I have some kind of innate deep fear/repulsion against birds and especially flocks. Watching this massive group of little winged velociraptors taking off some kind of poplar tree—there are so many that the tree is deformed by their weight—is my idea of hell.
Director, comedian, and EGOT-winning badass Mike Nichols died yesterday . Nichols got his start in comedy, first as an improviser and then as part of a duo with the equally legendary Elaine May.
Remember the Rockstar Consortium? The group was formed by a handful of tech giants (including Apple, Microsoft, Ericsson and Sony) to buy a treasure trove of patents and promptly sue both Google and some Android partners, which promised one of the…
The iPhone 6 Plus has been facing supply constraints for quite a while now, with customers previously being quoted an estimated shipping time of anywhere between 2-3 weeks. Well the good news is that it looks like Apple finally has a handle on things because shipping times appear to have improved.
According to reports, it seems that the iPhone 6 Plus is now being listed on Apple’s website as having an estimated shipping time of 7-10 days. However we should note that this only applies to the 16GB model. For those who want the 64GB model, it looks like you guys will still have to wait 2-3 weeks, and for those who had their eye on the 128GB model, you could be looking at almost a month.
For those who are hoping to get their hands on the phone in time for Christmas, perhaps the 16GB model will be a better option as it has a higher chance of arriving in time, versus the other two storage options which for all we know, could suddenly be plagued with unexpected delays – better safe than sorry, right?
It’s hard to tell when the iPhone 6 Plus’ supply levels will begin to normalize, but hopefully would-be iPhone 6 Plus customers won’t have to wait too long! In the meantime will you be picking up the 16GB model or are you still holding out on the other sizes?
16GB iPhone 6 Plus Sees Improved Estimated Shipping Times , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Rockstar is a tech consortium that is comprised of companies such as Apple, BlackBerry, Ericsson, Microsoft, and Sony. The consortium was originally formed to purchase Nortel’s patents when they declared their bankruptcy, but in 2013, the consortium also decided to use the patents they bought to go after the likes of Google for alleged patent infringement.
Google, safe to say, wasn’t too happy about it and while we would have expected some long and drawn out legal battle, it looks like it could be already at an end. According to a recent filing submitted to the US District Court of the Eastern District of Texas, it seems that Google and the Rockstar Consortium have agreed to settle their dispute whose details have unsurprisingly not be made known to the public.
While Google is not the only company that the Rockstar Consortium are going after, it has been suggested that could be the key to resolving this as it involve patents pertaining to Android, and that the other companies Rockstar has gone after are Android OEMs (oddly enough Sony seems to be exempt to this).
What this means is that if Rockstar and Google can clear this up, it should effectively clear up any legal cases they’re having with the likes of HTC, LG, and ASUS, the other companies Rockstar had gone after. Either way patent battles can get pretty ugly and we’re glad that this could be coming to an end.
Google And Rockstar Consortium To End Legal Dispute , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Do you fancy yourself as being a good photographer? Would you like to wear your photos? Well if you think you take great photos, or if you know where to get your hands on great photos, you might be interested to learn that Adidas has brought their miZX Flux service over to the US. For those who are unfamiliar, this was a service announced earlier this year.
It basically allows Adidas’ customers to pick a photo from their phone via an accompanying iOS or Android app, and then imprint it onto a shoe (they can move the photo around to position it the way they want). After they’ve done that, they can get Adidas to custom print the shoe for them where the prices start at $110.
Alternatively users can also share the shoe design that they have come up with on social networks or save it into a “shoebox” in the app for later use. Adidas has also provided users with printing guidelines, such as how the images should not be too text-heavy to help optimize the look of the final product.
They will also be checking each order to ensure that there are no copyright violations, so if you think you can rip some image from the internet and claim it as your own and start wearing it on your sneakers, think again! To download the app and start customizing, head on over to the iTunes App Store or Google Play.
Adidas Brings Shoe Printing Services Stateside , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
The mood in Mexico is so depressing that even Elena Poniatowska, the novelist-journalist who chronicled the 1968 massacre of students in Tlatelolco, feels a chill when she talks about the murder of 43 students in Ayotzinapa, who were found burned to death in a municipal trash dump.
At 82, Poniatowska keeps on exposing social injustice in Mexico in memorable books like Here’s to You, Jesusa, Nothing No One: The Voices of the Earthquake and thousands of journalistic articles in newspapers and magazines all over the world. This year, she won the prestigious Premio Cervantes, the equivalent of the Nobel for Spanish language writers. I spoke to her about the situation in Mexico.
In a country where thousands of people go missing and are killed every year, why has the disappearance and presumed death of 43 students from a rural teachers college provoked such indignation?
“To hear that 43 young people were assassinated and then burned in a municipal garbage dump, as if the kids were trash or crap, is offensive. As a Mexican, I am ashamed, and the country should also be ashamed by this tragedy. How can we face the world after this?”
In the confession of three criminals, taped by the office of Mexico’s attorney general, they chillingly say in [a] casual tone how they killed the students and burned their bodies in a fire made with tires and tree branches lit with diesel fuel. The fire, said the confessed killer, lasted for several hours. What does this say about Mexican society?
“It reminds me of what my father, an officer in the Polish army who visited Auschwitz immediately after the end of the war, told me about the horrors he witnessed. Have we reached the stage where we eliminate human beings by fire? What happened there is horrifying and the sense of loss, the helplessness and the sadness felt by our youngsters now, affects us all.”
Do you find similarities between this killings and the massacre of Tlatelolco?
“I think this is much worse. This is a crime perpetrated by the state. We don’t know for sure how many people were killed in ’68, but most likely they were less. Back then, we knew about it almost immediately after it happened. This time it took longer to be in the news, and it took the federal government 10 days to start investigating the case.”
It is clear that the order to ambush the students came from the Mayor of Iguala José Luis Abarca, who is now in a federal prison along with his wife who has been linked to the drug cartel that operates in the area. But the case goes far deeper than Iguala — it has become a national issue. Do you think President Enrique Peña Nieto should be held responsible for it?
“I think so because the buck stops with the president. The people are fed up with this inept president whose wife bought a house worth $7 million dollars and feels proud of it. We are tired of a corrupt political system where the two parties that have held the presidency are both corrupt. We have not had a good president since Lázaro Cárdenas in the ’30s.”
That may be true, but the Mayor of Iguala, who ordered the abductions, and the governor of the state where the abductions took place, are both members of the left wing PRD party, a circumstance that places the burden of the blame on that party. Many say the Ayotzinapa case will be devastating for the PRD. Do you agree?
“Yes, I do, but remember, most of the politicians in the PRD came from the PRI. Yet, when all is said and done, they all come out blemished.”
What lies ahead for the country? Everybody condemns the current state of affairs but nobody makes proposals to improve things. What should be the first priority of the government to start rebuilding the morale of the people?
“I believe the first thing should be to improve the dire situation of the rural teachers schools not only in Ayotzinapa but everywhere in the nation — to better our educational system because to achieve real democracy, we must educate all Mexicans.”
* * *
Improving the Mexican educational system is a must — and so is reducing the enormous economic disparities that exist in the country — but I strongly believe that the inconsistent enforcement of the rule of law is next on the list. The killings, disappearances, extortions, kidnappings, assaults and robberies on the highways, political corruption, collusion with drug traffickers, and the unruly behavior of student and teachers during their protest marches happen because impunity is the rule in a country where 96 percent of the crimes recorded go unpunished!
It will take time to reform the laws and the institutions that are charged with enforcing the rule of law, but there is no other way out of the current nightmare.
What Mexico needs is a thorough judicial reform, not a revolt or a revolution, and it is up to the people who are now protesting the disappearances of the students to push for the reform. It was the pressure of the people in 1968 that brought about the big political change from an authoritarian regime that lasted 70 years to the current democratic system with separation of powers, alternate political power, a competent and independent Supreme Court, freedom of expression and freedom of the press — democratic values Mexico did not have when I was born.
Yes, it’s tempting. When feeling betrayed, upset, angry and distraught, some divorcing (and divorced) parents can’t resist the temptation to use the child who lives with them as their shoulder to cry on and their confidante. These parents burden their children with tales of their ex’s excesses, sins and “issues.” They want their kids to be on their side and to be as angry with their other parent as they are.
Children shouldn’t ever be asked to side with one parent over another. Even when parents haven’t been the best, children tend to love them and want to stay connected. Their conclusions about their other parent need to be their own, not the route to their wronged parent’s love. (If the other parent is truly abusive and dangerous, the kids’ feelings absolutely should be validated but their supportive parent’s focus should be on protecting them, not on creating allies.)
Parents who are divorcing will keep their arguments between the adults. Most important, they know that children shouldn’t be asked to shoulder problems that their parents can’t seem to handle on their own. They do not ask their children to understand marital infidelity, sexual dysfunction, betrayals or disappointed love. That is the role of good friends, supportive adults in the extended family, therapists and clergy. Only other adults can provide adult support and advice. Kids need to be shielded from behaviors and emotions they are too young to understand, not used as live-in shrinks or best friends. They should never be asked to be the caretakers of the people who are supposed to be taking care of them.
The Breaking Bad spinoff “Better Call Saul” featuring lawyer Saul Goodman was announced way back in December 2013, and since then we’ve seen a couple trailers and brief TV spots surface, one of which revealed that the show would debut sometime in February. That hasn’t changed, and now AMC has revealed exactly when we can expect to see it: February … Continue reading
A potash mine in the Perm region, Russia, has collapsed, leaving behind a gigantic sinkhole in the middle of an abandoned town. It’s scary but that’s not the real bad news: a connected mine just few miles away sits right underneath a town full of people and houses and experts say it may collapse too.
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