So what does this mean for The Rock's competing 'Hercules' movie?
By Alex Zalben
LONDON (AP) — Readers, there is good news and bad news. Bridget Jones is back. But — brace yourselves — Mark Darcy is dead.
Fans have been shaken by the revelation, leaked ahead of publication of "Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy," the third book in Helen Fielding's series about the diary-writing singleton. He may be fictional, but the demise of Bridget's handsome lawyer lover — played on the big screen by a smoldering Colin Firth — was headline news.
"I turned on the news and there was the Syrian crisis, and then 'Mark Darcy is dead,'" Fielding said, amazed.
"It's quite extraordinary for a fictional character to be treated as if they're alive. I sort of think, hats off to Colin, because really he inhabited that character."
The reaction is a testament to the hold of Fielding's characters on the popular imagination. In ditsy, indomitable Bridget, she created an archetype. (In Darcy she borrowed one, from the brooding Mr. Darcy of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice").
Bridget, created for a series of 1990s newspaper columns, was a 30-something Londoner looking for love and career fulfillment while enduring the condescension of "smug marrieds" and confessing her many insecurities in her diaries: "Alcohol units 7, cigarettes 22, calories 2,145. Minutes spent inspecting face for wrinkles 230."
In "Mad About the Boy" she is still counting calories and booze, though cigarettes have been replaced by nicotine gum. Bridget is now a 51-year-old widow with two young children, convinced she will never find romance again.
Fielding said she had no choice but to kill Darcy so Bridget's story could move on.
"The book I wanted to write was not about domesticity, married life. It was about Bridget struggling with what life throws at you," Fielding said over lunch at the London gastropub where she likes to write in the daytime.
"It was Bridget being single with two children in the age of technology. And rediscovering her sexuality. She was a mother and she lost it amid the nappies and the busy-ness. I think lots of women go through that."
Breaking the news of Darcy's demise to Firth, who starred opposite Renee Zellweger in the film adaptations of "Bridget Jones's Diary" and "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason," was surprisingly tough.
"I was really nervous, and I had to make sure that he had someone with him and they were sitting down. And then I said, 'Colin, I've got something really bad to tell you.'
"And then I suppose I just said 'You're dead,' which is an odd thing to say to anyone. And we were both upset, but at the same time we were laughing."
"Bridget Jones's Diary," published in 1996, turned Fielding from a freelance journalist into one of Britain's most successful writers. The novel and its 1999 sequel have sold 15 million copies.
For years, Fielding resisted writing another installment. She was drawn back into Bridget's world by a desire to write about the lives of middle-aged women, who often face stereotyping, just as the single Bridget did in the earlier books.
"There was the idea of 'tragic, barren spinster' because she was unmarried in her 30s," Fielding said. "It was real then. You were Miss bloody Havisham if you didn't have a boyfriend at 35. And I think the same is true of the middle-aged woman now.
"When I was in my 20s, I couldn't imagine that life would continue beyond 40, really," she added. "I couldn't imagine there would still be dating and going out and getting drunk with your friends and worrying about calls or texts that hadn't come, and what to wear."
In "Mad About the Boy," Bridget's romantic misadventures are overshadowed by loss and the fear of aging — but a strong comic vein remains.
"I think most of the things I write are a mixture of dark and light," Fielding said.
Life is "not all sailing along marvelously, nor is it 'Oh, we're in a well of despair.' People hit tough times, and then their friends get round them and cheer them up and then they keep buggering on."
As in the previous books, Bridget can lean on old friends Jude, Tom and Talitha, as well as disreputable former paramour Daniel Cleaver.
She navigates the treacherous world of online dating sites and Twitter, and acquires a 29-year-old boyfriend named Roxster.
The book also introduces Mr. Wallaker, a teacher at Bridget's son's school with whom she instantly clashes. But wait — is that a spark between them? (Hint: Fielding says her dream casting for a movie adaptation is Daniel Craig).
Bridget has always contained elements of Fielding, who is 55 and, like her character, lives in one of the nicer areas of North London with two young children. She is separated from their father, American comedy writer Kevin Curran.
There are glimpses of Bridget in the writer's quick wit and sense of the absurd — though Fielding exudes a considerably greater sense of control than her hapless heroine.
"Mad About the Boy" suffered its own Bridget Jones-style mishap when 40 pages from another book, a memoir by actor David Jason, were inserted into the British edition by mistake.
And some of the reviews have been less than glowing: not everyone hails mishap-prone, insecure Bridget as a 21st-century heroine. Guardian newspaper columnist Suzanne Moore wrote a piece headlined "Why I Hate Bridget Jones," condemning the character as "vapid, consumerist and self-obsessed" and the book as anti-feminist.
Fielding has heard that argument before.
She said that if women can't make fun of themselves, "we haven't got very far at being equal, have we?"
"And also, I think that is the way women communicate with each other, often, privately. They talk about their frailties, their mess-ups, their weaknesses, their vulnerabilities, and they are funny about it and they support each other.
"I was surprised with the first book, with the women who told me they identified with it — powerful, successful women, saying 'Oh yes, I have that problem with tights being all tangled up.' And it's not just women, either. (Prime Minister) David Cameron was in the papers not so long ago ... and he said that he'd get in a situation when he's got the kids in the back of the car and he gets a head of state on the phone: 'Will you shut up, I've got the Israeli prime minister on the phone!'
"Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy" is published in the United States by Knopf on Tuesday.
___
Jill Lawless can be reached at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Argos has entered the intensely competitive tablet computer market with a 99.99 pound ($160) own-brand product that is 16 percent cheaper than one launched by Tesco, the UK's largest retailer, last month.
Argos, owned by Home Retail, said on Tuesday its MyTablet would be targeted at teenagers, taking on a market dominated by Apple, Samsung and Amazon.
Tesco sold 35,000 Hudls in two days following its September 30 launch - the fastest-selling tablet launch ever seen at the retailer. Argos is keen to tap into this growing segment as part of its reinvention from a catalogue-led to digitally-led business.
Home Retail has posted five straight years of profit decline and hopes the change of direction for Argos will result in a 15 percent rise in sales to 4.5 billion pounds by 2018.
Like Tesco's Hudl, which is priced at 119 pounds, Argos' MyTablet has a seven-inch screen, runs Google's Android operating system, comes with pre-loaded apps and is enabled for internet browsing, TV, music, video streaming and social networking.
However, MyTablet only has 8 gigabytes of standard memory compared to 16 on the Hudl. It also has a lower resolution screen, an inferior battery life and is only available in two colours versus the Hudl's four.
Both devices will compete with Amazon's Kindle Fire, which retails for 99 pounds, Google's Nexus 7, which costs 199 pounds and Apple's iPad mini, which sells for 269 pounds.
"Millions of people have bought tablets during the last year but there is still around 75 percent of the UK population without one," said Argos managing director John Walden.
Market research company EMarketer estimates there are 19.7 million tablet users in the UK, up 39 percent year-on-year.
Both Argos and Tesco sell a range of branded tablets.
Sebastian James, CEO of Dixons Retail, Europe's second biggest electricals retailer, said last month that although there is a market in Britain for cheap, basic tablets, consumers were often left disappointed by purchases.
"We get a lot back because people use them and they say 'no, what I wanted was an iPad' and they are not," he told Reuters.
"There's a reason why an iPad is more expensive, it's just better."
($1 = 0.6271 British pounds)
(Reporting by James Davey; Additional reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Sophie Walker)
No one can deny that Rousimar Palhares has dominated headlines since his controversial submission win over Mike Pierce at UFC Fight Night 29, and due to the circumstances involved, much of it hasn’t been positive. Not only has the coverage focused on his unsportsmanlike and dangerous actions at UFN 29, but similar incidents from Palhares’ past as well.
Immediately following the October 9th card, manager Alex Davis was quick to defend his fighter, by saying that Palhares is not a “bad person” and that he “is not trying to hurt people.” Davis has also said that Palhares has worked on controlling himself in sparring so that he doesn’t injure training partners any more.
Now, in a follow up editorial Davis has authored for MMA Junkie.com, he argues that the media has gone too far in condemning Palhares. Here is some of what the renowned manager had to say:
I’m not defending Rousimar’s actions. He did wrong in holding Mike Pierce’s ankle that long. But this situation is being way over blown. Rousimar has already been punished. He was denied an obvious “Submission of the Night” bonus, and he was given a four-month suspension by the CABMMA. But this guy is being crucified in the court of public opinion and turned into something he is not: a mean, monstrous person who is out to hurt people. This is simply not the truth.
Next thing that will happen, is that Rousimar – through a simple, crazy media frenzy – will become such a monster that parents will tell their kids at home, “Behave, or Rousimar Palhares will come and get you.”
Come on! This has turned into one of the biggest bashing sessions in MMA history. People are gaining media at this guy’s expense; that’s whats happening.
Davis also relayed that apparently several promotions have already contacted him about signing Palhares, that the fighter will “have learned his lesson”, and that everyone at Team Nogueira “loves him.”
It is going to be interesting to see where he winds up and how he performs.
Stay tuned to MMA Frenzy.com for all your UFC and MMA news.
Front-Page Photo Credit: Jason Silva-USA TODAY Sports
Twenty years ago, sequencing the human genome was one of the most ambitious science projects ever attempted. Today, compared to the collection of genomes of the microorganisms living in our bodies, the ocean, the soil and elsewhere, each human genome, which easily fits on a DVD, is comparatively simple. Its 3 billion DNA base pairs and about 20,000 genes seem paltry next to the roughly 100 billion bases and millions of genes that make up the microbes found in the human body.
And a host of other variables accompanies that microbial DNA, including the age and health status of the microbial host, when and where the sample was collected, and how it was collected and processed. Take the mouth, populated by hundreds of species of microbes, with as many as tens of thousands of organisms living on each tooth. Beyond the challenges of analyzing all of these, scientists need to figure out how to reliably and reproducibly characterize the environment where they collect the data.
“There are the clinical measurements that periodontists use to describe the gum pocket, chemical measurements, the composition of fluid in the pocket, immunological measures,” said David Relman, a physician and microbiologist at Stanford University who studies the human microbiome. “It gets complex really fast.”
Ambitious attempts to study complex systems like the human microbiome mark biology’s arrival in the world of big data. The life sciences have long been considered a descriptive science — 10 years ago, the field was relatively data poor, and scientists could easily keep up with the data they generated. But with advances in genomics, imaging and other technologies, biologists are now generating data at crushing speeds.
