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Category: DevOpsUpdate

DevOpsUpdate

  • Pinterest Opens Developer Sandbox

    Pinterest Opens Developer Sandbox

    Pinterest announced the opening of its developer sandbox enabling any developer to access its API and start building apps and integrations.When a developer is ready to launch it publicly, they can submit it for review and what Pinterest calls a “quick” approval.

    “Earlier this year, we launched the Pinterest Developers Platform, a suite of endpoints for building apps and integrations that bring Pins to life and help people do more with their Pins,” a spokesperson for Pinterest tells us. “By opening the platform to further development and creativity, people will have more ways to take action with their Pins.”

    So far, developers have submitted over 5,000 ideas for apps and integrations, the company says. These include recipe recommendation apps, travel planning apps, gift registry integrations, publisher integrations, etc.

    “Over the past few months, we’ve been working with developers including IFTTT, Polyvore and Topshop to launch the first Pinterest integrations,” the spokesperson says. “In that time, Polyvore increased their traffic from Pinterest by 35 percent, and the number of Pins saved from Polyvore has jumped tenfold. The number of Pins being saved from IFTTT has grown 33 percent week over week.”

    There’s a case study from Polyvore here.

    Developers must agree to terms and policies, and then they’ll be able to add a select number of testers and collaborators as they build their apps. When a user authenticates, apps will gain access to pins, boards, profiles, and follows. There are SDKs for Android, iOS, and Javascript.

    Here’s a technical overview. There’s also a sample app you can check out and view the source code for.

    Earlier this month, Pinterest announced that it has over 100 million users.

    Image via Pinterest

  • Gigi Hadid Signs On With Topshop, Calvin Harris

    Gigi Hadid has some very famous parents–her dad is Mohamed Hadid and her mom is Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Yolanda Foster–but she doesn’t need their fame and fortune to garner her own. The 20-year old is the current “It” girl in the U.S. and hangs out with the likes of Taylor Swift and Calvin Harris, and soon she’ll be collaborating with Harris in a new video for his single “How Deep Is Your Love”.

    Harris is actually dating Taylor Swift, and considering she and Gigi are besties, it’s likely that the duo connected through her. Gigi will star in the upcoming video after having already appeared in one for Swift and for Cody Simpson, and teased the news to her fans via Twitter to keep them on the lookout for the video’s release. The single came out a couple of weeks ago.

    Gigi also announced this week that she has been selected as the new face of Topshop, and shared photos of the staggering preparations for a photo shoot on Twitter.

    “Gigi’s effortless, Californian style, together with her strong social media presence, makes her the perfect ambassador for the Topshop brand,” Topshop said in a statement.

    Gigi Hadid has earned rave reviews from those she works with, and Topshop owner Sir Phillip Green is no exception. For Green, choosing Hadid for their new campaign was a no-brainer, as she holds so much appeal all over the world.

    “Working with Gigi Hadid on this campaign continues to strengthen our international vision for the Topshop brand. We are continually developing our footprint across all markets with ambitious plans both in the UK and internationally and I feel like Gigi is an ideal ambassador to underpin these efforts,” Green said.

  • Mila Kunis: Kristina Karo Drops Bizarre Chicken Suit

    Mila Kunis may have just dodged a bullet. Internet sensation and emotionally-fragile singer Kristina Karo has found it in her heart to forgive Kunis for allegedly stealing her pet chicken years ago.

    Mila Kunis, as you may know, lived in Ukraine as a child. It is during this time that Kristina Karo alleges that Kunis stole her pet chicken, which was named “Doggie.”

    Karo had sued Kunis in Small Claims Court in Los Angeles for $5,000 to cover therapy sessions “due to isolation for the loss of her chicken pet ‘Doggie.’” Karo claimed that “upon arriving in the US and seeing [Kunis] in person, more therapy was needed due to emotional abuse.”

    But now Kristina Karo has decided to be the bigger person and drop her lawsuit.

    “I’ve learned to forgive in my heart the people who have wronged me, like Mila,” Karo told TMZ. “There is only one judge and that is God. I pray for her soul and the soul of Doggie, that he was found peace finally in chicken heaven.”

