Every few thousand years, an unlucky star wanders too close to the black hole at the center of the Milky Way. The black hole’s powerful gravity rips the star apart, sending a long streamer of gas whipping outward. That would seem to be the end of the story, but it’s not. New research shows that not only can the gas gather itself into planet-size objects, but those […]
Facebook on Wednesday announced a new program of training, products and tools aimed at further solidifying the social network’s relationship with publishers, which view the Silicon Valley giant as both a firehose of referral traffic and an at-times fearsome adversary. The program’s debut comes days after Facebook hired former TV journalist Campbell Brown to be its head of news partnerships. The initiative (which includes a partnership with […]
To an outsider, it looked preposterous. The archaeologists were cataloging and storing absolutely everything, treating this physical material as though it were digital information — JPEGs of itself. And yet they couldn’t afford not to: Everything a Neanderthal came into contact with was a valuable clue. (In 28 years of excavations here, archaeologists have yet to find a fossil of an actual Neanderthal.) “This is like putting […]
A project of Bristol University is making news with a team of its Artificial Intelligence researchers sourcing colossal information from more than 100 British regional newspapers spanning 150 years in defining and pinpointing important turning points in the country’s history and culture. The results are amazing with many interesting revelations. What makes the project remarkable is the methodology. Already, it is known to all that history is well-etched […]
In order to survive, the Syrian regime has had to rely to an extraordinary degree on Russian and Iranian forces, and their proxies, like Hezbollah. It really wasn’t the Syrian Arab Army that retook Aleppo. Indeed, the Syrian military is stretched so thin by geography and attrition that last month it lost most of the city of Palmyra (again) to the Islamic State while pro-government forces were […]
By Andrew Osborn | MOSCOW MOSCOW The Kremlin says U.S. intelligence agency allegations it ran an influence campaign to help President-elect Donald Trump win the White House are false. But if U.S. spies are right, Moscow may wish it hadn’t bothered to meddle in the first place. The belief, widely held in the West, that the Kremlin helped discredit Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by orchestrating embarrassing media […]
BEIJING China is set to consolidate five state media companies to create a “modern financial media group” to increase the state’s voice in economic and financial news coverage, the state-run Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday. Since taking power in 2012, President Xi Jinping, who has called for Beijing to take a bigger role in a global governance system, has stepped up media control and scrutiny to […]
In a story that is getting more surreal by the minute, a post on 4Chan now claims that the infamous “golden showers” scene in the unverified 35-page dossier, allegedly compiled by a British intelligence officer, was a hoax and fabricated by a member of the chatboard as “fanfiction”, then sent to Rick Wilson, who proceeded to send it to the CIA, which then put it in their […]
By Se Young Lee and Ju-min Park | SEOUL SEOUL A South Korean special prosecutor’s office will question Samsung Group [SAGR.UL] leader Jay Y. Lee as a suspect in a widening influence-peddling scandal that may force President Park Geun-hye from office. Prosecutors have been looking into whether Samsung payments of about 30 billion won ($25 million) for a business and foundations backed by Park’s friend, Choi Soon-sil, […]
Posada made his first professional stop in Oneonta, N.Y., in the shadow of Cooperstown, in 1991. He had been drafted as a middle infielder the previous summer, in the 24th round, from Calhoun Community College in Alabama. The Oneonta manager, Jack Gillis, thought he profiled better as a catcher. Continue reading the main story “The first practice day, we were working in the bullpen on catching,” said […]
Alibaba wants to transform the retail sector with a US$2.6 billion buyout that it says will break down the barriers between offline and online. The Chinese e-commerce giant said its investment unit was working with Intime Retail’s founder, Shen Guo Jun, to take the department store chain private with a projected HK$19.8 billion (US$2.6 billion). The funds would be raised through internal cash and external debt financing. […]
Bjarni Benediktsson, leader of the conservative Independence Party, is Iceland’s new prime minister. (Halldor Kolbeins/Agence France-Presse) The Panama Papers — a huge leak of documents detailing the alleged secret offshore holdings of a global elite — were released in April 2016. The leak made headlines all over the world, but its impact was probably most keenly felt in Iceland. Just two days after the leak appeared, Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson […]