One culprit is DNA sequencing, whose costs began to plunge about five years ago, falling even more quickly than the cost of computer chips. Since then, thousands of human genomes, along with those of thousands of other organisms, including plants, animals and microbes, have been deciphered. Public genome repositories, such as the one maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, or NCBI, already house petabytes — millions of gigabytes — of data, and biologists around the world are churning out 15 petabases (a base is a letter of DNA) of sequence per year. If these were stored on regular DVDs, the resulting stack would be 2.2 miles tall.
“The life sciences are becoming a big data enterprise,” said Eric Green, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute in Bethesda, Md. In a short period of time, he said, biologists are finding themselves unable to extract full value from the large amounts of data becoming available.
Life scientists are embarking on countless other big data projects, including efforts to analyze the genomes of many cancers, to map the human brain, and to develop better biofuels and other crops. (The wheat genome is more than five times larger than the human genome, and it has six copies of every chromosome to our two.)
However, these efforts are encountering some of the same criticisms that surrounded the Human Genome Project. Some have questioned whether massive projects, which necessarily take some funding away from smaller, individual grants, are worth the trade-off. Big data efforts have almost invariably generated data that is more complicated than scientists had expected, leading some to question the wisdom of funding projects to create more data before the data that already exists is properly understood. “It’s easier to keep doing what we are doing on a larger and larger scale than to try and think critically and ask deeper questions,” said Kenneth Weiss, a biologist at Pennsylvania State University.
Compared to fields like physics, astronomy and computer science that have been dealing with the challenges of massive datasets for decades, the big data revolution in biology has also been quick, leaving little time to adapt.
“The revolution that happened in next-generation sequencing and biotechnology is unprecedented,” said Jaroslaw Zola, a computer engineer at Rutgers University in New Jersey, who specializes in computational biology.
Biologists must overcome a number of hurdles, from storing and moving data to integrating and analyzing it, which will require a substantial cultural shift. “Most people who know the disciplines don’t necessarily know how to handle big data,” Green said. If they are to make efficient use of the avalanche of data, that will have to change.
Big Complexity
When scientists first set out to sequence the human genome, the bulk of the work was carried out by a handful of large-scale sequencing centers. But the plummeting cost of genome sequencing helped democratize the field. Many labs can now afford to buy a genome sequencer, adding to the mountain of genomic information available for analysis. The distributed nature of genomic data has created its own challenges, including a patchwork of data that is difficult to aggregate and analyze. “In physics, a lot of effort is organized around a few big colliders,” said Michael Schatz, a computational biologist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York. “In biology, there are something like 1,000 sequencing centers around the world. Some have one instrument, some have hundreds.”
David Relman, a physician and microbiologist at Stanford University, wants to understand how microbes influence human health. Image: Peter DaSilva for Quanta Magazine
As an example of the scope of the problem, scientists around the world have now sequenced thousands of human genomes. But someone who wanted to analyze all of them would first have to collect and organize the data. “It’s not organized in any coherent way to compute across it, and tools aren’t available to study it,” said Green.
Researchers need more computing power and more efficient ways to move their data around. Hard drives, often sent via postal mail, are still often the easiest solution to transporting data, and some argue that it’s cheaper to store biological samples than to sequence them and store the resulting data. Though the cost of sequencing technology has fallen fast enough for individual labs to own their own machines, the concomitant price of processing power and storage has not followed suit. “The cost of computing is threatening to become a limiting factor in biological research,” said Folker Meyer, a computational biologist at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, who estimates that computing costs ten times more than research. “That’s a complete reversal of what it used to be.”
Biologists say that the complexity of biological data sets it apart from big data in physics and other fields. “In high-energy physics, the data is well-structured and annotated, and the infrastructure has been perfected for years through well-designed and funded collaborations,” said Zola. Biological data is technically smaller, he said, but much more difficult to organize. Beyond simple genome sequencing, biologists can track a host of other cellular and molecular components, many of them poorly understood. Similar technologies are available to measure the status of genes — whether they are turned on or off, as well as what RNAs and proteins they are producing. Add in data on clinical symptoms, chemical or other exposures, and demographics, and you have a very complicated analysis problem.
“The real power in some of these studies could be integrating different data types,” said Green. But software tools capable of cutting across fields need to improve. The rise of electronic medical records, for example, means more and more patient information is available for analysis, but scientists don’t yet have an efficient way of marrying it with genomic data, he said.
To make things worse, scientists don’t have a good understanding of how many of these different variables interact. Researchers studying social media networks, by contrast, know exactly what the data they are collecting means; each node in the network represents a Facebook account, for example, with links delineating friends. A gene regulatory network, which attempts to map how different genes control the expression of other genes, is smaller than a social network, with thousands rather than millions of nodes. But the data is harder to define. “The data from which we construct networks is noisy and imprecise,” said Zola. “When we look at biological data, we don’t know exactly what we are looking at yet.”
