communist goodness: 2013

Saturday, October 26, 2013

China blames weather for hampering efforts to banish smog

By Adam Rose

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's battle against a persistent air pollution crisis, which all but shut down a city of 11 million this week, is being hampered by tough weather conditions, an environmental official said on Tuesday.

Air quality in cities is of increasing concern to China's stability-obsessed leaders, anxious to douse potential unrest as a more affluent urban population turns against a growth-at-all-costs economic model that has besmirched much of the country's air, water and soil.

The government has announced many plans to fight pollution over the years but has made little apparent progress, especially in the country's north and northeast.

Harbin, a frigid northeastern city of 11 million people, virtually ground to a halt on Monday when a pollution index showed airborne contaminants at around 50 times the levels recommended by the World Health Organisation.

"This severe smog, first of all, is caused by climate conditions," Fang Li, the deputy chief of Beijing's municipal environmental protection bureau, told reporters.

"Right now, total pollution emissions have exceeded environmental capacity," he told a news conference on new smog emergency measures in the capital.

Fang blamed thick fog for the pollution still blanketing Harbin and large parts of the northeast.

"Harbin, coincidentally, on its first day of winter heating encountered thick fog - these two things are closely linked," he said.

"If you just equate heavy pollution with winter heating, then the whole winter would be like this. That's not possible".

Collective central heating, activated on a date set by the government, provides heat to 65 percent of Harbin, figures quoted last year in the state media show. Much of that heat comes from burning coal.

Beijing's central heating normally comes on in mid-November.

Beijing, sometimes derided as "Greyjing" or "Beige-jing" by English-speaking residents, suffered its own smog emergency last winter, when the pollution index reached 45 times the recommended level one particularly bad day in January.

Smoke from factories and heating plants, winds from the Gobi Desert and fumes from millions of vehicles can combine to blanket the city in a pungent shroud for days.

If three days of hazardous and near hazardous pollution are forecast this winter, Fang said, the capital will temporarily halt construction, factory production, outdoor barbecues and fireworks.

If hazardous pollution is expected for three consecutive days, school will be cancelled and temporary curbs imposed on driving, he added.

(Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-blames-weather-hampering-efforts-banish-smog-110059346--finance.html
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Learn More About Time Travel So You Can Be Prepared for the Future

Though most of us probably think time travel only works inside a DeLorean, much smarter folks out there can explain it slightly better than Doc Brown. Like this TED-Ed animation narrated by Colin Stuart. It reveals how time travel is possible, who has time traveled the longest, the history of time travel and the hopeful future. Learn something and then maybe we'll be ready for the future. [TED-Ed]

Case Of 'Little Maria' Is Solved, Bulgarian Romas Are Her Parents

Greece's Hellenic Police say they found the girl living with the Roma couple last week. Authorities have sought tips that might lead to information about her identity.

Hellenic Police/Getty Images

Greece's Hellenic Police say they found the girl living with the Roma couple last week. Authorities have sought tips that might lead to information about her identity.

Hellenic Police/Getty Images

A DNA test has confirmed that the biological parents of Little Maria are a Roma couple living in Bulgaria.

Maria, you might remember, was taken from Christos Salis and his wife Eleftheria Dimopoulou, because police said the child was too fair to be the Greek Roma couple's daughter. The two were charged with abducting a child, but they maintained that they had adopted Maria from another Roma couple in Bulgaria.

The case first raised questions about the stealing and trading of children, but then raised questions about racial profiling and the way the gypsy community in Europe has been treated for decades.

The case, driven by the media to international prominence, led to couples in the U.S. to wonder if Maria was their missing child.

Today, as the AFP reports, we found out that Sasha Ruseva and Atanas Rusev are the girl's biological mother and father.

During interviews on Thursday, before the results of the DNA tests were known Ruseva said she had given up Maria because she was too poor to care for her.

CNN quotes Sasha as telling Bulgaria's TV7: "We gave her, we gifted her, without money. I didn't take any money. I didn't have any food to give to the kid. I saw it yesterday and I've been sick. I haven't eaten since last night."

