Is there nothing she can’t do?
There have been celebrity photobombs before, but this is one of the best.
She is OWNING that photobomb.
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Like father, like daughter, it would appear.
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Excellent work, Taylor.
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Thursday, February 26, 2015
Taylor Swift Photobombed Brilliantly At The BRITs
Here's Everything That Happened Behind The Scenes At The Brits
From the makeup chair to the after-parties.
Sam Smith shared this snap from the makeup chair ahead of the ceremony.
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And hung out with Greg James backstage.
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The 21 Cringiest Moments Of The 2015 BRITs
More or less everything Taylor Swift did, basically.
And he clearly enjoyed getting his photo taken.
Twitter: @NandosUK
The most awkward moment on the red carpet was probably when someo...
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This Is What Kim And Kanye Did After The Brit Awards
No after-parties for Kimye.
Last night Kim Kardashian and Kanye West made appearances at the Brit Awards. Kanye performed...
Although ITV muted most of the performance, which made the whole thing slightly awkward.
ITV / Via...
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17 Times Colton Haynes Was #TBT Perfection
We wish it was Thursday everyday.
/ Monique Steele / Jason Merritt
This is Colton Haynes.
Beautiful, beautiful Colton Haynes.
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You might recog...
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19 Heartwarming Stories Of Celebrities Doing Random Acts Of Kindness
Just try to make it through this post without getting emotional.
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Somebody Stole Lupita Nyong'o's $150,000 Oscar Dress From Her Hotel
Save the pearls.
Jordan Strauss / AP
Chris Pizzello / AP
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Now The Internet Belongs To Us — And To Politics
Thursday’s net neutrality ruling was a victory for consumers. It also ushers in a new age for the mainstream politics of the internet.
Net neutrality won. The internet is ours! We've taken it! Stolen it back from the people who, well, provide it to us at a pretty reasonable rate, truth be told. The entire library of human everything delivered right to your doorstep for a mere $20 to $50 or so a month, depending on how fast it is that you want that everything. Now that the FCC has voted to enshrine net neutrality, there is nothing left standing between you and the great unlimited gush of audio and video bits and packets slip-sliding right into your Sonos at democratically arrived-at speeds, unencumbered by fast or slow lanes. It means that your startup porn comes right to you with the same speed as your well-established, big business, legacy pornography. Let the binge-watching bonanza begin, this is America!
And yet, it still could serve as a political bludgeon. An example of the way President Obama overreaches. Something that divides Democrats and Republicans. In other words: politics as usual.
No matter your feelings on net neutrality, it's hard to feel like the FCC's decision Thursday represents anything other than the mainstreaming of the internet as a political issue. Because while net neutrality's victory means that things on the technology side will largely stay the same, it also means that something pretty big changed politically.
Remember, it was just over a year ago that net neutrality looked crispy. The movement over the 13 months that took net neutrality from dead to all but enshrined is demonstrable evidence that technology and the internet have become mainstream issues that will play a big, permanent role in politics.
As the net becomes ever more something that is a part of mainstream, middle-class American life, it's going to also become increasingly subject to regulation and legislation. And along with that, people are increasingly going to care about how it's regulated. The internet is now meat-and-potato politics, like gas prices and health care costs — the quotidian stuff of City Hall press conferences, empty congressional speeches, vision and demagoguery alike, and of high-pressure, high-stakes regulatory action.
There will be all kinds of internet issues at play in the upcoming election cycle. And that's just going to keep going, and going, and going. It's why beltway heavyweights like David Plouffe and Jay Carney are going to work for tech firms, and why even traditionally politically shy tech firms like Apple are lobbying hard now.
Net neutrality's win proves that internet issues are popular issues, and ones that politicians are going to have to pay attention to. It is because the internet has become a popular, mainstream political issue that Barack Obama made a major push on net neutrality last fall. It is because the internet has become a popular, mainstream political issue that FCC chairman Tom Wheeler reversed course from his previous stance. "The internet must be fast, fair and open," he wrote in a Wired opinion piece. "That is the message I've heard from consumers and innovators across this nation."
Those consumers are also known as voters. And by this summer, net neutrality —not exactly a traditional meat and potatoes issue — had gotten politically hot. Obama himself was following voters, not leading them. Americans had already flocked to the issue — especially after John Oliver weighed in on Last Week Tonight. That segment was so popular that his call to action effectively crashed the FCC's website. Whether you credit John Oliver or Barack Obama with winning them over (and, come on, it was John Oliver) what's really fascinating is that on this internet issue, America showed up. That's new.
John Oliver's epic net neutrality segment.
Of course, this wasn't the first big political issue for the internet. SOPA and CISPA both caused a ruckus — and even led to radicalized anons performing large-scale civil disobedience in the form of protest-hacking. But these were sideshows by comparison. Or at least warm-ups. While they rallied effective opposition from a tech-savvy pool, they didn't spill out as broadly into American homes.
Net neutrality did slosh out of containing screens and onto American dinner tables because it had a very clear pitch: Do you want your internet services to slow down? Do you want Orange Is the New Black to start buffering because Netflix couldn't get a deal done with Time Warner? Do you want your games to choke out and stall? And America had a very clear response: Don't fuck with my HBO Go, yo.
Net neutrality mattered because it was relatable to things that are already a part of all of our lives in a way that the CDA or the DMCA, or SOPA or CISPA or any other number of acronymic issues have not been. It's not that the acronyms have been bad, it's that net neutrality really connected to a way we're already living.
Take a moment to look around you and see how many internet-connected things there are. And consider all of the various streams, services, and apps there are that serve those devices. And then think of what you would have seen with that same gaze just five or six years ago. That's the difference.
The internet is in everything now, and that includes politics.
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Facebook Will Now Reach Out To Users Who Their Friends Think Are Suicidal
“Social connectedness helps people,” says Facebook, “and that’s what we do best.”
Facebook will then give them the option to contact the friend, contact another friend for support, or contact a suicide hotline.
The new feature began yesterday.
Dado Ruvic / Reuters
These organizations include National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, Now Matters Now, Save.org, and Forefront: Innovations in Suicide Prevention from the School of Social Work at Washington University.
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FCC Votes In Favor Of Net Neutrality
What happened, and what it means.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler with FCC Commissioners Mignon Clyburn, left, and Jessica Rosenworcel.
Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP
The Federal Communications Commission Thursday passed sweeping new net neutrality rules, a government promise of unrestricted internet across America and a major milestone in the shift in American corporate power to Silicon Valley.
The new regulations aim to guarantee that everything transmitted online has to be treated the same by the companies carrying the data — regardless of where it's coming from or who it's going to. The policy will is aimed at warding off one particular nightmare of consumers and tech companies alike: cable companies creating "fast lanes" for the content providers that can afford them, and throttling of data speeds for those that refuse to pay. Net neutrality is a commitment to preserve the the Internet as you know it, one passed with a hard push from President Barack Obama and over the scattered warnings of conservatives who say it opens the door to a new era of regulators meddling with the open web.
For the past several years, and especially since the courts struck down parts of the FCC's open internet laws in January 2014, cable companies, most notably Verizon and Comcast, have pushed to change the operating rules of the Internet. They wanted the right to put a tiered system in place, under which content providers could pay for prioritization from the cable companies. This restructuring would have meant that speeds and quality of Internet could change for both consumers, like you, and content providers (like ). Content providers—Google, Facebook, Netflix, etc.—would have to pay extra to ensure that their audience received premium access to their content, shutting out any content providers without the established capital to pay their way to an audience. Thursday's battle was equal parts a revolt of consumers against the hated cable companies, and a hard-nosed corporate battle between the well-connected incumbent telecommunications firms like Comcast and the giant new tech companies who have now surpassed them in Washington power.
The vote passed 3-2 in favor of net neutrality. The vote took place after arguments from FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, the four FCC Commissioners, and statements in favor of net neutrality from Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson, and the creator of The Killing Veena Sud.
"Today is an irrefutable reflection of the principle that no one, whether government or corporate, should control free and open access to the internet. The internet is the most powerful and pervasive platform on the planet. It's simply too important to be eft without rules and without a referee on the field. The internet has replaced the functions of the telephone and the post office, it's redefined commerce and, as the outpouring from 4 million Americans has demonstrated, the internet is the ultimate vehicle for free expression," Wheeler said, shortly before the vote.
FCC Commisioners Ajit Pai and Michael O'Rielly delivered dissenting arguments. "The Internet has become a powerful force for freedom, here and around the world, so it is sad to witness this morning the FCC's unprecedented attempts to replace that freedom with government control," said Pai. "Consumers will be worse off under President Obama's plan to regulate the internet." Wheeler countered, arguing that today's ruling is "no more a plan to regulate the internet than the First Amendment is a plan to regulate free speech."
The clearest consequence of the 3-2 vote is that a tiered system will not be put in place. The FCC will now view Internet access as a public utility, which means that broadband internet will be reclassified as a telecommunications service. More specifically, it's going to fall under Title II of the Communications Act, which means that it will be regulated under the same law telephone service today is. The law that now applies to the Internet was put in place to avoid monopolies and ensure service is provided in all circumstances.
