips & tricks, trailers, and user clips like across map tomahawks or crazy kill streaks.
These are just five of the many apps available for you to get hold of. Each one will have something of use to you, so sometimes it is better to have a good look around to find the one with your specific needs. To view more, visit the AppShopper.
Happy Feet Recovers! News On New Zealand’s Wayward Bird
(WILDLIFE — WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND) After attracting tons of media attention due to the rarity of his arrival and scaring animal lovers everywhere with his fast spiral into ill health, New Zealand’s visiting penguin Happy Feet is recovering from surgery. While all are happy to see the stoic bird healing well, many are confused at the curious lack of information on the penguin. Even after an operation and much care, scientists are not yet able to identify the age or even sex of the penguin. In the meantime, all hope for a quick and painless recovery and return home for the wayward bird. — Global Animal
Associated Press
New Zealand’s favourite penguin visitor is more lively and eating fish after undergoing endoscopic surgery to remove some of the sand and twigs it apparently mistook for snow and swallowed.
Full recovery for the young emperor penguin – nicknamed Happy Feet – may take months. Officials are unsure when or how it could return home to the Antarctic, about 2,000 miles away.
The bird was recovering well after the endoscopy, performed on Monday by one of New Zealand’s leading surgeons – for human patients.
Doctors at the Wellington zoo guided a camera on a tube through the penguin’s swollen intestines and flushed its stomach to remove the swallowed sand and pieces of driftwood. Penguins eat snow to hydrate themselves during the Antarctic winter.
To ensure the health of its newest star, the zoo brought in Wellington hospital specialist John Wyeth to help with the procedure, the Press Association reported.
The surgery went well, and doctors removed about half of the remaining sand and several twigs from the bird’s digestive system, a zoo spokeswoman, Kate Baker, said. Medical staff hope the rest of the debris will pass naturally, but an x-ray is scheduled for Wednesday.
“It’s positive news, but he’s definitely not out of the woods yet,” Baker said.
The penguin is now dining on fish slurry and has been standing and appearing more active than when it arrived, she added.
The bird was moved to the zoo on Friday after its health worsened on the beach.
The penguin is being housed in a room at the zoo chilled to about 46F (8C), Baker said, and has a bed of ice on which it can sleep.
Happy Feet, nicknamed from the 2006 animated film, was discovered last week on a North Island beach, the first spotting of an emperor in New Zealand in 44 years. Emperors typically spend their entire lives aroundAntarctica.
After landing on Peka Peka beach, the penguin appeared healthy at first, but it became dehydrated, suffered heat exhaustion and was eating large amounts of sand.
Peter Simpson, the programme manager of diversity for the department of conservation, said he would meet with penguin experts at the zoo on Wednesday to consider Happy Feet’s next steps. He said it was not simply a matter of tossing the penguin back into the ocean off New Zealand’s coast.
“There’s no great rush to decide,” Simpson said. “It will most likely need more medical work over the next three months.”
Simpson said the penguin was likely to remain at the zoo for that time while it recovered.
Gareth Morgan, a New Zealand investment adviser, has offered to transport the penguin back to Antarctica next February when he leads an expedition to there. But Simpson said that, while officials appreciate the offer, they may want to act before then.
Simpson said the penguin may be older than experts first thought – perhaps up to two-and-a-half years old rather than the initial estimate of 10 months. It stands about 80cm (3ft) high.
Asteroid to pass Earth closer than the Moon today
There are no known immediate threats to Earth when it comes to an asteroid impact, but our planet seems to be receiving a number of flybys lately. In February of this year, the Earth recorded its closest near miss when asteroid 2011 CQ1 avoided an impact with the planet by only 3,405 miles. Now, another close shave today is expected to come within 7,500 miles, which will put the asteroid closer to the Earth than the Moon (32x closer in fact) and in the same area as some communications and television satellites. What is a bit scary about this latest asteroid is that it was only discovered late last week.
The asteroid has been designated 2011 MD and was discovered by a pair of robotic telescopes which are a part of MIT’s Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR). It’s still unclear, but 2011 MD is thought to be between 8 and 18 meters in diameter, or roughly as big as a large house.