Despite the need for new analytical tools, a number of biologists said that the computational infrastructure continues to be underfunded. “Often in biology, a lot of money goes into generating data but a much smaller amount goes to analyzing it,” said Nathan Price, associate director of the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle. While physicists have free access to university-sponsored supercomputers, most biologists don’t have the right training to use them. Even if they did, the existing computers aren’t optimized for biological problems. “Very frequently, national-scale supercomputers, especially those set up for physics workflows, are not useful for life sciences,” said Rob Knight, a microbiologist at the University of Colorado Boulder and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute involved in both the Earth Microbiome Project and the Human Microbiome Project. “Increased funding for infrastructure would be a huge benefit to the field.”
In an effort to deal with some of these challenges, in 2012 the National Institutes of Health launched the Big Data to Knowledge Initiative (BD2K), which aims, in part, to create data sharing standards and develop data analysis tools that can be easily distributed. The specifics of the program are still under discussion, but one of the aims will be to train biologists in data science.
“Everyone getting a Ph.D. in America needs more competency in data than they have now,” said Green. Bioinformatics experts are currently playing a major role in the cancer genome project and other big data efforts, but Green and others want to democratize the process. “The kinds of questions to be asked and answered by super-experts today, we want a routine investigator to ask 10 years from now,” said Green. “This is not a transient issue. It’s the new reality.”
Not everyone agrees that this is the path that biology should follow. Some scientists say that focusing so much funding on big data projects at the expense of more traditional, hypothesis-driven approaches could be detrimental to science. “Massive data collection has many weaknesses,” said Weiss. “It may not be powerful in understanding causation.” Weiss points to the example of genome-wide association studies, a popular genetic approach in which scientists try to find genes responsible for different diseases, such as diabetes, by measuring the frequency of relatively common genetic variants in people with and without the disease. The variants identified by these studies so far raise the risk of disease only slightly, but larger and more expensive versions of these studies are still being proposed and funded.
“Most of the time it finds trivial effects that don’t explain disease,” said Weiss. “Shouldn’t we take what we have discovered and divert resources to understand how it works and do something about it?” Scientists have already identified a number of genes that are definitely linked to diabetes, so why not try to better understand their role in the disorder, he said, rather than spend limited funds to uncover additional genes with a murkier role?
Many scientists think that the complexities of life science research require both large and small science projects, with large-scale data efforts providing new fodder for more traditional experiments. “The role of the big data projects is to sketch the outlines of the map, which then enables researchers on smaller-scale projects to go where they need to go,” said Knight.
BLACKSBURG, Va., Aug. 2, 2013 ? A Virginia Tech Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering student team from recently took first place in the 2013 Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts-Academic Linkage ? or RASC-AL, for short ?competition.
The team captured three first place slots, including the Human-Focused Mars Mission Systems and Technologies category; the undergraduate level competition; and the overall competition award. Having captured third place overall in 2012, the team?s theme this year was Project Rhea: A Manned Reusable Spacecraft for the Scientific Observation of Mars, and focused on a fuel-saving fusion rocket.
Sponsored by NASA and managed by the National Institute of Aerospace, the Cocoa Beach, Fla.-set design competition tasks university students with solving the myriad quandaries ? environmental factors, choice of vehicle, fuel source and usage, and return trip home -- associated with a human-based mission to Mars.
Team members include Divyanshu Agarwal of Norfolk, Va.; Dan Corio of Mt. Airy, Md.; Ben Massey of Spotsylvania, Va.; Jacob McGee of Parrott, Va.; Juan Ojeda of Ashburn, Va.; Isaac Root of Fredericksburg, Va.; and Evan Schrantz of Radford, Va. All members graduated in May with bachelor?s degrees in aerospace engineering, part of the College of Engineering.
The competition effort is part of two 4000-level engineering courses with the aerospace department, both taught by Kevin Shinpaugh, director of information technology and computing services for the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute and an adjunct professor in the aerospace department.
?We drew on current plans and designs from other sources to accurately work these?environments?into our overall architecture,? said McGee, student team leader. ?We spent a semester and a half on it, and many of the things that went into our architecture, such as health and radiation concerns, are not something we cover in class. We really had to expand our knowledge on our own time, and hold ourselves accountable for the quality of our work.?
Teams submit a written report, prepare a poster, and give an oral presentation, and also must formulate an education outreach program for younger students in primary and secondary schools, including real-world impact of the mission on common-day life. The team has regularly presented its theme to the Virginia Tech hosted Kids? Tech University as part of this component.
The team is not done with the mission-to-Mars project yet. They will take their presentation this year?s American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Space 2013 Conference, slated for fall. Shinpaugh said each year?s team in the competition starts from scratch on design and presentation. ?I want them to see the whole design process,? he said.
The College of Engineering at Virginia Tech is internationally recognized for its excellence in 14 engineering disciplines and computer science. The college's 6,000 undergraduates benefit from an innovative curriculum that provides a "hands-on, minds-on" approach to engineering education, complementing classroom instruction with two unique design-and-build facilities and a strong Cooperative Education Program. With more than 50 research centers and numerous laboratories, the college offers its 2,000 graduate students opportunities in advanced fields of study such as biomedical engineering, state-of-the-art microelectronics, and nanotechnology. Virginia Tech, the most comprehensive university in Virginia, is dedicated to quality, innovation, and results to the commonwealth, the nation, and the world.
Source: http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2013/08/080213-engineering-rascalaerospaceteam.html
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PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- More than 250 people attended a gay and wedding lesbian expo, believed to the first of its kind in the state, held Sunday afternoon at the Providence Marriott Downtown.
