Jul 17
Ever wondered how you might navigate your way across the surface of Mars, if you ever find yourself there ? Well, perhaps you could use this: the most detailed map of the Red Planet’s geology ever made.
Jul 17
Google is running a series of base camps in in Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco where you can try out Glass, gratis.
Jul 17
Microsoft is clearly taking a cautious stance on the European Union’s “right to be forgotten;” several weeks after Google started accepting requests to scrub yourself out of search results, you can finally ask for the same treatment on Bing. The…
Jul 17
Amazon believes its European distribution network is pretty damn solid, so to prove that, it’s added a new delivery tier for Prime members within Europe. From today, subscribers can enjoy free two-day deliveries on over a million products stored in…
Jul 17
Gaza Ceasefire Begins Hours After Palestinian Fighters Tunnel Under Border, Emerge Near Israeli Community
Posted in: Today's ChiliGAZA/JERUSALEM, July 17 (Reuters) – A five-hour humanitarian truce agreed by Israel and Hamas came into force on Thursday, hours after the Israeli military said it fought Palestinian gunmen who infiltrated from Gaza.
About a dozen Palestinian fighters tunneled under the border, emerging near an Israeli community, and at least one was killed after Israeli aircraft bombed the group, the military said.
A break for five hours in 10 days of fighting was requested by the United Nations to allow Gaza residents to gather supplies and repair infrastructure damaged in warfare that has killed at least 224 Palestinians, most of them, Gaza health officials said, civilians.
In Israel, a civilian has been killed by one of more than 1,300 Palestinian rockets fired and more than half a dozen people have been wounded in frequent strikes that have made a race to shelters a routine for hundreds of thousands of people.
After the early morning clash over the tunnel, air raid sirens sounded across Israel, including in the Tel Aviv area, the country’s heartland, warning of a heavy barrage of incoming rockets. The military said at least one rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system and another fell in a town near Tel Aviv. There were no reports of casualties.
But there were no immediate reports of violations of the humanitarian truce after it went into effect at 10 a.m. (0700 GMT).
Israel’s military said it would respond “firmly and decisively” if militants in Gaza launched attacks during the five-hour break.
CEASEFIRE EFFORTS
President Barack Obama said on Wednesday the United States supported Egyptian efforts to bring about a ceasefire. U.S. officials would use their diplomatic resources over the next 24 hours to pursue closing a deal, he said.
Egypt had proposed a permanent ceasefire plan on Tuesday, which Israel accepted and Hamas, saying its terms had been ignored, rejected.
Israeli media reports said Egypt was continuing its truce efforts and that senior Israeli officials would hold talks in Cairo on Thursday on a ceasefire. A spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined to comment.
On Wednesday, an Israeli gunboat off Gaza’s Mediterranean coast shelled a beach, killing four boys – two aged 10 and the others 9 and 11 – from one family and critically wounding another youngster, witnesses and Ashraf al-Qidra of the Gaza Health Ministry said.
The Israeli military said the reported civilian casualties were unintended and “tragic” and it was investigating what happened. “Based on preliminary results, the target of this strike was Hamas terrorist operatives,” it said in a statement.
One Israeli has been killed by shelling from Gaza since the Israeli offensive began on July 8, in conflict largely triggered by the killing of three Israeli teens in the occupied West Bank and the death of a Palestinian youth in a suspected revenge murder.
Most of the Palestinian projectiles have crashed on open ground or been intercepted by Iron Dome.
Gaza’s Al-Mezan Center for Human rights said 259 houses have been demolished by Israeli air strikes and 1,034 damaged, along with 34 mosques and four hospitals.
(Additional reporting by Dan Williams in Jerusalem, Writing by Ari Rabinovitch, Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Ralph Boulton)
Jul 17
Michael Sam Gives Emotional Speech At ESPYs After Receiving 2014 Arthur Ashe Courage Award
Posted in: Today's ChiliMichael Sam gave a powerful and heartfelt speech on Wednesday night after receiving the 2014 Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYs in Los Angeles.
The first-team All-American defensive lineman from the University of Missouri announced that he was gay in February, just three months before hearing his name called by the St. Louis Rams in the seventh round of the NFL draft. When the 2014 season opens in September, the 24-year-old Texan will become the first openly gay player in the league.
Following ESPN’s broadcast of a video reel about Sam’s life, he kissed his boyfriend, Vito Cammisano, and walked onto the stage at the Nokia Theater to accept the award from former wrestler and actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
“This year I had a lot of experience being part of something bigger than myself,” Sam said. “At times, I’ve felt like I’ve been living in a massive storm, without knowing when the storm will end. But I’m here tonight to tell you that the lessons I learned about love, respect, being true to yourself will never leave me.”
At times overwhelmed with emotion, Sam discussed his love of football and how Ashe had inspired him. He also shared a moving story about helping a young woman who considered committing suicide because she was gay.
“When we spoke, she told me she would never consider hurting herself again, and that somehow my example helped her,” Sam said. “It’s amazing to think that, by just doing what we can, we can all touch, change and even save lives.”
The Arthur Ashe Courage Award is named in honor of the first black player on the U.S. Davis Cup team and the only black man ever to win the singles title at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the Australian Open. A civil rights activist, Ashe was arrested several times for protesting the treatment of Haitian refugees and apartheid in South Africa.
After publicly announcing that he had HIV in 1992, Ashe founded the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS as well as the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health. The tennis champ died a year later from AIDS-related pneumonia.
Clearly humbled by such an honor, Sam ended his speech with thanks to friends, family, teammates and mentors, and offered advice to others who were struggling.
“To anyone out there — especially young people — feeling like they don’t fit in and will never be accepted, please know this: Great things, I’m sorry… Great things can happen when you have the courage to be yourself,” Sam said.
Watch Sam’s speech in the video above. And see his reaction to being drafted below:
Jul 17
The Trouble With Floyd Mayweather
Posted in: Today's ChiliLast week, Floyd Mayweather announced that he will fight a rematch with Marcos Maidana on Sept. 13. Their first fight, two months ago, was Mayweather’s closest challenge in years, with many in the boxing media believing that Maidana had earned the decision. And while that bout may have failed to meet expectations at the box office, the competitiveness and controversy are sure to make the sequel the biggest fight of the year.
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