Earlier this month, FCC Chairman Tim Wheeler published an op-ed for Wired outlining his principles on the matter ahead of the decision to approve regulation:
"Originally, I believed that the FCC could assure internet openness through a determination of "commercial reasonableness" under Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. While a recent court decision seemed to draw a roadmap for using this approach, I became concerned that this relatively new concept might, down the road, be interpreted to mean what is reasonable for commercial interests, not consumers."
This represented an about-face — reportedly under heavy pressure from the Obama White House — from Wheeler's previously lax approach to regulation—his initial proposal for the regulation of broadband would reportedly have allowed for fast lanes.
This decision is a reflection of one of the very few hot-button issues in politics today that are bipartisan, according to public polling, and despite the cable companies efforts to rally Washington support, Republicans never really rallied to oppose the move in an organized way — though it has drawn denunciations from conservative figures including Senators Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, who dubbed net neutrality "Obamacare for the Internet," warning that the plan reflects both overweening regulation and executive overreach.
The details of the debate may be complex, but supporters of net neutrality have clearly defined its terms. According to one survey, 75% of Americans are against slow lanes from Internet providers, and they spoke up about it. Major online activism events like SOPA—the Stop Online Piracy Act introduced and widely protested in 2011—served as a testing ground for how passionate the public feels about keeping the Internet a free space, and how willing people are to speak up about it. After John Oliver took on the issue on his show, the FCC website shut down after being inundated with comments. The clip of his show has over 8 million views today. Additionally, large swaths of the Internet mobilized to make it clear that net neutrality would become a hot-button issue; communities like Reddit, Etsy, and Tumblr became centralized actors in making a commitment to regulation heard.
Though the cable providers drew little sympathy, critics of net neutrality say it's solving a theoretical problem with a creaky regulatory regime created in 1934 that could have unintended consequences for a complex, messy system that has largely grown unregulated. One concern stems from taking the principle of equal access to its logical extreme, something suggested by BlackBerry CEO John Chen. His version of Net Neutrality extends to software, not just Internet access. So, when Netflix decides not to make an app for BlackBerry because of its tiny market share, Chen can make the claim that Netflix is not making their service equally available to everyone.
Still, there's little sign that there are the required 60 votes in the Senate to challenge the FCC's move. The battles will now shift to the federal courts — and, should a Republican succeed Barack Obama, to a new, right-leaning FCC.
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Work To Live, Don’t Live To Work: How To Maximize Work-Life Balance
Work-life balance is the holy grail of employment. Personally, I would take a lower, but still fair, salary that comes with work-life balance over a higher salary that costs me my life. Because employers know that work-life balance is highly sought after, they boast it, but it’s hard to tell whether a job affords you a […]
Work To Live, Don’t Live To Work: How To Maximize Work-Life Balance
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Al-Icky Thump: Rolls-Royce’s Al-Adiyat Cars Aren’t Mere Wagons to Mexico
Expat Michigander Jack White is a man all about the color schemes. A few years ago, he explained to Guitar Player, “Sometimes, I need something to keep myself centered. Having everything in the White Stripes be red, white, and black centers me, and keeps me on that one path. Copper centered me on the Raconteurs.” […]
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How We’d Spec It: Yes, Basic Jeep Wranglers Still Exist in 2015
In light of Jeep’s recent forays into crossover-dom—see the Renegade and Cherokee, please—we’ve been hit hard with nostalgia for the brand’s good ol’ days. You know, the ones filled with solid axles, real four-wheel drive with low-range gearing, and manly stick-shift transmissions. So we moseyed over to Jeep’s online configurator to start building out a […]
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Minivan Throwdown! 2015 Honda Odyssey vs. 2015 Kia Sedona, 2015 Toyota Sienna
It’s possible that none of this matters. Billions of years from now, after all of humanity’s great struggles and achievements, the universe will collapse back in on itself, and all that exists and all knowledge of all that was will be compressed into a singularity so inescapable that not even Katniss Everdeen will be able […]
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2016 Audi R8 Debuts with More Power, Lower Weight
The debut of the second-generation Audi R8 was, as are most launches, carefully choreographed to lead up to a spectacular auto-show reveal. We saw teasers. We even rode shotgun in a prototype. But everything spilled onto Twitter and Instagram early, ruining Audi’s plans. We’re sort of okay with that, though, as now we get to […]
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Premiere: Hot Sugar Does Terrible Things In New "Sinkies" Video
“You can get away with horrific crimes in broad daylight without getting caught if you smile politely,” he tells Music.
Nick Koenig a.k.a. Hot Sugar’s new video for his song “Sinkies” is a drug-fueled trip down a wormhole styled by Harmony Korine.
Nick Koenig a.k.a. Hot Sugar
Shore Fire Media
It’s ultimately about love, lost connections, and how we communicate and survive in the age of the internet. But it starts with some good old-fashioned dog homicide.
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"When we were filming, during one of the takes, a business man came up to us and said 'I have a bulldog just like him,' Hot Sugar tells Music via email. "The camera was across the street so there was no way of assuming that what we were doing was for a film. When he realized the dog I was holding was attached to a terrified old lady's arm (while she held up a wad of cash in the other hand), he looked back at me disappointingly and continued his walk down the street shaking his head. You can get away with horrific crimes in broad daylight without getting caught if you smile politely."
The lady ultimately pays up and the dog -- a Frenchie named Morticia that, Hot Sugar says, is "the price of a small car" -- goes thankfully unharmed.
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ISIS Militant "Jihadi John" Identified As Young West Londoner
Mohammed Emwazi, from the Queen’s Park area of London, has been named as the ISIS militant featured in multiple videos released by the group.
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Airstrike Kills At Least 17 ISIS Militants In Iraq
At least nine civilians were also injured in the attack.
Aris Messinis / Getty Images
A U.S.-led coalition airstrike in the town of al-Qaim, near Iraq's border with Syria, killed at least 17 ISIS militants, Al Arabiya reported.
An unnamed hospital source told the news outlet that 29 militants were wounded in the airstrike and that some were being treated across the border in Syria. At least nine civilians were also injured in the attack.
The U.S.-led coalition has completed hundreds of airstrikes in Iraq and Syria since launching a campaign against ISIS last year.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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Watch This Incredibly Brave Shopkeeper Fend Off Armed Robbers With A Baseball Bat
A shopkeeper in Birmingham, England, kept his cool despite having a gun pointed at him.
Even with a gun in his face, Birmingham shopkeeper Kam Tanda kept his cool and fended off two robbers with a baseball bat, as seen in this incredi...
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Mexico's Quiet Marriage Equality Revolution
Alex Cossio / AP
Courts in more than two-thirds of Mexico’s 31 states have granted same-sex couples the right to marry over the past two years in a series of rulings that will likely make marriage equality a reality nationwide in the near future.The wave of rulings throughout Mexico hasn’t caused the uproar that has followed rulings in the United States over the past year striking down state laws barring same-sex couples from marrying. Couples have not rushed to marry nor have conservatives organized major protests.This is in part because the technicalities of Mexican law have meant these decisions have been much more narrow in their immediate impact. Each decision applies only to the individuals who have brought the cases, and other same-sex couples will still have to sue in order to marry. It takes multiple cases meeting certain technical requirements for the courts to nullify a state law in Mexico — a hurdle that has not yet been met.But with new rulings being announced almost every week — judges in six new states ruled in favor of marriage equality in the first two months of 2015 alone — it seems almost inevitable that this day is coming, say legal experts who have closely followed the litigation.“It’s just a matter of time,” said Geraldina Gonzalez de la Vega, a lawyer who worked on the first of these suits filed in 2011 and is now a clerk to a Supreme Court minister. “This has spread all over the country.”
Justine Zwiebel for News with research assistance from Rex Wockner
The first place in Mexico to allow same-sex couples to marry was Mexico City — a federal district that functions like a state, sort of like Washington D.C in the U.S. A marriage equality law was adopted by the city’s legislature at the very end of 2009. When opponents took the law to Mexico’s Supreme Court, the judges ruled that it was constitutional for Mexico City to recognize same-sex couples and went one step further: They also held that the city’s marriages were valid in every state of the country.
Gay couples take part in a mass wedding in Mexico City March 21, 2014.
Edgard Garrido / Reuters
But the Supreme Court left state marriage codes restricting marriage to heterosexual couples in place. The first case to argue that state marriage laws restricting marriage to a man and a woman were also unconstitutional seemed like a long shot. Unlike in the United States, where legal activists spent years spelling out the grounds for marriage equality and some state challenges attracted A-list attorneys, the idea to challenge a state marriage code came from a law student in the largely rural state of Oaxaca.Alex Alà Méndez DÃaz has now been involved in lawsuits in 19 states even though he is still finishing advanced studies in Mexico City and has an unrelated full-time job. Méndez first thought about challenging state marriage laws when he met a couple named Alejandro and Guillermo while helping to plan a pride parade in his native state of Oaxaca in 2011. The two wanted to marry, but they couldn’t afford to make the trip to register their union in Mexico City.“These guys said to me, ‘We want to get married but we don’t want to leave. ... Can we get married here in Oaxaca?'” Méndez recounted during a 2012 interview with this reporter in Oaxaca City. He downloaded the ruling in the Mexico City case and concluded that it laid the foundation for challenging Oaxaca’s marriage code.Others in Oaxaca’s local LGBT rights organizations thought going to court was a bad idea, Méndez said, in part because they were worried that the state wasn’t ready for a public discussion about same-sex marriage. But he was sure of his legal arguments, so he decided to bring the case by himself.“I said, ‘Fine, if the collective won’t do this as a group, well, I’m the only lawyer [in the organization]. I’ll do it,'” he said.In August 2011, Mendez filed cases on behalf of Alejandro and Guillermo and another couple he recruited through Facebook. In early 2012, he filed one more. These were amparos, a kind of suit in the Mexican system concerning human rights violations. He lost two of them — including Alejandro and Guillermo’s — but the third, on behalf of a couple identified as Lizeth and Montserrat, eventually made its way to the Supreme Court. In December 2012 the Supreme Court sided with the couple.
