From Cecilia’s Google+ Page:

A cop just stopped me and gave me a ticket for wearing Google Glass while driving!
The exact line says: Driving with Monitor visible to Driver (Google Glass).
Is #GoogleGlass  ilegal while driving or is this cop wrong???
Any legal advice is appreciated!! This happened in California. Do you know any other #GlassExplorers  that got a similar ticket anywhere in the US?

The California Highway Patrol confirmed to The Los Angeles Times that the citation was issued for violating California Vehicle Code 27602:

A person shall not drive a motor vehicle if a television receiver, a video monitor, or a television or video screen, or any other similar means of visually displaying a television broadcast or video signal that produces entertainment or business applications, is operating and is located in the motor vehicle at a point forward of the back of the driver’s seat, or is operating and the monitor, screen, or display is visible to the driver while driving the motor vehicle.

A lot of comments on her Google Plus page are telling her to fight for it, what do you think?  Is it OK to use Google glass while driving?

8. Press Releases

This time-honored tool of public relations practitioners offers the public news about your company. Be sure you offer a strong angle related to something that’s new and worth sharing. Provide plenty of details about your company’s newest development, and include contact information.

Whether you ask people to contact your business by phone or email, make sure there are people available to handle inquiries the day the press release goes live on your website or gets shared by your company on social media. It’s poor form to put out a press release and then shut down the office for a long weekend.

7. Podcasts

Image via Flickr by davitydave

Anyone who thinks audio is dead doesn’t have a smartphone. Media experts hail the podcast as a personal way to reach your fans. Of course, the audio needs to be engaging enough to capture and keep the listener’s attention. Practical information, unusual stories, and helpful tips related to your industry are just a few potential kinds of content you can cover in a podcast.

6. Interactive Tools

What better way to draw people to your website than by offering them a tool to make their lives better? You may need to work with an outside firm to develop an interactive tool, but as the business owner, you get to develop the idea.

For example, if you own several car wash facilities, offer potential customers an online tool that assesses the impact of dirt on their vehicle. Let them input the kind of soil and where it’s stuck on their car. Once the data is in place, the interactive tool tells them if the dirt could compromise their vehicle’s paint or create other problems. The idea is to give them useful information that ties to your business.

5. Blogs

The best blog posts have a catchy title and theme, along with a tight focus. Write about issues that relate to your industry, and make them relevant to your fans. By doing this, you’re reinforcing demand for your product or service and educating customers on what you do.

One popular approach to creating interesting blog content involves listicles. Highly engaging and designed to be shareable, these lists present new, exciting information or old information in a new way. Looking for inspiration on how to do listicles well? Check out Buzzfeed.

4. Videos

Image via Flickr by kalleboo

Thanks to the network morning shows, most people know what viral videos are. These clips gain popularity as they’re shared across social media platforms. Create your own videos to inform, entertain, and engage your audience. Share a formal interview with one of your employees to give customers a behind-the-scenes look at what your company does. Or, produce a video highlight reel showcasing your products.

Producing high quality videos improves your company’s reputation because it enhances your credibility and increases the amount of positive information that’s available online about your firm. If you still find yourself fighting an uphill battle to build a positive impression of your company, consult a company like Reputation.com to advise you on additional strategies for overcoming obstacles through social media and other methods.

3. Ebooks

Providing valuable and engaging information in an ebook engages your fans and wins new ones. While the idea of writing a book may seem overwhelming, you only need about three chapters to get started. You gain leads when people give their email address in exchange for gaining access to the ebook.

2. E-Newsletters

The electronic newsletter lets you provide brief updates about your company in a format that’s visually appealing. Incorporate relevant graphics and photos. Reward your readers with exclusive deals or coupon codes. Distribute e-newsletters via email, but also post them online and share the link through social media channels.

1. Photo Slideshows

If a picture’s worth a thousand words, several of them assembled in a slideshow could be worth a thousand shares. Capture compelling images, give them meaningful captions, and put them together in a slideshow you share online. You can create the photos yourself or curate a slideshow from photos you ask customers to submit. Make sure your customers understand and consent to letting you use their photos on social media platforms associated with your business.

What kinds of content shared on social media platforms are most popular with your customers?

Anthony Wichman was on his usual fishing trip almost ten miles south west of the Port Allen, near the island of Kauai, when he felt a certain tug on his line .Wichman had almost dragged the 104 kilo tuna on to his boat little realizing the fight that was still left in the creature.The Ahi Tuna with its massive weight not only flipped right back into the water but went deep to escape getting caught again. Wichman whose leg was entwined in the fishing line too was pulled into the deep waters.

It was sheer luck or grit that made the fisherman free himself from the line and make his way back to his boat.Thankfully his water proof mobile phone still worked and he called up his family immediately.His daughter is supposed to have said that all she could hear was her father gasping and puking and saying three words -‘sinking, Coast Guard, buoy’.What was indeed lucky was that Wichman had been fishing near a prominent buoy which helped the Coast Guard to track his boat using the GPS. Quick to react at the call sent, the alert US Coast Guard under Lieutenant Jessica Mickleson, sent helicopters out to the sea for the rescue mission.Boats with rescuers were able to locate Wichman while his friends too reached the almost capsized boat to help tow it back.

While the GPS on Wichman’s phone may have been a primary reason for his successful rescue there’s no denying the fact that it was a lucky escape as the fisherman had sustained only minor injuries. The Coast Guard rescue team called it the’perfect rescue’ as they managed to not only tow in the boat but also brought home the catch- the ginormous tuna still on the line!

Consider the fact that there are approximately 3.5 million smokers over the age of sixty in the United States. Without this glitch older smokers would be expected to pay on average $4,500.00 more in premium costs. This Obamacare computer glitch could potentially cost the insurance industry almost 16 billion dollars in premiums for the next year.

Obamacare is the national health care plan implemented by President Obama with the goal of providing health care insurance to all Americans and to exert some control over the health insurance industry.

One aspect of Obamacare that really had an impact on the insurance industry was that insurers were forced to accept all applicants. To appease the insurance companies President Obama included a concession which allowed the companies to require smokers to pay a premium price that is fifty percent higher than nonsmokers.
Insurance companies considered this arrangement a winning proposition because of the profits that would be generated by billing older smokers more expensive premiums.
However, President Obama, in an attempt to protect the older generation and the country from being held captive by insurance companies charging excessive insurance premiums to older smokers, restricted the amount to which premiums could be raised. Obamacare has a provision which limits insurers from charging an older person who smokes anything more than triple what a younger smoker pays for insurance.

This created a conundrum because the concessions made to the insurance company and the older generation of smokers who are over sixty-five years old cannot work together. The numbers do not add up and the only way for it to be able to work is if the younger smokers and older smokers are subjected to the same penalty.

