Học Để Thi |
- Unraveling the mysteries of deadly 'firehose' lake-effect snow events
- Figure out your nonsensical Silicon Valley job title
- Entertainment Like Follow Run like a girl: Tiny Sam Gordon still dominates at tackle football
- Taylor Swift's YouTube views doubled after pulling music from Spotify
- Pool, deck, eco-friendly: This is the typical Australian home
- Video: Obama announces changes to the nation's immigration system
- This French bulldog thinks he's a diesel engine
- Slush brings investors, startups to the frozen North
- Obama announces major immigration overhaul
- Microsoft's Black Friday offers include $150 off Surface Pro 3
| Unraveling the mysteries of deadly 'firehose' lake-effect snow events Posted: 21 Nov 2014 01:27 AM PST  A front loader drives through a snowstorm along Union Road on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014, in West Seneca, N.Y. This week's snowstorm in Buffalo, New York, which has come in two deadly rounds that together have left many communities just south of the city struggling to cope with what will likely amount to a year's worth of snow in the timespan of less than one week, has been one of the most capricious and stubborn lake-effect events that meteorologists have witnessed in recent years. Lake-effect snow events occur along the Great Lakes when cold Arctic air blows over relatively mild and open lake waters during the fall and spring. These snowstorms can tie forecasters in knots because they can suddenly intensify, shift course on a moment's notice, and deliver some of the world's highest snowfall rates. For example, on Thursday evening, the National Weather Service was warning that some towns south of Buffalo were seeing snowfall at greater than 4 inches per hour. Improving lake-effect snow forecasts could save tens of millions of dollars and, given their impact on roadways, could also save lives. However, until recently, scientists didn't have the know-how to probe these storms with the fine-scale detail necessary to figure out exactly how they function, and what makes the difference between an ordinary lake-effect snow event and a wallop like the one this week. The storm comes just as researchers begin sifting through the reams of data they gathered in a major scientific research project — the first of its kind to examine lake-effect snow — that brought more than 100 scientists into the path of lake-effect snowstorms during the winter of 2013-14. That campaign, known as Ontario Winter Lake-Effect Systems project, or OWLeS, is just starting to pay off in the form of new insights into how these storms work. The Buffalo event provides an interesting test case for these researchers, while serving as motivation to dig deeper. Jim Steenburgh, a meteorology professor at the University of Utah, said the Buffalo storm's first round confirms some of what he and his colleagues observed in high-resolution last year. These storms can have a "structure that's really incredible… a structure that you sometimes see with severe thunderstorms," he told Mashable. From Tuesday through Wednesday, the narrow band of heavy snow that targeted towns such as West Seneca, New York, on Tuesday night, was barely 15 miles wide but more than 100 miles long. In chilling photographs, it resembled a wall of snow more closely akin to a broiling dust storm than a snow squall. IMAGE: KAREN KOSIBA/CSWR Even by the fickle nature of lake-effect snowstorms, the first round that pounded towns to the south of downtown Buffalo was a truly bipolar beast. If you were on one side of the snow wall, you got three inches to a foot of snow from round one, which ended on Wednesday morning. If you were on the other side, inside the band, then good luck, because you likely got the most snow you've ever seen in such a short period of time, more than 5 feet. Heaviest snowfall rates in the world?Using new research tools, scientists have come to realize that these small-scale storm systems are both unique to the U.S. in many ways, and are more complex than most people realize. "These bands that come off of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, they probably produce the most intense snowstorms of anywhere in the world," Steenburgh said. "They produce these firehoses of snow." The only other area of the world where such prodigious amounts of lake-effect snow occur is in northern Japan, according to Steenburgh, on the western coast of Honshu and Hokkaido, where up to 500 inches of snow fall annually. In Japan, though, the snowfall trigger is repeated rounds of frigid winds from Asia blowing over the warmer waters of the Sea of Japan, making the U.S. is home to the fiercest, lake-effect snow. To meteorologists, the Buffalo snow event serves as extra motivation to unlock the mysteries of these incredibly intense but notoriously difficult-to-forecast extreme weather events. While the National Weather Service succeeded in warning of the likelihood of heavy lake-effect snow well in advance of the event onset on Tuesday, forecasters did not identify the near-southern suburbs as the most likely