“Like racial segregation, founded on the unacceptable idea of white supremacy, the exclusion of homosexual couples from marriage also is based on prejudice that historically has existed against homosexuals”
The written decision in the case, published in early 2013, made an impassioned argument for marriage equality. A unanimous opinion authored by Supreme Court Minister Arturo ZaldÃvar Lelo de Larrea said that the court needed to step in partly because of a provision added to the Mexican constitution in 2011 prohibiting discrimination on the basis of “sexual preferences.” Unlike in the U.S., Mexican courts recognize rulings from other countries, so ZaldÃvar also based the decision in part on landmark U.S. Supreme Court judgements striking down racial segregation.“Like racial segregation, founded on the unacceptable idea of white supremacy, the exclusion of homosexual couples from marriage also is based on prejudice that historically has existed against homosexuals,” ZaldÃvar wrote, referring both to the 1954 school desegregation case Brown v. Board of Education and the 1967 case striking down laws banning interracial marriage, Loving v. Virginia.The judgement allowed just the petitioners to marry — Mexican law requires essentially five identical rulings on a subject from a high-level court in order to establish precedent binding all government officials. But it provided a very clear blueprint for bringing more challenges. Méndez announced on Twitter less than a week after the decision was handed down in December in 2012 that he was preparing to file amparos on behalf of more couples in Oaxaca, and lawyers in several other states immediately began talking about copying the strategy.
“In the two years [since], we have succeeded in covering almost the entire country.”
Méndez also began working on an amparo colectivo, a petition of 39 individuals from Oaxaca challenging the marriage restriction. These actions didn’t revolve around specific couples alleging their rights had been violated because they’d been denied the right to marry. Instead, it was a group of gays and lesbians who said it was inherently discriminatory for the state to bar them from matrimony. This would streamline the process, allowing large numbers of couples to win marriage rights through a single suit, and also allow single people to win the right to marry even if they didn’t yet have a partner.The Supreme Court ruled in favor of this amparo colectivo in April last year. Since then, groups numbering in the hundreds have successfully brought these suits in multiple states.As of late February, there have been rulings in favor of marriage equality in 22 states, according to local news reports, and cases have been filed in at least four others. This legal wave nudged the legislature of one state on the U.S. border, Coahuila, to pass a marriage equality law in September. And the Caribbean state of Quintana Roo — where same-sex marriages actually began taking advantage in 2011 of the little-noticed fact that the wording of its marriage statute was actually gender-neutral — held two mass weddings of same-sex couples this year.Méndez himself seems astonished at the pace of change.“Imagine, in 2012, we won the first judgement in Oaxaca,” Méndez marveled during a phone interview last week. “In the two years [since], we have succeeded in covering almost the entire country.”
Zen (left) and Alejandra kiss after getting married along with other gay and lesbian couples at a courthouse in Mexico City.
Marco Ugarte / AP
Even some LGBT rights supporters are a little mystified that marriage equality rulings haven’t sparked a national backlash. The fight over Mexico City’s 2009 marriage equality law brought strong opposition from the country’s Catholic hierarchy. Yet while some state bishops have condemned marriages between same-sex couples in the past few years, there has been no substantial opposition.“The church was really concerned with the amendment here in Mexico City,” Geraldina Gonzalez de la Vega, the Supreme Court clerk who helped Méndez bring the Oaxaca case, said. But now, with scores of amparos pending, “they are not saying anything.”Gonzalez attributes this in part to the fact that there isn’t much history of using the courts to force widespread change in Mexico, and so neither activists nor the media fully understand the scale of the change that’s underway. Méndez thinks this will change as the litigation moves from cases involving individual couples and produces the kind of rulings that will allow same-sex couples to marry in their states without having to file suit.“The moment that there is an order from the Supreme Court forcing reform we’ll begin to see all kinds of resistance,” Méndez said. “We’re going to have serious problems with protests in opposition.”Méndez expects the Supreme Court to start issuing the kinds of decisions that would make marriage widely available to same-sex couples throughout the country sometime in the next “two or three years,” based on the timeline for the cases already in the works. That may come sooner in some states — on Wednesday, the Supreme Court issued a ruling ordering the state of México (which borders Mexico City) to change its marriage codes, but it will take an additional case to make that binding precedent in the state. Three more states — Oaxaca, Jalisco, and Colima — are also on the verge of crossing that threshold.
Protesters hold up a giant rainbow flag during a protest outside of the municipal palace in the northern border city of Mexicali, Mexico on Jan. 17.
Alex Cossio / AP
As the wins become more substantial, advocates may no longer be able to carry on their work under the radar, and there are already signs that a backlash is coming. January brought the first high-profile resistance by local officials to a Supreme Court ruling allowing a couple to marry, a marriage equality standoff that made some national news. This came when the state of Baja California tried to duck a Supreme Court court order allowing a couple to wed in the city of Mexicali. The couple was turned away from city hall three times, the last of which after a volunteer who performs a mandatory pre-marital counseling session at city hall submitted a complaint saying the men “suffer from madness.” LGBT rights activists organized a protest in front of city hall under the hashtag #MisDerechosNoSonLocura (#MyRightsAreNotMadness), and city officials finally capitulated and allowed VÃctor Fernando UrÃas Amparo and VÃctor Manuel Aguirre Espinoza to marry on Jan. 17.There are also signs that it could emerge as a theme in the campaign for national congressional elections that will be held in June, at least in some states. The clearest hints of this have come from Chihuahua, where Méndez said there have been 25 successful amparos. On Feb. 10, the leader of the opposition PAN party in the state legislature declared, “We are going to oppose approval of gay unions, we are going to vote against them, and that is what we were discussing with the bishop.”But even if a backlash erupts now, Méndez said, the cases they’ve already won make marriage equality all but inevitable.“Outside of Mexico, and even inside of Mexico, these advances are not widely known,” Méndez said. “It is very slow, it is very invisible — but it is irreversible.Rex Wockner provided research assistance for this story.
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Kiev Starts Pulling Back Heavy Weapons From East Ukraine
The country’s defense ministry released a statement saying they would be withdrawing artillery from the frontline with pro-Russian rebels.
Ukraine's ministry of defense has released a statement saying they are withdrawing weapons from the frontline of the conflict with pro-Russian rebels in the east of the country, in accordance with this month's Minsk cease-fire agreement.
Members of the Ukrainian armed forces ride armoured personnel carriers as they pull back from Debaltseve region, Feb. 26.
Gleb Garanich / Reuters
Ukraine starts to withdraw 100 mm guns from the demarcation line to implement the Minsk agreements dd February 12. This first step will be realized under the OSCE monitoring and verification.
The Ukrainian party requires from all the signatories the complete ceasefire and accomplishment of Minsk agreements. In case of offensive attempts, the schedule of heavy weapons withdrawal will be corrected. The Ukrainian troops are ready to defend the state.
The military showed journalists seven or eight guns being removed from the frontline at the village of Paraskoviyka, and earlier reporters had seen a convoy of around 30-40 Ukrainian vehicles towing guns away, Reuters reported.
The move is the strongest step Ukraine has taken to acknowledging the ceasefire was holding, after losing the key town of Debaltseve at the hands of rebels who initially ignored the agreement, Reuters said.
The withdrawal of artillery marked point two of the cease-fire agreement, with the observance of the cease-fire being point one.
LINK: Cease-Fire Takes Hold In East Ukraine — But Not Everywhere
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Video Shows ISIS Destroying Ancient Artifacts In Mosul Museum
“These ruins behind me are idols and statues that people used to worship in the past instead of Allah,” a man in the video says.
ISIS posted a video on Thursday on Twitter showing men destroying ancient artifacts with sledgehammers. It is unclear exactly when the video was recorded.
Via youtube.com
A man in the video describes the artifacts as "idols" and says they must be removed.
"God create us to worship him," the man says. "Him only not some stones."
"Our prophet ordered us to remove all these statues as his followers did when they conquered nations," he said.
A man in the video says, “These ruins behind me are idols and statues that people used to worship in the past instead of Allah.”
Via youtube.com
The video also depicts the burning of what appears to be hundreds of books.
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A Timeline Of How Mohammed Emwazi Became The ISIS Militant Known As “Jihadi John”
Here’s everything we know about Mohammed Emwazi.
Emwazi is believed to be originally from Kuwait.
Photo by Carl Court / Getty Images
Emwazi was born in 1988, and moved to the UK at the age of six with his family, according to Cage UK, a counter-terrorist activist group who spoke at length with Emwazi while he was still in the UK.
He was schooled in the UK.
Twitter: @RossalynWarren
Emwazi attended the Quintin Kynaston Community Academy, in St John's Wood, north London. He then attended the University of Westminster. He graduated in 2009 with a degree in computer science.