LINEAR, funded by the United States Air Force and NASA, is applying technology originally used to track Earth orbiting satellites toward the goal of tracking and cataloging near-Earth asteroids. When a discovery is verified by LINEAR it is then sent on to the Minor Planet Center (MPC) which applies a designation to any new discovery. What is interesting about 2011 MD is that it may not be an asteroid at all. Astronomers are looking into the possibility that what we may believe is an asteroid is actually a discarded rocket booster from a previously launched planetary probe due to its Earth-like orbit.
Unfortunately, most people won’t be able to see 2011 MD when it passes by. The time of the event will be 1pm EST meaning daylight hours for most of the U.S. and Europe. South Africe and Antartica will be able to see it pass, while New Zealand and Australia should be able to see part of the approach.
2011 MD’s passing won’t mark the end of the excitement around near-Earth asteroids this year. An asteroid designated 2005 YU5 is 400-meters wide and expected to pass within the orbit of the Moon on November 8th. At least, that’s when the next known near-Earth asteroid is expected. There is always the possibility that LINEAR could detect another near-Earth asteroid before then and like 2011 MD we may not have a lot of lead time that it is coming.
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley Says 'Transformers' Will Be First 3-D Movie She's Seen
In case you need more reason to go see "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" this week, in addition to crazy amped-up action and a new lovely leading lady, the third robot-tastic installment is in 3-D. And it wasn't converted in postproduction, like a few of the recent 3-D films out there. Director Michael Bay insisted that his first foray into the three-dimensional medium be as authentic and technologically advanced as possible.Lately there has definitely been a bit of 3-D fatigue in the air. When MTV News caught up with Rosie Huntington-Whiteley at the film's worldwide premiere in Moscow recently, we asked for her thoughts on the 3-D element of "Dark of the Moon."
"I will be the judge of that after I see this film, because I have never seen a movie in 3-D," she revealed. "When Michael told me it was going to be in 3-D, I said, 'Right, I'm going to wait,' and now we're here, we're at the premiere stage and I'm going to wait until [I'm in] London and see it with my family."
So when Whiteley finally watches the 3-D version of the film with her family and friends, will she be watching herself on the big screen or watching her family's reactions?
"I'm going to be watching them watching me," she said with a laugh.
Bay has made a big deal of the fact that he initially had a lot of reservations about 3-D, explaining that his buddy director James Cameron finally convinced him to go for it with this film.
"[James Cameron], at the last minute, goes, 'Mike, come on,' " Bay recalled, imitating the "Avatar" director's enthusiasm with a slightly deep and gravelly inflection in his voice. "This is like my idol. He goes, 'Mike, come on, we've done everything.' I'm thinking, 'I haven't done everything.' "
Cameron pushed him to try out this "new toy," and despite all the headaches that were added to the filmmaking process with shooting in 3-D, he's glad he did it.
Billy the Kid photograph fetches $2.6 million at auction
A photograph of Billy the Kid sold for $2.3 million in Denver at the weekend, smashing the pre-auction expected price of $400,000.It is one of the most expensive pieces ever sold from the old West. Billy the Kid’s mother, Catherine McCarty, came from Ireland as likely did his father .
The tintype was taken in 1879 or 1880 in New Mexico and shows Billy posing with a shotgun. It is the only authenticated picture of him.
When Pat Garrett finally tracked down and killed Billy the Kid in 1881 a subtext of the killing was the Irish identity of the two famous protagonists.
Pat Garrett was the grandson of Irish immigrants while Billy the Kid was really William McCarty, both of whose parents came from Ireland.
As Wikipedia notes Little is known about McCarty's origins, but many reputable scholars of western history "contend that he was born on the eve of the Civil War in the bowels of an Irish neighborhood in New York City at 70 Allen Street)."
While his biological father remains an obscure figure, some researchers have theorized that his name was Patrick McCarty, Michael McCarty, William McCarty, or Edward McCarty.
There is clear evidence that his mother's name was Catherine McCarty, although "there have been continuing debates about whether McCarty was her maiden or married name".
The most reputable accounts say , McCarty was born as William Henry McCarty, Jr., but his mother preferred to call him "Henry" because she did not wish him to be known as "junior".