It has been estimated by many insurance experts that it will take approximately a year for the government to fix this computer glitch. The new penalties cannot be implemented onto smokers for the next year and this will result in a savings of approximately $4,500.00 in premium costs for older smokers.

The older generation of smokers can thank the federal governments computers for saving them money while the insurance companies will again complain about the inefficiency of the federal government.

The seniors will win this round of the fight but don’t be surprised if the insurance company is the eventual winner of this match.

The case was brought forward by the U.S. Justice Department alongside 33 states; they accused Apple of colluding with publishers from late 2009 to early 2010 with the aim of undercutting other providers such as Amazon. Apple pleaded innocent to the charges, arguing that the company was not aware of the fact that the five publishers – Hachette, HarperCollins, Penguin, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillian – had been in talks with one another about the possibility of pushing the price of e-books up. The publishers have already settled out of court, to the tune of $166 million.

“There is no such thing as a conspiracy by telepathy,” noted Apple’s lawyer, Orin Snyder, in reference to Apple’s alleged ignorance of the attempts at price-fixing. Apple is determined to overturn the ruling, with a spokesman iterating the company’s intention to, “continue to fight against these false accusations.” Apple executives have protested the injustice of being taken to court based on their implementation of an “agency” pricing model – which prevents e-books being sold cheaper on platforms other than iBooks – when several other companies use the same pricing scheme. The court ruled that Apple’s use of this model forced other providers into similar arrangements with publishers, pushing prices up throughout the industry.

The ruling has left Apple shares down by $1.60 this morning, with the shares currently trading at $420.75. Thus far there has been no immediate comment from either Apple, its lawyers, or the Justice Department.

However the very suave and mature Miley Cyrus refused to add fuel to the fire. She steadfastly refused to reply back at Amanda and engage in a Twitter fight. The child actress was interviewed by Kane of Hot 99.5 radio and she said that, even though she feels sad over Amanda’s antics yet she isn’t going to reply back at her barb. She also added that she was hoping that Amanda would make a grand comeback onto the social scene but after this incident she doesn’t think so.

Social media experts say that if Miley Cyrus had responded back, as Amanda had hoped then there would have been a huge fight between the both of them, in the media glare. However Miley chose to keep mum and needless to say, this must have infuriated Amanda no end.

Both Amanda and Miley had a lot in common during their initial years but lately, they have gone their separate paths. Both were child stars and Miley has now matured into a good celebrity with maturity whereas Amanda is always on the lookout for cheap gimmicks for some publicity.

Amanda’s favorite ploy to gain publicity is to tweet about some celebrity who isn’t doing the correct thing according to her. This guarantees her immediate attention in the social media and a steady stream of new followers as well also on the social networking site Twitter. She loves to live in the public eye and is hungry for publicity of any kind.

The details of the shooting were still under investigation, the police said, but it appeared that the gunman and the police exchanged gunfire.

Yes, our picture is completely ridiculous, but this actually did happen. An 83-year-old Indonesian woman has used a broom to fight off an attack from a Komodo dragon.

Komodo National Park official Heru Rudiharto says the 2-meter (6.5-foot) -long giant lizard bit the left hand of Haifha on Tuesday while she was near her house on Rinca island.

Haifha hi the Komodo dragon several times with a broom until it let go of her hand.  Her neighbors also assisted and helped scare the animal off.  Komodo dragons are well known for their viciousness, size, and most of all poison bite.  Komodo dragons often follow large animals for days biting and injecting venomous bites.  A human on the other hand can die in a very short time and if caught quick enough can be treated, however many times the bites result in amputation.

This video is no longer available.

Each plane did sustain damage, with one having its wingtip battered and the other its tail section. Several flights were then delayed due to authorities needing to move the planes.

“Neither plane will be flying tonight,” said MIA spokesman Marc Henderson.

Here’s what happened: An Aerolines Argentinas Airbus arrived around 5:45pm between concourses J and H. The plan was carrying 240 passengers. As it drove down the tarmac, it struck an Air France 777-300 plane carrying 350 passengers as the 777 readied at the gate for takeoff to Paris.

Rescue units and airport workers flooded the tarmac after the planes collided.

Aerolines passengers were immediately allowed off the plane, but Air France passengers had to wait in line for hours with their luggage trying to reschedule their flights. These passengers waited up to four hours, causing tensions to rise until people eventually broke out into fights.

“The first altercation I saw was a group of guys that got fed up with people cutting in front of them,” said Alex Legion, 24, a Hungarian professional basketball player. “The second altercation I saw was when people from business class started to cut the economy line and a lady and a guy got into an argument.”

Veronica Ramudo, 29, described the feeling of the collision as “like an earthquake was happening.”

“The plane shook up a bit but the hit wasn’t strong enough to make it lose stability,” said Aina Taberner, 29, a student in Valencia.

Henderson stressed that no one was injured and that these events are extremely rare. “This is not a very common occurrence,” said Henderson. “I can’t recall the last time we had planes collide.”

The police reports claim the man actually punched the young woman in the head, dragged her by the ankles, and then threw her onto the train tracks.

The man, William Clark, of Philadelphia, now faces charges of assault, robbery, theft, and reckless endangerment. At the time of writing, the suspect is thought to be between ages 25 and 30 years old.

Clark attacked the woman around 3:30pm Tuesday in Philadelphia’s Chinatown. Before attacking her, the man had approached the 23-year-old woman and asked for a lighter. The suspect and victim were the only two at the Eighth and Race street stops, leaving the woman alone at the mercy of Clark’s beating.

A surveillance camera captured the attack. The video clearly depicts the man attacking the woman, dragging her off the bench, and then pulling her all the way to train tracks. Somehow, the woman managed to stand up at the edge of the platform, just before being hurled off by the man.

“I started trying to fight him back as much as I could,” said the woman. “After it was over, the first thing that popped in my head was my son.”

Unfortunately, the male suspect managed to escape from the scene, and police are still searching for leads. This incident continues a current trend of people pushing others onto train tracks, although in the previous two – one involving a man crushed by a train and another involving a woman pushing a man onto the tracks – the suspects were captured.

The man, who is believed to be homeless, took the woman’s cell phone and fled onto the streets. Police have since increased manpower in stations, hoping the extra help with either deter further attacks or lead to the man’s capture.

Stand Up to Cancer’s Steaming Video

Image via Look to the Stars

Stand Up to Cancer, a non-profit that raises money for cancer research and education with the help of stand up comedians, took a different approach to the typical telethon in 2012. The organization aired its fundraising telethon on the four big network TV broadcasters, but it also streamed the show on Hulu.

Hulu also had extra content, such as celebrity interviews and backstage chats that drove more people online to see what they were missing from the basic TV broadcast.