    Mila Kunis is probably counting her blessings this very day.

    Of course, there are a few other details that should be understood, just for posterity, since the lawsuit is now dropped.

    For starters, the time period that Karo alleges Mila Kunis stole her chicken would have meant that Karo was only one month old. In her story, she says she spoke to Kunis.

    Ashton Kutcher found this story to be less-than-believable. In a comical video he posted, Kutcher interrogated his wife about the charges against her.

    “Let’s just get this clear: you stole a chicken from a one-month-old child who spoke to you in an entire conversation? It’s just shocking to me. Not only did she have a conversation at one-month old in Ukraine, she was speaking English! This is the smartest girl I’ve ever heard of!”

    Kunis responded, tongue in cheek.

    “I was devastated. I was weeping. I was dumbfounded. I was like, ‘Which chicken did I steal?’ Because I was obviously in the village when I stole these chickens. So I apologize to this woman who was maybe or maybe not a month old.”

    As Kutcher pointed out Karo had just released a music video online and may or may not have been hoping to garner attention for it. Mila Kunis watched the video and said she now felt she needed to file a counter-suit against Karo.

    “But emotionally I feel served. I would like to launch a counter $5,000 lawsuit for making me sit there and watch your music video, shamelessly. My body hurts. My eyes hurt, they’re burning. That requires money.”

    It’s a good thing this whole mess ended without a huge court battle for Mila Kunis. Here is Kristina Karo’s video, in case anyone else wants a reason to file a lawsuit.

  • Lily Tomlin Cops to Taking Peyote to Prepare for Role

    Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda are in a new Netflix series called Grace and Frankie. The two women are both in their 70s, and this is the first project they have done together since starring in 9 to 5 way back in 1980.

    Lily Tomlin plays Frankie to Jane Fonda’s Grace. The series also stars Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston as the husbands of the pair of ladies. But the two men come out to their wives as gay and leave them to be together. Frankie and Grace are left with only each other.

    Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda, together with Dolly Parton, broke some new ground when they did 9 to 5. One of the more controversial scenes in the film saw the ladies smoking pot. Now, 35 years later, the first episode of Grace and Frankie sees Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda taking peyote.

    And Lily Tomlin says the pair actually took peyote as research for the scene.

    “Oh, yeah. We just put the preparations in place and then followed them,” she told Entertainment Weekly.

    Jane Fonda has high praise for Lily Tomlin, recalling that she saw her as essential to 9 to 5 back in the day.

    “I went to see her in Appearing Nitely on Broadway,” Fonda recalls. “I was already developing 9 to 5, and when I saw her it blew my mind. I thought, ‘I don’t want to make this movie without her.’ I got the idea of including Dolly Parton because I heard her on the radio and thought, ‘Boy, that would be cool.’ Dolly, Lily, Jane. It took me a year to persuade them!”

    The women were younger for 9 to 5. Fonda admits that it would be tough for her and Lily Tomlin to make that happen now.

    “It’s probably harder [to do] now than it was then. It’s so hard to get a movie done and distributed, especially when you’re older. For older women, it’s mostly about independent movies.”

    The Grace and Frankie series hits Netflix on May 8.

  • Android XML File Can Crash Devices

    Apparently all Android apps have a file called the AndroidManifest.xml, and this contains information the system has to have before it can run any of the app’s code. So it’s a pretty important file. Unfortunately, if that file is malformed, it can cause big problems for the device that’s running it.

    Earlier this month, TrendMicro reported on the issue after coming across a vulnerability related to the file that may cause devices to experience continuous cycles of rebooting, which would (as you might imagine) make the device impossible to use. Mobile security engineer Simon Huang wrote:

    The vulnerability can cause the OS to crash through two different ways. The first involves very long strings and memory allocation. Some apps may contain huge strings in their .XML files, using document type definition (DTD) technology. When this string reference is assigned to some of the tags in AndroidManifest.xml (e.g., permission name, label, name of activity), the Package Parser will require memory to parse this .XML file. However, when it requires more memory than is available, the PackageParser will crash. This triggers a chain reaction wherein all the running services stops and the whole system consequently reboots once.