The event, sponsored by Rainbowweddingnetwork.com, attracted about 32 vendors. Marianne Puechl, co-owner of Rainbowweddingnetwork, said there could have been more. "There was a lot of excitement from wedding professionals in the area about the show," she said.
The idea was to link gay couples considering marriage with gay-friendly businesses, who included florists, photographers, musicians, DJs, caterers, limo services and wedding venues.
Rhode Island's General Assembly legalized gay marriage in May. Last Thursday was the first day same-sex couples could get married in the state.
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Screenshots appear to show Matt Garza hate-tweeting Eric Sogard's wife on Twitter
This is weird.
During today's game, after Eric Sogard successfully executed a squeeze play to bring home an insurance run, Matt Garza was apparently angry, with a media member who was there saying that Garza called Sogard a "fucking pussy."
Then this evening, an account that purports to be Matt Garza's Twitter account was sending out some more Sogard hate. The account is protected, and is not verified, so it isn't definitive that this is his account...but at the same time, it is followed by Ken Rosenthal, Buster Olney, and Bob Nightengale, and has over 12K followers, so it appears to be the real deal.
Garza tweets to Kaycee Sogard, Eric Sogard's wife, "tell your wife to speak up so his wife doesn't have to do it for him," then goes on to say she needs to "give your husband his balls back."
Here's a screen cap of some of the tweets.
So, uh...that is unexpected.
Garza tweets were also in the news in April, when he criticized fake fans and excessive negativity from the Cubs' fan base.
Twitter controversy isn't new for the Rangers...last year, after a bad start, when someone hate tweeted Derek Holland, his account responded with "ur a fag." The tweet was deleted and he claimed he was "hacked."
It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
UPDATE -- Someone sent me this story from February, which quotes a Garza tweet from this same account in which he provides an update on his health.
Source: http://www.lonestarball.com/2013/8/3/4586636/matt-garza-calling-out-sogards-wife-on-twitter
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The Yahoo acquisition train just keeps on rolling! Rockmelt, the social browser news portal social content discovery service will be joining a growing cadre of properties that Marissa Mayer has snatched up. The platform, which seems to straddle the line between Pinterest and StumbleUpon, focuses on personalization and social networking as a way to highlight and serve up content it believes you'll want to read or watch. Yahoo, especially through its homepage portal, has always been about serving up content, and the expectation is that Rockmelt will help the company better hone its understanding of you and what you love. The announcement post makes it clear that Yahoo plans to actually integrate Rockmelt's technology with its existing platform, though, we're gonna have to wait a bit longer to see exactly what that marriage may look like. Rockmelt will shut down its existing apps and services on August 31st this year.
Filed under: Internet
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Foursquare, the location-based service, might be most known for its check-ins. But as its Explore search and discovery engine becomes more popular, the venue-specific tips its users leave behind for others using the app--where to find unbeatable burgers, what caf? has the tastiest soy lattes--are rapidly becoming one of the startup's most compelling assets.
The dataset is especially valuable for Foursquare not only because it gives the company insight into what locations are popular and why, but also because the number of user-generated tips on the service is growing at such a fast clip. Last month, Foursquare surpassed 33 million user-generated tips, up roughly 65% year-over-year. That means the number of tips added on Foursquare is growing at a faster rate than the number of reviews uploaded to Yelp, one of the startup's chief competitors. The numbers were shared as part of Fast Company's new profile of the startup's CEO and cofounder Dennis Crowley, which is set to go live early next week.
To be fair, the comparison of tips and reviews is a bit apples and oranges, some might say. Tips are bite-sized pieces of content that users leave behind on Foursquare like breadcrumbs. When a user "checks in" to, say, Umami Burger, he or she might leave a tip urging others to order the truffle fries--the digital equivalent of asking your friend for a dinner recommendation. The social and venue data are helping to make Foursquare's discovery engine more powerful.
Yelp's reviews, meanwhile, are almost notoriously more in depth, and range from being incredibly informative to downright snarky to hyperbolically comprehensive. They've even inspired entire memes and remain an incredibly valuable asset to the company, and represent one reason why revenue shot up 69% in Yelp's second quarter earnings, which were announced this week.
But because they are often so extensive, Yelp's reviews are traditionally written after the fact rather than during the moment--which is perhaps one of Foursquare's greatest advantages in this area. "It?s been our take that [long-form Yelp reviews] aren?t particularly valuable," says Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley. "It's better to have short, actionable bits of content that feel more similar to tweets because they are easier to consume on mobile. As a mobile-first company, you don?t want to read five paragraphs of a review."
Yelp declined to comment on the record about Foursquare for this article.
What's more, the tips on Foursquare are arguably easier for the startup to parse, enabling the company to call out popular venue features and embed them seamlessly in its search engine. They can range from highlighting the best bar cocktails to the best secret dance clubs to the fastest coffee shop Wi-Fi.
The mobile-centric platform also has its benefits. "It lowers the barrier: When everyone else has written two sentences, it?s easier for you to write two sentences, so we get a wider variety of reviews from people," Crowley says, "as opposed to that super passionate or super angry person that wanted to write three to four paragraphs. I?m glad we made the decision to have shorter snippets of content, which are more easily digestible." Only two years ago, Foursquare boasted just 7.5 million tips--a number that has since more than quadrupled. The company is now averaging more than a million new tips added per month.