The Bulgarian couple, reports the BBC, is now being investigated over allegations they sold the child.

The Guardian adds:

"A lawyer representing the Greek couple said they planned to seek legal custody of the fair-haired girl. The couple have told authorities they received Maria after an informal adoption.

"Under Greek law, child abduction charges can include cases where a minor is voluntarily given away by the parents outside the legal adoption process.

"The couple's lawyer, Costas Katsavos, said: 'Now that they're in prison there's not much they can do. But provided what we said is borne out, that it was not an abduction, then logically they will be released from prison and they will be able to enter a proper [adoption] process ... They truly and ardently want her back.'"

As we reported, this case spurred two cases in Ireland, where blonde children were taken from their Roma parents, only to be returned after DNA tests proved the Romas were the biological parents.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/25/240791734/case-of-little-maria-is-solved-bulgarian-romas-are-her-parents?ft=1&f=1001
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Do Pakistanis Support US Drone Attacks?

Drone strikes in Pakistan are in the spotlight after that country's Prime Minister visited the U.S., and a new report detailed hundreds of civilian casualties from American attacks. But how do people in Pakistan view drones? Host Michel Martin speaks to freelance journalists Aisha Sarwari and Madiha Tahir to find out.

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=240749015&ft=1&f=1004
Category: 9/11 Jack Nicholson Bryan Cranston Miley Cyrus Vmas 2013 Video Pga Leaderboard

Do Pakistanis Support US Drone Attacks?

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=240749015&ft=1&f=1004
Category: kansas city chiefs eagles eminem Wally Bayola scandal Liam Payne

Tenn. Guard recruiter held in superiors' shooting

Police vehicles and an ambulance block a road near a Tennessee National Guard armory where two Guard members were shot on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013, in Millington, Tenn. A member of the National Guard opened fire at the armory outside a U.S. Navy base in Tennessee, wounding two soldiers before being subdued and disarmed by others soldiers, officials said Thursday. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz)

Law enforcement and military personnel investigate the scene where shootings occurred at an armory outside a U.S. Navy Base in Millington, Tenn., on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013. A spokesperson said two military reserve members were wounded, though neither had life-threatening injuries. (AP Photo/Lance Murphey)

A patient believed to be one of the National Guardsmen injured near the naval base in Millington, Tenn., was taken to The Med in Memphis, Tenn., early Thursday afternoon, Oct. 24, 2013. Two ambulances arrived carrying two injured men shortly after the shooting ocurred. (AP Photo/The Commercial Appeal, Karen Pulfer Focht)

Tennessee National Guard officials walk away from a helicopter that carried them to a field across from a National Guard armory where two Guard members were shot on on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013 in Millington, Tenn. A member of the National Guard opened fire at the armory outside a U.S. Navy base in Tennessee, wounding two soldiers before being subdued and disarmed by others soldiers, officials said Thursday. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz)

Maj. Gen. Max Haston, right, Adjutant General of the Tennessee National Guard, speaks at a news conference near a Guard armory where two Guard members were shot on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013 in Millington, Tenn. At left is Tennessee National Guard spokesman Randy Harris. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz)

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee National Guard recruiter was charged in federal court on Friday, accused of shooting three of his superiors at an armory after he was told he would be relieved of duty and dismissed from active service.

U.S. District Magistrate Judge Diane Vescovo told Amos Patton he is charged with committing assaults within the maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States and carrying a weapon during a federal crime of violence.

The 42-year-old sergeant first class was ordered to the armory north of Memphis Thursday, where he was told that he was being relieved of duty, reduced in rank and recommended for removal from active reserve, U.S. Attorney Edward Stanton III said at a Friday news conference.

Following the meeting, Patton was ordered to return government equipment that was in his vehicle outside the building, located in Millington, the complaint said. Patton had a "fanny pack" with him when he returned. When Patton tried to access the pack, one Guardsman yelled "gun," the complaint says. Patton then opened fire, hitting three Guardsmen, wrote FBI Special Agent Matthew Ross.

