Sixty years ago, four young students in Greensboro, North Carolina, staged a sit-in at a segregated lunch counter — and started a movement, spurring sit-ins throughout the country to protest segregation.
Now, the famed "Greensboro Four" — David Richmond, Ezell Blair Jr. (now Jibreel Khazan), Franklin McCain, and Joseph McNeil — will be honored in a Google Doodle, debuting at 11 p.m. EST on Jan. 31 and staying up for 24 hours in the U.S., until Feb. 1, the sixtieth anniversary of the historic sit-in and the first day of Black History Month. (According to Google, the Greensboro Sit-in is the most searched sit-in in history.) Read more...
The Red Devils have reportedly been scouting various leagues for a new striker with head coach Ole Gunner Solskjaer trying to increase the team’s scoring ability due to the squad’s depleted roster. Man United are lacking up front because of an injury to Marcus Rashford who is forecast to be out until April.
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New Delhi (Sputnik): The Indian government had assured the 600 Indians living in China's Hubei Province, of all possible help and promised they would be evacuated.
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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, along with Senators Kamala Harris, Sherrod Brown and Patty Murray held a press conference on Friday during the ongoing Senate impeachment trial of US President Donald Trump.
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I love echo - any kind of reverberation or atmosphere around a voice or a sound effect that tells you something about the space you are in.
That’s a quote from lengendary film editor and sound designer Walter Murch. In the 70s, he pioneered a technique called worldizing, for which he used a mix of pristine studio-recorded and rougher set-recorded sounds to make a more immersive soundscape for theater audiences. He used it in The Godfather, Apocalpyse Now, and American Graffiti:
George [Lucas] and I took the master track of the two-hour radio show with Wolfman Jack as DJ and played it back on a Nagra in a real space — a suburban backyard. I was fifty-or-so-feet away with a microphone recording that sound onto another Nagra, keeping it in sync and moving the microphone kind of at random, back and forth, as George moved the speaker through 180 degrees. There were times when microphone and speaker were pointed right at each other, and there were other times when they were pointed in completely opposite directions. So that was a separate track. Then, we did that whole thing again.
When I was mixing the film, I had three tracks to draw from. One of them was what you might call the “dry studio track” of the radio show, where the music was very clear and sharp and everything was in audio focus. Then there were the other two tracks which were staggered a couple of frames to each other, and on which the axis of the microphone and the speakers was never the same because we couldn’t remember what we had done intentionally.
This week, in defiance of the Trump administration, London formally granted Chinese tech giant Huawei the right to build part of the UK’s 5G mobile internet network, albeit capping its UK market share at 35 percent and restricting involvement to “non-core” infrastructure. The US, which lobbied intensely to block Huawei, expressed disappointment.
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The new strain of coronavirus — 2019-nCoV — was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan, located in the Hubei province, in December and has since spread to more than 20 countries.
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BEIJING (Sputnik) - The number of people, who have been infected with a new coronavirus across China, has reached 11,791, with 259 patients having died of the disease, the National Health Commission said on Saturday.
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Today is Brexit Day and to mark the occasion London based game developers Panic Barn have released a new Brexit themed video game for the Nintendo Switch. "Not Tonight" takes place in a dystopian post Brexit Britain, where your character must navigate life as an Eastern European migrant trying to keep his head above water.
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In the digital age, it can seem as though the life of the physical notebook or diary has come and gone. But most serious writers will tell you that there’s a special connection that comes from putting pen to paper, and these Leather Notebooks & Journals will help you bring that magic back.
Relive the golden era of writing down your thoughts and ambitions using good old-fashioned pen and paper with these elegant, handmade notebooks and journals.
With unique designs and hand-stitched embossed leather patches, these notebooks are great gifts for lovers of the written word.
They come in a variety of styles, feature durable hardcover backings, and come loaded with 50 sheets of handmade, tree-free cotton paper that can be used to record anything your creative mind can dream up.
They’re also light and compact enough to take with you without weighing you down.
Embrace your inner storyteller with these Leather Notebooks & Journals, starting at just $35.10.
A simple mother of two, Akeisha Land, from the state of Missouri, attracted thousands of Instagram followers after netizens noticed a striking similarity between her appearance and that of Meghan Markle.
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Former Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, 67, is facing accusation of sexually harassing and assaulting women over a number of years. However, the businessman has insisted all his sexual relationships were consensual.
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The Prelude in G Major to Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 is one of the world’s most recognizable pieces of music. You’ve likely heard Yo-Yo Ma play it — he’s been trying to master it for almost 60 years now. In a new episode of Earworm, Estelle Caswell and cellist Alisa Weilersteinbreak the song down to see what makes it such an effective and interesting piece of music.
In the early 1700s, Johann Sebastian Bach did something few, if any, composers had ever done. He composed six suites for the cello — a four stringed instrument that, at the time, was relegated to the role of accompaniment in larger ensembles.
Each suite consists of movements named for various dances, and they all begin with a prelude — an improvisatory movement meant to establish the key of the suite, as well as reoccurring themes and motifs. These suites are all masterpieces in music and considered a rite of passage for cellists to study and master.
But there’s one movement in particular, the Prelude in G Major, that has taken on a life of its own in the minds of musicians and music lovers alike.