target for the heaviest snow, since pinpointing the axis of heaviest snow in advance tends to be extremely difficult. In fact, meteorologists often "nowcast" their way through many lake-effect snow events, informing those in the path of the snowbands that it is moving their way or about to leave their area as it happens. We know the triggers, but many mysteries remainLast winter, the scientists from nine research universities used a bevy of high-tech tools in the modern meteorologist's arsenal, from radars mounted on trucks, known as "Doppler on Wheels" or DOW systems, to upward-looking radars called vertical profilers. In addition, a radar-equipped aircraft flew in and around intense snowbands, all in an effort to better understand what makes these unique weather systems tick. Several of the scientists involved in the project, which was funded by the National Science Foundation, said the Buffalo events have been unique in some ways, while also sharing the characteristics of other lake-effect snow events. The trip-wire for major lake-effect snow events is well-known. These events occur when blasts of frigid, Arctic air blows down the entire length of an open-water lake, setting up huge temperature contrasts between the relatively warm lake waters and the extremely cold air above it. On Tuesday into Wednesday, the wind was blowing from the west-southwest across the entire expanse of Lake Erie. This long fetch allowed the air to gather a tremendous amount of moisture off the lake. The typical Lake Erie water temperature for this time of year is about 47 degrees Fahrenheit, yet waters near Buffalo were in the low 50s Fahrenheit when the Arctic cold front passed through on Monday. "It's a striking event because it's happened at a time of year when the lake is still very warm but we managed to have some very cold air pass over the lake, and it's the warm water underlying the cold air that fuels these storms," said Justin Minder, a meteorology professor at the University at Albany. The difference between the air and water temperatures were as large as 50 degrees Fahrenheit when most of the 6 feet of snow fell, thereby causing what the NWS referred to as "explosive instability" as the frigid, dry air fanned out across the lake, picked up moisture, rose and condensed into deep, turbulent masses of clouds that dumped snow at rates that would be considered impossible in most other parts of the world, with the possible exception of Japan. Karen Kosiba, an atmospheric scientist at the Center for Severe Weather Research in Boulder, Colorado, who led the Doppler radar teams during the OWLeS project, said that while many of the larger-scale dynamics that govern lake-effect snow events are well-understood, other factors are not. For example, forecasters have an extremely difficult time predicting ahead of time where the heaviest snowbands will set up, or even how many heavy snowbands will form. Sometimes multiple, lighter bands of snow can form instead of one long-duration, extremely heavy firehose of snow. Kosiba, who has used the DOW radars to decode many of the mysteries of tornado formation, has identified small circulations associated with some intense snowbands, which she calls "mesovortices" because they occur on such a small-scale. These vortices, she said, may lead to sudden fluctuations in snowfall intensity, and can play a role in causing waterspouts over the Great Lakes. Other researchers have been examining how upwind lakes can help precondition the atmosphere, by warming and moistening the air as it rushes toward Lakes Erie and Ontario, upping the odds that heavier snow will result from a downwind lake. Kosiba said the Buffalo snow this week resulted from a perfect combination of ingredients, from a historically cold airmass for this time of year to an intense upper-level low pressure system, which enhanced atmospheric instability. David Kristovich, who worked with Kosiba on the OWLeS project, said the Buffalo storm was "not really that uncommon." It was the persistence of the snowband, Kristovich said, that set it apart from other similar events. "What's a little bit unusual is that Lake Erie was still rather warm, hasn't frozen yet, and the area that was hit is not one of the most common areas to get the heavy snow," he said in an interview.  "We've seen storms like this before," Kristovich added, "but it really hit a very high impact area where there are a lot of people affected." He pointed to the constant aim of the lake-effect firehose as a remarkable feature of this storm, which was not seen during the events he examined last winter. "Lake-effect bands move so easily from just little waves in the atmosphere at higher altitudes that move through," he said. "This one was remarkably steady." Even during the two months of the field campaign, with radars scanning the skies in unprecedented detail in and around lake-effect snowbands, Kristovich said he and his colleagues were "often caught by surprise" at the sudden movement of the snow several miles in one direction or another. "We're going to have a unique dataset that is going to help us understand these shifts a lot better," he said. "We collected an enormous amount of data…. we'll be looking at the data for years to try to discern what story the data are trying to tell us," he said. For Minder, Buffalo's epic snow blitz in Buffalo shows the usefulness of lake-effect snow research. "It's exciting for us that we just did this field project on events very much like this," Minder said of the ongoing snowstorm. "You never like to see people in distress… but this kind of further puts the fire in us to work on our research." |