PETA Gets Savvy With Facebook

Image via CNBC

PETA saves animals with ad campaigns that get a lot of positive and negative attention. In recent years, though, the non-profit has become one of the savviest social media users in the world. In 2010 PETA showed that it could think way outside the box. Donna Karan New York (DKNY) had recently announced that it would start selling clothes made of real animal fur. PETA responded to this announcement with an inventive Facebook message on DKNY’s page.

By using several accounts, PETA was able to post a vertical message. The first letter of each message spelled out the phrase “DK BUNNY BUTCHER.” It took DKNY some time to realize that it had been outsmarted, and PETA earned an even bigger reputation for spreading its message in creative ways.

Diabetes Hands Foundation Raises Awareness With Twitter

Image via Lil’ Dean Fam

The Diabetes Hands Foundation, a non-profit organization sponsored by Roche Diabetes Care, has an annual campaign that raises awareness to promote healthy lifestyle choices. The campaign also raises money for people who cannot afford diabetes supplies, such as blood glucose monitors.

On 2012 the organization launched the Big Blue Test campaign. This campaign encourages people to test their blood sugar, take a picture of their readings, and post the images on Twitter or Instagram. The participants then exercised for 14 to 20 minutes, took new pictures, and posted those images to show the positive impact that exercise has on one’s blood sugar count.

Malaria No More Gets Malarious

Image via BizTechAfrica

People in the developed world rarely think about malaria because it the disease has essentially been eradicated from their areas. Some parts of Africa, however, still struggle to meet the health care needs of people facing this disease.

How do you get people in the United States to think about a disease they’ll never see? Malaria No More decided to make highly viral content with its Malarious campaign. Malarious features entertainers such as Rainn Wilson, Penn & Teller, and Aubrey Plaza doing some pretty hilarious things. Penn & Teller, for instance, have a video about snorting beans. With this kind of content, Malaria No More’s message spreads quickly through Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms.

Practically all organizations have to use social media in today’s highly competitive non-profit environment. What cool ideas have your favorite organizations used?

According to police, the flash mob consisted of over 200 juveniles meeting at the mall’s food court approximately at 6pm. Police were called when fights reportedly broke out between juveniles, and three separate police agencies responded to the scene.

“We think there was some sort of post on social media about a flash mob for tonight which drew such a large crowd of juveniles,” said Casey Rayborn Hicks, a spokeswoman for the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office.

Although no one was injured due to the mall emptying after the flash mob turned ugly, video of the incident clearly show officers chasing juveniles throughout the mall, with ambulances waiting outside to cater to anyone injured.

“Never been that scared in my life,” said Juston D’Nea Millet on Facebook. “People were running everywhere. It was like a movie, but you were in it.”

Witnesses claim some flash mob participants flipped over tables, jumped over railings, and clogged escalators and elevators. Some even heard rumors of a juvenile carrying a gun, though police found no evidence backing this rumor.

“I grabbed my son and took off running, but all the doors to the stores were closed,” said a witness remaining anonymous. “I ran through a side door into the parking lot and ran around trying to find my car.”

Police closed down the mall and kept it closed for the rest of the night. Many juveniles were held in custody by the police, able to be picked up by their parents only when the situation was completely under control.

Up to 10 people are expected to face criminal charges for inciting a riot.

This is the second violent event to happen this week within the Bellagio, the first being a murder-suicide that left two dead.

Officer Marcus Martin, a spokesman for the city’s police department, said the female victim’s identity has not been released, but she was taken to the Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, where she is being treated for the deep cuts.

The woman who stabbed her fellow Vegas blackjack coworker was Brenda J. Stokes, 50, who was arrested and sent to the Clark County Detention Center. Stokes has been charged with various charges – burglary, battery with a deadly weapon, battery with use of a deadly weapon with substantial bodily harm, and mayhem. Stokes’ motive behind the incident is still unknown.

Witnesses claim a fight broke out between the two Vegas blackjack coworkers around 9:47pm. Martin said “an edged blade” was taken from the scene of the crime, though it is not clear if that is the actual blade used to slash the victim’s face.

Within minutes of the fight occurring, police arrived to arrest Stokes and evacuate the victim. Soon after, the blackjack area was back up and running.

This kind of incident is unusual for the Bellagio, a high-end, Italian-themed resort known for its spectacular views and extravagant ambiance. The minimum bet for the blackjack area where the fight occurred is $100 and the maximum is $1,000.

“I gotta say, if you look at the people we serve, the tourists and the locals, events like these do happy on the streets in Las Vegas. But this latest sorts of stuff? Inside casinos? Just off the Strip? This is rare,” said Martin.

The two tied the knot on December 21 at London’s Dorchester Hotel. The 65-year-old rocker and his girlfriend have been together for only six months, though the two have known each other for approximately nine years now, and they were “very cautious” in making the marriage decision.

The gap between them is 31 years, making the Rolling Stones rocker nearly old enough to be Humphreys’ father.

“There’s no problem with the age difference,” said Humphrey. “I can understand why people would have a problem with it but it doesn’t seem to cause any problems. We get on very well.” She added, “He’s very funny and very talented. There’s the Ronnie that everyone thinks that they know and the very talented artist and musician.”

In addition to two previous failed marriages, the 65-year-old rocker has also battled addictions to drugs and alcohol. Last year, he went back to rehab for the eighth time.

“Sixteen months now,” said Wood, when asked how long he’s been clean. “The war is over. I’m not fighting or struggling – not thinking, ‘Can I? Can’t I?’”

Wood admitted that much of the recovery process has come from staying away from his old drinking / drug-using friends. “You’ve got no time for anybody who’s negative in that they’ll say, ‘Put aside what you’re doing. Let’s go and get ripped.”

He split with his second wife in 2008, after leaving his first wife of more than 20 years for a 21-year-old former cocktail waitress named Ekaterina Ivanova. His first marriage lasted from 1971 to 1978 with Krissy Findlay.

For now, Humphreys appears to not be worried about Wood’s past failed marriages and addiction issues. The two seem to be quite content with their married.

“The number of dead could increase although we hope not. A number of guards and prisoners are currently in a critical state,” said Rivas, adding that he suspected some guards helped the prisoners smuggle weapons into the prison.

Numerous reports claim the prisoners were armed with guns, which led to a shootout between prisoners and guards, though these same reports do not make mention of the exact kinds of guns used.

The recent 22 dead in an attempted Mexican jail break is only another event in the country’s long history of jail breaks. Last September, for example, more than 130 inmates at a prison in Coahuila on the US border attempted a massive jail break. Initial reports on the incident claimed the prisoners broke out via an underground tunnel, but the police later admitted that the inmates left through the “front door.”

In 2010, more than 140 inmates broke out of prison in the city of Nuevo Laredo. In February of this year, approximately 44 people died during a fight between two rival Mexican gangs at a northern Mexico prison.

