Ann Curry confirmed early on Thursday morning that she is leaving the “Today” show after little more than a year as co-host.
Speaking to USA Today, Curry said that she would announce to viewers on Thursday’s program that her tenure has come to an end.
She said it was “going to be a bit of a tough day” when she broke the news to the audience.
If you haven’t heard of Waze, and you drive any sort of vehicle at all, then you should get on board. It’s a unique ‘social GPS’ platform that allows drivers to share data about things like traffic congestion, speed traps, accidents, gas prices, and all sorts of other handy features that you simply don’t get with your vintage Garmin or even your standard smartphone maps app.
And speaking of apps, that’s exactly what Waze is right now. It’s available for free on both Android and the iPhone, and it has attracted more than 19 million users. But for it to be as effective as possible, the company thinks the next step is to offer the service directly into in-car systems, and it has apparently secured deals with undisclosed automakers.
“This is clearly the wave of the future. Connected cars allow us to share information seamlessly between the application and the senors of the car. Imagine being offered a route to the cheapest fuel based on your current fuel levels, or given cautions when windshield wipers are in use or even taking pictures of incidents right from your vehicle’s cameras,” said Waze VP Di-Ann Eisnor in a statement. The first Waze-connected cars will be available later this year.
[via PC Mag]
Waze social GPS navigation to be embedded in cars is written by Mark Raby & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Japan got itself in the good graces of many a Futurama fan after creating Bender’s ancestor. Then again, another Japanese robotic creation — one that specializes in rock, paper, scissors — may actually have more in common with the morally questionable, beer-guzzling bot. That’s because this sneaky little future overlord wins 100 percent of its matches by using an oh-so human trait known as cheating. See, the researchers at the University of Tokyo’s 4chan, er, Ishikawa Oku Laboratory programmed the “Janken” robot to recognize its human opponent’s hand shape and counter it within a millisecond. Adding to the troll factor is the fact that it was unwittingly named the “Human-Machine Cooperation System” because, well, it needs the cooperation of some poor human sap to work its magic. The achievement joins other man-versus-machine milestones, including losses by humans in chess and shogi. Of course, the question now is, what happens if you pit two “Janken” machines against each other?
Japanese robot trolls humans at rock-paper-scissors, sadly wasn’t named the UMADBRO 9000 (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jun 2012 22:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Elizabeth Warren appears to have found her populist voice again. After weeks of being buffeted by a controversy over whether she improperly claimed Native American heritage, the Democratic Senate hopeful in Massachusetts introduced President Obama on Monday with a blistering barrage against Mitt Romney.
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Start saving yesterday, because as soon as these Orsos luxury island yacht estates become available in 2013, you’re not going to want to wait to sail off on your own private paradise. More »
Everything about Google Maps is great, that’s until a network error occurs due to an intermittent Internet connection. So, if you’ve been dreaming of an offline functionality in Google Maps, then today’s your lucky day. Google is now announcing the availability of an offline functionality on Google Maps for Android. Now Android users can select and save a region of a map from more than 150 countries for offline usage. Google Maps for Android can now save up to six large metro areas on the app.
To access the offline functionality, users will have to select “Make available offline” from the menu and verify the area that they would like to save. Under the map, users will be able to view the estimated file size of the map, letting users know how much storage space it will consume. Upon confirmation, the map will be downloaded to your Android device. Moreover, Google said that if you have GPS working on your device, the blue dot will still work without an Internet connection. In addition to the offline mode, Google is also releasing a smoother and faster Compass Mode for Street View in Google Maps for Android.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Google Maps 6.5 for Android released, Chrome for Android leaves beta, now available on Google Play,
Rudy Eugene, 31, was killed by a Miami Police officer May 26 as he savagely attacked homeless resident Ronald Poppo on a busy MacArthur Causeway off-ramp, chewing off half of Poppo’s face in broad daylight while traffic whizzed past.
The gruesome incident, caught on tape by security cameras at the nearby Miami Herald building, has made international headlines and stunned those who knew Eugene — those who now struggle to understand how and why he committed such a violent crime.
Poppo, 65, faces a grueling recovery at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
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WASHINGTON — The National Federation of Independent Business, one of the lead plaintiffs in a Supreme Court lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act, refuses to disclose the names of its mega-donors, prompting critics to question the organization’s claim to represent small businesses.