The complaint does not detail the nature of the misconduct. Patton, of the Memphis suburb of Cordova, had been in the Guard 14 years, Stanton said.

The complaint says Patton then ran from the building before another Guardsman caught up with him, subdued him and held him until Millington police arrived. The handgun was recovered at the scene.

Everything took "no more than just a minute or so," said FBI Special Agent Todd McCall.

Officials on Thursday identified two of the three victims as Tennessee National Guardsmen Maj. William J. Crawford and Sgt. Maj. Ricky R. McKenzie. Both were recruiters who were Patton's superiors. One was shot in the lower leg and the other in the foot.

On Friday, the Guard identified the third victim as Lt. Col. Hunter Belcher, also above Patton in the chain of command. He was grazed by a bullet just below the right knee. Another round went through a backpack Belcher was wearing, but did not injure him. All three men were treated and released.

In court on Friday, the judge scheduled a probable cause and detention hearing for Wednesday. Patton told the judge that he could not afford his own lawyer, and Vescovo granted his request to appoint a public defender.

Patton, who wore an orange jumpsuit and was shackled at the hands and feet, is being held without bond. If convicted, he could serve up to 20 years in prison on the assault charge and a minimum of 10 years on the firearms charge.

Patton's wife, Brenda, declined comment outside the courtroom Friday.

Maj. Gen. Max Haston, adjutant general of the Tennessee Guard, said the two wounded recruiters were veterans who had served overseas. Asked Thursday about the discipline the gunman had faced before the shooting, Haston would say only that there were "administrative policies and procedures that we were going through with him."

Haston said security protocols were followed closely and he was proud that the shooter was quickly subdued by other soldiers.

"It makes me proud, but it also scares me to death that something like this can happen," Haston said Thursday.

Millington Police Chief Rita Stanback said the shooter did not have the handgun in his possession by the time officers arrived.

The armory, which houses a recruitment office, sits across the street from Naval Support Activity Mid-South on land that used to be part of a larger military installation. Navy officials ordered a lockdown there during the tense minutes after the midafternoon shooting, lifting it after word came that the gunman was in custody.

The base is home to human resources operations and serves as headquarters to the Navy Personnel Command, Navy Recruiting Command, the Navy Manpower Analysis Center and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Finance Center.

___

Associated Press writer Travis Loller in Nashville contributed to this report.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-10-25-Armory%20Shooting/id-4fd1b3fef2a1459dabee60246bccd13d
Category: fox news nhl Roosevelt Field Mall monday night football dairy queen

Friday, October 25, 2013

BBM: The Messenger is already dead

Most companies would kill for 10 million app downloads, especially if it's widely believed to be on a one-way trip to the morgue. The otherwise moribund BlackBerry hit this mark last week, claiming 10 million downloads of its BBM app, which finally rolled out to iOS and Android users after last month's false start. Despite its dwindling market, BBM is understandably popular among BlackBerry users-- it's long been one of the few personal apps for the device, and it's not like other messaging options are available on the platform.

Still, the notion of a cross-platform BBM had strong emotional appeal, and it was apparently a key issue in co-founder Jim Balsillie's departure from BlackBerry earlier this year. Balsillie believed it would save the company, while CEO Thorsten Heins thought it would distract from the need to fix BlackBerry's smartphone platform. Heins won, but users didn't adopt the new BlackBerry 10 platform, despite decent reviews. Now we're back to BBM-as-savior.

[ The InfoWorld reviews: BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10. | Mobile security: iOS vs. Android vs. Windows Phone vs. BlackBerry. | For quick, smart takes on the news you'll be talking about, check out InfoWorld TechBrief -- subscribe today. ]

Unfortunately, BBM won't save BlackBerry either. Lots of cross-platform IM apps are out there, and BBM simply doesn't stand out. In fact, due to its poor setup, it stands back.

My colleague Serdar Yegulalp and I both tried BBM this week, after BlackBerry granted us early access. Although the BBM app is available for free download for Android and iOS devices, BlackBerry is rationing access to the service, presumably to ramp up the network to handle demand.