Although 22 dead in an attempted Mexican jail break pales in comparison to the previous examples, it’s clear that Mexico has a serious jail break problem.

“Many of Mexico’s prisons are filled beyond capacity and struggle to counter the influence of criminal gangs that can use their financial muscle to corrupt those in charge,” writes Lizbeth Diaz, a Reuters reporter covering the story.

Fortunately, Enrique Pena Nieto, the country’s new president, has vowed to reform the system to bring about a better, more peaceful tomorrow. We’ll have to wait and see if he follows through on those vows.

“It does not make sense from a prioritization point of view for us to focus on recreational drug users in a state that has already said that under state law that’s legal,” Obama told ABC News during an interview.

“At this point [in] Washington and Colorado, you’ve seen the voters speak on this issue. And, as it is, the federal government has a lot to do when it comes to criminal prosecutions.”

Still, the Department of Justice remains vigilante in informing the public that marijuana remains a controlled substance by the federal government, and when asked if Drug Enforcement Administration agents were arresting people in possession of pot, spokeswoman Dawn Dearden stated that the “DEA’s focus has always been to disrupt and dismantle large-scale drug trafficking organization – not to arrest individual users.”

Obama expanded upon legalized marijuana in Washington and Colorado by saying it’s “a tough problem, because Congress has not yet changed the law.” He went on to say that lawmakers and Congress must have a conversation about how to mesh the aforementioned states’ laws with the current federal ones.

Obama asked U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to examine the issue. Earlier this week Holder said, “I think we will come up with a policy that will be respective of federal law buy also will make sure we are effective in our fight against crime that truly has an impact on the American people.”

While Obama’s comments on legalized marijuana give Washington and Colorado pot users something to be happy about, the rest of the country continues pondering how this strange legal situation will play out, and if other states will legalize pot, too.

And no, Kurt Cobain is not back from the dead. Nirvana’s Dave Grohl asked Paul McCartney to join him for a jam session with some of Grohl’s old friends. After a while, Grohl and his friends were commenting on how good it felt to be back together. All the while, McCartney had no idea that he was playing with a reunited Nirvana.

“I didn’t really know who they were,” said 70-year-old Beatles legend Paul McCartney. “They are saying how good it is to be back together. I said, ‘Whoa? You guys haven’t played together for all that time?’ And somebody whispered to me, ‘That’s Nirvana. You’re Kurt.’ I couldn’t believe it.”

For those oblivious to music history, Nirvana formed back in the 1980s, starting with Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic. Dave Grohl joined as drummer in 1990, which kicked off the band’s legendary four-year run that ended in 1994 with the suicide of Kurt Cobain. Grohl went on to later form the popular Foo Fighters.

According to rumors, McCartney, Grohl, and Novoselic have been rehearsing since that first jam session sometime ago. The exact songs expected to be played by this reunited Nirvana is anyone’s guess, though it would most hilarious to hear McCartney spit out the lyrics to Rape Me.

Other performers accompanying the reunited Nirvana are The Rolling Stones, The Who, Alicia Keys, Eric Clapton, Kanye West, Roger Waters, Jon Bon Jovi, and Billy Joel. The event’s producers expect the concert to be viewed by approximately 2 billion people around the world.

Let’s hope those 2 billion don’t tune in to watch a reunited Nirvana bringing embarrassment on the original band’s grunge-ridden image.

Numerous blogging websites have already speculated on what kind of photo filters will be released by Twitter. One of the more obvious examples are the black-and-white filters taken and posted online by Twitter’s chairman Jack Dorsey.

In addition, Twitter’s new photo-filtering services may offer higher resolutions than Instagram – another incentive for users to stick with Twitter, not Facebook. Twitter’s photos are expected to be square-like, similar to Instagram’s. However, Twitter’s photos will come in 1024×1024-pixel resolution, much larger than Facebook’s 612×612-pixel resolution photos.

So far, the obvious choice is to move to Twitter.

Twitter’s move to create its own photo-filtering service comes after Facebook began blocking its photos from showing up properly on Twitter. Previously, Twitter’s software made it easier to view Instagram photos by Tweeting them along with messages. Doesn’t work that way anymore, since Facebook didn’t like losing ad revenue when the photos showed up in Tweets rather than Instagram’s site.

This is not the first time the Instagram and Twitter photos fight has taken place. Back in November of this year, there were rumors that Twitter was about to release a photo-filtering service similar to the one being reported on today. Many believed it was because Twitter wanted to keep the photos within its own service, rather than having to rely on another company. Obviously, the service was never released, though one can speculate that today’s report is the next version of the one previously not released. Maybe they wanted more time to refine the service before releasing it to the mainstream.

However, the Instagram and Twitter photos fight has intensified recently when Instagram was acquired by Facebook for $1 billion back in April of this year. The social network titan gave Instagram the financial backing needed to go against Twitter’s established following.

It’s clear that we now live in a world where two major companies control the flow of social media interactions: Twitter and Facebook/Instagram. Both serve their purposes, and both have a monstrous following, but which one will come out on top?

Twitter has yet to release an official statement regarding its upcoming photo-filtering services, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens.

Referee Kenny Bayless didn’t even bother to count. Marquez leaped into his handler’s arms while the MGM crowd exploded into applause. Pacquiao’s wife cried by the ringside.

“I threw a perfect punch,” said Marquez. “I knew Manny could known me out at any time.”

This was the fourth Marquez and Pacquiao fight between the two men within the last eight years, and many speculate that this may be the end of Pacquiao’s career, though he later said he would like Marquez again for a fifth time.

“If you give us a chance, we’ll fight again,” said Pacquiao. “I was just starting to fell confident and then I got careless.”

Marquez went down in the fifth round and Pacquiao went down in the third round, but both men continued getting up to exchange hits. Then Marquez threw a punch that connected in all the right ways, and the Marquez and Pacquiao fight was over.

“I thought I was getting him in the last couple of rounds, but I got hit by a strong punch,” said Pacquiao. “I never expected that punch.”

After waking up and being helped to his corner, Pacquiao blankly stared at everything and nothing while his handler cut off his gloves. Pacquiao went to the hospital for some basic examinations.

“We always worked on that punch,” said Marquez. “we knew he was going to come out aggressive so we had a fight plan that was more technical. We were able to capitalize on it.”

Previously, Marquez lost two close fights to Pacquiao and a third ended with a draw. He had vowed to eventually win a fight against Pacquiao, and that day has finally arrived. We expect Marquez to celebrate for a while before stepping back into the ring.

After meeting with NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, Hillary Clinton said, “Our concerns are that an increasingly desperate Assad regime might turn to chemical weapons, or might lose control of them to one of the many groups that are now operating within Syria.”

She continues, “We have sent an unmistakable message that this would cross a red line and those responsible would be held to account.”