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BAFTA Los Angeles Names Chantal Rickards To New CEO Post
BAFTA's Los Angeles chapter has appointed Chantal Rickards as the organization's first Chief Executive Officer. Rickards' takes up her post on April 14 after relocating from London to LA. She will report to the BAFTA LA Board of Directors. The move to elect an LA CEO comes at a time when British film and television are on a high and British talent is flourishing. Notably, Rickards is a former TV exec who spent the last 27 years in senior positions in channel management…
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19 Totally Magical Libraries To Visit Before You Die
Book lovers: Add these to your bucket lists.
Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, Toronto
Flickr: hyfen / Creative Commons
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You Need To See This Magical Concept Art Of Disneyland
It was meant to be The Happiest Place on Earth from the beginning.
Everyone knows Disneyland is The Happiest Place on Earth.
But what a lot of people DON'T know is the amazing effort that went into making the park as magical as it is today!
Handout / Getty Images
But in these rare archival images that were used to sell prospective East Coast licensees on the park, you can see Disneyland BEFORE it was actually Disneyland.
Disney (c)
And it turns out that the plans for the park...
Disney (c)
...were pretty similar to what guests get to enjoy today!
Although the Monstro the Whale ride was never built. :(
Disney (c)
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A Filmmaker Captured The Rare Beautiful Sight Of An Upside-Down Iceberg
Belly up! Here’s what the icy behemoths look like when they’ve had a few too many.
On a recent excursion to Antarctica, San Francisco-based filmmaker and designer Alex Cornell, 30, caught a rare glimpse of an iceberg's underside.
Most icebergs' hefty bodies are submerged under water, but occasionally they roll over, according to ScienceNews. Compared to the comprehensively white Antarctic, from a distance on their fast bouncy boat, the iceberg just looked like a piece of rock, Cornell wrote in an email to .
Alex Cornell / Via alexcornell.com
As we got closer, it became clear that it was a pure jade iceberg. We had a naturalist onboard the zodiac boat with us, and he explained what we were seeing and why it was so exciting. To us, everything we came across was exciting (penguins! icebergs!), but this certainly stood out as a rare sight — something I had never seen before in real life, or even subsequently in photos.
Where do icebergs come from, anyway?
The ice giants break off from glaciers or massive ice sheets and meander along with ocean currents, according to the National Snow & Ice Data Center. So the flip occurs after the iceberg detaches from its parent, or when its ice melts unevenly and it keels over, oceanographer Louise Biddle told ScienceNews.
In a video he made about the shoot, Cornell said capturing images amid blindingly reflective surfaces is the biggest obstacle, especially because the mandatory sunglasses make it hard to review your work as you do on dry land. Of all of his projects, he never imagined a natural photo he took of ice in water would be so widely covered, he wrote on his company's site.
Alex Cornell / Via alexcornell.com
Here's another view of the spectacularly aquamarine ice, which steadily becomes coated with the flotsam of environmental elements.
"We were very lucky to come upon it during the short window of time before it blended back into white, after enough air, sun, and snow exposure," said Cornell.
Alex Cornell / Via alexcornell.com
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Fiat 500 Vintage ’57 Edition on the cards for Australia
The limited-run Fiat 500 Vintage ’57 edition premieres at next month’s 2015 Geneva motor show, and the retro-styled baby car might just come to Australia later in the year. Similar in conception to the 1957 Edition model launched in November 2013, this one is based on the since-updated 500, but in the same way it pays homage to [...]
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Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT Weekender
It’s rare that you look forward to the moment when the traffic lights go amber, the intersection just out of reach, all to await the takeoff as the lights turn green. It happened to me recently. The reason? The Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT. Sure, the Jeep is not a sports car, but that’s what makes it [...]
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McLaren 675LT unveiled with 497kW 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8
The McLaren 675LT, which will sit atop the Super Series range, has been revealed and detailed ahead of its premiere at the 2015 Geneva motor show. McLaren claims that it has changed more than 50 per cent of components in its twin-turbocharged 3.8-litre V8, which now produces 497kW of power and 700Nm of torque. That’s up [...]
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The Definitive Timeline Of Ed Sheeran's Insane Brit Awards
Ed’s 6am face is all of our 6am faces.
7pm: Ed Sheeran arrives at the Brit Awards.
Ian Gavan / Getty Images
10pm: He's had a hell of a night and picked up TWO awards.
Ian Gavan / Getty Images
11pm: Enough of the awards show, time to enjoy himself and celebrate.
Mark Robert Milan / GC Images
Mark Robert Milan / GC Images
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The Way Robert Pattinson Looks At FKA Twigs Will Melt Your Cold, Dead Heart
And will make you believe in love again.
Robert Pattinson and FKA Twigs are a pretty private couple and so far have kept their relationship under-wraps.
Astrid Stawiarz / Getty Images
...
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4 Ways To Communicate That Will Earn You Respect, Not Disapproval
OMG our gnr8n is like totes taking over the job market, LOL. #GoldenYears That sentence you just read encapsulates the problem of Generation-Y entering the workplace (along with painfully burning my retinas). We’re stuck in our own ways of communicating. Our generation struggles to have — and hold — real, face-to-face conversations across generations. When there’s no […]
4 Ways To Communicate That Will Earn You Respect, Not Disapproval
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6 Reasons Why Living With A Roommate Is So. Damn. Hard.
Living with roommates can be awful. It’s not that you don’t like your roommates because they’re actually pretty awesome people. More so, it’s just that living with your friends can be tough sometimes. Here’s why: 1. They invade your personal space: There are things everywhere. Is that pair of jeans slowly creeping over to your side of the […]
6 Reasons Why Living With A Roommate Is So. Damn. Hard.
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Lunar New Year Box Office Sets China Record; ‘Kingsman’ Royal In Korea: Update
UPDATE, THURSDAY AM PT: The official New Year numbers are in from Chinese watchdog SAPPRFT with total box office for the February 19-24 period in the Middle Kingdom registering a record 1.73B yuan ($276.4M). The tally for last year’s holiday was 1.39B yuan. According to China Daily, SAPPRFT also said the first day of the Lunar New Year set a record for one-day ticket sales in China at over 360M yuan ($48.9M). Dragon Blade (trailer above) led the week with 451M yuan…
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Amazon Prime In UK Deal For ‘Outlander'; Season 1 To Premiere March 26 – Video
Although it’s already got a sizable fan base in the UK — and a production base in Scotland — Outlander has not previously been available to British viewers. Celebrating its first anniversary, Amazon Prime Instant Video has now made a deal for the sci-fi/fantasy hit. The first eight episodes of Season 1 will premiere on the service on March 26. The remaining episodes will then launch weekly beginning April 5, just hours after broadcast on Starz in the U.S.
Amazon acquired…
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‘A Little Chaos': Alan Rickman, Kate Winslet Stroll Versailles Gardens – Trailer
Alan Rickman directs and stars in A Little Chaos with Kate Winslet, Matthias Schoenaerts, Stanley Tucci and Jennifer Ehle. Rickman also co-wrote the story with Alison Deegan and Jeremy Brock. Winslet plays Madame Sabine De Barra, an unlikely candidate for landscape architect of the still‐to-be-completed Palace of Versailles. She has little time for the classical, ordered designs of the man who hires her, the famous architect Le Nôtre (Schoenaerts). However, as she works…
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AMC Networks International Operations Help It To Beat Q4 Earnings Expectations
There are a lot of moving pieces in AMC Networks’ report, following its acquisitions of Chellomedia and BBC America. Still, investors likely will be pleased by the basic numbers at the home of popular series include Walking Dead and Better Call Saul : The programming company reported net income of $77.62 million, up 119% vs the last three months of 2013, on revenues of $609.4 million, up 40%.
Analysts expected the top line to hit $602.4 million. Earnings from continuing…
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Conan Tells Jon Stewart Why He Went To Cuba
“President Obama announced that we were going to try and warm up relations a little bit with Cuba and I thought, ‘This is my chance! I want to get in before The View,” Conan O’Brien told Jon Stewart of his recent visit to the island nation where Conan shot an episode of his TBS late night show.
Cubans did not know who he was, but the Canadian and European tourists who’ve been coming to Cuba for years did recognize him, he said.