Unfortunately, it's not working. Yegulalp and I both waited for hours for our apps to register themselves once we signed in via our BlackBerry ID credentials. Our invites to each other to initiate chatting -- you must first provide your PIN to the person you want to chat with -- sat for half a day in the bowels of BlackBerry's servers before they were finally delivered to us. And the service went dead for us mere hours after we got to use it, though it came back up later.

No wonder BlackBerry was rationing access -- and it still didn't work!

Even if you chalk it up to poor capacity planning or a panicked release, the BBM app itself is awkward to set up, doesn't connect well to your contacts, and at the end of the day offers the same basic IM functionality as everyone else -- maybe even less at this rate.

The PIN requirement is awkward for several reasons. First, who's going to remember a random string of characters? Maybe BlackBerry does that to avoid name collisions, but it's still problematic. As a result, you can't easily tell people how to initiate a chat. The app can send emails to people with that PIN; they then click a link that opens a browser to a BlackBerry service and sends an invite to the BBM app to connect the two users. That's an inelegant and roundabout method.

Source: http://akamai.infoworld.com/d/mobile-technology/bbm-the-messenger-already-dead-229433?source=rss_mobile_technology
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This Lexus Paints Your Portrait Based On How You Drive

Car aficionados will readily defend their favorite vehicles as rolling works of art, but art collector Walter Vanhaerent might be the only driver on earth who can definitively make that claim. Because his new Lexus IS 300h hybrid actually paints his portrait every time he hits the road.

Ashley Greene: Hooray Henry’s Hottie

Kicking off her weekend a little early, Ashley Greene blew off some steam at Hooray Henry’s in Los Angeles last night (October 24).

Joined by a few friends, the “Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1” starlet was hard to miss in her magenta top and black trousers as she made her exit from the hot spot.

After finishing work on Zach Braff’s “Wish I Was Here,” Ashley has been busy filming “Staten Island Summer” with Gina Gershon, Graham Phillips, and Kate Walsh.

Per the synopsis, “Pals Danny and Frank spend the summer after high school working as spend as lifeguards while figuring out what their future.”

Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/ashley-greene/ashley-greene-hooray-henry%E2%80%99s-hottie-949538
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Fab.com Updates Site To Give Better Recommendations As It Pursues Global Growth

Lifestyle focused e-commerce company Fab has unveiled a new design for its website in time for the holiday shopping season. The core of Fab.com’s new user interface is its ‘Personalization’ feature, which leverages collaborative filtering technology developed by Fab to make product recommendations more relevant to each shopper’s interests. Fab will also update its iOS and Android apps within the next few days. The company is offering a $10 credit today at this link.

Fab.com’s collaborative filtering tech, which integrates users’ activity on the site as well as social networking sites, evaluates the items each visitor has viewed, faved or shared on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest, past purchases, and activity by other shoppers Fab believes have similar tastes. The site’s recommendation engine takes advantage of data points accumulated from its members, which numbered 14 million in June.

Fab and other sites that use collaborative filtering (including Pinterest) constantly try to refine their algorithms so they can provide the most accurate recommendations based on the smallest amount of data. This is important to hook users as early as possible, even if they have clicked on only a few items. Fab’s collaborative filtering technology uses Apache Mahout’s machine learning libraries, which also includes support for user and item based recommendations.

The company says its next step is working on singular value decomposition, or the factorization of a real or complex matrix in linear algebra. This helps Fab because collaborative filtering may become slower as the amount of data it has to evaluate increases. Singular value decomposition, on the other hand, offers more scalability and potentially make more accurate predictions using data sets with less dimensionality.

Fab’s redesign (which also includes a new user interface that follows the recent trend for flat design among tech companies and larger product photos) comes as the company focuses on expansion in Asia, part of its goal to join a roster of e-commerce companies that are valued at more than $10 billion: Amazon, eBay, Alibaba and Rakuten.