However, numerous Syrian activists have criticized Clinton’s fear over the possible use of Syrian chemical weapons, claiming it’s a distraction.

“I don’t think the regime will use chemical weapons – it’s just a media game for the purpose of prolonging the revolution, so the Syrian people become more divided and the regime has more time,” said Walat Ahmae, a member of the Syrian National Council based in Antakya, Turkey. “We have known that there are chemical weapons from the start, so this isn’t a new or more worrying threat.”

A report by NBC News on Thursday states Pentagon officials confirm that Assad has been arming Syrian chemical weapons with nerve gas. Other US officials told the Associated Press that Assad’s military has been moving chemical stockpiles.

This information seems to clash with the official statements flowing from Syria’s crumbling government infrastructure, as Syria’s deputy foreign minister, Faisal Mekdad, came forward to say, “I repeat for the hundredth time that even if such weapons exist in Syria, they will not be used against the Syrian people.” He added, “We would not commit suicide.”

In fact, Mekdad has gone so far as to claim that Western governments are the ones creating Syrian chemical weapons, with the intent of handing them to rebels and then blaming the Assad regime for their existence.

Whether there are or are not chemical weapons, though, it’s clear that the topic is beginning to divide parties onto separate sides, and only time will reveal how this situation develops.

<img class=”size-medium wp-image-28800″ title=”Hillary Clinton at a Nato meeting in Brussels” src=”https://socialmediaseo.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/clinton-syria-chemical-weapons-300×180.jpg” alt=”” width=”300″ height=”180″ /> Clinton speaking on the existence and use of Syrian chemical weapons.

To: English Wikipedia Readers and Community
From: Sue Gardner, Wikimedia Foundation Executive Director
Date: January 16, 2012

Today, the Wikipedia community announced its decision to black out the English-language Wikipedia for 24 hours, worldwide, beginning at 05:00 UTC on Wednesday, January 18 (you can read the statement from the Wikimedia Foundation here). The blackout is a protest against proposed legislation in the United States — the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate — that, if passed, would seriously damage the free and open Internet, including Wikipedia.

This will be the first time the English Wikipedia has ever staged a public protest of this nature, and it’s a decision that wasn’t lightly made. Here’s how it’s been described by the three Wikipedia administrators who formally facilitated the community’s discussion. From the public statement, signed by User:NuclearWarfare, User:Risker and User:Billinghurst:

It is the opinion of the English Wikipedia community that both of these bills, if passed, would be devastating to the free and open web.

Over the course of the past 72 hours, over 1800 Wikipedians have joined together to discuss proposed actions that the community might wish to take against SOPA and PIPA. This is by far the largest level of participation in a community discussion ever seen on Wikipedia, which illustrates the level of concern that Wikipedians feel about this proposed legislation. The overwhelming majority of participants support community action to encourage greater public action in response to these two bills. Of the proposals considered by Wikipedians, those that would result in a “blackout” of the English Wikipedia, in concert with similar blackouts on other websites opposed to SOPA and PIPA, received the strongest support.

On careful review of this discussion, the closing administrators note the broad-based support for action from Wikipedians around the world, not just from within the United States. The primary objection to a global blackout came from those who preferred that the blackout be limited to readers from the United States, with the rest of the world seeing a simple banner notice instead. We also noted that roughly 55% of those supporting a blackout preferred that it be a global one, with many pointing to concerns about similar legislation in other nations.

In making this decision, Wikipedians will be criticized for seeming to abandon neutrality to take a political position. That’s a real, legitimate issue. We want people to trust Wikipedia, not worry that it is trying to propagandize them.

But although Wikipedia’s articles are neutral, its existence is not. As Wikimedia Foundation board member Kat Walsh wrote on one of our mailing lists recently,

We depend on a legal infrastructure that makes it possible for us to operate. And we depend on a legal infrastructure that also allows other sites to host user-contributed material, both information and expression. For the most part, Wikimedia projects are organizing and summarizing and collecting the world’s knowledge. We’re putting it in context, and showing people how to make to sense of it.

But that knowledge has to be published somewhere for anyone to find and use it. Where it can be censored without due process, it hurts the speaker, the public, and Wikimedia. Where you can only speak if you have sufficient resources to fight legal challenges, or if your views are pre-approved by someone who does, the same narrow set of ideas already popular will continue to be all anyone has meaningful access to.

The decision to shut down the English Wikipedia wasn’t made by me; it was made by editors, through a consensus decision-making process. But I support it.

Like Kat and the rest of the Wikimedia Foundation Board, I have increasingly begun to think of Wikipedia’s public voice, and the goodwill people have for Wikipedia, as a resource that wants to be used for the benefit of the public. Readers trust Wikipedia because they know that despite its faults, Wikipedia’s heart is in the right place. It’s not aiming to monetize their eyeballs or make them believe some particular thing, or sell them a product. Wikipedia has no hidden agenda: it just wants to be helpful.

That’s less true of other sites. Most are commercially motivated: their purpose is to make money. That doesn’t mean they don’t have a desire to make the world a better place — many do! — but it does mean that their positions and actions need to be understood in the context of conflicting interests.

My hope is that when Wikipedia shuts down on January 18, people will understand that we’re doing it for our readers. We support everyone’s right to freedom of thought and freedom of expression. We think everyone should have access to educational material on a wide range of subjects, even if they can’t pay for it. We believe in a free and open Internet where information can be shared without impediment. We believe that new proposed laws like SOPA and PIPA, and other similar laws under discussion inside and outside the United States — don’t advance the interests of the general public. You can read a very good list of reasons to oppose SOPA and PIPA here, from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Why is this a global action, rather than US-only? And why now, if some American legislators appear to be in tactical retreat on SOPA?

The reality is that we don’t think SOPA is going away, and PIPA is still quite active. Moreover, SOPA and PIPA are just indicators of a much broader problem. All around the world, we’re seeing the development of legislation intended to fight online piracy, and regulate the Internet in other ways, that hurt online freedoms. Our concern extends beyond SOPA and PIPA: they are just part of the problem. We want the Internet to remain free and open, everywhere, for everyone.

On January 18, we hope you’ll agree with us, and will do what you can to make your own voice heard.

Sue Gardner,
Executive Director, Wikimedia Foundation

By Joe Bodolai

Bacon, eggs, vag*na. Oh sure, there’s more…

Things I Think Will Happen Next Year

• Sales of Mayan Calendars up  for 2012, drop for 2013.
• Martial Law in the USA, first probably in Louisiana
• Depression greater than that of the 30’S
• More wars for Israel, our rulers. Probably Syria soon.
• War with Iran (!) for Israel may trigger WW3 conflict with Russia
• World Supply of Band Names will run out
• Americans will go along with this, but resisters will be FEMA camped.
• America the one I loved, the one my dad fought for on Omaha Beach on D-DAY, the man who helped take out the machine guns on the cliff, won’t be alive to see young men wearing uniforms and BE the enemy he fought.
• Fascism will be America. It already is. Simple definition: When government rules over corporations, that’s socialism. When corporations use government that, my friends, is fascism.
• Foreign troops may likely be used in popular insurrections.
• Snooki will have another “book”.