    The second way involves .APK files and a specific intent-filter, which declares what a service or activity can do. An icon will be created in the launcher if the manifest file contains an activity definition with this specific intent-filter…

    Check out TrendMicro’s post for additional details. The company says it notified Google about the issue, so hopefully it will be taken care of soon if it hasn’t been already.

    Via TechWorm

    Image via Google

  • Muhammad Ali Found Unresponsive, Rushed To Hopsital

    Muhammad Ali was brought to the ICU after house guests found the boxer unresponsive. According to reports, he is currently undergoing tests to find out what is wrong. A source told Radar Online, “He wasn’t responding. He went to bed Tuesday night, but didn’t wake up in the afternoon or evening the next day. He was sleeping for 24 hours.” The source added, “They thought he might be too exhausted.” This recent trip to the hospital comes just one week after Ali was treated for a urinary tract infection.

    Bob Gunnell, a spokesman for Ali, said that the legendary boxer was brought to the hospital again for further care following the previous hospitalization. “There were still issues with the urinary tract infection,” Gunnell said. According to reports, Ali is expected to be released on Friday, the day before his birthday.

    Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease three years after he retired in 1981. Ever since then, he decided to devote his time to humanitarian efforts. However, his public appearances have diminished over recent years due to his deteriorating health. Despite this, Ali still enjoys going out and watching sports events, especially those involving his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.

    While Ali hasn’t been seen publicly for a while, he remained active in social media prior to his hospitalization. Ali is an active Twitter user and has more than 405,000 followers. Back in December, he also signed up for the popular social networking site, Instagram. Ali has so far posted nine photos and has gained more than 120,000 followers.

    Ali’s first picture on Instagram shows him smiling, assuring fans that he’s still feeling well. He also posted a message to his beloved Louisville Cardinals, saying, “#Louisville Game Day! Go Cards!”

    A photo posted by Muhammad Ali (@muhammadali) on

    Known as “The Greatest”, Ali won the World Heavyweight title three times and had iconic rivalries with boxers Joe Frazier and George Foreman.

  • Robin Williams’ Autopsy: Does It Shed Light On Suicide?

    Robin Williams shocked the world earlier this year when he committed suicide, and many were left with the questions that surround the sudden death of any famous person; in particular, “Why did he do it?” Although Williams had been known to suffer from depression, his fans and friends wondered if there might have been another factor at work, and now, an autopsy report shows that the comedian suffered from a little-known disorder.

    Known as Lewy body disease, the disorder is similar to Parkinson’s and affects the memory and speech centers. It can also cause hallucinations before it develops into dementia. Unfortunately, the symptoms of both diseases are so similar that often, doctors misdiagnose them and prescribe the wrong medication, which can make things worse for the patient.

    “Even experienced neurologists have trouble distinguishing between (the two diseases). There’s not a clear-cut distinction. It’s two diseases that have a kind of intersection where it’s hard to tease them apart,” said neurologist Gayatri Devi.

    Devi, who did not treat Williams, said that suicide is unusual for patients suffering from Lewy body disease, but TMZ reported this week that a source close to his family admitted that the disorder may have played a role in his choosing to take his own life.

    Williams reportedly left the majority of his $50 million estate to his three children, with his wife Susan taken care of under the terms of their pre-nuptial agreement.

  • Google’s Nest Acquires Revolv, Stops Selling

    Nest, which Google acquired earlier this year, has acquired Revolv, another smart-home device maker.

    According to Liz Gannes at Re/code, the deal just closed, and but the terms are undisclosed.

    Revolv says in a message on its homepage, “We have been inspired by Nest since our foundation, and are thrilled to be part of the Nest family. Together, we’re going to create some amazing products and continue to unify the connected home as part of the Works with Nest program.”

    Revolv will not be available for new customers going forward, but existing customers will be able to receive support. Customers that have issues can still use the support site. Products are still under warranty.

    “Revolv data will remain subject to the Revolv Privacy Statement and, like Nest data, will be separate from Google,” Revolv says.