If you hear the first few measures you’ll likely recognize it. A simple G major arpeggiated chord played expressively on the cello opens a short, but harmonically and melodically rich, 42 measures of music. Bach makes a single instrument sound like a full ensemble. How does he do it?
Mark Zuckerberg says he knows his positions are likely to "piss off a lot of people."
Two days after a company earnings call in which he stated that his goal for the next decade "isn't to be liked, but to be understood," the Facebook CEO attempted to explain just what he meant.
Speaking at the Silicon Slopes Tech Summit, an annual conference in Utah, Zuckerberg railed against censorship, saying he "feels like the list of things you are not allowed to say socially keeps on growing."
Zuckerberg's comments are the latest sign that the embattled CEO, who is currently facing an antitrust investigation into his company, plans to change his tone in how he deals with critics. Read more...
Lakers legend Kobe Bryant died along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna Maria-Onore and seven others in a helicopter crash on 26 January in Calabasas, California. Sport fans across the globe are still heartbroken and mourning the devastating loss for the entire international basketball community.
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The US Senate voted to 51-49 on Friday to not allow additional witnesses or documents in the impeachment trial of US President Donald Trump, which paves the way for a final vote on whether to acquit or convict the US president.
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New concept images of the B-21 Raider were released earlier this week by US defense manufacturer Northrop Grumman, presenting observers with a closer look at the top secret long-range strike bomber.
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For the first time, scientists have detected alarmingly warm ocean water underneath a massive glacier in western Antarctica. The warm water could accelerate the glacier’s melting and contribute to a 10-foot sea level rise, Eric Rignot, a co-investigator for the organization behind the findings, told Sputnik.
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Young children often enjoy games of throwing the ball back and forth to each other when playing outdoors. Apparently, certain animals also find this game entertaining, such as a pet water otter in Japan.
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Part of the appeal of Baby Yoda, our collective name for the Mandalorian character officially known as The Child, was that he came into our lives almost entirely merch-free. Both the showrunners and Disney CEO Bob Iger believed that The Mandalorian's biggest surprise would be ruined by the long lead times and inevitable leaks inherent in the figurine businesses. Baby Yoda could have been the hottest toy of Christmas 2019. Instead, for a few months, we were able to bask in the joy of something all too rare: an uncomplicated, noncommercial love for a fictional creation.
But Disney, lest we forget, is a for-profit, publicly-traded company that is legally obligated to create more value for its shareholders every year. And so, in 2020, the stormtroopers from sales struck back. They cracked down on Etsy sellers making a crust with their Baby Yoda homages. They announced so-so T-shirts, a $25 plush 11-inch model that barely resembled The Child, an equally cheap-looking crib version, an oddly unsatisfying, plastic-y cartoonish Hasbro Black Series model, and, of course, the inevitable Funko Pop. Read more...
The al-Qaeda terrorist group has reportedly been plotting attacks against the United States and Europe. The Yemeni branch, spawned after the death of the organization's leader, Osama Bin Laden, is said to be the most active offshoot of the remaining militants expecting their inevitable extermination in dens on the Arabian Peninsula.
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Mammoth Cave National Park has quickly become a site of interest for scientists, as an ongoing project has resulted in the discovery of fossilized remains belonging to a 330 million-year-old shark and dozens of other specimens.
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The new rules are set to go into force in the ninth of the 12 Democratic presidential debates, which is scheduled to take place on 19 February in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Whoever said style, comfort, and function couldn’t coexist in the same garment within the same universe clearly hasn’t seen the DudeRobe—an unapologetically unique men’s hooded bathrobe that’s guaranteed to keep you both comfy and cool wherever your awesomeness may lead you.
A modern twist on the boring and underwhelming old bathrobes that tend to adorn so many closets throughout the world, this effortlessly sleek and practical robe has been re-engineered into something that guys today actually want to wear.
The DudeRobe combines a classic hoodie fit and style with a sweatshirt look on the outside and a supremely comfortable robe on the inside—making it perfect for lounging around the home or attending your friend’s pool party in unparalleled style.
It’s made with a 100% cotton exterior and a 100% French Terry interior, and a Never-Lost Belt is permanently attached to the waist—meaning you’ll always be able to cinch up on the fly.
Treat yourself to a rare combination of eye-catching style and comfort with the DudeRobe: Luxury Men's Hooded Bathrobe while it’s available for 20% off MSRP at just $76.
Facebook is cracking down on coronavirus rumors and conspiracy theories.
The company said that its fact checkers will debunk false claims about the coronavirus, and that it will remove some posts pushing conspiracy theories about it.
"We will also start to remove content with false claims or conspiracy theories that have been flagged by leading global health organizations and local health authorities that could cause harm to people who believe them," the company wrote in a statement.
"We are doing this as an extension of our existing policies to remove content that could cause physical harm." Read more...
China's National Health Commission (NHC) provided new data on the number of people who have contracted the new strain of the pneumonia-type virus. According to the NHC, as of 30 January, there are 9,692 confirmed cases of the Wuhan coronavirus infection in 31 provinces across China, with 1,527 people in critical condition and 213 dead.