But Fab’s growth strategy has not come without its share of headaches. Earlier this year, Fab made the latest in a series of pivots by moving its business model away from flash sales to focus on its “lifestyle shop,” including home goods, which account for 50 percent of sales. The company said it abandoned its flash sales model because it is difficult to scale globally if Fab wants to be able to sell the same products around the world.

Then in July, it was sued for trademark infringement and unfair competition by shoes and apparel site Just Fab. Around the same time, Fab.com laid off about 150 employees from its Berlin offices in what it said was an effort to reduce redundancies.

The lay-offs came just one month after Fab announced the close of $150 million in Series D funding, with plans to raise another $100 million. Founder and CEO Jason Goldberg said the company started down the fundraising route in March to raise enough capital to have several years of runway, at least until 2015. The funds will be used to invest in additional enhancements to its supply chain, logistics, customer service, technology and merchandising.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/wkwcjCrE9C0/
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Google Sound Search lands in Canada [Update: not anymore]

What's this song?

Update: Looks like things have reverted back, and the Sound Search widget is once again unavailable in Canada.

Original story: Though they're still unable to stream from Google Play Music, Canadians now have the ability to use Google's Sound Search widget to identify music. The widget works on home screens and lock screens, and uses your phone or tablet's microphones to match what's playing against Google's vast library of music. (The same library still unavailable in Canada.)

Strangely, MobileSyrup reports that asking Google Now "What's this song" still returns an error message in Canada, while the standalone widget works as expected.

Would it be overly optimistic to think Sound Search's launch in Canada might signal the arrival of more Google music content for Canadians in the near future? Who knows, but surely it's about time.

Source: MobileSyrup

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/NTTwjBshAtg/story01.htm
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Meghan McCain dishes about her 'pain in the ass' dad

Top Line

Sen. John McCain says his daughter Meghan can be a “giant pain in the ass.”

But the 29-year-old daughter of the Arizona Republican is laughing off her father’s comment, which he makes in jest during an interview with Meghan in an upcoming episode of her new reality show, “Raising McCain.”

“I feel like McCains are pains in the asses!” McCain told “Top Line.”

McCain, who first rose to prominence by keeping a blog during her father’s 2008 presidential campaign, said that she and her father are both working through a shared frustration with the current state of the GOP.

“We’re both frustrated with the idea that only the hyper-conservative wing of the party is going to represent the masses,” said McCain, who later added that “Republicans are giving young people no reason to join their party right now.”

McCain said the emotional toll of her father’s frustration rivals the disappointment he experienced after losing the 2008 election.

“I’ve never heard him this depressed other than maybe after the ‘08 election,” McCain said. “He’s so depressed, so down-trodden. The way he’s talking about it, he’s never seen it this bad in his 30-plus years in office.”

Asked about the recent comments from her 77-year-old father that he may run for another term in the U.S. Senate, McCain said the news came as a surprise.

“I know, and I found out through Twitter, again,” she said, but added that his age isn’t why she hesitates in supporting the concept of another campaign.

“My father has more energy than I do and I legitimately say that, so it’s not his age, it’s just the idea of having another dirty tea party election,” she said.

But if you think this junior McCain might step up to fill her father’s shoes, think again. She insisted that she has no intention to ever run for public office.

“I think women have to give up so much to run for office, which maybe makes me a hypocrite, because I think more women should be in office,” McCain said. “I always say, I want more tattoos and I don’t plan on getting married anytime soon so I think those two things might automatically make me not eligible for running for office.”

To hear more about McCain’s new show that airs on Pivot, and her advice to the millennial generation about protecting their online identities, check out this episode of “Top Line.”

ABC News’ Alexandra Dukakis, Tom Thornton, Gary Westphalen, Melissa Young and Bob Bramson contributed to this episode.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/power-players-abc-news/meghan-mccain-dishes-about-her-pain-in-the-ass-dad-204306215.html
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SlingPlayer gets AirPlay support, Blockbuster arrives on SlingBox 500 in new update

Sling Media has just rolled out an update that brings a number of improvements to the Slingbox 500 and to the SlingPlayer app. For the Slingbox 500, Blockbuster On Demand is now available as a premium video service along with a new My Media feature that lets users access media via a USB drive. Only ...