    A few months ago, Nest bought Dropcam for a reported $555 million.

    Image via Revolv

  • Rick Ross Drops New Single Featuring R. Kelly For ‘Hood Billionaire’ Album

    On Friday, rapper Rick Ross dropped a new single from his upcoming album called Hood Billionaire. The song is called “Keep Doin’ That (Rich B—tch)” and features none other than the legendary R&B singer R. Kelly.

    According to Music Times, the single is about finding a rich woman, dating her and “doin’ that.” It features Kelly’s melodic vocals in the chorus to complement Ross’s gangster-style raps. A few piano chords decorate this melodic rap song that was posted on SoundCloud. The single is out of Ross’s album Hood Billionaire, which is set to be released on November 24 in time for Thanksgiving.

    In an interview with The Breakfast Club, Ross described “Keep Doin’ That (Rich B—tch)” as a record that “the chicks gon’ be able to turn up to,” while “the bosses [can] lean on the wall a little bit.”

    Hood Billionaire will be the second album to come from Ross this year. His first album in 2014, Mastermind, was released in the spring and featured Jay Z in the song “The Devil Is A Lie”. Ross claims that Jay Z will also be in his upcoming album.

    Ross reportedly chose to release two albums this year because they expressed different feelings. “Mastermind was the type of album that I wanted to have a rich feel to it, I wanted it to have…. nostalgia at the beginning, that throwback Puff feel midway through it… just certain energies,” he said.

    “This right here—this is my Geechi Liberace, this a gold ring on every finger, we’re holding the bottles in the sky letting the champagne run down our arm,” he said of Hood Billionaire. “It’s just that feel-good record, a lot of 808s, real bass heavy and its gon’ feel different to you, so it’s gon’ feel like a full year from the Bawse.”

    Keep Doin’ That (Rich B–ch): Rick Ross featuring R. Kelly (explicit content)

     

  • Amazon Drops Fire Phone Price To 99 Cents

    Amazon Drops Fire Phone Price To 99 Cents

    Earlier this summer, Amazon made a big splash when it unveiled its first smartphone – the Fire Phone. It revealed some truly interesting features that don’t exist on other phones.

    When the reviews came out, however, people were left far from impressed, and sales haven’t been very good based on various estimates. That’s probably why Amazon just announced that the device is now available for 99 cents (down from 199) with a two-year contract. That should help. It even still includes the free year of Prime, which even Amazon seemed to consider the biggest selling point, as it was the focus of the device’s first commercial.

    “With access to all of the Prime content, Mayday, 32GB of memory and free unlimited cloud storage for photos, plus the exclusive Dynamic Perspective and Firefly features, Fire is another example of the value Amazon delivers to customers,” said Ian Freed, Vice President, Amazon Devices.

    The device is only available through AT&T in the U.S.

    Here are the positive quotes about the phone, which it says is “what Amazon Fire customers are saying”:

    “The best part of the phone is the integration with Prime – I’ve switched all of my iTunes music over to Amazon Music and have bought a few albums from my phone. The sound from the included headphones is amazing. I’ve watched some movies and read some books – all synced to my Kindle Fire HDX and the movies with my Fire TV.”

    “Mayday: I feel this truly separates this phone from every other phone in the market. It’s like having someone available 24×7 to help you out with your phone…and, there is no charge for that ‘ever.’”

    “Love it, better than the iPhone I had, Better pictures and better screen…My wife is switching from her iPhone 5 to Fire since she has checked out my FIRE.”

    “I’ve had three Kindle Fire tablets, and this Fire phone hooks seamlessly to their ecosystem of books and videos, which I use heavily in my professional work so that’s important to me.”

    “The Firefly feature is fun, and the camera takes fabulous pictures and videos.”

    “If you’re an Amazon Prime user, it can’t get better than this. The support for the Amazon ecosystem is amazing.”

    What the actual reviews were saying isn’t quite so rosy. You can read some of that here.

    Still, most seemed to agree that Amazon will likely make improvements with a future model, which could make a better impression. Let’s not consider Amazon’s efforts a failure just yet.