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The U.S. State Department is warning Americans not to go to China because of the risk of getting ill from the coronavirus, reports the New York Times. "The department set the new advisory at Level 4, or Red, its highest caution, which is reserved for the most dangerous situations," said the paper.
I am always on the lookout for good music to write, design, and code to and video game music is definitely one of my go-to genres. Chris Gonzales wrote up a pair of guides to Mobile Games with Fantastic Soundtracks (part 2). Represented soundtracks include those from Monument Valley, Alto’s Odyssey, Gorogoa, and Stardew Valley.
The deadly coronavirus has spawned dangerous, baffling conspiracy theories online as officials across the globe work to stop the virus' spread.
As of Thursday afternoon, there had been more than 7,700 confirmed cases of the virus — which originated in Wuhan, China — and at least 170 deaths. Eighteen other countries, including the U.S., have confirmed cases, according to the World Health Organization.
But as bad as the virus is, conspiracy theories and misinformation are making the situation worse. The internet is rife with misinformation about the origin of the virus and how to protect yourself from it. Some of it is dangerous, some strange, and some downright racist. All of it is seemingly designed to piggyback off the intense interest in the virus. Read more...
Think you’ve found a glaring security hole in Xbox Live? Microsoft is interested.
The company announced a new bug bounty program today, focused specifically on its Xbox Live network and services. Depending on how serious the exploit is and how complete your report is, they’re paying up to $20,000.
Like most bug bounty programs, Microsoft is looking for pretty specific/serious security flaws here. Found a way to execute unauthorized code on Microsoft’s servers? They’ll pay for that. Keep getting disconnected from Live when you play as a certain legend in Apex? Not quite the kind of bug they’re looking for.
Microsoft also specifically rules out a few types of vulnerabilities as out-of-scope, including DDoS attacks, anything that involves phishing Microsoft employees or Xbox customers, or getting servers to cough up basic info like server name or internal IP. You can find the full breakdown here.
This is by no means Microsoft’s first foray into bounty programs; they’ve got similar programs for the Microsoft Edge browser, their “Windows Insider” preview builds, Office 365, and plenty of other categories. The biggest bounties they offer are on their cloud computing service, Azure, where the bounty for a super specific bug (gaining admin access to an Azure Security Lab account, which are closely controlled) can net up to $300,000.
The bushfires, which have been ravaging across Australia since September 2019 and have recently intensified, have reportedly claimed around 30 lives, destroyed more than 2,000 homes and killed over one billion animals.
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In this student-made video, students at Richland High School in Richland, Washington were asked what they thought of their mascot, which is a mushroom cloud. The Richland Bombers were in agreement that the logo is awesome.
The video then features a statement by a Japanese exchange student attending Richland. She is from Fukuoka, close to Nagasaki, which was hit by an atomic bomb in WWII. She says, "It is ironic that I ended up a bomber. My city was initially targeted to be destroyed by the bomb. My grandparents would have been incinerated." She concludes with an articulate and moving request for her fellow students to think about what the logo represents to other people.
Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner argued this week that US President Donald Trump’s deal may be the Palestinians’ last hope for peace in the Middle East. However, after examining the details of the deal, many are contending that it is unlikely to lead to any changes in the status quo.
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MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Russian football player, Fedor Smolov, moved from Moscow-based football club Lokomotiv to Spain’s Celta from the northwestern city of Vigo on a six-month loan, Celta’s official website said on Thursday.
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The Republican lawmaker argued that the two news outlets are “denigrating” citizens of the United States by using “a very old tactic” to accuse a “perceived opponent”.
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Following a formal vote in the European Parliament in Brussels on Wednesday, Britain will formally withdraw from the European Union on Friday. However, there still remains a great deal of uncertainty regarding the UK’s trade agreements with the US and the European Union, Alexander Mercouris, the editor-in-chief of The Duran, told Sputnik Thursday.
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If you run a WordPress website where you intend on adding eCommerce functionality at one stage or another, you cannot go past the free Stripe Payment Plugin. This plugin is designed to allow admin to sell either digital or tangible goods from their website through simple Stripe ‘Buy Now’ buttons. Just like PayPal, Stripe is a trusted payment processor that many merchants use to handle the transaction process on their website.
While the Stripe Payments Plugin allows you to use a shortcode that creates an aesthetically pleasing ‘Buy Now’ button, for some websites, it makes sense to use a text link payment button. Using a payment button link allows you to use any text or image as the anchor meaning you are not restricted to using the default button provided by the plugin.
A Stripe Payment’s Product ‘Link URL’ was used to create both a text payment button and a graphic payment button in the following example. If a customer is to click on either of these call to action buttons, the popup checkout will appear where they can complete a credit card transaction.
What is a Text Link Payment Button?
If you are relatively new to the eCommerce world, you may not have heard of the term ‘Text Link Payment Button‘. Without you even realizing, you may have even checked out on a website before using one.
A payment button is either textual or graphical, with graphical buttons appearing more often due to their somewhat aesthetically appealing nature. While graphical buttons are sighted more often on the web, this does not always mean they are the right fit or practical for a website. Many times a text link payment button may be a better choice. A link style payment button can even be anchored to an image if it is a better fit for the website compared to the default ‘Buy Now’ button.