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/hPHRfAT4dJE/
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Guy On Train Live Tweets Former NSA Chief's On-Background Interview

You'd think he'd be more careful: The man who was once responsible for the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency was giving a background interview during a train ride, but he didn't notice that a fellow passenger was live tweeting the highlights.

In truth, we didn't learn any secrets from Ret. Gen. Michael Hayden, but Tom Matzzie, who used to work for the liberal group MoveOn.org, provided a riveting — and funny — account of the ordeal on his Twitter feed.

Matzzie said Hayden told the journalists that he could only be identified as a former senior administration official and then went on to give "disparaging quotes about" the Obama administration. At one point Hayden, said Matzzie, was "bragging about rendition and black sites."

Hayden, you might remember, served as the NSA director under Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. He served as CIA Director for Bush and Obama.

As you might imagine, eventually Hayden got a call from his office telling him what was going on. Matzzie wondered if he should hide. But Hayden graciously offered an interview and even took a picture with Matzzie.

Eventually, Matzzie tweeted, Hayden got off the train in Newark.

"He touched my back... again," Matzzie tweeted, before adding that he was about to get off the train himself and someone should "email my wife and explain all this."

Micah Sifry, the co-founder of Personal Democracy Forum, Storified the entire thing:

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/24/240587739/guy-on-train-live-tweets-former-nsa-chiefs-on-background-interview?ft=1&f=1001
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Greek police arrest 2 suspected of buying baby

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek police said Friday they have arrested a childless couple in Athens on suspicion of buying an 8-month-old Roma girl and trying to register her as their own, amid international uproar over another little girl who was found living with unrelated Gypsies in Greece.

Bulgarian authorities are now trying to establish whether a local Roma woman is the mother of that child, a strikingly fair girl aged 5 or 6 known as Maria. The woman has been tested for a DNA match and served with preliminary charges of child selling, but has not been detained.

The case of Maria has drawn global attention, playing on the shocking possibility of children being stolen from their parents or sold buy them. But its handling by media and authorities has raised concerns of racism toward the European Union's estimated 6 million Gypsies — a minority long marginalized in most of the continent.

The couple arrested in Athens on Wednesday allegedly paid a Roma woman 4,000 euros ($5,500) for the baby, a Greek police statement said. Authorities are looking for the baby's birth parents and potential intermediaries in the alleged transaction.

The suspects, aged 53 and 48, were expected to be charged later Friday with child abduction, which under Greek law can include cases where a minor is voluntarily given away by its parents outside the legal adoption process.

The same charges were brought against the couple with whom Maria was found living in a Roma settlement outside Farsala, in central Greece, a week ago. They have been jailed pending trial, are also suspected of fraudulently obtaining birth certificates for a total 14 children.

Greek authorities are trying to work out whether the children all exist, or whether the alleged document fraud was part of a welfare scam — the couple allegedly received more than 2,500 euros a month in family benefits.

They insist they were looking after Maria with their own five children after an informally arranged adoption.

The girl was placed into the care of a children's charity and her DNA details were provided to Interpol which has so far failed to match her to any missing children declared in its records, from Poland to the U.S.

On Wednesday, another Roma couple was charged with child abduction on the eastern Greek island of Lesvos, after police found them with a baby boy that was not their own. The couple allegedly told authorities that they were childless and had been given the baby by a Roma woman in Athens who had five children of her own and took pity on them.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/greek-police-arrest-2-suspected-buying-baby-072346132.html
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Zynga trims 3Q losses under new CEO, stock surges

FILE -In this June 26, 2012 file photo then Zynga CEO Mark Pincus walks off the stage after an announcement of new games at Zynga headquarters in San Francisco. Zynga Inc. earnings announced Thursday Oct. 24, 2013 whittled its third-quarter losses even as its revenue plunged and fewer people played its digital games. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, fIle)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Zynga Inc. whittled its third-quarter losses even as its revenue plunged and fewer people played its digital games.