While Yelp boasts more reviews than Foursquare, at 42.5 million, the growth rate is lower than Foursquare's, at 41% year-over-year. But what's most remarkable is that Foursquare is outpacing Yelp in the review department, despite having a fraction of the public company's users. Yelp has roughly 108 million users, whereas Foursquare has just 35 million.
[Blue background: Stacey Ann Alberts via Shutterstock | Dennis Crowley Image: Joel Arbaje for Fast Company]
Source: http://www.fastcompany.com/3015168/foursquares-tips-growing-faster-than-yelps-reviews
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Cory Monteith?s tragic passing last month left fans of Glee wondering what would happen to his beloved character Finn when the new season begins this fall.
?The third episode will write Finn out of the show,? Fox?s Chairman of Entertainment Kevin Reilly said during the TCA tour for the network (via ET). ?That episode will deal directly with the incidents involved with Cory?s passing and the drug abuse in particular.?
?Ryan [Murphy] will shoot some PSA?s with the cast, who will speak directly to the audience,? he added.
All the proceeds from the music in that episode will go to forming a foundation in Cory?s memory.
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Source: http://www.justjared.com/2013/08/01/cory-monteiths-glee-character-finn-will-be-written-off-show/
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Source: http://www.facebook.com/Wizards/posts/10151578495048741
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'We Can't Stop' singer explains why she relates to Spears, says her critics have forgotten what it's like to be 20 years old.
By Jocelyn Vena
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1711593/miley-cyrus-britney-spears-friendship.jhtml
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AT AMAZON, Back-to-School Deals In Electronics.
Also, today only: Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX200V Digital Camera, $249.99 (48% off). Amazing what you can get for under $250 now: ?Its 18.2MP sensor and 30X optical/60X Clear Image zoom capture breathtaking photos at up to 10fps, plus ultra-stabilized Full HD 1080/60p videos.?
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/instapundit/podcast/~3/LQxvWr4-A2k/
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Images and specifications of what is alleged to be the Panasonic GX7 compact system camera have been posted on a Japanese website ahead of an expected announcement soon.
Digital Camera Info claims that it was sent the pics and details from a "person who can be trusted". They follow a previous leak that claimed the body alone will cost 999 euros but conflict on the sensor size. Former reports stated that the GX7 would come with an 18-megapixel sensor, but the latest speculation says that it will sport a 16-megapixel Digital Live MOS sensor. It seems that photography specialist sites are favouring the latter.
In addition, the latest leaked specifications include a 90-degrees electronic viewfinder that can be tilted and comprises 2.76 million dots. It is capable of 1080p Full HD video recording at 60 frames per second. Fastest shutter speed is 1/8000 and maximum ISO is 25,600.
The rear 3-inch LCD is also able to tilt 80-degrees and comprises 1.04 million dots. There are 22 different creative controls, a panorama mode, silent mode, and in-body image stabilisation. Focus peaking is included. And connectivity includes Wi-Fi and NFC.
The chassis is said to be magnesium alloy.
There's not word on an exact launch date, buy 43rumors suggests that more will be known in August.
Source: http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/122641-panasonic-gx7-specs-and-pictures-leak-out-of-japan
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Welcome to The Sports Bank?s fourth annual college basketball season preview series where we break 111 teams in the 111 days leading up to the opening tip-off of the 2013-2014 season.? We will rank the 84 power conference teams (including the new Big East and American Athletic Conferences) and top 27 mid-majors in reverse power ranking order.? We?ll break down rosters, transfers, incoming freshmen, non-conference schedules, and pick a player to watch for each team.
Celebrities picking crazy names for their kids, CT instigating fights on the Challenge, and the DePaul Blue Demons being the laughing stock of the Big East; all three are guarantees in life.? DePaul has won just six conference games since Oliver Purnell took over three years ago and even with a new look Big East, the Blue Demons will once again be the laughing stock of the league.
DEPAUL BLUE DEMONS
Last Season: 15th, 2-17 in Big East, 11-21 overall
Predicted Big East Finish: 10th
Projected Depth Chart
C: Sandi Marcius (Sr)/Forest Robinson (Jr)/Tommy Hamilton (Fr)
F: Cleveland Melvin (Sr)/Greg Sequele (Jr)/Peter Ryckbosch (So)
SF: Jamee Crockett (Jr)/DeJuan Marrero (Fr)
SG: Brandon Young (Sr)/Charles McKinney (Jr)/R.J. Curington (Fr)
PG: Billy Garrett Jr. (Fr)/Durrell McDonald (So)
Gone: PG-Worel Clahar, PF-Donnovan Kirk (transfer-Miami FL), SF-Jodan Price (transfer-Eastern Michigan), F-Montray Clemons (transfer-Pensacola JC), C-Derrell Robertson Jr. (transfer-San Francisco), SF-Moses Morgan (transfer)
2013-2014 Outlook:
Cleveland Melvin and Brandon Young have been DePaul?s best two players the past three seasons and were the second best scoring duo in the Big East last season (fun fact: Providence?s Bryce Cotton and Kadeem Betts were the number one scoring duo, how?s that for a great bar question to your college basketball buddies.)? Those numbers can be deceiving though as both guys have as many weaknesses and strengths.? Neither shoots it that well from deep and has questionable shot selection while their defense is subpar at best.? With it being their senior year, let?s see if they can round out their games and prove to be more than just scorers.