If you are using a plugin, you may find the default payment button they offer does not fit with the aesthetics or feel of your website, and in these cases, a text link payment button may work out better. Before you decide on which plugin you will use to handle transactions on your WordPress website, consider what payment button styles are on offer, and if you have little to no developer knowledge choosing a plugin that allows for text link payment buttons will ensure you can design up any type of payment button you like.
In this screenshot, the default Stripe Payments Plugin ‘Buy Now’ button has been used as well as a ‘Text Link Payment Button’. This allows you to see the difference between the two options.
What is the Stripe Payments Plugin and Why May it Be Suitable for my Website?
The Stripe Payments Plugin is Tips and Tricks HQ’s free, Stripe eCommerce solution for WordPress websites. It allows merchants to sell both digital and tangible goods from their website to their customers via simple ‘Buy Now’ buttons. Once a customer clicks a payment button, the Stripe popup window appears where they can complete the full transaction for the product or service they wish to purchase.
The Stripe Payments Plugin is suitable for many merchants although those in particular that want/need the following features within their eCommerce software:
The ability to use ‘Product Link URL’s’ to create custom payment buttons (either text buttons or visual buttons)
Option to sell both tangible and digital items
Integrations that allow for subscription products, local payment methods, and email marketing
Ability to have donation or custom amount products
Option to create discount coupons that can be used on all or specific products
Terms and condition checkboxes
Ability to set a thank you page on a per-product basis
Option to have product variations and collect input from customers on the checkout
Creating a Text Link Payment Button
Video Tutorial: Using the Stripe Payments Plugin to Create Custom Text Link Buttons
Written Tutorial: Using the Stripe Payments Plugin to Create Custom Text Link Buttons
If you are using WordPress, you have landed on the perfect blog to help you start creating text link payment buttons that you can add to your website to start selling goods or services.
In this tutorial, we will be using the Stripe Payments Plugin by Tips and Tricks HQ to achieve text link payment buttons although a similar approach can be taken when using another plugin that offers product link URL’s.
When a customer clicks any of these buttons (text links) the Stripe checkout window pops up where the entire transaction can be completed. The customer’s order is then recorded in the WordPress dashboard and Stripe transacts the funds from the customer to the merchant.
1)Set Up the Plugin and Create a Product
Ensure you install and activate the Stripe Payments Plugin on your WordPress website. This plugin can be activated directly from your WordPress dashboard’s ‘Plugins‘ menu.
Complete the required set up of the plugin and then create your first product or service from the Stripe Payments ‘Products‘ menu. For detailed information on creating a product with this plugin click here.
Publish out your product by clicking on the ‘Publish‘ button.
Right below the ‘Publish‘ button, you will notice a section titled ‘Embed Product‘.
Within the ‘Link URL‘ field, you will be able to copy a payment button link for this product.
2) Attach the Product Link to Text or an Image
Locate the text or image you wish to make a payment button. The text/image can be within a WP page or post, a widget or within a pricing table. Ensure you have the ‘Link URL‘ of the product in question copied, and add it to the text/image just like you would add any internal/external link.
This can be achieved by: – Highlighting the text you wish to add the link to.
– Clicking the ‘Link’ icon.
– Pasting the link and clicking ‘Apply’.
‘Update‘ the page or post or ‘Save‘ the widget.
You have now successfully made your text (or custom image) into a payment button. When a customer clicks on the text link, the Stripe Payment popup window will appear where they can complete a checkout for an item or service you have for sale on your website.
Payment Buttons vs Text Links: When Should I Use a Text Link Payment Button?
There is no right and wrong when it comes to the type of button you use for your website. While there is some evidence that certain colors and graphics draw the attention of prospective buyers, at the end of the day, you need to choose the right payment buttons for your website.
eCommerce experts advise that your call to action button which in this case is your payment button is clear and concise. This means if you are using text instead of a visual button, make sure that the text clearly indicates that if the customer was to click on it, the checkout window will appear. The placement of the text link is important but the color of the link should also be considered. Some words/phrases you may use as the button anchor include although are not limited to:
Purchase Product Now
Buy Now
Subscribe Now
Don’t Wait, Subscribe Now
Checkout Now
Get Your Copy
Purchase Digital Content
Using a text link payment button makes sense if you are using a third-party plugin or theme that does not allow a normal shortcode to be implemented. Take ‘Pricing Tables’ for example. Many ‘Pricing Tables’ will allow you to add a link to text you add, although not a shortcode, so using the Stripe Payments Plugin’s text link payment button feature allows you to easily still achieve a call-to-action button within the neat and formated table you have created.
1) The Options are Endless with a Text Link Payment Button
Rather than attempting to apply CSS tweaks to a plugin’s default payment button, using a text link payment button allows you to hook the button to any text or image you wish to use as the ‘Buy Now’ button. This means that even those with little to no developer knowledge can set up an aesthetically pleasing blog or shop page with custom payment buttons. eCommerce plugins that come with built-in text link payment buttons ensure that you can have payment buttons that are the right fit for your website.
2) Text Link Payment Buttons Can be Used in Pricing Tables
If you are using a pricing table plugin, or your theme comes with built-in pricing tables, you may have hit a standstill as many of these tables do not allow shortcodes to be implemented. The workaround to adding a payment button into your table is using a text link payment button. While adding a shortcode is not always a possibility, adding a text link often is.