“I wanted to go and do my now-tired schtick…
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HTC One M9 will be built for 4K and boast blazing speeds
The hype surrounding the soon-to-be-announced HTC One M9 is reaching fever pitch and even Qualcomm has got in on the act by teasing – and then confirming – that HTC's upcoming flagship will feature its newly released system on a chip, the Snapdragon 810.This is excellent news as the Snapdragon 810 brings a host of new top of the range features including an octa-core processor, improved Wi-Fi and LTE connectivity, and better 4K support.When we benchmarked the Snapdragon 810 we saw huge performance improvements compared to previous versions such as the Snapdragon 801, which the HTC One M8 runs on, so the HTC One M9 should be markedly more powerful than its predecessor.First a tease, then a revealIn a bid to get in on the excitement for the HTC One M9, which will be revealed on March 1, Qualcomm posted a Vine video on Twitter with a clock that prominently shows 8:10. The video also displays the time as 10:08, which HTC uses in all of its press renders for its devices.If that wasn't clear enough, Qualcomm also tweeted "It's almost time for a new #Snapdragon 810 powered smartphone. #MWC15"In only a few days we'll see the Snapdragon 810-toting HTC One M9 in all its glory – a great way to kick off MWC 2015.How the Snapdragon 810 is going to change smartphones
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Gotta get down on Friday: soon, new music will be released for the weekend
What rock and roll has always needed is a bit of structure. Anarchy is fine and all, but it's not as good as having a nice plan, and possibly an Excel spreadsheet to bring a bit of organisation to everything. We're pretty sure The Who had a song about the importance of good planning on their first album. With that in mind, starting mid-year all new music will be released on a Friday. At 12:01am.That is, according to the industry, to generate some excitement about new music, and to get the kids queuing up outside their nearest Our Price to grab the next big hit for their collections. Or sat staring at Spotify, finger trembling over the mouse in anticipation.The decision will be enforced globally, with all the major labels agreeing on a unified time. At the moment, the UK releases music on a Monday at midnight, while the US does so on Tuesday. It's all about the fansThe IFPI, or International Fun Prevention Institute (probably), said "As well as helping music fans, the move will benefit artists who want to harness social media to promote their new music". It doesn't mention quite how the move will benefit fans, apart from the fact they'll know new music is being released at the exact moment they're dancing in a nightclub on Friday night. It will benefit artists though, who communicate with fans on Twitter, but who, apparently, aren't capable of talking about any time that isn't midnight Friday. Of course, telling people when they can get access to media has worked brilliantly for the TV industry, which has in no way learned the hard way that people like to decide when they watch their favourite shows, rather than being told to sit down and shut up at 8pm. Independent artists can do what they want though, so, like, whatever.
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Industry voice: Industry 4.0: an industrial evolution, rather than a revolution
A quick history question: how many industrial revolutions have there been? Most of us will recall school lessons imparting details of the shift from farming to industrial production. However, since then there has been a second industrial revolution which introduced mass production with the help of electric power, followed by the IT revolution that saw the advent of electronics and technology to further automate production. And we now face the dawn of a possible fourth industrial revolution as digitisation takes hold.What makes digitisation so special? It opens up new ways to respond efficiently to customer needs with methods that can fix problems (almost) automatically. How is this done? By converging a specific set of new technologies and strategies, grounded in a customer-centric approach.Firstly, the development of the Internet of Things and cyber-physical systems such as sensors and wearable technology has enabled machines, computers and even data itself to have an active role in the manufacturing and production processes. Secondly the development of big data and powerful analytics means that these systems can process huge data sets and that information can be quickly translated to intelligent courses of action. Lastly the communications infrastructure on which these "conversations" rely has become so secure that it can be trusted with business critical aspects such as production. In typical fashion, this amalgamation of technology and business strategy has been given a shiny new name: Industry 4.0.The name is already going global. In Germany, Industry 4.0 includes an initiative that promotes the computerisation of traditional industries such as manufacturing. In the United States, the Smart Manufacturing Leadership Coalition (SMLC) is a non-profit organisation of manufacturing practitioners, suppliers, and technology companies, along with manufacturing consortia, universities, government agencies and laboratories with a similar objective.Not just another labelFrom a business perspective, it is critical to understand that this is not a new technology or even a new business discipline in itself. It is more an approach to enable results that were impossible a decade ago. Companies do not ask specifically for "Industry 4.0 solutions", and the technology industry should not want to create such a label. Rather there needs to be an Industry 4.0 approach to solving customer demands as the new technology enables. For example, let us suppose the "brief" is to increase the speed of business processes and to run semi-autonomous processes that can produce more efficiently. Or to deliver customised or specialist products in small quantities, without risking lost productivity and higher production costs. For either set of demands, it is easy enough to identify elements such as communication between machines, the analysis of large volumes of data in order to optimise the processes and the need for secure links between design and production. What is needed however is a holistic strategy to pull all this together, with modern software applications able to span these connections and deliver the data needed for analysis. There are two notable pressures on the development of this software. Firstly, speed: the timeframes for innovation are getting shorter. Consequently this software must be developed and evolved faster than ever. Secondly, complexity: due to the increased automation and networking, every process has far more moving parts. As a result the software must be flexible.Not just another technologyFrom a business perspective there is also the need to recruit, retain and develop a specific set of collaborative problem-solving skills. If Industry 4.0 is grounded in identifying customer requirements and the issues they face, it becomes an inherently collaborative process to solve those challenges. Sadly many of those skills are still very difficult to find.Broadly speaking there are three categories of these challenges: market, business and technology. Market challenges could include the entry of a new competitor or a new geography opening up. Business challenges are typically more "internal" – a change to the business model, or threats and opportunities presented by partners and suppliers. Challenges presented by technology itself are simply a consideration of the benefits that can arise from better management of the digital components of existing systems. That management is dependent upon the solid, flexible integration of systems. A standards-based framework that provides the technological foundation to build business processes and workflows throughout and beyond the Smart Factory is critical. Likewise, the interface between people and technology has to be quick, intuitive and reliable. In addition, change management will be a vital part of Industry 4.0 success. As employees' areas of responsibility change from the management of standard tasks to tracking automated processes and detecting errors and fixing them, the ability of staff to solve complex problems will demand substantial re-training.These are challenging goals. Thankfully Industry 4.0 is less of a fourth revolution and more of an evolution in many small steps that will truly change how manufacturing and industry does business.Paul Carreiro is executive vice president and managing director, EMEA, at Infor
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Is there a point to the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge's curved screen?
The upcoming Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge is set to stand out from the crowd with a screen that curves around not one, like the Galaxy Note Edge, but two sides. However before you go dreaming up all the ways in which this dual-edged screen could benefit you, it's been reported by BusinessKorea.co.kr that these edges might not be all that useful after all.As we've seen with the recently leaked images of the Galaxy S6 Edge, the side screens aren't as sloped or as long as the one found on the Galaxy Note Edge.The size of sides matterAccording to the Korean website, "the size of the [Galaxy S6 Edge] is smaller than the Galaxy Note Edge. So, it was presumably difficult to enlarge its dual-edge screen. I think that there will be no message alarm or information storage functions owing the narrowed screen."Where the Galaxy Note Edge displayed notifications, controls, app shortcuts and more along its side screen, it looks like the side screens of the Galaxy S6 Edge will be reduced in functionality, mainly in part due to their smaller sizes.If true then this will be a disappointment. Hopefully we'll get a better idea of what the curved screen will be used for if Samsung shows off the Galaxy S6 Edge alongside the Galaxy S6 at its event on March 1.MWC 2015: what to expect
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In depth: How to upgrade your PS3 hard drive