    Image via Amazon

  • NYPD Cops Are Taking Classes on How to Twitter

    Everyone’s on Twitter these days – you, your mom, your grandma, your high school math teacher, and yes, the police. There are plenty of reasons why a police department would want to maintain a social media presence, and many departments across the country have begun to devote time to running Twitter and Facebook accounts.

    The problem is, some people are just bad at Twitter. Take some within the NYPD for example – oftentimes, not so great at Twitter. The NYPD is behind one of, if not the, most ill-advised hashtag campaign in recent memory – the spectacularly failed #myNYPD fiasco. What the NYPD began with the hopes that people would tweet their photos and memories of the NYPD serving and protecting, devolved into people tweeting photos of police brutality.

    The department should’ve seen it coming. They didn’t.

    Maybe if the top brass in the NYPD were simply better at Twitter, this kind of thing could be avoided. At least that’s the thought behind a new initiative to send precinct commanders to Twitter school.

    The NY Post is reporting that the NYPD is now sending ‘top cops’ to Twitter school – more specifically, classes at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Midtown.

    Apparently, a memo given out at the first class simply read “USE COMMON SENSE.”

    From The Post:

    The cops are being warned not to post off-the-cuff remarks on Twitter and encouraged to laud community groups, send out wanted posters and post crime stats, information obtained by The Post reveals.

    “They want us to put info like street closures or bus diversions because of a street fair. Also info like an accident-prone location or a picture of the cop of the month,” one source said. “Public information stuff.”

    Sounds like solid advice – maybe enough to prevent stuff like this from happening again.

    Image via NYPD, Twitter

  • Kendall (Jenner) Drops Her Famous Last Name. Why?

    Kendall Jenner has decided to drop her famous last name, opting to be known only as Kendall.

    The 18-year-old super-model-in-the-making is trying desperately to drop her identity along with her name, so has chosen to follow the path of others with the same branding theory — Cher, Madonna, Prince (or the artist formerly known as Prince), Shakira, and Adele.

    The Society Management, her modeling agency, first made the announcement on their website’s profile for “Kendall.”

    Apparently, everyone has been in the dark about her name change. Kendall told Us Weekly that she has been going by the single name for months, making the switch with the launch of her fashion career in shows for Marc Jacobs and Giles.

    “I did it last year at all the castings too!” she told Us Weekly. “I only go by my first name.”

    Kendall didn’t elaborate on the reasons for changing her name.

    “It was just my choice,” she said.

    One reason may be her perception that her Jenner name and the association with the Kardashian-Jenner family may have hindered her in her life’s ambition to be a super-model.

    Kendall said as much in a recent article for the September issue of Teen Vogue.

    “People didn’t want to take a chance on me, I think because I was sort of known,” she said. “They were a little bit on the fence about it. Some people might think that what I’ve done before made it easier for me to get jobs, but it was actually a disadvantage. I had to work even harder.”

    Kendall also spoke a bit about her non-existent love life for the Teen Vogue article.

    “I don’t have a romantic life at the moment, so traveling doesn’t bother me at all,” Kendall said. “But I do want to go home. When I was young, I was the kid who would call my dad from a slumber party to beg him to come pick me up.”

    Despite her name reduction, her social media accounts still go by the name, Kendall Jenner.

  • Yahoo Stops Development On User Interface library

    Yahoo Stops Development On User Interface library

    Yahoo announced that it is stopping development on the Yahoo User Interface library (YUI). It’s been around since 2005, and was launched to the public the following year.

    The library offere developers free, open source JavaScript and CSS tools and utilities for building web apps.

    The company says it will no focus its efforts on the “new technology landscape”. New YUI releases will only take place when they’re “absolutely critical” to Yahoo properties, and will be few and far between.