3) Text Link Payment Buttons Can be Added to Widgets
As long as a link can be added to the widget text, you’ll be able to add your product link URL. This allows you to have buttons on the sidebar of any website.
Can I Create a Text Link Subscription Payment Button?
If you use the Stripe Payments Plugin to handle eCommerce transactions, you can use the product link URL for both subscription and one-time payment products. This means you can create a custom button for your subscription products just like you can for your one-time payment products. The exact same easy approach can be taken whereby you copy the product’s ‘Link URL‘ and attach it to an image or text within a WordPress post, page or widget.
To create and offer subscription-style products with the Stripe Payments Plugin, you will also need the Stripe Subscription Payments Addon. This addon gives you the ability to offer subscription products and services.
Interested in using the Stripe Payments Plugin to sell goods and services from your WordPress website? Click here to find out more and download the latest version of this free plugin.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects some negative first quarter economic impact from China’s coronavirus amid disruptions to travel, tourism and manufacturing, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said at a forum in Washington.
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Within the past 24 hours, over 1,200 new cases of pneumonia-type infection dubbed 2019-nCoV have reportedly been recorded in 17 cities across China. While the number of exposed people to the new strain of coronavirus continues rising, Chinese officials sad recently they are confident that the outbreak will be contained.
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - US economic growth slowed to 2.3 percent in 2019 from 2.9 percent in the previous year, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis revealed in its latest report.
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For a little over 12 months, I've been testing the same model of the same $4,000 electric bike, the Gazelle CityZen Speed T10. This may seem an excessive amount of time; normally, bike reviewers might spend a few hours or a day or a week in the saddle. But nothing about this review is normal.
For one thing, it is completely non-technical. I'm not one of those gear-heads who knows or cares about drivetrains or derailleurs or torque. I'm the customer who goes glassy-eyed when the bike shop clerk starts talking about the advantages of each model. Like many a casual cyclist weighing whether to drop a considerable chunk of cash on an electric bike, I cared only about these basic questions: Read more...
Just as Amazon was basking in the news of a massive earnings win, the tech giant quietly published — as it always does — its latest transparency report, revealing a slight dip in the number of government demands for user data.
It’s a rarely seen decline in the number of demands received by a tech company during a year where almost every other tech giant — including Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter — all saw an increase in the number of demands they receive. Only Apple reported a decline in the number of demands it received.
Amazon said it received 1,841 subpoenas, 440 search warrants and 114 other court orders for user data — such as its Echo and Fire devices — during the six-month period ending 2019.
That’s about a 4% decline on the first six months of the year.
The company’s cloud unit, Amazon Web Services, also saw a decline in the number of demands for data stored by customers, down by about 10%.
Amazon also said it received between 0 and 249 national security requests for both its consumer and cloud services (rules set out by the Justice Department only allow tech and telecom companies to report in ranges).
Amazon’s biannual transparency report is one of the lightest reads of any company’s figures across the tech industry. We previously reported on how Amazon’s transparency reports have purposefully become more vague over the years rather than clearer — bucking the industry trend. At just three pages, the company spends most of it explaining how it responds to each kind of legal demand rather than expanding on the numbers themselves.
The company’s Ring smart camera division, which has faced heavy criticism for its poor security practices and its cozy relationship with law enforcement, still hasn’t released its own data demand figures.
New mesmerizing footage - made by the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) at the Haleakala Observatory on the Hawaiian island of Maui - shows the magnetic structure of the Earth's star in stunning detail.
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All eyes were on the Model Y after Tesla's latest earnings call. The compact electric SUV based on the "budget-friendly" Model 3 sedan is apparently arriving sooner than expected.
During the Wednesday call, Tesla went over production plans for its newest vehicle and they were surprisingly ahead of schedule. No, we're not talking about the Cybertruck, as that's still a ways off before production, although Tesla CEO Elon Musk did rattle off some high praise for the sci-fi-inspired electric pickup. He was recently spotted in the Los Angeles area showing off the truck to former late night host Jay Leno. Read more...
In other words, the $550 settlement is chump change to the same company that successfully brushed a $5 billion FTC settlement off its shoulder. But that doesn't mean today's news of the settlement doesn't matter. Far from it. Read more...
The Guardian broke the news earlier this month, citing unnamed security sources, that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman may have been personally involved in using WhatsApp to hack into Washington Post owner and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' private cell phone.
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Even though the Chinese government is taking great measures to contain the outbreak of the Wuhan coronavirus, Western media and so-called political pundits continue to criticize Beijing’s response to propagate their anti-China agenda, John Ross, senior fellow at the Chongyang Institute of Renmin University of China, told Sputnik Wednesday.
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The Pentagon announced Tuesday that 50 - not 34 - US troops sustained various levels of brain injury from Tehran’s strike on Iraqi bases earlier this month. One expert explained to Sputnik that the Trump administration’s decision to trickle out this information is just a continuation of a series of lies from the White House regarding Iran.
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At the FAA’s 23rd Annual Commercial Commercial Space Transportation Conference in Washington, DC on Wednesday, a panel dedicated to the topic of trends in VC around space startups touched on public vs. private funding, the right kinds of space companies that should even be considering venture funding, and, perhaps most notably, the big L: Liquidity.