The PS3 may not be hot news in the game world anymore, but we can guarantee you probably still haven't played half of its best titles. However, most models of Sony's last console don't have enough hard drive space to store all that many game installs.Something like the digital version of Uncharted 3 will eat up a huge chunk of an older PS3's HDD. It's very easy to upgrade the hard drive yourself though. You can even use the default PS4 hard drive if you're thinking about supercharging your new console too. See how to do it in our PS4 HDD upgrade feature.We're going to go through the process step-by-step. You only need to set a half-hour or so aside: it really is that simple.What you'll need:1x PS31x Phillips screwdriver1x 2.5-inch SATA HDD1x USB stick (8GB preferred) or 1x FAT32 USB HDD1x laptop or PC with internet1x PS3 controller1x miniUSB cableStep one: buying the HDDWhat hard drive can you use in your PS3? You need to make sure it's a 2.5-inch serial ATA drive of 9.5mm height or less.In practical terms this means you can buy most 2.5-inch 500GB or 1TB slimline hard drives without any major issues. 2TB hard drives are often a little too tall, but then that capacity is arguably overkill for the aged PS3, especially as the drive will usually cost you at least £85 (US$115, about AU$167).If you opt for a 5400rpm drive, another spec you should see listed alongside capacity, you'll get similar performance to the standard PS3 HDD. Upgrade to a 7200rpm hard drive or a more expensive 2.5-inch SSD, though, and you'll see significantly improvements to load times. You'll generally have to pay around £15 more for a 7200rpm drive, though, and SSDs are a lot more expensive.At the time of writing you're looking at £300 (US$380, about AU$589) or more for a 1TB SSD. The hard drive we're using here is a basic 5400rpm 500GB model.Step two: backing-upUnlike the PS4, the PS3 lets you back-up all your saved games to a USB stick in one go, or even back-up almost all of your data (anything that DRM does not bar) before throwing out the old HDD.You'll find this option in the system settings menu in settings. Alternatively, to just save all your save games go to the game header in the main menu, select save data utility and then copy multiple to save your games to USB. To do all the saves at once, though, you need a PS Plus subscription.However, as with a PS4, any PS Plus owners get free cloud storage for save games anyway. Backing-up in more than one place is always sensible, but not 100% necessary.Step three: unleashing the hard driveThere are a few different variants of the PS3 out there. We're going to deal with how to take out the hard drive of the PS3 Slim and more recent PS3 Super Slim, which is the model you can still buy new today.SlimTo get the hard drive out of a Slim PS3, you need to turn it off, turn it over and pull off a little plastic flap on its underside. It should be pretty clear, sitting towards the front of the bottom plate.This flap will reveal a little screw that keeps a piece of plastic in place just under the Blu-ray drive. Remove the screw using a Phillips screwdriver. This piece of plastic hides the hard drive.Now you need to slide the piece of plastic under the optical drive to the side just a little. After this you should be able remove it easily.You should now see two little pieces of wire in the space where the flap was. Pull them lightly to remove the hard drive. It should slide out without much effort.The PS3's hard drive is fixed to a metal plate using four little screws on its underside. You'll need to remove all four to change your old PS3 hard drive for your new one.When you've swapped the drives, screw the screws back in and re-seat the hard drive in the console. Make sure it's fully inserted, though, or the drive won't actually be attached properly.Now simply work your way back, putting back the plastic cover, putting the main screw back and re-seating the flap.Super SlimThe Super Slim PS3 has a similar, but slightly different, hard drive style. First you need to remove the HDD plate, which makes up the right side of the console. Just slide it back a little to free it from its securing clip.You'll now see the hard drive tray, which is kept in place with a blue screw. Just unscrew it and you'll be able to pull out the tray holding the HDD.Part of this tray is a mounting bracket that is firmly fixed to the hard drive with four screws. You need to remove all four of these, using your trusty Phillips screwdriver.Now it's just a case of screwing the replacement hard drive into the bracket, then retracing your steps. Put the hard drive tray back in, re-seat the screw then put the put the hard drive cover back on. Pretty painless, wasn't it?Step four: Download and install the OSThe hard drive you just discarded stored all the PS3's memories. Now the poor thing doesn't know who or what it is.You have to download the latest PS3 software from the PlayStation website using a laptop or desktop and then put it onto a USB stick. It's fine to use the same one you used earlier to back-up saves, as this process won't wipe it.The software file needs to be placed in a folder called UPDATE within another folder called PS3 on the USB stick for the console to be able to see it. Once that's sorted, put the USB drive in one of the PS3's USB slots and turn the console on. You'll be asked to press the PS button on the controller, which will need to be plugged in using a mini USB cable, but then you can just follow the on-screen prompt and you'll be done in no time.Now you're done. Phew. What should you do with your old PS3 hard drive? If you don't want to leave it gathering dust you can buy a cheap hard drive case for a few pounds/dollars online if you want to turn the old PS3 drive into a handy little external HDD. Is the PS3 hard drive worth upgrading?If you have a 500GB 2.5-inch hard drive lying around somewhere, we'd strongly recommend giving your PS3 HDD an upgrade. It'll let you install many more games and is the perfect complement to a PS Plus subscription, which still gets you 'free' digital PS3 games every month: a sure-fire way to fill up a console's hard drive.We also think it works great with an old 500GB PS4 hard drive, if you have both consoles and are thinking of boosting the new one's storage.Don't have a spare hard drive? All you need to justify is the £40 (about US$58, AU$77) odd for a 1TB hard drive or £30 (about US$40, AU$59) for a 500GB one. While not peanuts to spend on an old machine, it's well worth it if you still have a giant 'pile of shame' of last-gen games you're yet to check out.
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Western Digital unveils network storage options for consumers
If you're looking for a way to share large amounts of data across one small network, Western Digital has four new products you may want to investigate. Built for computing enthusiasts and small business owners, Western Digital's new lineup of network attached storage (NAS) devices feature improved user interfaces and are based off the Linux operating system. The EX2100 and EX4100 are consumer-based NAS systems feature Dual-core Marvell Armada 385 & 388 processors. The EX2100 is built with 1GB of RAM and the EX4100 is built with 2GB of RAM. Both devices are capable of NAS to NAS replication, NAS to USB transfers and NAS to cloud sharing. The DL2100 and DL4100 are more powerful, small-business focused NAS systems based on Dual-core Intel Atom C2350 & C2338 processors with 1GB and 2GB RAM, respectively. Both machines feature dual gigabit Ethernet and power ports, AES 256-bit volume encryption and expansion up to 6GB of RAM and 24TB of hot-swappable capacity. The industry problemWestern Digital is hoping to capitalize on the increasing amount of digital data being created by individuals and small companies - and the need to easily share and backup that data. The new NAS devices are built for groups who want access to one pool of data across multiple laptops, tablets and smartphones, but don't have the time or capacity to upload everything to the cloud.This is particularly true for small businesses that require continuous data protection and backup, but can't afford the system downtime required to secure and duplicate data on systems that don't feature hot-swappable bays. PricingThe EX2100 starts at $249.99 (£151, AU$273) for a diskless unit, but can be customized for up to 12 TB of data for $749.99 (£453, AU$825). The EX4100 NAS starts at $399.99 (£258, AU$511) for the diskless unit, but can be customized for up to 24 TB of data for $1449.99 (£938, AU$1856).The DL2100 NAS starts at $349.99 (£225, AU$447) and goes up to $849.99 (£499, AU$900) for 12 TB. The DL 4100 starts at $529.99 (£342, AU$678) and can be built up to store 24 TB of data for $1529.99 (£1020, AU$2040) .All units are generally available globally. What is the best cloud backup solution?
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Mitsubishi XR-PHEV II Concept provides clues about next-gen ASX
The Mitsubishi XR-PHEV II concept car will make its formal debut at the 2015 Geneva motor show, one year on from the original XR-PHEV concept. For version two, Mitsubishi has cleaned up the exterior, bringing it a step closer to production reality. At the front there’s revised headlights, a twin-slat grille, a contrasting lower section, [...]
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2015 Audi R8 leaked online ahead of Geneva debut
A photo that is claimed to be an official press shot of the new-generation 2015 Audi R8 has been posted online ahead of its scheduled debut at the 2015 Geneva motor show. The shot was published by Spanish website Motorpasion, though it’s not clear how the site obtained the image. Although we can’t be 100 per cent [...]
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Wednesday, February 25, 2015
‘Parks & Recreation’ Ratings Soar In Series Finale, ‘MasterChef Jr.’ & ‘Agent Carter’ Finales Steady
All things come to an end and last night's primetime saw a lot of shows do just that, some forever and some likely just for now. The big goodbye was, of course, the series ender of Parks and Recreation (1.6/5). Moved to the choice 10 PM slot right after the second night of the start of Season 8 of The Voice (3.8/11), the 1-hour finale of the Amy Poehler and Adam Scott-led comedy saw a not unexpected big big jump from from last week. Up 45% compared to its 8:30 PM show of…
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New Line Wins Auction For ‘The House;’ Will Ferrell To Star In Script By ‘Neighbors’ Duo
EXCLUSIVE: A heated auction has ended with New Line acquiring The House, a comic script by Brendan O’Brien and Andrew J. Cohen, the team best known for the hit Neighbors. Cohen will direct the film and Will Ferrell will star. Essentially, New Line committed to make this film with a low $40 million budget, and they are looking at an August start date and a summer 2016 release.
Good Universe and Gary Sanchez will produce. Ferrell plays a guy, who, with his wife, blows their…
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Nathan Lane To The Rescue, Returns To ‘It’s Only A Play’
Nathan Lane is returning to Terrence McNally’s Broadway hit It’s Only A Play beginning March 31, taking over from Martin Short who took over from Lane when the latter departed last month to take a previously committed role The Iceman Cometh. It’s Only A Play has already been extended twice since its smash October 9 opening and quickly recouped its $3.9 million capitalization — but box office hasn’t been the same since Lane left and Short took on the role of insecure actor…
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Pixelated Hair Is The High-Tech Fashion Trend You Never Expected (Photos)
Looking to change up your hair? Try pixelating it. Stamping your strands with colorful pixel patterns is the newest trend in hair color, and it’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. Inspired by visual technology, the trend, pioneered by Madrid-based company X-Presion, has talented hair colorists dye a given section of hair in small, rectangular […]
Pixelated Hair Is The High-Tech Fashion Trend You Never Expected (Photos)
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22 Beautiful Cottages You Wished You Lived In
I want to go to there.
Will Varner / / Via Flickr: berlinrider
The Tavern Cottage in Hampshire, England.
Neil Howard / Creative Commons / Via Flickr: neilsingapore
...
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Holy Sh*t! ‘DuckTales’ Will Be Making A Glorious Comeback In 2017
Scrooge McDuck and the gang are making their way back to TV. Disney announced Huey, Dewey, Louie and Donald will all be part of a new “DuckTales” series on DisneyXD. In a statement, Marc Buhaj, senior vice president of programming and the general manager of Disney XD, said, ‘DuckTales’ has a special place in Disney’s TV animation […]
Holy Sh*t! ‘DuckTales’ Will Be Making A Glorious Comeback In 2017
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Original Green Ranger Is Not A Fan Of The Violent ‘Power Rangers’ Short
Yesterday, we showed you the gritty short film reimagining of “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.” In my opinion, the short, starring James Van Der Beek and Katee Sackhoff, kicked major ass and was the best thing to hit the Internet in a long while. But, Jason David Frank, the actor who originally played the Green Ranger […]
Original Green Ranger Is Not A Fan Of The Violent ‘Power Rangers’ Short
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How Growing Up In An Entrepreneurial Family Shows You How To Succeed
I eat out a lot. I consistently like trying new trendy places here in London, and ever since I can remember, I’ve always enjoyed the experience of having a nice meal out. Recently, I was in the mood for Indian, something one can easily find on any given street corner in London. The national dish […]
How Growing Up In An Entrepreneurial Family Shows You How To Succeed
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Killer Of Real-Life ‘American Sniper’ Found Guilty, Gets Life Sentence
The ex-Marine who murdered Navy SEAL Chris Kyle has been sentenced to life in prison without parole. In February of 2013, Eddie Ray Routh, 27, killed Kyle, who is the subject of Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper,” along with Kyle’s friend, Chad Littlefield, at a Texas gun range. The BBC reports that Kyle and Littlefield had […]
Killer Of Real-Life ‘American Sniper’ Found Guilty, Gets Life Sentence
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True Love Never Ends: Couple Married 67 Years Dies Holding Hands
Floyd Hartwig and his wife, Violet, endured plenty of hardship during their 67 years of marriage. But, in their last hours, the two linked hands and weathered the end together. The Fresno Bee reports both Floyd, 90, and Violet, 89, died on February 11. He went first, Violet’s hand in his until the end, and she […]
True Love Never Ends: Couple Married 67 Years Dies Holding Hands
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Genius Is Making Money By Selling Snow To People In Warmer Places
Apple founder Steve Jobs described innovation as the single factor separating a leader from a follower. If that’s the case, Kyle Waring should be the next president. Boston.com reports the Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts man created Ship Snow, Yo, an unconventional service delivering chunks of the Boston area’s frosty covering to those living in areas too warm for snowfall. During […]
Genius Is Making Money By Selling Snow To People In Warmer Places
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Teacher Allegedly Had Sex With Teen Student And Sent Thong Selfies
A Connecticut teacher has been accused of having engaged in sexual relationships with two students, and she reportedly sent one of them a selfie in which she posed in a thong. Mother-of-two Allison Marchese, 37, teaches English at Daniel Hand High School in Madison, Daily Mail reports, along with her husband, 39-year-old Robert Marchese. She […]
Teacher Allegedly Had Sex With Teen Student And Sent Thong Selfies
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Greek Life Isn’t The Problem, The People Are The Problem
For the past few months, the world has been bombarded with stories about the dangers of fraternities (and sororities), whether it’s a campus rape scandal or a story about a hazing death. Rape and sexual assault are never topics to joke about or make light of, and those who commit such terrible, disgusting crimes should be put away for […]
Greek Life Isn’t The Problem, The People Are The Problem
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2016 McLaren 675LT: More Power, Less Weight, More Tail
McLaren’s hot, new 675LT is a higher-performance variant of the 650S, and the LT portion of its name is derived from the wild 1997 F1 GT “Longtail” homologation special. That rare McLaren menaced the road with radically lengthened bodywork, racy aerodynamics, and a better power-to-weight ratio than the car on which it was based. The […]
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Cadillac Will Debut an Entirely New V-6 Engine in the CT6 Sedan
It’s been a big week for surprise Cadillac CT6 news. Sunday night, the luxury automaker gave the world its first glimpse at the big sedan in a commercial aired during the Academy Awards. Monday, brand president Johan de Nysschen revealed in an online Q&A that the CT6 will eventually feature an all-new twin-turbo V-8. Now? Well, now de Nysschen has […]
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VW Eos Being Discontinued: “Don’t Let the Sun Come Down on M—Oh, Damn”
Volkswagen just remembered that it still builds the ancient Eos folding hardtop convertible, an epiphany which must have reminded the company that it sells relatively few of the things. In light of this, and according to Automotive News Europe, VW has officially decided to kill off the model midway through this year after a largely mediocre nine-year […]
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Honda CEO Stepping Down in June: A Brief Look at Big H’s Recent Triumphs and Troubles
Honda has no time for a summer vacation. Among the items on its to-do list: deliver all-new Honda Pilots and Civic Type-Rs, plan the media and market launches for the 2016 Acura NSX, juggle lawsuits and government investigations over faulty Takata airbags, and ace its first Formula 1 season in seven years as the engine […]
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Lady Gaga To Star In ‘American Horror Story’
Ryan Murphy’s FX anthology series American Horror Story is making a splash with its first casting announcement for the upcoming fifth installment. Joining the show is Lady Gaga, coming off a Sound Of Music performance at the Oscars that became the telecast’s top social moment. As usual, details of the pop star’s character are being kept under wraps. The new AHS installment’s title and premise also are TBA.
While no other cast members have been confirmed for Season 5 yet…
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Broad Green Pictures Acquires 45% Stake In David Garrett’s Mister Smith Entertainment
Broad Green Pictures announced today it has acquired a 45% stake in David Garrett’s London-based sales and distribution outfit Mister Smith Entertainment.
Garrett, generally recognised as one of the film industry’s good guys, will continue as Mister Smith's CEO, and will contribute to Broad Green’s green-light committee. Mister Smith will serve as the international sales and distribution arm for Broad Green productions with a first right of refusal to handle sales and…
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Giuliana Rancic Apologizes For Offensive Comments About Zendaya’s Hair
Dreadlocks don’t indicate a marijuana habit, and “E! News” host Giuliana Rancic learned that the hard way. Rancic, 40, took a moment on yesterday’s “Fashion Police” to address the media storm calling out racism in her comments about 18-year-old Zendaya Coleman’s dreadlocks at the Academy Awards. Zendaya herself even took to Twitter, typing an eloquent rebuttal […]
Giuliana Rancic Apologizes For Offensive Comments About Zendaya’s Hair
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Kim Kardashian Allegedly Pays Someone $100,000 To Retouch Her Selfies
Take this one with a grain of salt, but OK! magazine is reporting Kim Kardashian hired a Photoshop assistant to touch up her selfies before they are posted to Instagram. According to the report, Kardashian pays this assistant $100,000 to do the job. A source close to OK! reportedly said, Kim used to ask a […]
Kim Kardashian Allegedly Pays Someone $100,000 To Retouch Her Selfies
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Lyoto Machida, The Next American Idol? You Decide!
Tá difÃcil galera,mas no próximo vou tentar tocar e cantar melhor.It is Hard but next...
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Koscheck Wants To End Career With The UFC
Josh Koscheck hasn’t been in the Octagon since he was KO’d by Tyron Woodley at...
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Lyoto Machida Using Old School Training Technique
Old school!! #Machida Karate #karate Shotokan A video posted by Lyoto Machida (@lyotomachidafw) on Feb...
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Werdum: ‘I’ll Beat Velasquez Just Like I Beat Fedor’
Recently the UFC announced that Cain Velasquez vs. Fabricio Werdum would headline UFC 188 in...
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Cyborg Passes Out-Of-Competition Drug Test, Cleared To Fight
Invicta FC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg has been cleared to fight at Invicta FC...
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McCall Goes Thug, Gets “Thug Life” Video
UFC flyweight Ian McCall now has his very own “Thug Life” video, which features a...
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Gym Instructor: Josh Neer ‘Beatdown’ Blown Out Of Proportion By Trolls
Recently, a video surfaced of Josh Neer landing brutal ground and pound shots on a...
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Josh Neer Under Investigation After Beatdown Of Internet Troll
On the heels of Josh Neer releasing a video showing himself landing brutal ground and...
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This Electrical Thinking Cap Will Help You Think Better
Put your thinking cap on, no we mean literally put it on. How can you literally put your thinking cap on? This is where you thank psychology professor Geoff Woodman and Ph.D. student Robert Reinhart of Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. The duo has come up with an actual thinking cap which is capable of helping […]
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The Flying Bum Is The World’s Longest Aircraft And Is All Set To Take Flight
A hybrid aircraft nicknamed “the flying bum” is all set to take off in UK. It is part plane and part airship. Known as the Airlander 10, the aircraft has been grounded since 2010 due to budget cuts. The 92 meter Airlander 10 was initially designed as a surveillance aircraft for the US Army, but that idea didn’t materialize. […]
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Mysterious Drones Seen Hovering Above Paris Landmarks For Two Nights Running
Police have been left flummoxed by the appearance of the unmanned aircraft at a time when France is on high alert.
Police in Paris have been left mystified after a number of unmanned drones were spotted above landmarks in Paris on both Monday and Tuesday nights, Agence France-Presse reported.
A drone in Paris in 2014.
Charles Platiau / Reuters
Although flying drones in Paris is illegal without authorization from the city — and completely illegal at night — French media reported five sightings between 23:00 on Tuesday and 2:00 Wednesday local time, the BBC reported.
A police source told AFP that the drones were spotted close to the U.S. embassy, as well as near the the Invalides military museum.
The BBC said they had also been spotted above Place de la Concorde and two of the old city gates.
Police have been left confused as to who is behind the drones, and whether there is anything malicious to them.
The BBC reported that footage of some of the latest flights have been captured on camera, and police had put assigned a 10-strong team of investigators to the sightings.
"Is it a game? Scouting for future operations? The investigation will show us," a Parisian police chief said Tuesday, according to AFP.
News contacted Paris' Prefecture of Police, which declined to comment on the matter.
The sightings come as France is on high alert following the terrorist attacks on the offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket.
The Eiffel Tower in July 2012.
Loic Venance / Getty Images
The sightings of the aircraft come after drones were spotted at French nuclear plants in 2014, as well as over the presidential palace and an area of the Brittany coastline, which houses a number of France's nuclear submarines, according to AFP.
French authorities first became aware of mysterious drone activity in October 2014. State-run power company EDF told police it had spotted small, unmanned aircraft above seven nuclear plants. The sightings continued into November, and after around 20 flyovers the operators had still not been found.