    Yahoo says on its engineering blog:

    It has become clear to us that the industry is now headed in a new direction. As most of you know, the web platform has been undergoing a drastic transformation over the past few years. JavaScript is now more ubiquitous than ever. The emergence of Node.JS has allowed JavaScript to be used on the server side, opening the door to creating isomorphic single page applications. New package managers (npm, bower) have spurred the rise of an ecosystem of 3rd party, open source, single-purpose tools that complement each other, embracing the UNIX philosophy and enabling very complex development use cases. New build tools (Grunt and its ecosystem of plugins, Broccoli, Gulp) have made it easier to assemble those tiny modules into large, cohesive applications. New application frameworks (Backbone, React, Ember, Polymer, Angular, etc.) have helped architect web applications in a more scalable and maintainable way. New testing tools (Mocha, Casper, Karma, etc.) have lowered the barrier of entry to building a solid continuous delivery pipeline. Standard bodies (W3C, Ecma) are standardizing what the large JavaScript frameworks have brought to the table over the years, making them available natively to a larger number of devices. Finally, browser vendors are now committed to making continuous improvements to their web browsers while aligning more closely with standards. With so called “evergreen web browsers”, which are making it easier for users to run the latest stable version of a web browser, we can expect a significant reduction in the amount of variance across user agents.

    The consequence of this evolution in web technologies is that large JavaScript libraries, such as YUI, have been receiving less attention from the community. Many developers today look at large JavaScript libraries as walled gardens they don’t want to be locked into. As a result, the number of YUI issues and pull requests we’ve received in the past couple of years has slowly reduced to a trickle. Most core YUI modules do not have active maintainers, relying instead on a slow stream of occasional patches from external contributors. Few reviewers still have the time to ensure that the patches submitted are reviewed quickly and thoroughly.

    The company says the team behind the YUI will continue to work on next-generation presentation technologies, and will initially focus on internal developers.

    Image via Yahoo

  • Corey Harrison of Pawn Stars Drops 192 Pounds

    Corey Harrison of Pawn Stars Drops 192 Pounds

    When Pawn Stars celeb Corey Harrison went to see his doctor, he was almost 370 pounds. His doctors gave him a wakeup call when they told him that he was in grave danger of developing diabetes. They put him on some preventive medicines for the condition and warned him to get his weight under control or risk a whole host of other health issues.

    Harrison told his story to People Magazine.

    “I literally drove straight from the doctor to the lap band center and had the surgery almost immediately,” Harrison said. “Back then, the surgery was too expensive for my bank account, so I had to pay with four credit cards, but it was something I had to do – I was not going to get diabetes!”

    Harrison’s weight loss journey was off and running. Within six weeks of the lab-band surgery, he lost 50 pounds.

    Imagine carrying three gallons of water or milk in each hand. Water weighs about eight pounds per gallon. That would be a total of 48 pounds. Now, imagine carrying that water around all day, sleeping with it sitting on your chest, held in front of you when you hold your kids.

    Now, imagine setting that water down.

    Harrison went on to lost another 100 pounds over the next year. That’s two pounds per week. Once the weight was off, the change was so stunning and affected Harrison so dramatically that he says he is a changed man forever.

    “I could never go back to weighing as much as I did,” he said. “It made me realize what I ate, how I ate and what I did to myself. It was a ‘wow’ moment.”

    And it’s not just about being lighter. He is active and fit.

    “I’m actually excited to go to the gym now. I box 12 rounds a day five days a week,” Harrison admitted. “When I was a teenager I loved snowboarding, but in my 20s I was too big to strap my feet in the boards. Being able to finally touch my toes made me realize I could snowboard again, so I went out and got new gear immediately.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Amazon Web Services Launches Storage, Mobile Developer Solutions

    Amazon just made a couple of Amazon Web Services (AWS) announcements, involving some new capabilities for mobile developers and a new enterprise storage and sharing service.

    The storage service is called Amazon Zocalo. Starting in limited preview today, Amazon describes it as a ” fully managed, secure enterprise storage and sharing service with strong administrative controls and feedback capabilities that improve user productivity.”

    The offering allows customers to store, share, and gather feedback on documents, spreadsheets, presentations, webpages, images, PDFs, and text files from laptops, iPads, Kindle Fires, or Android tablets.