Stuff I Would Like to Have Seen In My Life

• Truth about 9-11. THREE buildings went down that day. Building 7 wasn’t even hit.
• Indians winning a World Series (OK, not so bad since my Jays won two in a row!)
• Browns winning a Super Bowl
• Truth about the JFK murder
• Young people mobilizing for change instead of watching E!
• USA not being Israel’s puppet bully.
• An American awards show being half as good as mine. Or, basically, getting a chance here. I can run a show. I can create a show.
• All those new girls I like naked liking me as much as I liked them
• Living in Paris or New York again

Things I Regret

• My inability to conquer my alcoholism
• The things I did because of it
• Leaving Canada
• Moving to Los Angeles
• Not fighting harder or making a better deal to stay with The Comedy Network I helped create
• Not being able to live up to the helping hand so many wonderful people offered me
• The hurt I caused in my family, friends, and maybe even strangers.
• That I am no longer able to withstand any more of life’s pain
• Most of all, the pain I have caused and am now causing my sons and the love of my life, my ex-wife Bianca, my love and connection with her is infinite
• The fact I will never get to repay the love and generosity you all deserve
•  Lisa.

Things I am Proud Of.

Or Just My Life When I was Really Alive, or just a point form autobiography

(In chronological order, not in order of priority. You decide that.)

• My two sons, who have grown into graceful, intelligent, strong, handsome, creative and loving young men.
• My twenty some years with the greatest love of my life, Bianca. I caused her pain, exasperation, but we also shared love, joy, and an indescribable special unique language of the heart that only we spoke. The greatest gift anyone could ever have. I love her in the words that really trivialize the words “I love you.” She defined that emotion for me and made my life worth living. If there is a loving god, she was my blessing.
• Never being unfaithful to any woman I was with. Although close. Very close. You know who you are ladies. Except you alluring strangers. Sorry. Phew.
• Helping my mom to read and write English after my dad died when I was ten
• Asking my priest “Can God Make Something Heavier Than He Can Lift?”  Please read this: http://wp.me/pKBYM-dP
• 1600 on my SATs and got into a good college, Allegheny in Meadville, PA a 90 minute drive. (Also got accepted to Yale, Amherst, and Johns Hopkins but couldn’t afford the travel or probably the parking fees.)
• Resisting the Vietnam War with daily activism, action, writing, demonstrating, traveling to Washington, tear gas, etc.
• Campaigning for Robert Kennedy, then feeling the shock of his murder]
• Leaving America and going to Paris after that
• All the 24/7 sex I had on the trip by ten days at sea (292 girls on board, three guys, seriously. Girlfriends all over France for the next year. Learned French.)
• Becoming involved with Parisian students in 1968 in a wider cultural movement, learning how to silkscreen posters. Getting hit by a flic’s rubber coated  lead baton

• 
  When I was Young. When I had Hope

• Deciding to return to university, going to Cambridge, talking my way in to King’s College (had the transcripts, the grades, and crushed the interview.)
• Being in the wings at Footlights and getting one line in a sketch. Python legacy. Had no idea how huge they were a year later. John effin’ Cleese!
• The idyllic but ivory tower wonder seeming evil after watching the Chicago 1968 Convention and deciding to leave for the real world and back to the fight. No more punting on the Cam to Grantchester and reading Rupert Brooke as I floated back.
• Transferring to the University of Manchester, home of the RSSF (Revolutionary Socialists Students Federation), a working class city with a “redbrick” instead of the prestige of Cambridge and a huge activist student base.
• My Art History Tutor, Alastair Smith, becoming Curator at the National Gallery in London and taking classes with him in our tutorial group (just four of us) by train every Monday to London to walk through the gallery with him. Seeing original Piero della Francesca’s fingerprints on the canvas. Wow.
• Returning to the US and becoming a very prominent small town anti-war activist. Then leaving for Canada as a draft resister, not “dodger”. (Dick Cheney and George Bush are dodgers. I resisted. I was wanted by the FBI.).
• Becoming one of the first video artists in the world, as SONY gave me and a few other artists the world’s first portable video camera and recorders. (Heavy backpacks, reel to reel, cameras bigger than today’s catered lunches.)
• Showing my work (comedy videos) at the AGO, New York, Museé d’art Contemporain in Paris, etc.
• Ted Kennedy intervening in my case to drop charges due to illegal activities by the FBI and CIA against me. (Long story. Very interesting and relevant today.)
• Helping bring Major League Baseball to Toronto by helping start the Toronto Blue Jays as first Publicity Information Director. Fifth person hired. Set Major League record for most attendance by first year expansion team despite 107 losses. Huge fun.
• Moving to New York to work for Warner Bros. in development. Reading a script and at 11:00 at night calling my head of production to send it over in a cab saying “Read this! It’s so greenlight if this goes it is to win Best Picture and if not it’s the best screenplay I’ve read since I’ve been here. Read it tonight Diane.” It was Kramer vs. Kramer. We lost it to Paramount. I was right though. (There is likely more informed info on this story but this was just my experience with it.)
• Being told by Jean Doumanian that I wasn’t “funny enough to write for SNL but you’re spoken of highly. Can you type?” Notes on a script shown to me by another writer: “make it funnier.” (This is background for the famous article in The New Yorker.
• Writing for SNL after Lorne sacked her. (Huge long story here. I discuss this on a podcast and more. Please listen:
• SNL. Wow, what fun. Wish I had been more ready for it as I was very alternative. So I was assigned to work with Andy Warhol on his few videos for the show.  I could write a lot about this. The glorious Rosie Shuster is more than I can describe. The lightning of her mind, the warm comfort of her enormous heart was a gift from a god that only exists when I think of people like her and my friends like you.
•  Becoming a very very minor “co-owner” of the Utica Blue Sox in the New York-Penn League with an unaffiliated independent team and winning the championship in like 1983. Spent the summer in low level minor league ball. Amazing fun. Real owners were Van Schley, Bill Murray, John Alexander and the bogus Roger Kahn. Long story here about this guy. Missed the whole story, wrote a book. Total fiction. What a loss. Reality was so much more.
• Coming back to Canada and working with the wonderful John Brunton, whose friendship and talent I have missed for so many years. Great hilarious speech at my wedding.
• Creating “It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll!” and winning a Gemini and launching Mike Myers as Wayne and pretty much opening the door for his amazing talent.
• Lorne asking me to produce Kids in the Hall. Long story here. He didn’t tell me that HBO was going to cancel the show after the first season. I kept it alive. Honest to god. The cast and crew had no idea what I did and I didn’t either. It would not have gone to season two had I not become the me I loved. Thinking on my feet in the breakfast meeting in the HBO boardroom with Bridget Potter. The Kids have no idea. Ask John Blanchard, who was there but probably will not get what I did. I saved his job too. I f**kin’ kicked ass.
• Writing the first draft of Wayne’s World with Mike Myers. I kinda knew our draft was really a second movie, not an expository first reveal, but my heart wanted him to find his voice. He sure did. (The second movie? Nothing to do with me. Wow, did it suck.)
• My Gemini Awards. I was a writer on the first, and then produced the four highest rated shows in the history of the show. I made them comedy shows. I made news anchors do sketches. I produced the best awards shows in Canada and can kick the shit out of the worse shit they do here.
• Comics! 115 episodes, eight seasons. Designed to unleash Canadian comedy on TV.  After I took the job, offered by Sandra Faire, I was asked “how are you going to find 13 comics to do a whole series?”
• I changed the concept Sandra presented me. Instead of a documentary/reality model I said “no, don’t take cameras into clubs. Let me stage performances on a set so it looks like people would pay $50 to be there and use the b-roll budget for whatever they want to express.” It worked. When we finally got into prime time, we were over a million an episode. That’s huge.
• CBC wanted to cancel the show, which originally was buried at 11:00 and no promo. Sandra called me to give me the news. I said, “no f**king way. This is the future of Canadian comedy development.” I went into George Anthony’s office, Sandra on the couch behind me not saying a word, and I demanded that they recognize that for the little money the show cost the benefits are your entire comedy development/talent budget on a shoestring.
• I was on fire.
• I won.
• Now I had a greater mission. I wanted a channel. I felt the huge failure of comedy, such as sitcoms, on Canadian television, could only be successful if showrunners were comedy writers, not Telefilm form fillers. This is one of the proudest accomplishments I have seen come true. Mark Farrell, Brent Butt, so many more of you….
• I remember believing in Mark and teaching him silly things like “pencil not pen. Change pages? Turn the upper right corner…” Knew he was the guy.
• Ivan Fecan asked me to help him go for the CRTC bid for a comedy channel. I was fired up like you can’t believe. Made a horrible handshake deal with a guy I worked with on radio in the 70’s.
• We won. I kicked ass at the CRTC. Video here. We showed this to the CRTC. Game was over.
• https://www.youtube.com/qualityshows#p/search/0/fAnBauKcA2c
• Then surreality happened. My handshake disappeared. I got offered a deal my lawyer described as “they want you to walk away. This is an insult.” I objected. The next day they hired Ed Robinson.  I like Ed, but…
• So I was f**ked. All those years, all that good faith, and now nothing? I had offers in LA, but didn’t want to do that. I love Canada. I love Canadian comedy, the POV, the sweet pomegranate seal meat mixture of it, the lack of mean with the Robin Hood arrows, and now I created the opportunity I dreamed about… gone?