| Figure out your nonsensical Silicon Valley job title Posted: 21 Nov 2014 01:20 AM PST  We've got a great piece of content for all you thinkfluencing disruptors out there. Silicon Valley is no stranger to parody, given the startup culture's rapid creation of buzzwords and unusual job titles. The Silicon Vally job title generator Tumblr is a solid example of how many are fed up with the high-vocabulary, low-meaning nature of some of the industry's cushier jobs. Created by Freddie Campion of GQ, the generator spits out random titles that unsettlingly don't sound all that farfetched. We've put a handful of these randomly generated titles on startup-y stock photos because it felt like the right thing to do. |
| Entertainment Like Follow Run like a girl: Tiny Sam Gordon still dominates at tackle football Posted: 21 Nov 2014 01:18 AM PST Since a highlight reel of a tiny, speedy girl named Sam Gordon dominating boys twice her size in tackle football went mega-viral two years ago, a lot has changed for the young athlete. She met with the United States' women's soccer team, landed on the front of a Wheaties box and was NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's guest at the 2013 Super Bowl. But here's one thing that hasn't changed: Sam Gordon is still a tackle football phenom, as evidenced by the video above. Watch as Gordon, now 11 years old, leaves defenders grasping for air time and time again. Gordon took last year off from football to focus on soccer and made it to Utah's Olympic development program in that sport, according to her YouTube channel. But she missed football too much, so she came back this year to the tune of 15 touchdowns, 13 yards per carry, 59 tackles, three interceptions and one fumble recovery on the season. Not bad, Sam Gordon. Not bad at all. |
| Taylor Swift's YouTube views doubled after pulling music from Spotify Posted: 21 Nov 2014 01:16 AM PST  Taylor Swift performs on ABC's "Good Morning America" in Times Square on Thursday, Oct. 30 in New York City. In the aftermath of Taylor Swift removing her songs and albums from Spotify, some fans who still need Swift in their lives have moved over to YouTube. Swift's daily YouTube views doubled in the first week after Swift and Big Machine Records pulled her songs from Spotify on Nov. 3, Nielsen Music Connect told Mash. For the week ending Nov. 9, Swift's YouTube and Vevo streams — for her official videos and user-generated content — skyrocketed from roughly 12.5 million daily views on Nov. 3 to almost 24 million daily views on Nov. 9, basically doubling week-over-week. IMAGE: NIELSEN FOR MASHABLE Views specifically for "Shake It Off" increased 120%. Meanwhile, her overall audio streams unsurprisingly decreased after Swift left Spotify. Her catalog, excluding her new album 1989, can still be streamed on Beats and Rhapsody under those two service's paid models. For the week ending Nov. 16, her daily views on her YouTube channel increased again — by 72% week-over-week — because of the Nov. 10 release of "Blank Space." Even with the uptick in YouTube views, Swift went on to sell 2 million copies of 1989 in just three weeks. Swift impressively sold 1.287 million copies in its debut week ending Nov. 2, making it the first and only album released in 2014 to earn platinum status, the million-copies-sold milestone. It was the biggest sales week since 2002's The Eminem Show.1989 has topped the Billboard 200 for three-consecutive weeks now. Coincidentally this week, Billboard and Nielsen announced they would alter the Billboard 200 albums chart to now include audio streaming data and download numbers of individual tracks to rank the top albums. Physical sales and paid downloads of full albums will still be part of the formula. However, YouTube views have not been incorporated into the albums chart formula like Billboard has already incorporated into its singles chart formula. How are Taylor Swift and other artists making money?Labels and recording artists on YouTube earn money in several ways: Streaming music videos with advertising as pre-roll or pop-ups; linking to online stores like iTunes or Amazon to encourage sales; selling merchandise (songs, concert tickets, etc.); garnering brand sponsorships; and earning royalties from covers (Content ID-claimed versions). YouTube's CPM (cost per 1,000 ad views) can range between $9 to $20-plus, a source familiar with the service's CPM model told Mashable this week. So if all 20 million views that Swift accrued in that one week equated to 