    “Customers have told us that they’re fed up with the cost, complexity, and performance of their existing old guard enterprise document and collaboration management tools,” said Noah Eisner, GM of Amazon Zocalo. “AWS was increasingly being asked to provide an enterprise storage and sharing tool that was easy to use, allowed users to quickly collaborate with others, and met the strict security needs of their organizations. That’s what Amazon Zocalo was built to do.”

    The new mobile developer services are aimed at making it easier to build, deploy, and scale mobile apps. These invlude Amazon Cognito, a way to securely store, manage, and sync user identities and data; Amazon Mobile Analytics, a way to quickly access and analyze app usage data; the AWS Mobile SDK to easily connect apps to AWS; and Amazon SNS, a way to send notifications, updates, and promotions across platforms.

    Developers can learn more about all of this here.

    Image via YouTube

  • What Happens When You Put Cameras On Cops?

    The adage of “who watches the watchmen?” beckons that even those who dish out justice should be met with the same repercussions if they too break the law. So as smart phone cameras record, microphones listen, and every bit of technology is bugged – under the principal that “If you have nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to fear” (quoted from Nazi Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister of Propaganda) – you can rest assured that the same requirements of mass surveillance from the state imposing it tend to behave just like us when the sights are set on them: behaved.

    It started as an experiment that ran from February 2012 for one full year: police officers in Rialto, California, when required to wear cameras on their chest, found that the use of force decreased by 60% (from 61 to 25), and complaints filed against officers fell by 88% (from 24 to 3.) The study rippled across the nation and over seas; the results garnered the attention of Manhattan Federal Judge Shira Scheindlin, leading to an order for the implementation of the devices in New York City last year; The College of Policing piloted the idea in England and Wales; and as of March of this year, the Los Angeles Police Department is field testing cameras with hopes of deploying them to all officers.

    According to AP, “Most law enforcement officials and civil liberties advocates” say that “the lack of clear guidelines on the cameras’ use could potentially undermine departments’ goals of creating greater accountability of officers and jeopardize the privacy of both the public and law enforcement officers.” With this in mind, the full implementation to where the cameras would be standard protocol may take some time.

    “When you put a camera on a police officer, they tend to behave a little better, follow the rules a little better,” Rialto’s police chief William A. Farrar told the New York Times. “And if a citizen knows the officer is wearing a camera, chances are the citizen will behave a little better.”

     

    Images via Reddit, WikiCommons

  • Giuliana Rancic Opens Up About Devastating Miscarriage

    Giuliana Rancic and her husband Bill are speaking openly this week about the devastating loss of their baby after their surrogate had a miscarriage.

    The woman is the same surrogate who carried the couple’s son Duke, and while she is recovering, they say they want to make sure she doesn’t feel like they blame her in any way.

    “Thankfully we’ve had some time to process the news. It was hard…I mean, when you get that call that you’ve had a miscarriage…we were just devastated. Our priority at the time, once we were able to take the emotion out of it a little bit, was to make sure our surrogate who carried Duke for us … knew it was not her fault,” Rancic said.

    The couple tried for several months to conceive before Duke was born, and Giuliana went through several rounds of IVF. Her doctor claimed it was mandatory for her to have a mammogram during the treatment, which led to her diagnosis of breast cancer. If she hadn’t undergone the invasive program in order to conceive little Edward Duke, she might not have discovered her illness until it was much too late, if at all.

    “Technically this baby saved her life because had she not gone through IVF — the doctor made it mandatory that she get a mammogram — they would have never found what they found so we owe this little guy debt of gratitude and I’m sure he’ll never let you forget it!” Bill said.

    The couple released a statement about the miscarriage, saying their surrogate Delphine was about nine weeks pregnant. They say they will likely try one more time.

    “Bill and I want to grow our family more than anything else, so as you can imagine we were shocked and saddened when we received the bad news. We are incredibly appreciative of all the love and support from our viewers who have been on our journey for the past seven seasons and hope to have good news to share with everyone soon. We have had our share of ups and downs and our faith is strong therefore we know in the end, everything will be OK.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Angry Birds Creator Develops Pre-K Program

    Recently on The Late Show with David Letterman, comedian and entertainer Louis C.K. criticized standardized testing and the Common Core Standards.