Moderator Tess Hatch, Vice President at Bessemer Venture Partners, addressed the topic in response to an audience question that noted while we’ve heard a lot about how much money will flow into space-related startups from the VC community, we haven’t actually et seen much in the way of liquidity events that prove out the validity of these investments.
“In 2008, a company called Skybox was created and a handful of years later Google acquired the company for $500 million,” Hatch said. “Every venture capitalist’s ears perked up and they thought ‘Hey, that’s pretty good ROI in a short amount of time – maybe the space thing is an investable area’ and then a ton of venture capital investments flooded into space startups, and all of these venture capitalists made one, or maybe two investments in the area. Since then, there have not been many — if any – liquidity events: Perhaps Virgin Galactic going public via the SPAC (special uprose vehicle) on the New York Stock Exchange late last year would be the second. So we’re still waiting; we’re still waiting for those exits, we are still waiting for companies to pave the path for the 400+ startups in the ecosystem to return our investment.”
Hatch added that she’s looking at a number of companies who have the potential to break this somewhat prolonged exit drought in 2020, including five who are either quite mature in terms of their development, naming SpaceX,Rocket Lab, Planet and Spire as all likely candidates to have some kind of liquidity event in 2020, with the mostly likely being an IPO.
Space as an industry was described to me recently as a ‘maturing’ startup market by Space Angels CEO Chad Anderson, by virtue of the distribution of activity in terms of the overall investment rounds in the sector. There is indeed a lot of activity with early stage companies and seed rounds, but the fact remains that there hasn’t been much in the way of exits, and it’s also worth pointing out that corporate VCs haven’t been as acquisitive in space as some of their consumer and enterprise technology counterparts.
The panel touched on a lot more apart from liquidity, which actually only came up towards the end of the discussion, which included panelists Astranis CEO and co-founder John Gedmark; Capella Space CEO and founder Payam Banazadeh and Rocket Lab VP of Global Commercial Launch Services Shane Fleming. Both Gedmark and Banazadeh addressed aspects of the risks and benefits of seeking VC as a space technology company.
“Not every space business is a venture-backable business,” said Banazadeh earlier in the conversation. “But there are a lot of space businesses that are specifically going after raising venture money, and that’s dangerous for everyone – because at the end of the day venture is looking at high risk, high return. The ‘high return’ comes from being able to get substantial amount of revenue in a market that’s big
enough for those revenues to be coming from. But if your idea is to go build, maybe, some very specific part in a satellite, then you have to make the case of why you’ll be able to make those returns for the investors, and in a lot of cases, that’s just not possible.”
Banazadeh also concedes that doing any kind of space technology development is expensive, and the money has to come from somewhere. Gedmark talked about one popular source, government funding and grants, and why that often isn’t as obviously a positive thing for startups as it might seem.
“Small government grants can be great, and obviously a fantastic source of non dilutive capital,” Gedmark said. “But there is a little bit of a trick there, or something to be aware of: I think people are often surprised how much time is spent in the early days of a startup refining the exact idea and the product, and if you’re not certain that you have the that product market fit […] then, the government grant can be extremely dangerous, because they will fund you to do something that is sort of similar to what to what you’re doing, but it really prevents you changing your approach later; you’re going to end up spending time executing on the specific project of the program manager on the government side and you’re executing on what they want.”
VC funds, on the other hand, come with the built-in expectation that you’re going to refine and potentially even change direction altogether, Gedmark says. Depending on the terms of the public funding you’re seeking, that flexibility may not be part of the arrangement, which ultimately could be more important than a bit of equity dilution.
Tesla was ordered by the Chinese government to shut down its Shanghai factory over concerns about the coronavirus, a closure that will delay Model 3 production and ultimately put slight downward pressure on profits in the first quarter, the automaker’s finance chief Zach Kirkhorn said during an earnings call Wednesday.
Prior to the call, Tesla reported Wednesday $105 million in net income, or 56 cents a diluted share, compared with $140 million, or 78 cents a share, in the same year-ago period. Tesla earned $386 million, or $2.14 a share, in the fourth quarter when adjusted for one-time items. Tesla generated revenue of $7.38 billion in fourth quarter, just 1% higher than the $7.2 billion generated in the same period in 2018.
Model 3 production will be delayed by a week and a half, Kirkhorn said. Novel coronavirus, a new form of the family of viruses known as coronavirus first cropped up in Wuhan in late December 2019. Since then, thousands of people have contracted the virus, causing the government to take measures such as shutting down transit and factories throughout the country.
“We are in the early stages of understanding if, and to what extent, we may be temporarily impacted by the coronavirus,” Kirkhorn said. “At this point we’re expecting a one, to one and a half week-delay in the ramp of the Shanghai build Model 3 due to a government required factory shutdown. This may slightly impact profitability for the quarter, but is limited as the profit contribution from Model 3 Shanghai remains in the early stages.”
Tesla is also closely monitoring if the coronavirus will cause interruptions in the supply chain for cars built in Fremont. “So far we’re not aware of anything material, but it’s important to caveat, this is an unfolding story,” Kirkhorn added.
The first deliveries of Tesla Model 3 sedans produced at the Shanghai plant began in early January, one year after the U.S. automaker began construction on its first factory outside the United States.