It is generally believed that McCarty's mother was a survivor of the Great Irish Famine of the mid-19th century.
By 1870 Catherine McCarty had moved with her two young sons, Henry and Joseph, to Indianapolis, Indiana.
There, she met William Antrim, who was 12 years her junior.[13] In 1873, after several years of moving around the country, the two were married at the First Presbyterian Church in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and settled further south in Silver City.
Antrim found sporadic work as a bartender and carpenter but soon became more interested in prospecting and gambling for fortune than in his wife and stepsons. Nevertheless, young McCarty often used the surname "Antrim" when referring to himself.
McCarty's mother reportedly washed clothes, baked pies, and took in boarders in order to provide for her sons. Although she was fondly remembered by onetime boarders and neighbors as "a jolly Irish lady, full of life and mischief", she was already in the final stages of tuberculosis when the family reached Silver City.
The following year, on September 16, 1874, Catherine McCarty died; she was buried in the Memory Lane Cemetery in Silver City.
'Celebrity Rehab' Season 5 Premiere - Meet 2011 Cast Members
Celebrity Rehab for season 5 premiered Sunday night. The VH1 show has pulled together a collection of diverse personalities for its 2011 cast, all of whom are battling demons of various addictive kinds.Consider Jeremy Jackson, most recognizable as Hobie Buchannon on the former network hit, Baywatch. Eleven years ago, Jackson was arrested for methamphetamine manufacturing, but he cleaned up and carried on until he discovered he was having a new problem.
These days this actor, who enjoyed plenty of success early in his career, is addicted to steroids of all types, some of which are normally given to cattle that are about to go to slaughter. Dr. Drew recognizes the seriousness of Jeremy's situation and indicates he has plenty of work to do at Celebrity Rehab, which started June 25 on the premises of the Pasadena Recovery Center.
Joining Jackson on the VH1 show called Celebrity Rehab is Amy Fisher, also known as the Long Island Lolita because when she was 16, the teen shot her married boyfriend's wife in the face. Fisher admitted that she did a lot of drugs at that time, allegedly making it more feasible to carry off such a hideous crime.
After going to jail for what she did to Joey Buttafucco's spouse, Amy eventually got married and gave birth to three children. While being happy in her domestic life, Amy Fisher needed a job so she decided to try a career in the adult porn industry. But, in order to carry off this questionable assignment, Fisher turned to drink. That was the only way Amy said she could stomach this new profession.
The alcohol apparently did the trick as far going forward with filming, but then this questionable reason for drinking led to continuous black-outs, losing all memory of what she did and did not do while under the influence. So Amy is on Celebrity Rehab to get help from Dr. Drew.
So are another half dozen patients who will all stay together with Amy Fisher and Jeremy Jackson at the Pasadena Recovery Center in the Los Angeles area to work out their problems with addiction of all sorts, even heroin. That said, time will tell whether or not each of these Celebrity Rehab cast members for 2011 will make it or will not make through the initial steps of recovery. What do you think? Please weigh in.
Metal Stolen from Vehicles in Menards, Kmart and Home Depot Parking Lots
The Homewood Police Department is investigating three incidents at
Homewood businesses where employees' cars were stripped of their
catalytic converters, police said.The metal thief or thieves struck Wednesday at Menards, 17545 Halsted St.; Kmart Supercenter, 17550 Halsted St.; and Home Depot, 17845 Halsted St., in each case targeting employee vehicles parked in outlying lots, according to the report.
In the theft at Menards, a woman discovered that someone had used a cutting tool to remove the catalytic converter from her vehicle parked in an outer lot sometime between 5:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., police said. The replacement cost was estimated at $500.
At Kmart, a parking lot security camera captured the image of a dark-colored van parking near an employee's car at 8:37 a.m. and leaving just eight minutes later. The employee, a Chicago Heights resident, discovered numerous wires dangling from the undercarriage of his vehicle and his catalytic converter missing, with the damage again estimated at $500.
At Home Depot, two employees discovered their catalytic converters missing, with the time of the theft estimated to be between 5:30 a.m. and noon, police said.
Nationally known metal theft expert Gary Bush, director of material theft prevention at the Washington, D.C.-based Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, Inc. (ISR), said these thefts reflect an ongoing national trend.