100% sell-through in terms of impressions (not every video view comes with a pre-roll ad) at the $9 CPM rate, Swift's video could earn YouTube as much as $180,000. It's unclear what chunk of that amount actually goes to Swift's team because YouTube doesn't disclose royalty percentages; however, music insiders estimate it's between $0.50 and $2 for every 1,000 views. If that math holds up, Swift's label could make between $10,000 and $40,000 from 20 million views, an amount that would be shared among the label, songwriters and Swift. On Spotify, rightsholders (labels, publishers and distributors) make, on average, "between $0.006 and $0.0084" per stream, an amount that "goes to rightsholders who then pay out to artists," Spotify confirmed to Mashable. When using the 20 million streams in the YouTube example, above, in this Spotify equation, Swift's team could make between $120,000 and $168,000 from 20 million streams to be shared among rightsholders and the artist. Why did Taylor Swift leave Spotify in the first place?Swift wasn't a fan of Spotify allowing her music to stream to non-paying users. "The landscape of the music industry itself is changing so quickly, that everything new, like Spotify, all feels to me a bit like a grand experiment," Swift said in an exclusive interview with Yahoo. "And I'm not willing to contribute my life's work to an experiment that I don't feel fairly compensates the writers, producers, artists, and creators of this music. And I just don't agree with perpetuating the perception that music has no value and should be free." A week after Swift left Spotify, the service's CEO Daniel Ek expressed his frustration. "Taylor Swift is absolutely right: Music is art, art has real value, and artists deserve to be paid for it," Ek wrote in a blog post. "We started Spotify because we love music and piracy was killing it. So all the talk swirling around lately about how Spotify is making money on the backs of artists upsets me big time." "When I hear stories about artists and songwriters who say they've seen little or no money from streaming and are naturally angry and frustrated, I'm really frustrated too," Ek added. "We've already paid more than $2 billion in royalties [since 2009] to the music industry and if that money is not flowing to the creative community in a timely and transparent way, that's a big problem. We will do anything we can to work with the industry to increase transparency, improve speed of payments, and give artists the opportunity to promote themselves and connect with fans — that's our responsibility as a leader in this industry; and it's the right thing to do." Ek also claimed that top artists such as Swift could earn $6 million per year, but Swift's label rebutted the stat, saying Swift was paid less than $500,000 in the past 12 months. In the time since the Spotify-Swift spat began, Google announced its YouTube subscription service, YouTube Music Key. It will allow users to listen to ad-free music offline and in the background while doing other tasks on mobile. Nielsen Music Connect, a relatively new Nieslen platform to measure music industry behaviors, told Mash that the week ending Nov. 9 also marked the first time since Nielsen started tracking audio streams in 2004 that streams have surpassed 4 billion in one week. For video, in the same time span, video streams surpassed 2 billion. "However, this rise in video doesn't reflect any one artist removing their content from a particular service, but instead an overall change in how today's listeners are consuming music," the report added. |
| Pool, deck, eco-friendly: This is the typical Australian home Posted: 21 Nov 2014 01:12 AM PST  A deck is a staple of a large number of homes Australians are a society of fixers, buildings, painters, remodellers. We are obsessed with home renovation and our pads. In case you couldn't tell from the ridiculous amount of reality renovation shows gracing our television screens over the last few years, a new survey by design platform Houzz has confirmed it once and for all.  IMAGE: CAPITAL BUILDING, PHOTOGRAPHER: SUE MURRAY According to the survey, one in 10 Australians redo their living environment monthly, while 30% can't help having a tinker every three to six months. The majority of Australian homeowners surveyed (80%) live in a modest, detached home while the rest are in apartments or townhouses. It proves the Aussie home dream is still alive and well. So what is Australian style? It is varied, yet consistent. Although Australians now get inspiration from designs around the globe, we still have a very authentic Aussie aesthetic. Neutral colours are often in the palette, kitchens are the centrepiece of our homes, timber floors comfort our feet, while edible gardens and natural power play a large role in homes Down Under. The most popular styles of Australian housesInterior trends come and go, but there are a handful of key looks in Australia that remain constant. Many of us give these cornerstone styles our own personal twist, but we are also seeing the emergence of many global influences.