Young may spend more time playing off the ball as opposed to being the prime ball-handler due to the arrival of freshman point guard, Billy Garrett Jr.? Coincidentally enough, Garrett?s dad is an assistant on Purnell?s staff which is probably the only reason he decided to stay home to play his college basketball.
Jamee Crockett, Charles McKinney, and Durrell McDonald return for DePaul but the team lost a handful of players to transfer this off-season meaning there will be a major need for new players to fill the minutes, particularly in the middle.? Purdue transfer Sandi Marcius brings size and experience to the team but not a whole lot of skill.? Junior college transfer Forrest Robinson and freshman Tommy Hamilton Jr. will compete with Marcius for playing time at center.
JUCO transfer Greg Sequele and DeJuan Marrero who missed all of last season because of a torn ACL will add depth at the forward position while R.J. Currington will likely find himself lost in the shuffle at guard.? Purnell also picked up a commitment from Illinois transfer forward Myke Henry but he must sit out this season per NCAA rules.
For DePaul to make any sort of strides this season, they must become a better defensive team.? No power conference team allowed more points last season than the DePaul Blue Demons.? If that doesn?t change, neither will the team?s success.? It could cost Purnell his job as well.
Player to Watch: Billy Garrett Jr.
Garrett Jr. has the poise and playmaking ability to step right into DePaul?s starting lineup and give them a natural floor general.? Having someone like him to help set the table would take some of the pressure off Young who too often tries to do too much.? With both Garrett and Young standing at 6-4, there would be great size in the backcourt as well.? If the Blue Demons have any hope of making noise in the new Big East, Garrett has to be a producer from day one.
Key Non-Conference Games:
11/25 vs. Wichita State (CBE Classic)
11/26 vs. Texas/BYU (CBE Classic)
12/1 vs. Oregon State
12/6 vs. Arizona State
12/27 at Northwestern
OTHER 111 IN 111?S:
#106 Texas Tech
#107 TCU
#108 Virginia Tech
#109 Georgia
#110 Utah
#111 Auburn
David Kay is a senior feature?NBA Draft,?NBA, and?college basketball?writer for the Sports Bank.? He also heads up the?NBA?and?college basketball?material at?Walter Football.com?and is a former contributor at The Washington Times Communities.? David has appeared on numerous national radio programs spanning from Cleveland to New Orleans to Honolulu to Milwaukee.? He also had the most accurate 2011 NBA Mock Draft and the?most accurate 2012 NBA Mock Draft?on the internet , AND the second most accurate 2013 NBA Mock Draft. (Yup, nearly 3peat champ? #humblebrag.)
You can follow him on Twitter at?David_Kmiecik.
Source: http://www.thesportsbank.net/college-bball/depaul-blue-demons-basketball-485/
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Football Talk as you may have guessed likes a joke or two.
We tried our best note to detest some of the new comic scamps on the scene.
However we find comfort in some of the classics.
Neil Doncaster produced his best Dad's Army impression as the financial worries continue at Hearts as well as Dunfermline.
And now Lukas Podolski has produced his very own Alan Partridge impression for everyone's amusement.
There's also plenty of analysis of Gareth Bale's potential move to Spurs.
Don't panic
SPFL boss Neil Doncaster refuses to panic as crisis at Hearts and Dunfermline threatens to ruin new league kick-off
The footballing supremo says he thinks that the Pars and the Jambos will weather their financial troubles, despite both clubs standing on the brink of ruin. (Daily Record)
Hearts warned creditor will liquidate club if offers do not improve
Ukio?s administrator Valnetas UAB say that the offers so far to buy Hearts were ?not satisfactory?.
Jim Jefferies holding on to hope as both Dunfermline and Hearts stand on the brink
The Pars boss has his say on the crisis at his current and former club. (Daily Record)
Joe Ledley warns Mo Bangura that he risks becoming a Celtic outcast
No pressure Mo. (Scottish Sun)
Gary McAllister ? I still say Uri put us out Euros
Boo to the celeb spoon bender. (Scottish Sun)
Kilmarnock's Sammy Clingan to miss start of season with knee injury
The Northern Irishman could be out for four to six weeks.
Paul Lawson keen to keep proving himself after stepping up with Motherwell
The ex-Ross County man in ready for the club's European adventure.
Take a look
Footballers post tributes to Christian Benitez on Twitter
The former Birmingham player died aged 27. (ITV.com)
'We are interested in the stories around the sport'
Hugh MacDonald on BT Sport's move into the Scottish game. (The Herald)
Gareth Bale, Real Madrid and the anatomy of the mega transfer
The metro take a look at the saga involving the Wales attacker.
Gareth Bale, Tottenham Hotspur and Real Madrid: the key questions
Do Spurs need to sell? Why are Real Madrid so rich? And what about the clubs' strategic alliance? (The Guardian)
Must watch
Aha! Lukas Podolski unwittingly mimics Alan Partridge on Arsenal tour via The Metro
Nani scores free-kick against Crewe
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BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) ? A dispute with Time Warner Cable was unresolved as a deadline loomed involving the availability of stations in three major markets, CBS Corp. chief executive Les Moonves said Monday.
If it's not settled, six CBS TV stations could go dark for around 3 million Time Warner Cable customers in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas.
CBS Inc. and Time Warner Cable Inc. are in the public spat over fees in the markets.
Moonves told the Television Critics Association the deadline to resolve the dispute is 5 p.m. EDT Monday.
The disagreement centers mainly on how much Time Warner Cable pays for the right to retransmit signals from the CBS-owned stations.
Also involved is a possible blackout of CBS-owned Showtime for Time Warner Cable customers nationwide who pay extra for it.
Discussions were continuing and Moonves said he hopes the stations don't go dark.
"As we've said, we feel like we should be paid for our programming," he said. He declined to offer further details, saying he didn't want to negotiate in public.
Dozens of blackouts have occurred nationwide in fee fights over the years, but many get resolved at the last minute.
Selling retransmission rights has become a big business for broadcasters such as CBS. Research firm SNL Kagan estimates retransmission fees will reach $3 billion industrywide this year and double to $6 billion by 2018.
Time Warner Cable has said it's resisting a fee hike demand by CBS so prices don't go up for customers. CBS said Time Warner Cable isn't agreeing to terms that its competitors have accepted.
If the fight continues, some Time Warner Cable customers could lose access to new episodes of "Under the Dome" and the 15th season of "Big Brother." Both are available online after a slight delay.
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EPA mileage estimates are for newly manufactured vehicles only. Your actual mileage will vary depending on how you drive and maintain your vehicle.
Before purchasing this vehicle, it is your responsibility to address any and all differences between information on this website and the actual vehicle specifications and/or any warranties offered prior to the sale of this vehicle. Vehicle data on this website is compiled from publicly available sources believed by the publisher to be reliable. Vehicle data is subject to change without notice. The publisher assumes no responsibility for errors and/or omissions in this data the compilation of this data and makes no representations express or implied to any actual or prospective purchaser of the vehicle as to the condition of the vehicle, vehicle specifications, ownership, vehicle history, equipment/accessories, price or warranties. 2013 Ford near Sioux Falls, SD 2013 Ford Brookings, SD
Source: http://www.verneideford.com/2013-Ford-Taurus-Mitchell/vd/15960521
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ASUNCION, Paraguay -- Victor Genes was presented Saturday as Paraguay's new national team coach, taking over a tough job with the South Americans almost certain of missing next year's World Cup in Brazil.
Genes served as the head coach of Paraguay's team at the recent Under-20 World Cup in Turkey. He replaces Gerardo Pelusso, and will coach the final four World Cup qualifying matches.
Paraguay qualified for the last four World Cups and reached the quarterfinals in 2010 under Gerardo Martino, who was named this week as the new coach of Spanish club Barcelona.
Paraguay faces Bolivia, Argentina, Colombia and Venezuela in its last four qualifiers. The South Americans have a mathematical ? but very remote ? chance of qualifying.
Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/07/27/3526124/victor-genes-new-paraguay-coach.html
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With the arrival of perennial All-Stars Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Jason Terry Nets fans are walking on cloud nine thinking about the possibilities for the 2012-13 season. Whether this excitement is warranted remains to be seen but you have to love the way Brooklyn puts on a spectacle. This MITCHELL & NESS strapback cap features a Navy Blue canvas crown and Brown leather visor. The front panel sports the Nets logo in and the back panel features a custom perforated Brown leather ?strap closure. Available now at?http://www.go-britain.nl/.
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The plugin has the ability of adding a button for sharing a post on various social networks.
The button is very customizable and can be added to all posts and pages on the site.
It's position and content can be modified from the admin panel, where a special administration page is added.
Installation:
Unpack and upload it to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress.
Here are some key features of "Hupso Share Buttons for Twitter, Facebook & Google+":
Supported social sharing networks:
? Twitter
? Facebook
? Google+
? Bebo
? Delicious
? LinkedIn
? StumbleUpon
? Digg
? Reddit
? Print
? Email
Requirements:
? WordPress 2.8 or higher
What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]
Added:
? Email button
? Print button
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A new report shows that Apple's share of the global smartphone market fell during the second quarter to its lowest level in four years.
Apple had 13.1 percent of the worldwide market, ABI Research said Friday, down from 16.6 percent a year ago. That's the lowest level since the third quarter of 2009, two years after the launch of the first iPhone.
Apple sold 31.2 million iPhones in the April-to-June period, according to ABI, up from 26 million in the same period a year ago. But the company's sales growth isn't keeping pace with the overall smartphone market, which grew 52 percent from last year.
Samsung, the world's largest maker of smartphones, also saw a drop in market share.
Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/07/26/3522858/apples-smartphone-market-share.html
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Jindal's office said the GOP governor left for Aspen on Tuesday to attend Republican Governors' Association events. Jindal is chairman of the association.
On Thursday, Jindal is speaking as part of a panel of Republican governors at the Aspen Institute. He'll be on the panel with Govs. Chris Christie of New Jersey, Mike Pence of Indiana and Scott Walker of Wisconsin.
Jindal's office says the governor is scheduled to return to Baton Rouge on Friday.
Source: http://www.denverpost.com/politics/ci_23728365/jindal-spends-this-week-colorado-gop?source=rss
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