The improvement raised investors' hopes that the hobbled company might be able to regain its stride under a new CEO hired during the summer, and shares jumped 13 percent in after-hours trading.

The results announced Thursday served as the first report card for Don Mattrick, a respected video-game executive who was overseeing Microsoft's Xbox division until he was hired in July to replace Zynga founder Mark Pincus as CEO of the San Francisco company.

Mattrick is turning to an old colleague to help him in his attempt to engineer a turnaround. Zynga said Thursday that Clive Downie will become its chief operating officer beginning Nov. 4. Downie, 41, is defecting from a mobile game maker called DeNA, but he and Mattrick previously worked together at video game maker Electronic Arts Inc.

Zynga will tap into Downie's expertise in mobile games as it tries to connect with more people on smartphones and tablet computers. The company's biggest hits, such as "FarmVille" and "Mafia Wars," have primarily been played on desktop and laptop computers that have been declining in use.

That trend has saddled Zynga with massive losses, causing its stock to plunge 60 percent from its initial public offering price of $10 nearly two years ago. The shares gained 47 cents to $4 in extended trading Thursday.

Zynga lost $68,000 in the three months ended in September. That translated into breaking even on a per-share basis. It marked a dramatic improvement from a loss of $52.7 million, or 7 cents per share, at the same time last year.

If not counting one-time gains, Zynga said it would have lost 2 cents per share. That figure was better than the average loss of 4 cents per share projected by analysts, according to FactSet.

Revenue tumbled 36 percent to $202.6 million — about $13 million more than analysts had predicted.

An average of 30 million people played Zynga's games on a daily basis during the third quarter, down from 60 million at the same time last year.

Zynga has offset the waning popularity of its games by shedding workers. Most recently, the company laid off 520 employees, or 18 percent of its payroll, earlier this year. Zynga ended September with 2,206 employees, down from 2,360 workers in June. The workforce peaked at about 3,300 employees last year.

The cost-cutting is expected to help trim Zynga's losses again in the current quarter ending in December. Zynga is preparing for a loss ranging from $21 million to $31 million in the final quarter of the year, down from nearly $49 million at the same time last year.

"Our teams are working hard to compete more aggressively on the Web, move to mobile and develop new hits, and I am happy with the early progress we have made," Mattrick said in a statement.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-10-24-US-Earns-Zynga/id-0d9f6240c97b420a8227c0ab1a8616a5
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Natalie Portman Debuts A New Look At The ‘Thor: The Dark World’ Paris Premiere

Miss Dior Nails It

Posted by: Shannon on October 24, 2013|

Nobody rocks a Christian Dior gown quite like Natalie Portman, and the actress continues to be a red carpet fave for many of us. Portman has been attending the premieres for her new movie Thor: The Dark World, and she’s been looking absolutely fabulous. Her most recent look was this gorgeous little Dior frock, which she wore to her Paris premiere. I think this new haircut– along with those blonde highlights– really suits her. What do you guys think? Are we loving this or what?

[Source] [Photo Credit: Getty/Splash]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pinkisthenewblog/~3/xEONqOrkBBE/natalie-portman-debuts-a-new-look-at-the-thor-the-dark-world-paris-premiere
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Vine update lets remix your posts, save them for later

Vine has been updated with a couple of major additions for editing videos, called Sessions and Time Travel.

Sessions allows you to save a post for later, allowing you to come back and add to, edit, or discard it at a later time. To use Sessions, when recording a video, tap the icon in the bottom right corner of the app and select Save for Later. Vine supports up to ten posts-in-progress at once.

Time Travel is about editing, and can work hand-in-hand with Sessions. Time Travel lets you cut, reorder, or replace any shot in one of your posts at any time. To access Time Travel, tap the green bar while shooting a video, or tap edit when previewing a post. In the chronological lineup of shots in the post, you can drag individual sections around to reorder. To delete a section, drag it to the top of the screen, where a trashcan will appear.

If you haven't tried Vine yet, or you don't have auto-updates on, head on over to the App Store now! Then tell me what you think of the new features!

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