 IMAGE: JODIE COOPER DESIGN, PHOTOGRAPHER: JOEL BARBITA Exteriors IMAGE: BAYVIEW DESIGN GROUP AUSTRALIA Grey is the dominant colour used in Aussie exteriors while brown and orange are increasing in popularity. When it comes to the front door, two-thirds of us stick to neutral colours like brown, black and white. However, if you thought you were being original with your front door, think again. More than one in 20 have a red front door, with similar numbers for green and blue. Interiors IMAGE: SWEET WILLIAM, PHOTOGRAPHER: SHARYN CAIRNS Aussies aren't an experimental bunch inside the house, with most sticking to white and off-white on the walls. Yellow, grey and green are gradually getting more love in the living and dining room while blue and purple are sometimes used to make the bedroom more exciting. The emerging wallpaper trend has caught the eye of some, with one in 20 using it to decorate their bedroom wall. Eco-friendly IMAGE: SIX B DESIGN / PHOTOGRAPHER: LIISA Australians put the environment at the forefront of their designs, with Adelaidians leading the charge. A whopping 53% have rainwater tanks attached to their homes while Brisbane is winning with indoor green features such as energy-saving bulbs and low-flush toilets. The kitchen IMAGE: BREATHE ARCHITECTURE, ANDREW WUTTKE With our love of fresh produce and the MasterChef phenomenon, it is no wonder Australians see the kitchen as the focal point of their home. Watching glamorous kitchens on our televisions have made us realise our home version is in a shambles with one quarter planning a renovation in the next 12 months. If we could add any feature to our home, 42% would take a designer kitchen. Natural materials are prevalent in the Australian kitchen — with more than half of Sydneysiders having granite, marble or quartz benchtops. Keeping with the natural theme, half of Aussies power their kitchens with gas compared to one-fifth using electricity. The living room IMAGE: SCOTT WESTON ARCHITECTURE DESIGN This is the room where we are happiest, it is also super connected—43% of Australians have a smart television, 18% have an integrated sound system while 5% enjoy projector viewing of their favourite films. With a love of design elements, three in five enjoy a fine piece of art on the wall, one in four have created a feature wall and three in five tie the room together with a rug. Floorboards are under the feet of 40% of homeowners with carpet trailing at just 26%, and 16% with tiles. It is also not uncommon to add a touch of warmth to the room with a fireplace — one third is cosying up with marshmallows on a winter's night. The bedroom It isn't just a place for sleeping for Australians. Half of homeowners have an ensuite attached, while 46% have a walk-in wardrobe. Televisions, sitting areas and carpet flooring are all common in Australian bedrooms. The bathroom IMAGE: SUSTAINABLE GARDEN DESIGN PERTH A lot of Aussies are not happy with the current state of their bathroom — with 30% requiring a renovation in the next twelve months. Though it appears we must have high standards for the washing room. In Brisbane, rainwater showers are in 18% of bathrooms as it brings an aspect of the tropical environment. While 9% of Melburnians enjoy watching a TV show while scrubbing themselves and 11% of Adeladians don't mind relaxing in a spa bath. While 21% of Sydneysiders already have heated towel rails and 10% enjoy heated floors. The backyard IMAGE: DEAN HERALD-ROLLING STONE LANDSCAPES / HOUZZ The Australian environment is reflected in the way we use outdoor space. From glamorous pools to entertaining decks, the pride and joy of any house is the outdoor element where you can laze away all year round. Famous for our good weather and long, hot summers it isn't surprising Aussies prioritise the outdoors with only 1% of homeowners admitting to having no outdoor space. Eighty percent of Australian homes have a backyard, 70% have a front yard and the outdoor area is the number one priority for renovation with 44% planning a makeover in the next 12 months. Our space is done up to the nines, with one in five having a pool to relax in during summer, nearly half having a veggie patch and 74% cooking up a storm on the BBQ. |
| Video: Obama announces changes to the nation's immigration system Posted: 21 Nov 2014 01:05 AM PST President Barack Obama addressed the nation Thursday night from the White House, informing the country that he will go ahead with a series of executive actions that will change the nation's immigration system. Under the executive actions, around four million unauthorized immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for five or more years will be allowed to apply to a program that would permit undocumented immigrants without a criminal record to legally work in America and would prevent them from being deported. |
| This French bulldog thinks he's a diesel engine Posted: 21 Nov 2014 01:04 AM PST A 3-year-old French bulldog named Dosh has the Internet fooled. The towel-draped pup sounds a lot like an idling diesel engine when he gets overheated. It's a good thing this engine is idling, too, because we're not ready to see this cute face take off quite yet. |