11 January 2017 Dubai, UAE – Global Jet Centre launched their new and improved website making charter jets choosing easier than ever for a clientele of fast-paced nature. Global Jet Centre’s new website is a practical and customer empowering platform, giving clients independence through the ease of fully learning about, seeing and comparing charter jet services at their own convenience, without having to go through customer service […]
Jan 11, 2017 10:15 am IST A senior Indian government minister predicted upcoming state elections would be a “complete sweep” for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party, which is hoping that a strong mandate will help it push through more policy changes in the second half of Mr. Modi’s term. Piyush Goyal, the power minister and a influential leader in the Bharatiya Janata Party, said he was comfortable using the […]
TOKYO Japan’s government is planning legal steps that would allow Emperor Akihito to abdicate and his son to ascend the throne in two years, media reported on Wednesday, potentially setting the stage for the first abdication in two centuries. Japanese Emperor Akihito, 83, hinted in August that he wanted to abdicate, saying he worried that age might make it difficult for him to carry out his duties […]
Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog, The true patriotism, the only rational patriotism is loyalty to the nation all the time, loyalty to the government when it deserves it. – Mark Twain, The Czar’s Soliloquy” At this point, pretty much everyone in America has seen the results of Hillary Clinton media pet, John Harwood’s recent Twitter poll. Who do you believe America? — John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) January 6, […]
Eneco and NS said on a joint website that some 600,000 passengers daily are “the first in the world” to travel thanks to wind energy All Dutch trains are now 100 percent powered by electricity generated by wind energy, the national railway company NS said Tuesday, calling it a world first. “Since the first of January, 100 percent of our trains are running on wind energy,” NS […]
The Middle East has given McLaren Automotive, the British manufacturer of luxury sports and supercars, good reason to get revved up with sales soaring last year. Its Middle East, Africa and central and South America region grew by an impressive 69 per cent last year, as the company posted another record year of sales growth. From offices in Dubai, McLaren has expanded into Abu Dhabi. “We continue […]
By Jeff Mason | CHICAGO CHICAGO President Barack Obama will give a farewell speech to the nation on Tuesday night, looking back at his legacy as he encourages supporters demoralized by the election of Republican Donald Trump to feel optimism about the future of the country. The Democratic president is feeling some nostalgia as he prepares to leave the White House on Jan. 20 after eight years […]
In a dramatic example of blowback against the establishment in the post-Trumpian world, Hungary announced it plans to crack down on non-governmental organizations linked to billionaire George Soros now that Donald Trump will occupy the White House, according to the deputy head of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s party, cited by Bloomberg. The European Union member, and native country of Soros, will use “all the tools at its […]
Xuewei Qi and a team of UCR researchers are using vehicle connectivity and evolutionary algorithms to improve the efficiency of Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles. Credit: UC Riverside Engineers at the University of California, Riverside have taken inspiration from biological evolution and the energy savings garnered by birds flying in formation to improve the efficiency of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) by more than 30 percent. Titled “Development […]
Tuesday, January 10th 2017 DUBAI, UAE: Major infrastructure projects in the Middle East and across Sub-Saharan Africa are increasingly becoming a key investment target for Islamic investors, according to Project & Infrastructure Partner at Jones Day, Nadim Khan. Billions of US dollars’ worth of project capital from the growing Islamic economy is a potential source of investment for the type of mega infrastructure that underpins economic and […]
Sony is sprucing up its console offerings, adding a new color option for its PlayStation 4 Slim: Glacier White. Finding a PS4 console in another color option besides the traditional black avatar is not easy to come by, as other options are as rare as the legendary Pokémon. Nevertheless, PS4 fans are now in luck as the company just announced a Glacier White PS4 Slim is set […]
Since the start of the 21st century the South American nation of Suriname, population 540,000, has been riding a commodity boom that yielded major benefits for a country rich in bauxite, gold, oil and bananas. From 2000 to 2014, annual per capita income more than quintupled to almost $10,000. Child mortality fell by a third. A child born there today can expect to live to 70, up […]