    “My kids used to love math. Now it makes them cry. Thanks standardized testing and common core!” he tweeted .

    On The Late Show, Louis continued. “The tests are written by people nobody knows who they are. It’s very secretive…. They [teachers and students] prepare for these tests for a long time. A lot of the year is about the test. Teaching to the test they call it.”

    Now, using Louis C.K.’s recent statements in their talks, the Finnish company that created Angry Birds is working to make learning more fun.

    Rovio Entertainment is working on the new early childhood program called Angry Birds Playground, based on the Finnish national curriculum for Kindergarten for ages 3 to 6. The program would focus more on free play and exercise, as well as technological tools and a reconfigured learning environment, all while using some of the popular Angry Birds characters.

    Education expert Professor Angela Mcfarlane says that many games, such as Angry Birds, are complex and require deep learning to solve them.

    “There are many computer games that require quite deep learning to master the games,” she said. “Some of that learning applies beyond games to wider life, such as concentration, problem solving, and resilience – important life skills. Anyone who has tried to play complex video games will know they are difficult.”

    On Monday, executives from Rovio Entertainment spoke at an event at the Finnish Embassy in Washington, D.C. about the danger of squelching creativity through too much testing.

    It is no secret that Finland looks at learning differently. Focusing more on fun learning and motivating students, Finnish schools have done away with drill strategies, national testing, and long school days. Compulsory schooling doesn’t even begin until age seven.

    “In Finland, we definitely believe that it is good to get started at the age of 7,” said Krista Kiuru, Finnish minister of education and science. “We have a lot of research showing that starting school earlier does not bring better results.

    “But we have quite a strong day-care system that starts at an early age,” she added. “And we have preschool starting at the age of 6. Right now, 98 percent of kids take part in preschool, and soon it will become compulsory for all kids … because we see that we get better results in elementary school when children go to preschool.”

    In fact, Finland guarantees equal and universal day care for children, subsidized according to how much income a family makes. Also, day-care teachers must have a bachelor’s degree while teachers in elementary and secondary and upper-secondary school have master’s degrees.

    “We have to wake [students] up in a different way,” Kiuru said, referring to using technology more effectively. “We don’t want schools to be like airlines: ‘Please turn off all your digital devices.’ Then after seven hours, you can get them back again.”

    Angry Birds, in its many variations, has been downloaded more than 2 billion times.


    Image via YouTube

  • Peaches Geldof Autopsy Report Comes Back

    Peaches Geldof Autopsy Report Comes Back

    Peaches Geldof, the daughter of activist and musician Bob Geldof, was just 25 when she passed away under mysterious circumstances in early April. Authorities could find no evidence of drugs at the scene of her death, and when a postmortem exam failed to identify conclusively what killed her, an inquest was opened. According to The Times, the young mother and television personality died of a heroin overdose.

    Tragically, the same drug reportedly killed her mother, Paula Yates, who died in 2000. Yates was grief-stricken over the hanging death of her then-husband, INXS singer Michael Hutchence, and refused to believe it was a suicide. Hours before Geldof was found dead, she posted a photo of herself with her mother on Twitter.

    While local authorities have not announced that heroin was the official cause of death, The Times reported that they had it on good authority.

    “The results will be announced by Detective Chief Inspector Paul Fotheringham during a brief hearing in Gravesend, Kent, this afternoon,” read a press release.

    Bob Geldof released a statement after word of his daughter’s death began to spread online, saying the entire family was devastated. Early reports say that Peaches had admitted to drug use in the past but gave it up after she became a mother, and her last posts to Instagram were videos of her young son getting ready for bed. He was reportedly at her side when she passed away.

    “Peaches has died. We are beyond pain,” Bob Geldof said. “She was the wildest, funniest, cleverest, wittiest and the most bonkers of all of us. Writing ‘was’ destroys me afresh. What a beautiful child. How is this possible that we will not see her again? How is that bearable? We loved her and will cherish her forever. How sad that sentence is.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons