27 June 2014

Bad Boys Keeping Us Entertained

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From real life bad boys moving on up to a comedic duo insulting an entire nation, this week see's the men of Hollywood and more taking center stage.


Jeremy Meeks had everyone talking after his baby blues stole the hearts of women everywhere with his police mugshot. Jeremy, arrested for illegally possessing firearms and ammo, has since been offered a modeling job as a high end model.

Hollywood Hunks


Gary Oldman had a rough week after a Playboy interview where he defended the actions of Mel Gibson and Alec Baldwin and slams political correctness. Gary later took to the Jimmy Kimmel show to apologize saying he was "profoundly sorry" for his statements.

Seth Rogan and James Franco's new movie "The Interview", all about assassinating North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, has not surprisingly annoyed North Korea who have vowed to retaliate.

William Shatner decided to pick a fight on Twitter over Twitter verification of all things. Yes, it's as weird as it sounds.

Shia LaBeouf was arrested during a Broadway show of Cabaret where he was charged with two counts of disorderly conduct and one count of criminal trespassing.

Music Men


50 Cent had a go at Jay Z on a US talk show calling him overrated. And if that wasn't bad enough Beyonce has banned Jay Z from partying while touring together.

A first draft of Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" was sold on auction for $2million.

Sometimes bad boys do good things, in this case Bret Michaels was seen helping out in the Nebraska town hit by twin tornado's last week.

Chris Brown has rejected a plea deal regarding his Washington D.C. assault case after lawyers couldn't agree on what happened the night of the fight.


20 June 2014

Business, Bitcoin and Bureaucracy

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It's been an interesting week for business with one or two highlight's in a sea of gloom, from the US to Iraq, Argentina and China, it's been a global affair.


The week started on a positive note when Starbucks announced it would pay tuition for thousands of it's employee's to take courses through Arizona State University to complete their Bachelor's degree. It seemed like business as usual with Amazon announcing the it's latest product, the Fire Phone, to take on the smartphone market.

But it didn't last long heading downwards from there with the GM CEO set to face more Capital Hill questions after the recent spate of recalls and got worse when hackers stole customer data from Domino's pizza in Europe and demanded a ransom.

Things seemed to only get worse when the US Marshal's leaked the list of potential bidders for Bitcoins confiscated from Silk Road. Bitcoin continued the negative ride when the Bitcoin doomsday scenario arrived as it was revealed that 51% of Bitcoin's processing power was controlled by a single group. There was some light for Mt. Gox who got approval for US bankruptcy protection.

While the Obama Administration made strides determined to extend family leave for same-sex couples the Federal Reserve announced it would curtail it's bond buying activity but continue with mortgage bonds and potentially Treasury securities too. But it wouldn't last long with a Veterans Affairs official being arrested for accepting $40k in illegal gifts.

Internationally it got downright ugly with the Argentine government trying to side step a US Supreme Court order by offering a debt swap to it's creditors. China then rejected a shipping alliance despite support from the US and EU which would have saved the industry money. And if all that wasn't bad enough the escalating violence in Iraq shook the markets with oil prices surging.

13 June 2014

Need to Know - FIFA World Cup 2014

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It's time for what some might call the greatest sporting event ever, even bigger than the Olympics but marred by, if not the same problems that plagued Russia's Sochi Winter Olympic games, a very similar set of problems.

Infrastructure


Since the announcement Brazil seems to have taken it's time preparing with delays to construction being reported in the build up to the games. Concerns over safety have also been top priority not only due to questionable construction but to the large number of deaths that have accompanied the construction of the various stadiums across Brazil.

Protests


Not only was the infrastructure progress questioned by the international media but locals took to the streets with protests often turning bloody over the high costs of hosting the World Cup. Calls for peace and calm often went unnoticed as riots and clashes with police persisted in the build up. Just days before the opening ceremony and first match between Brazil and Croatia there were skirmishes between protestors and police. But the protests didn't stop with those on the streets but continued with several key industries being brought to their knee's by striking workers.

Scandal


While the FIFA World Cup has officially been launched questions of it's readiness still abound. However, not only is the current event in question but also the future 2022 games to be held in Qatar which has been plagued with rumours of corruption and fraud. Even though Sepp Blatter, President of FIFA, has been surrounded by controversy over past, current and future hosting he has thrown his hat into the ring to continue his presidancey in what is a very dark history for FIFA and the World Cup.

6 June 2014

Technology Moving Forward

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Technology marched along with new discoveries and announcements while others, the usual suspects, abused technology for their benefit.

Moving Forward


Apple held it's annual WWDC conference where it announced several new developments most notably the new iOS8 and OSX Yosemite and a new programming language called Swift.

NASA was busy when it announced it had discovered a new rocky mega-planet called Kepler-10c capable of hosting life. Amazing new X-ray images of space were released revealing whirlpool galaxy's dotted with black holes. Not keen to leave space to the pro's Google announced it is planning on building a satellite fleet to bring internet to everyone, I guess the balloons weren't up to the challenge.

On the medical front scientist have created the very first 3D printed blood vessels but were shocked to discover 21 new cases of Ebola reported in Guinea.

Some people never learn


The NSA was in hot water again after it was reported that they have been collecting millions of photo's for facial recognition software. The NSA was also blasted by the EFF who claimed that the NSA had intentionally destroyed evidence in a case between the two. If you thought you were in the clear after the Heartbleed bug wreaked havoc a few months back, well sorry, 6 new bugs have been discovered in OpenSSL.

Speaking of the internet, it was reported that the FCC site had crashed after trolls swarmed the site making comments regarding net neutrality thanks to a piece by John Oliver on his new show 'Last Week Tonight'. Turkey came to it's sense when it allowed access to YouTube after a 2 month ban. And lastly Pirate Bay co-founder, Peter Sunde, was arrested in Sweden after 2 years on the run for copyright infringement.

Well that was unexpected


Users of car lift services have been warned after an Uber driver was arrested for kidnapping a women. Speaking of breaking the law, Google allowed people to sign up for the new EU mandated Right to be Forgotten and received over 12,000 requests on the first day alone, allowing any one with a questionable past to be "forgotten".

History was made when US Ambassador, Suzi LeVine, took an oath of office on an electronic device. And finally, in what can only be described as idiotic, the Greek letter Pi was trademarked proving once and for all that the US patent offices need a serious review.