| Slush brings investors, startups to the frozen North Posted: 21 Nov 2014 01:03 AM PST  An investor dinner at Slush 2013. On arriving at the legendary Slush startup conference in Finland's Helsinki, the environment is akin to a fantasy world, a place that is dark and mysterious. It's as if the Northern Lights are flashing not in the interplanetary sky, but all around the conference center. What began as an idea in a Helsinki bar is now a conference in its seventh year, having grown into one of the must-attend European events for investors, entrepreneurs, mavens, thought-leaders and more besides. Its reputation as a place to do business, have fun and enjoy the unique manner of Finnish hospitality as the Christmas season approaches is irreproachable. Lasers of different hues shade the venue, robots walk and talk around attendees' feet and people dressed up as Father Christmas, rabbits and even one guy with a plastic baby strapped to his chest pass by. Suddenly the chaos comes into focus and on the main stage a siren rings out, signaling the start of the show. An opening video backed by a hardcore techno soundtrack attracts everybody to the main stage; it is a stunning entrance. Next up is the Finnish prime minister, arriving on stage as if he was the deejay behind the decks, talking about Slush and its importance to the Finnish economy, followed by local favorite Nokia announcing an Android-based tablet. Senses already disorientated, it is then a walk around four stages with more than 13,000 attendees from 79 countries and 3,600 companies, one-third of which are startups with less than 50 employees. Here, the outside world doesn't exist, and for tech behemoths such as Apple and Google, this conference doesn't exist either. This is not a conference for them; this isn't CES in Vegas, but perhaps after seven years, it never will be. But, with or without them, the mood is beyond optimistic. Naturally, an event of this kind takes some organizing. One of the main drivers behind its growth is the dynamic and furiously energetic Pekka Viljakainen, commonly referred to as The Bulldozer in reference to how he gets things done. Viljakainen is the adviser to Viktor Vekselberg, president of the Skolkovo Foundation and the Russian Government. He is Finnish, not Russian, so he understands how to move between worlds. His role at Skolkovo, the Russian innovative city project, is to accelerate the establishment of entrepreneurship in Russia. " The purpose of Slush is to bring together three neighboring superpowers of startup ecosystems — Russia, China … and Finland— haha. Of course, Finland is a smaller element, but I am also serious." "From the Russian standpoint, there is a great scientific background for innovation, but from the sales/marketing aspect, we are beginners compared to the West. Slush is a learning experience in all of its manifestations. It is also a place for global investors to have a first look at Russian entrepreneurship," he says. Back at the conference, the excess continues as the first day draws to an end. Huge beer trucks arrive at the Southern Entrance as the parties begin … and what parties they are. The Finnish can drink … they can drink and drink; and so does everybody else. The morning of Day Two is less frenetic. Hangovers have afflicted everybody; the walking and talking robots are a little more annoying today and the lasers induce headaches and nausea, but the Holiday Inn hotel adjacent to the conference is doing great business selling morning-after alcohol as the game begins again. Peter Arvai is the co-founder of Prezi, a cloud-based (SaaS) presentation software and storytelling tool for presenting ideas on a virtual canvas. Prezi allows its more than 50 million customers to create beautiful presentations and to access, for free, more than 160 million shared presentations. Arvai is about to go on stage and announce a $57 million funding round, so he is ebullient about his company and Slush. Founded in Hungary, the company now has 70 employees in Silicon Valley in addition to the 170 working in Budapest. He gives me an example of how the company operates and asks me to describe three things in my kitchen. I answer toaster, blender and kettle. "When you thought about these three things, you didn't think of text and a list, you thought of your kitchen and visualized them. Not only is this a visual approach, it is also a spatial approach' and that is exactly how Prezi works. We bring people into the kitchen to tell the story," Arvai says. He's right, but he has to leave for the Silver Stage and his fireside chat, so it's on to a smaller, but still innovative, company. Steven Judge is English and based in Helsinki. He is the founder of Finnish-based "gamification-as-a-service" company GameLayer and he, like everybody else here, is awed by Slush." This conference is unlike any other, and everybody from around the world seems to be here. We get to meet our clients, we get to create new business and we also have a great time in the cold Finnish winter. The infrastructure and support from Slush for the Finnish startup scene is unparalleled, and we will be coming here for years to come," Judge says. Another company that finds Slush crucial to its business is chat-based games companyPalringo, which has offices in London and Gothenburg, Sweden. Its platform allows users to form and join large groups based on common interests and play games in those conversations. With more than 28 million users and 250,000 groups, some of which have 2,000 members, Palringo's CMO Magnus Alm is effusive about the opportunities Slush gives to his company and how integral it is to the games and tech ecosystem. "Slush is one of those great shows where tech, gaming and investors meet and greet. From our perspective it has high relevance due to our focus on the convergence of messaging and games," he says. As the conference comes to a close and the intelligent ones head home on flights across the world, the more hardcore party animals prepare for one last stand — another night enjoying the various parties on offer. I'm ready to join them, slightly angsty over the eternal buoyancy of the people here, but a party's a party, and friendly people are never a problem. The spice of life is here, and so is the magic … and that's not something that is often said about an industry trade show. Long may that continue, and maybe Apple or Google will make an appearance next time. |
| Obama announces major immigration overhaul Posted: 21 Nov 2014 12:20 AM PST  President Barack Obama announced executive actions on U.S. immigration policy during a nationally televised address from the White House, Nov. 20, in Washington, DC. President Barack Obama announced a series of executive actions on Thursday night that will overhaul the United States' immigration system. The actions will protect millions of undocumented immigrants from deportation, allowing them to obtain permits to work in the United States, though they won't be eligible for government health insurance. In total, around five million undocumented immigrants—out of the nation's estimated 11.2 million—will be directly affected by the president's executive actions. "Our tradition of welcoming immigrants from around the world has given us a tremendous advantage over other nations," Obama said during his speech. "But today, our immigration system is broken, and everybody knows it." According to the new plan, undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. before Jan. 1, 2010, and who have lived in America for five or more years, can apply for work permits, if they don't have a criminal record. About 4 million people would be affected by this part of the plan. Other undocumented immigrants can apply under the "Dreamers" program, which protects undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. when they were younger than 16 and not yet 31 years when they applied to the program. Under the new plan, there is no upper age limit. However, the plan won't extend to parents of "Dreamers." White House officials said they had considered including parents of these younger immigrants but had decided there was no legal authority to do so. "There has to be some legal limit to the actions that the president can take," a senior administration official said on a conference call with reporters before the president's speech on Thursday. "It's a very difficult line to draw, but one that ultimately had to be drawn." Obama's executive order doesn't include the provision of healthcare for undocumented immigrants. And the plan doesn't specifically address the much-debated issue of what will happen to hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrant farm workers. In recent weeks, Republicans have attacked Obama on the issue of immigration, saying he is acting beyond his presidential mandate. The president acknowledged those lawmakers, and responded with a simple message. "Pass a bill," Obama said. "I want to work with both parties to pass a more permanent legislative solution." Just as Republicans did not wait until the end of Obama's speech to criticize it, protesters did not wait to start their rallies. Some, who seem to be in favor of Obama's plan, led a "Yes we can" chant outside the White House. Some made sure to catch the speech, though. And, across the country in Las Vegas, Nevada, a young woman Obama mentioned in his speech began to tear up. She is an undocumented immigrant who will be protected by the president's plan, and she reportedly didn't realize Obama would mention her. You can read the White House's fact sheet about the executive actions, below. Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments. |
| Microsoft's Black Friday offers include $150 off Surface Pro 3 Posted: 21 Nov 2014 12:14 AM PST  Surface Pro 3. As Black Friday inches closer, Microsoft has announced some pretty sweet deals that will be available from Nov. 27 to Nov. 28. Black Friday can drive everyone a bit crazy, so by researching early you can spare yourself some panic on the day. If you use Black Friday to get your Christmas list completed, these discounted items should fill a couple of stockings. If you use the day to treat yourself, here's to a very merry Christmas. These are the main picks: $100 off Surface Pro 3 i5IMAGE: MICROSOFT Available through Microsoft retail stores, Microsoftstore.com, Best Buy and other select retailers. $150 off Surface Pro 3 i7 or Surface 2IMAGE: MICROSOFT Available through Microsoft retail stores, Microsoftstore.com, Best Buy and other select retailers. $99 Nokia Lumia 830 Fitbit bundle IMAGE: MICROSOFT Available in the U.S. at www.att.com and in AT&T retail stores and at MicrosoftStore.com and Microsoft Store retail locations; for a limited time (and while supplies last), customers who purchase a Lumia 830 also receive a free Fitbit Flex ($99.99 value). Xbox One available starting at $349IMAGE: MICROSOFT Available nationwide at participating retailers. For more details on this promotion, visit Xbox Wire or contact your local retailer. $99 ASUS EeeBook X205TAIMAGE: MICROSOFT Available at Staples. |
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