The NFIB touts itself as “the voice for small business.” But in 2010 and 2011, it received 10 donations totaling more than $10 million from anonymous donors, according to a recent analysis of their tax records by Public Campaign and Alliance for a Just Society.
NFIB has bankrolled the high-profile lawsuit, National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, which the Supreme Court is set to decide with two other health reform cases on Thursday. In turn, it appears, the organization received large donations from undisclosed sources. And while the word “independent” is in the organization’s name, NFIB’s multimillion-dollar independent expenditures and campaign donations have benefited almost exclusively Republicans.
MIAMI — Lab tests detected only marijuana in the system of a Florida man shot while chewing on another man’s face, the medical examiner said Wednesday, ruling out other street drugs including the components typically found in the stimulants known as “bath salts.”
There has been much speculation about what drugs, if any, would lead to the bizarre behavior that authorities said Rudy Eugene exhibited before and during the gruesome attack that left the other man horribly disfigured. A Miami police union official had suggested that Eugene, who was shot and killed by an officer, was probably under the influence of bath salts.
* Annan’s proposal to be discussed in Geneva on Saturday
* Unclear if Russia would accept exclusion of Assad (Adds background, diplomat)
By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS, June 27 (Reuters) – Russia and other big powers have told mediator Kofi Annan that they support his idea of a Syrian national unity cabinet that could include government and opposition members but would exclude those whose participation would undermine it, envoys said on Wednesday.
Annan’s proposal for a political transition aimed at ending the 16-month conflict in Syria is one of the main topics that Russia, the other four permanent Security Council members and key players in the Middle East will discuss at a meeting in Geneva on Saturday, diplomats told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
One diplomat summarized Annan’s proposal, saying the Syria conflict can only end when all sides see a peaceful way to a shared future.” Annan made clear it was “vital that (any) settlement (be) irreversible, (with) clear transition steps in fixed timeline,” he said.
“These include establishing a transitional national unity government to create a neutral backdrop for transition,” the diplomat said in his summary of Annan’s plan.
“It could comprise present government members, opposition and others, but would need to exclude those whose continued participation or presence would jeopardize the transition’s credibility, or harm prospects for reconciliation and stability.”
The diplomat added that the idea of excluding certain people was clearly referring to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, though Annan’s proposal does not explicitly say Assad could not serve in a national unity government. That gives Russia the option of insisting that Assad be allowed to stay in power.
“The Russians signaled to Annan that they accept his transition plan,” he said. Several Western diplomats confirmed his remarks, adding that all five permanent veto-wielding U.N. Security Council members backed it.
Another diplomat said Russia’s acceptance of Annan’s proposal, which he circulated to the five permanent Security Council members this week, did not mean it has abandoned Assad.
“I’m very skeptical,” he said. “I don’t see the Russians giving up on Assad.”
The Russian mission at the United Nations was not available for comment.
SHIFT IN RUSSIA’S STANCE?
Annan made acceptance of his guidelines for a political transition for Syria a condition for organizing Saturday’s meeting, which will include the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China, Turkey, Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar. It will not include Iran or Saudi Arabia.
Russia has repeatedly said its supports Annan’s idea of creating a “contact group” of powerful nations and regional players with influence on the Syrian government or the opposition to push for an end to the violence in Syria.
Several diplomats said Russia’s acceptance of Annan’s proposal appeared to signal a shift in its stance on Syria. But it was not immediately clear if Moscow’s support for the idea of a national unity government in principle meant that it was now abandoning Assad, a staunch ally and key Russian arms purchaser.
The United States, Britain and France have said that Assad is responsible for the violence, which the United Nations estimates has killed at least 10,000 people, is no longer fit to govern. Russia and China, however, reject what they describe as Western calls for “regime change.”
Russia has repeatedly said it is not insisting that Assad must remain in power at all costs, but that any decision on whether or not he should step down should come from the Syrian people, not from outside pressure or military intervention, as happened last year in Libya.
Saturday’s meeting, which Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will attend, will have to agree on the details of the political transition and the mechanisms for implementing it, diplomats said.
Annan, a former U.N. secretary-general, also wants Saturday’s meeting to revive his moribund six-point peace plan that has failed to end the fighting between Assad’s forces and an increasingly militarized opposition. The conflict has escalated in recent weeks.
Annan said the aim of the one-day talks was to identify measures to secure full implementation of his stalled peace plan and Security Council resolutions, including an immediate halt to all violence. (Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Washington.; Editing by Sandra Maler and Christopher Wilson)
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