• By the way, most comics thought of me as a “CBC executive” rather than as a colleague fighting for us in the room. It’s okay. I did all right. I may not do standup or like one of you, but my mission was a lot bigger than jokes then. I hope I served you well.
• I moved to LA as it seemed I was totally f**ked by Canadian television. So…. did some great work as a “show doctor” on helping people with their pilots and sales tapes with a great company called LaunchPad. I got to work with Ryan Seacrest and Ray Romano and others. I kept an NBC strip daytime reality series on the air by just basically taking over and taking their material and re-visioning it.
• Then the two guys who owned the company split up, before Christmas. As the guy who left was on my side of the equation (creative not promos) I ended up losing at least a year of work. I can’t cut promos. I’m just not a fit for that. I loved working with writers on their shows.
• Meeting and working with the amazing gift from the comedy god that is Sarah Hyland, the funniest woman on earth. Going to her home in Louisville for Christmas and taping (yeah, remember tape?) and shooting with her and her wonderful real life character Gail, her mum. Please watch my wonderful truly improvised videos with her at http://youtube.com/qualityshows
• The gorgeosity that is Cherie. No words here. She did save my life for real in a psychic connection we have that would just make you think we are crazier than we are. We were a very odd duo. Wow though, so different me and this girly girl is one of the most beautiful women on earth. Love Unlikely actually.
• 
• So look at Canadian television comedy today. Showrunners are becoming more and more comedy writers or performers. You need to keep the fight against formfillers as “producers.” Canadian TV? It’s still f**ked up with no promos, no other industry support that can compete with the money assault of US media. Only faith in the quality and morality of it has a chance. Every Canadian comedy show is probably doomed by money. Hence, I created Comics! as a throw the dice and see who will step up. I think I am so proud of helping liberate comedy talent. Russell, you hearing me?
• Look at the list of people whose first break on TV and faith in their creative genius I believed in. Wow. I am so proud. Mark Farrell was the first Comics! we taped. I gave first TV appearances to Russell Peters on three different shows (!)as well. Ron James was there but now he has a show. Anna Gustafson sent me a tape from Lund, B.C. and now she is living her life. Bonnie McFarlane. Her podcast is so amazing you must get on this. It’s called “Bonnie and Vos” or something. I’d probably not want to be married to him either but she’s from Cold Lake, Alberta so funny obnoxious controlling Jews are probably what is down in her pants. Get on this podcast people!
• (I remember Bonnie’s Comics! episode where she wanted to do a new set and couldn’t remember it. So nervous. I said. “It’s just tape. Keep it in your pocket. If you take it out, we can edit it out. The audience will love you more knowing that you work, you write, just let them know this.” She forgot her set. We used it in her episode. One of the great cool unusual moments in a comedy performance ever. “Okay people, I forgot my set.” Pulls the paper from her tight back pocket jeans and the audience is like me. In love. Applause break. Especially since her comedy then was so dangerously dark at surprising moments mixed with observational okaycharmingness and then an anexoria joke.  And she had the t-shirt, jeans, no boobage enhancement.  At least I got them to brush her gorgeous hair.
• Cold Lake. Bonnie, you should tell Rich that’s the name of your pussy on your amazingly great podcast.
• I’m proud of my life. Not how I lived it. How some of the things I did maybe are more okay than the things people who don’t have my life did awful things.
• I feel so proud of you all. I am so proud of having worked to do some of the following things:
• Raised money and worked for Mercy Corps, IRC, OxFam, NRDC. We need to do more.  Please people, look them up. Help.
• Bristol Bay is a chemical Chernobyl we cannot let happen.  Please go to NRDC for info.
• “IF YOU DON’T LIKE GAY MARRIAGE, TELL STRAIGHT COUPLES TO STOP HAVING GAY BABIES!”
• Helped HRC with the huge campaign to win marriage equality in New York. That went viral but not mine. Just know it helped me work on some GOP support that helped. Wow, what a Friday night that was. June 24.
• So many long-suffering people. I watched a video of a mother carrying her dead infant searching for water. Somalia. MercyCorps field worker showed me. Somalia.