The deliveries to customers was a milestone for Tesla and a critical step for the company in its aim to carve out market share in the world’s biggest auto market, as well as lessen the financial pain caused by tariffs.
Facebook will pay over half a billion dollars to settle a class action lawsuit that alleged systematic violation of an Illinois consumer privacy law. The settlement amount is large indeed, but a small fraction of the $35 billion maximum the company could have faced.
Class members — basically Illinois Facebook users from mid-2011 to mid-2015 — may expect as much as $200 each, but that depends on several factors. If you’re one of them you should receive some notification once the settlement is approved by the court and the formalities are worked out.
The proposed settlement would require Facebook to obtain consent in the future from Illinois users for such purposes as face analysis for automatic tagging.
This is the second major settlement from Facebook in six months; an seemingly enormous $5 billion settlement of FTC violations was announced over the summer, but it’s actually a bit of a joke.
The Illinois suit was filed in 2015, alleging that Facebook collected facial recognition data on images of users in the state without disclosure, in contravention of the state’s 2008 Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). Similar suits were filed against Shutterfly, Snapchat, and Google.
Facebook pushed back in 2016, saying that facial recognition processing didn’t count as biometric data, and that anyway Illinois law didn’t apply to it, a California company. The judge rejected these arguments with flair, saying the definition of biometric was “cramped” and the assertion of Facebook’s immunity would be “a complete negation” of Illinois law in this context.
Facebook was also suspected at the time of heavy lobbying efforts towards defanging BIPA. One state senator proposed an amendment after the lawsuit was filed that would exclude digital images from BIPA coverage, which would of course have completely destroyed the case. It’s hard to imagine such a ridiculous proposal was the suggestion of anyone but the industry, which tends to regard the strong protections of the law in Illinois as quite superfluous.
As I noted in 2018, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce proposed the amendment, and a tech council there was chaired by Facebook’s own Manager of State Policy at the time. Facebook told me then that it had not taken any position on the amendment or spoken to any legislators about it.
2019 took the case to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where Facebook was again rebuffed; the court concluded that “the development of face template using facial-recognition technology without consent (as alleged here) invades an individual’s private affairs and concrete interests. Similar conduct is actionable at common law.”
Facebook’s request for a rehearing en banc, which is to say with the full complement of judges there present, was unanimously denied two months later.
At last, after some 5 years of this, Facebook decided to settle, a representative told TechCrunch, “as it was in the best interest of our community and our shareholders to move past this matter.” Obviously it admits to no wrongdoing.
The $550 million amount negotiated is “the largest all-cash privacy class action settlement to date,” according to law firm Edelson PC, one of three that represented the plaintiffs in the suit.
“Biometrics is one of the two primary battlegrounds, along with geolocation, that will define our privacy rights for the next generation,” said Edelson PC founder and CEO Jay Edelson in a press release. “We are proud of the strong team we had in place that had the resolve to fight this critically important case over the last five years. We hope and expect that other companies will follow Facebook’s lead and pay significant attention to the importance of our biometric information.”
A new video shows the unfathomable speed at which the Australian bushfires are spreading, completely overwhelming a firefighting crew in less than three minutes. It's a stark example of why, for so many people, running from the flames is much easier said than done.
Filmed around 7 p.m. on Jan. 4, the clip shows the Dunmore Rural Fire Brigade set up to protect property in Tomerong, approximately 90 miles south of Sydney and home to over 1000 people. However, 62mph winds hit the area 10 minutes earlier than expected, blowing thousands of embers their way.
The extreme ember attack lit numerous spot fires, quickly overrunning the crew and forcing some to evacuate less than a minute after the wind changed — and less than a minute before the fire took over the road completely. Read more...
Behold the turbulent seas of our sun, plasma waves rising and falling under the watchful gaze of the Inouye solar telescope in Hawaii. Science News:
We have now seen the smallest details on the largest object in the solar system,” said Inouye telescope director Thomas Rimmele during a January 24 news teleconference.
Covering an area 36,500 kilometers across — roughly three times the diameter of Earth — the images show familiar bubbles of plasma percolating up from the depths. In the dark lanes between the bubbles, newly resolved clusters of bright points appear at the roots of magnetic fields that stretch out into space.
On Tuesday, January 28, 2020, the Trump Administration revealed its vision for an Israel-Palestine peace plan. The proposed two-state solution would leave the state of Palestine completely surrounded by Israel, with tunnels connecting different sections.
The "deal" was brokered in part by Jared Kushner. I put "deal" in quotes because no actual Palestinian humans were included in the conversations. This, to me, seems like a poor approach to solving such a famously contentious issue. Of course, I did not have the fortune to luck into a diplomatic position by marrying to the daughter of a con artist president. So what do I know.
Similarly, if you're going to leave half the people involved in the negotiations out of the negotiations, I wouldn't think it wise to go on CNN and make your disdain for them so abundantly clear, as Kushner did here:
Jared Kushner, senior adviser to the President, says the White House's Middle East plan is "a great deal" and if Palestinians reject it, “they’re going to screw up another opportunity, like they’ve screwed up every other opportunity that they’ve ever had in their existence.” pic.twitter.com/ABAI3gKjig
I suppose one could argue that this is not explicitly racist. But it absolutely hints at racist notions of Arabs as inherently savage beasts who can't take care of themselves. In subsequent interviews, Kush basically made it clear that the Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory are going to keep growing and expanding anyway, so the Palestinians may as well take the deal because they're inevitably going to be pushed out anyway. Again: probably not the best way to start negotiations that you already left them out of?