Civilian drones are banned from sensitive areas such as nuclear facilities under French law. Such areas are protected by a 1,000-meter-high no-fly zone that covers an area with a 2.5 kilometre (1.6 mile) radius, AFP said.
The sightings above the bay housing four of France's nuclear subs — one of the country's most protected sites — came in January. This was shortly after a drone was spotted hovering above the presidential Élysée Palace in Paris, not long after the Charlie Hebdo attacks.
In October, a 24-year-old Israeli tourist was fined and spent the night in jail after flying a drone close to Paris' Hotel Dieu hospital and a police station, the BBC said.
Unmanned drones are increasingly inexpensive, and authorities are facing a growing problem in how to deal with them in built-up areas, as shooting them down could pose a danger to the public, the BBC said. France has launched a 1 million euro programme aimed at improving how it detects drones, AFP reported.
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Avalanche In Afghanistan Kills At Least 108 People
Rescue workers dug through the snow with their hands to save people.
An vendor in Afghanistan in the snow in the old city section of Kabul in January.
Wakil Kohsar / Getty Images
At least 108 people died in ...
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Atlanta’s Southern Hospitality Is Winning Venture Investors
Atlanta is home to the world’s largest drive-in, some of rap music’s greatest minds, and 71 streets named Peachtree. It’s also the center of a thriving startup scene, as we saw at last night’s Meetup + Pitch-Off. Read More
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6 Reasons Why Living Far From Your Loved Ones Is The Absolute Worst
Misery encompasses different things for different people. For some, it’s loneliness, heartbreak or financial burden and for others — myself included — misery is missing the people you love and in this context, it refers to the distance that creates it. It’s the curse of missing loved ones. Wanting to be near someone, to not […]
6 Reasons Why Living Far From Your Loved Ones Is The Absolute Worst
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Knowledge Is Power: 6 Ways To Become A Smarter Citizen
It started when my friend and I decided to see a handful of the Oscar-nominated movies one week in January. Monday was “American Sniper,” Tuesday was “Imitation Game,” Wednesday was “The Theory of Everything” and Thursday was “Selma.” By the end of the week we had 1. eaten too much popcorn and 2. seen four incredible movies, […]
Knowledge Is Power: 6 Ways To Become A Smarter Citizen
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3 Tiny Habits That Will Transform Your Daily Routine
Since enrolling in BJ Fogg’s Tiny Habits course last year, I’ve learned many new behaviors. Some have been more transformative than others, but today, I want to share with you three “tiny habits” that have yielded the highest returns on investment for me. Before I do, let’s look at what a tiny habit is and why […]
3 Tiny Habits That Will Transform Your Daily Routine
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Conor McGregor’s Hilarious “Thug Life” Video
UFC featherweight star Conor McGregor has received his very own “Thug Life” video featuring footage...
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Joe Rogan Spars John Wayne Parr
UFC color commentator Joe Rogan has a well known past in TaeKwonDo, and continues to...
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UFC 184 Embedded: Vlog Series – Episode 2
Get ready for UFC 184, with the 2nd episode of the UFC Embedded series.
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A Countryside Sliding Glass House Designed by dRMM
Photos © Alex de Rijke / GIF by Gasoline Station Appearing as an oversized red barn, architecture and design studio dRMM‘s Sliding House has a much more complex facade than its doppleganger’s A-frame design. The project encompasses three separate buildings (house, garage, and guest annex), and was built with the intention for the owners to grow food, entertain, […]
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Samsung exec meets with PayPal founder - Apple Pay rival one step closer
A little under a week ago Samsung bought up Korean firm LoopPay that has a technology which replicates a card swipe and is compatible with credit card readers already found in stores around the world.Samsung has yet to reveal its intentions with the company, apart from the fact it will remain independent to Sammy, but many have theorised the company is working on its own competitor to Apple Pay.Now a new report suggests Samsung executive Lee Jae-yong met with PayPal's founder Peter Thiel in a Korean hotel earlier this week.An anonymous industry source told the Korea Herald: "Samsung's Lee may have asked for business advice from Thiel, who is an expert in FinTech [financial technology]. Expectations are high that Samsung will soon launch a new competitor to Apple Pay."Making Apple payIt only piles on more evidence that Samsung is working heavily on adapting the LoopPay technology into its own competitor to Apple Pay.The main question is whether Samsung Pay, or whatever the company decide to name it, will be launching on the Samsung Galaxy S6 which is set for a March 1 launch.Last year's Galaxy S5 came with a fingerprint sensor built in, could it have been preparing for mobile payments in a similar way Apple did with Touch ID on the iPhone 5S?Our guess would be it isn't purely because all of this has happened in the last week and the company has surely finalised the features of the Galaxy S6 a few months back.Samsung Pay will likely have a big advantage over its big competitor as it doesn't require merchants to have dedicated systems installed.Apple Pay however requires specific POS terminals for the mobile payment system to be used.Everything we know about the Samsung Galaxy S6 so far.
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Huawei's Smartband will be the closest thing to having 5G on your wrist
Most smartbands need to pair to a smartphone to get online, but not this one. Not only can it connect all on its lonesome, it's capable of LTE – i.e. 4G – speeds. Even more spectacularly, it will also run on Huawei's recently-unveiled 4.5G network. Called, fittingly enough, the Huawei 4.5G Smartband, it's described as being "in the middle of 4G and 5G", The Inquirer reports. Huawei plans to roll out its 4.5G network sometime next year.The smartband will use an LTE-M chip made by Neul, a start-up that Huawei bought last year. The company claims this processor will help make a "cellular internet of things" a reality.Details on exactly what the smartband will do are non-existent right now, but if it is anything like the Huawei Talkband B1, we can expect hands-free communication as well as a raft of fitness features and phone notifications.Need for speed5G is expected to up mobile speeds to around 10Gbps – that's fast enough to download an HD film in a couple of seconds. Not only will this be great for movie lovers, the ultra-low latency will allow devices like driverless cars and fridges to talk to each other with next to no delay.It's also expected to be as reliable as a cabled broadband connection. Handy if your driverless car is using it to navigate.4.5G won't be quite as fast – Huawei predicts speeds of around 1Gbps – but will act as a stopgap on the way to this smart-citied utopia.Ryan Ding, Huawei's president of products and solutions, said the 4.5G network would represent "the first time that a mobile network is not focussed on people" but on "people and things".Huawei said a 4.5G network would also be a boon for businesses, boosting industry applications like smart metering, which need low-power terminals and better network coverage.And with smartbands connected to the network, we will be well and truly plugged into the smart city.
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Industry voice: People don't trust smartphone security – and that's choking the mobile economy
Nearly every week we read about another high-profile hacking story on the news. From major attacks such as Heartbleed to iCloud's targeted celebrity hack, it's not surprising that consumers just don't trust mobile security. Mobile devices are continuing to boom, and with no sign of that abating, security is in need of a radical revamp if we are to avoid throttling the mobile economy.We conducted a consumer survey to uncover just what effect this mistrust is having on the mobile economy. Surveying 2,000 UK consumers (Atomik Research did the legwork), we found that over half (53%) would never use mobile banking services, while many are avoiding the use of any mobile financial services at all – including PayPal and mobile transfer apps.Lack of confidenceFurthermore, in the wake of the Heartbleed security breach, only a minority of consumers (18%) still feel confident that they are secure, while almost a quarter (24%) of those surveyed would not feel safe shopping on their handsets. Given the latest advancements in ecommerce this does raise some concerns – how can Twitter's 'buy' button or Apple Pay reach their full potential without the backing of consumer trust?Overall, 54% of consumers are worried about the level of security on their mobile device. Of those with the greatest concerns, 18 to 24-year-olds, the following was found:62% said they would never use mobile banking compared to 53% overall60% would never make mobile payments compared to 50% overall52% would never use PayPal on their mobile compared to 43% overall87% cited identity theft as their biggest concern with data loss in the event that their phone was lost or stolenAmong those unwilling to use finance-related apps, many believed the levels of security on their handsets or on the apps themselves were simply not enough to guarantee their banking details wouldn't fall into the wrong hands.Personally, I believe this perception is not helped by the fact that there is no easily recognised symbol on a mobile device to indicate that an app is secure or that the cloud service it is fronting is from a bona fide service provider, and that the user's information will be protected.What we do know from the survey is that most people don't PIN-protect their phones and 28% of consumers admitted to knowing a third-party's login details. Therefore they presumably know that they and their information are exposed to attack if the phone is lost or accessed by a friend or family member.Building trustWe need to regain consumer trust if the mobile economy is to really take off. We all already have multiple digital identities – from online banking and social networking to email and many others, but these identities are becoming more and more prevalent, and how we secure them is a growing concern for consumers. The industry needs to sit up and listen – we need more sophisticated forms of trusted identity.Modern smartphones already feature multiple on-board security features (e.g. Trustzone in the ARM core processor/UICC from the MNO/TPMs and virtual smart cards/secure MicroSD/keychain/biometric readers), however, through a lack of commitment from service providers and a dearth of security expertise in the app development community, this baseline security technology is not being fully incorporated to the benefit of consumers.Ultimately, the smartphone has the potential to be the personal security enabler of the future and not the security bleed it is viewed as being today. For this to happen, however, the baseline security technology already available needs to be more widely embraced; only then will we be truly capable of regaining consumer trust.Richard Parris is CEO at Intercede
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