• SOMALIA AND DOWNTOWN LA
• THAT WAS A TIME OUT FOR TEARS. I heard the girl’s voice on the video. She was carrying her dead child. Carrying her dead baby. God, if you exist, you are f**king evil so you treat your people on earth like this?
• Tell me the difference between god and the devil.
• I don’t believe in a “loving God.” I perhaps believe in one sick superf**k evil.
• I don’t know what more visions of hell I can see, but my life seems to be providing them.
• The shelter I am volunteering in may be my new home. I call it “Shawshank Summer Camp.” 65 men on cots in one big space where sleep is victimhood.
• … and a Happy New Year.

I don’t need replies or comments or anything. I need to feel the good that I did and whatever good I have ever done for you is enough for me. May you all have the happy lives you deserve. Thank you all for being in my life.

Love,

Joe

Witnesses described the scene that took place:

“There were drinks thrown on the floor and chairs being thrown everywhere,” witness Tess Dessalgne told television station KARE. She reported that “everyone started running toward the fight,” while the video showed others leaving the area.

The Mall of America Riots could have happened after rappers Lil’ Wayne and Drake were visiting the mall.

Mall of America Riots

Tim Tebow was, without a doubt and without debate, the best college football player in the history of the game.  The masses of fans that follow Tim Tebow is unprecedented and the reputation that he brought to the University of Florida is equally astounding.

When the Denver Broncos traded up to select Tebow in the first round of the 2010 draft, the expectation was that Denver was getting their franchise quarterback.

But with the lockout lingering through the summer, the brass in Denver – such as John Elway, coach John Fox, and and general manager Brian Xanders – were unable to evaluate the super star from Florida.

The problem is, now that the minicamps and pre-season are underway, Tim Tebow is, according to people in the Denver Broncos organization, no better than the fourth string quarterback.

With Fox’s announcement on Monday that Kyle Orton has retained the starting position at quarterback for the third straight season, the battle for Tim Tebow is now with Brady Quinn for the number two spot.  It’s clear that Tim Tebow is not playing at the level of expectations that everyone had when he was coming out of Florida.

According to John Elway, executive vice president of football operations, there is always a concern with the investment made for the first round draft pick, meaning, the Broncos spent an awful lot of money on Tim Tebow, however “obviously, there is an investment, and there will always be an investment in first-round picks,” Elway said Monday. “But the bottom line is, our responsibility is to do the best we can to win football games, and we’ve got to figure out the best thing to do to accomplish that. And I think ultimately that’s what fans want.”

All of this puts Tim Tebow in a position that he is certainly not used to, fighting for a second place position as the quarterback.  But ultimately, like Elway said, winning games is the bottom line and the positions are filled with the folks who give the team the best chance possible at achieving that goal.

HP is perhaps the smartest guy in the room right now.  With their decision yesterday to stop production of the HP TouchPad, and cease WebOS development, a major player in the tablet market has exited the game (not including Apple).

And why, you ask, is this a smart move on HP’s part?  Primarily because it shows that right now, HP realizes that Apple has the stage.

And instead of pouring massive amounts of money and resources into trying to compete with Apple, HP figures it’ll just focus it’s energy on more profitable ventures.

To me, this is pretty smart.

The chart below puts the tablet market in perspective.  The graph shows, from a consumer interest point of view, what people want the most.  And as you can see from the graph, the iPad rules the universe and all other tablets melt away in comparison.

The Motorola Xoom is sitting at 8.5% of the tablet market space.  And the Xoom is the first tablet running the Honeycomb 3.0 OS – that’s the Android OS that is built specifically for tablets.  And obviously, the folks at Google are well aware of these numbers, as are the people at Microsoft.

However, I don’t expect Google to back down one bit from their uphill fight to gain a foot in the tablet space.  Just like Google responded when the iPhone hit the market in 2007 by coming up with Android OS and releasing smartphones, so it will be with Android tablets.  But the list of devices grows for Google’s Android OS, they will need a more standardized Android platform – one that developers can build on equally for the smartphones and for the tablets.  Again, just like Apple has done with iOS.

Here it is – putting the demand for iPads in its proper perspective (chart via BI)

In the deadliest single attack against U.S. troops and allies in the history of the war in Afghanistan, 38 people – to include 31 Navy Seals – were shot down  and killed this weekend when their CH-47 Chinook helicopter was ambushed by the Taliban.

It was around 3am, early Saturday morning.  US Army Rangers were pinned down in a fire fight with Taliban troops.  Circling above, waiting for a call to come in for support, was a crew of 31 Navy Seals along with 7 other support personnel.

The Seals came in, got the Rangers out the jam, and then proceeded to load back up onto the Chinook.  What they didn’t realize was lying in wait were Taliban soldiers who knew, somehow, the exact path the helicopter would take to fly out.

Once the Chinook was in range, the Taliban opened up with grenade launchers and took down the chopper, killing everyone on board.

The dead include: five Army crew members, 19 U.S. Navy SEALs and their three support troops, an Afghan interpreter and seven Afghan commandos plus three Air Force controllers and one military working dog. “Their deaths are a reminder of the extraordinary sacrifices made by the men and women of our military and their families,” President Barack Obama said.

via Gizmodo

Google+ hasn’t even been made available on a large scale to uses, and already it has accumulated 10 million users.

And a lot of buzz is building right now about the potential that news outlets can leverage from Google+ by engaging deeper with their readers and audience.

So in response to the Google+ threat, Facebook is launching Facebook Edition. 

Facebook Edition is an initiative where Facebook is reaching out to top new publications and asking them to create Facebook application versions of their content.

With news portals like The New York Times having a Facebook application where Facebook users can get their news, the intent is that more users will remain engaged on Facebook for longer periods of time.

In fact, Facebook would love it if people never left the social network.

This also shows that Facebook is taking notice, quickly, of the rising popularity of Google+ and is already fighting to get ahead of the curve to ensure they remain the social networking king of the web.

via Tehran Times

Google states that the move was necessary according to terms reached in a copyright infringement case that was brought by Copiepresse.  However, Copiepresse is fighting back stating that Google removed their site from the index because of retaliation to their suit.

Apple is fighting against Android smartphone competitors in more ways than just releasing a new iPhone 5.

Apple is filed a new set of complaints against Android smartphone maker HTC with a U.S. trade panel over unspecified portable electronic devices and software, according to Reuters.

Anything Apple can do to stop the bleeding of the iPhone marketshare…