On the same day the plan was announced, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was also formally indicted on corruption charges.
The new strain of coronavirus was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019. The virus has since spread within mainland China and to a minimum of 18 other countries.
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At the White House earlier on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump signed a new US-Mexico-Canada trade deal (USMCA) to supersede the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the three countries.
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MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Saudi Arabia’s air defence forces last week shot down Houthi-launched rockets aimed at oil facilities that belong to Saudi Aramco petroleum company, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Wednesday, citing Saudi officials.
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MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani described US President Donald Trump’s recently-announced Middle East peace initiative as the “most despicable plan of the century.”
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ANKARA (Sputnik) – The Turkish Foreign Ministry said that France was responsible for the destabilization of the situation in Libya, following French President Emmanuel Macron’s critical remarks about the Turkish policy on the conflict-torn Arab nation.
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Mark Zuckerberg, founder of the company that invented the like button, says his goal isn't to be liked — he just wants to be "understood."
During the company's fourth-quarter earnings call, Zuckerberg suggested that he intends to change his tone in order to address the company's increasingly vocal critics. The CEO said that, in the past, Facebook has prioritized not "offending" people rather than "communicating our principles."
"One critique of our approach for much of the last decade was that because we wanted to be liked, we didn't always communicate our views as clearly because we worried about offending people," he said during the earnings call. "This led to positive but shallow sentiment towards us and towards the company. My goal for this next decade isn't to be liked, but to be understood." Read more...
It's not just people who get to experience self-driving minivans in the Phoenix area.
On Wednesday, Google spin-off company Waymo announced a partnership with UPS, the package delivery service. Soon, Waymo's self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans will be moving packages around instead of humans. The autonomous driving company is more than a one-trick pony, expanding beyond its robo-taxi service in the Phoenix area called Waymo One.
It's only in the Phoenix area to start, but Waymo vehicles will pick up items from UPS Store locations in Phoenix and bring them to a UPS facility in Tempe, just outside the city. Read more...
Manchester United is on the brink of missing the Champions League for the second season in a row. The Red Devils currently sit six points behind the top four teams, with just 14 matches remaining in the English Premier League. Club chief executive Edward Gareth 'Ed' Woodward has reportedly been blamed for the unsatisfying performance by The Reds.
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US President Donald Trump on Tuesday unveiled his 'Deal of the Century', a plan for settling the long-lasting conflict between the Palestine Authority and Israel. The agreement - crafted almost exclusively by Tel Aviv and Washington - was immediately rejected by Palestinian officials.
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You don’t need to be a climate scientist in order to know that the Earth is in serious trouble, but the good news is that you also don’t need to necessarily make any drastic changes to your lifestyle in order to do your part to help.
This nOcean Wearable Reusable Silicone Straw will help you reduce your plastic usage so you can help save the planet a few sips at a time, and it’s currently available for 20% off its usual price.
This reusable, medical-grade straw reduces single-use plastic pollution and doubles as a stylish bracelet to boot.
Available in three unique color combinations, the nOcean straw is made from sanitary silicone and surgical steel—meaning it's made to last even after extended periods of use without degrading.
Its smooth metal tip makes for a uniquely comfortable and satisfying drinking experience, and when you’re not using it you can simply transform the straw into a sleek bracelet in order to ensure that you have your go-to straw wherever you go.
Do your part for the environment while rocking a stylish bracelet that doubles as an eco-friendly straw. The nOcean Wearable Reusable Silicone Straw is available for just $15.99 today.
This clever stop motion animation by Charlotte Arene features a bedroom taking on the characteristics of an increasingly angry sea, before the morning calm sets in. Pillows, the comforter, a sleeping woman’s hair, candles on the windowsill, they all move like waves washing ashore to a seaside soundtrack.
The name of the short is “La mer à boire”, which Google translates as “unrealizable” but is literally something more like “drinking the sea”.1 “Ce n’est pas la mer à boire” is a French expression that means “it’s not that big a deal” (it’s not like drinking the sea), which is what the Google translation is hinting at, I think. Anyway, good title! (via colossal)
It’s kind of amazing that Google returns the figurative meaning of the phrase rather than the literal meaning.↩
On 28 January, US President Donald Trump presented his so-called 'Deal of the Century' during a joint press conference with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington. The plan sets out a two-state solution, with a Palestinian state whose capital is East Jerusalem and with the United States recognizing Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
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Former US Navy SEAL officer, Edward Gallagher, came to notoriety in the United States after he being accused of committing war crimes during a 2017 deployment in Iraq. In July 2019, the officer was acquitted of a majority of the charges he faced.
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BEIJING (Sputnik) - The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in China has reached 5,974 and the death toll from the new virus strain has gone up to 132, China's National Health Commission said.
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is permanently attached to the waist—meaning you’ll always be able to cinch up on the fly.