"Sadly, I have heard of similar incidents,” Bush said. “Any vehicle unattended is a potential target, although it seems (but not always the case) that the thieves go after trucks, vans, SUVs more than anything else—the (catalytic converters) are easier to get to. I still try to promote marking items for easier identification and for law enforcement to register and use Scrap Theft Alert so that the recyclers can be alerted as to what to look for."
Mob Wives: "She's got no spades, so she might as well throw in her hand"
If there's one major thing to take away from the first season of Mob Wives, it's that as much bravado and swagger as these women may try to give off, they're human just like the rest of us and eventually the toll of an unusual lifestyle is bound to start affecting them. In past episodes, we've seen Karen deal with crushing press, Renee find the strength to leave her ex once and for all, and even typically tough Carla struggle with just how to tell her kids where their father had been for the past 6 years.The season one finale was all about the unraveling of Drita D'avanzo and it was both a tough and captivating watch. Drita's volatile relationship with Lee may have finally reached its breaking point with a shocking revelation of his infidelity during his short stay home (my notes: "SHUT UP. SHUT. UP." and about 500 underlines) and that stress, frustration, and anger bubbled over when it came time to discuss the issue of Karen's apparent fudging of the timeline of her relationship with Lee and how that made Drita look. When the fight between Karen and Drita was finally broken up by production, it was clear: things had changed for the Mob Wives.
Here's my thing. If Karen had been cheating on Lee as much as we implied, she has zero right to comment on who he sees or doesn't see, regardless if it's her girlfriend or not. To me, cheating on somebody repeatedly negates girl code and why should Drita be forced to tell you when she gets with Lee when you can't even bother to stay faithful to him in the first place?! Let's not forget that Karen giving Drita the book was all about stirring the pot (you've known Drita for more than a decade and you're surprised she doesn't want to read your book/give you feedback when you explicitly said you didn't care what she thinks?); let's even forget that Karen continues to bring up this whole thing and more or less guilted Drita into apologizing by crying in front of her. The timeline fudging, the selective morality, and the weird friendship standards (what about forgiveness?) were all too much to handle and I can understand Drita's frustration.
Season one of Mob Wives ended with the same tone as it began. In the span of one episode, you had funny one liners, intense fights, and a whole lot of self-reflection, as Renee was looking toward the future, Drita was regretting the past, and Karen didn't quite know what direction to go. The show can go from lighthearted and even somewhat goofy to heartbreaking to loud and angry within a short span and it honestly works, partially because the chaotic nature of an episode seems to mirror the lifestyle we've been watching for the past 10 episodes. Here's hoping that each woman either finds a little peace with their current situation or continues to realize that while they may have conquered "The Life", real life can sometimes be just as tough if not tougher and the hard work is just beginning.
Final Thoughts:
- How on fire was Renee during her talking heads? My personal favorite was probably "I'm divorced from my husband for 12 years. I dare you to go out with him."
- "I don't think I need to fill my life with his problems." I don't really get "attached" to reality stars, but my heart was really warmed by seeing just how at peace Renee was about her situation with Junior and where her life is taking her. The introduction of therapy into a show like this was such a smart move and I hope Renee continues to see Dr. Gorsky during season two to keep up the good work.
- Just speculating, but I think Dave will take Carina and move to New York to be with Karen, especially since the show was picked up for a second season. He seems like he loves her and we've seen how Carina's absence has affected Karen, so I don't see them staying apart for too long.
- Sneakers or heels? The age old question.
- The fight itself seemed like it would be one for the ages, but they didn't show much more than what they were using in the promos. There's supposed to be bonus footage on the show's site, so if you're so inclined, you can check that out, as well as catch up on any episodes you missed before the reunion.
- I know Mob Wives is just a silly little show on VH1, but I have to say that I greatly enjoyed myself during season one and I got way more into the storylines than I expected to. Despite the issues I have with certain members of the cast, I want the best for these ladies and as entertaining as their fights can be, it's awesome to see them make personal progress and get to the root of their unhappiness.
- The reunion, airing in two weeks, will be a hot mess and I cannot wait. Bring it on.
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