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2/25/2014
2/23/2014
Declaring victory in Ukraine
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How about filling in the blanks first and then asking questions so as to get the underlined answers?
Oleksandr Turchynov, Parliamentary speaker and a top Ukrainian opposition politician ……………………………. (assume) the post of interim president less than a day after the country's former leader Victor Yanukovych ……………………………. (be) dismissed from office.
On Saturday, parliament ……………………………. (vote) to dismiss President Yanukovych and ……………………………. (set) early elections for May 25. On Sunday they ……………………………. (meet) in a special session in an attempt to start forming a new national unity government.
As part of a deal to end weeks of violence, former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko ……………………………. (be) freed from a prison hospital.
Yulia Tymoshenko, one of the leaders of Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution, ……………………………. (become) prime minister from 24 January to 8 September 2005, and again from 18 December 2007 to 11 March 2010 . In 2011 she ……………………………. (face) trial for alleged abuse of power over a natural gas deal with Russia and ……………………………. (be) sentenced to prison. Her supporters say it ……………………………. (be) political revenge by President Viktor Yanukovych.
Ukrainians ……………………………. (give) her a hero's welcome when she ……………………………. (speak) to protesters in Kiev on Saturday.
President Viktor Yanukovych, who ……………………………. (flee) Kiev for the eastern city of Kharkiv, said "Parliament's decisions ……………………………. (be) illegal. I ……………………………. (future - negative resign) and I ……………………………. (future - negative leave) Ukraine either. However, Yanukovych ……………………………. (be) almost powerless. His Cabinet ……………………………. (promise) to back a new government, the police ……………………………. (support) the opposition, and the army ……………………………. (future - negative get) involved.
Protests ……………………………. (erupt) in November when President Yanukovych ……………………………. ( walk out) of a trade deal with the European Union in favor of closer ties to Russia. The protests ……………………………. (begin) peacefully but descended into violence. Nearly 100 people ……………………………. (be) killed, when police snipers ……………………………. (shoot) some protesters in the head.
Ukraine's 46 million inhabitants ……………………………. (be) split between those in the east who favor ties with Russia, and those in the west who lean toward the European Union.
2/21/2014
2/20/2014
2/16/2014
Facebook and gender
Facebook allows users to customise gender
Facebook has announced that its English language users will now be able to select a custom gender for their profile page.
The 50-odd options, which include "bi-gender", "transgender", "androgynous" and "transsexual", will allow people "to express themselves in an authentic way", Facebook said in a post.
Users can also choose whether to be referred to as "he", "she" or "they".
The new options will initially only be for those using the site in US English.
The new options were formulated after consultations with five leading gay and transgender rights' organisations, Facebook says.
"There's going to be a lot of people for whom this is going to mean nothing. But for others, it means the world" Facebook engineer Brielle Harrison told the Associated Press. "For the first time I can go to the site and specify to all the people that I know what my gender is and I can let only the people that I want to know, see that," she said.
The move reflects the growing influence of the transgender rights movement in the US, which is demanding similar civil rights to the gay community.
The San Francisco-based Transgender Law Center welcomed the move, saying "many transgender people will be thrilled" at the news.
One estimate in a report by the Williams Institute think tank in 2011 said that an estimated 0.3% of adults in the US were transgender, almost 700,000 people.
Facebook should remove all gender options
Two cheers for Facebook, who have just expanded their personal gender options from the somewhat limiting binary of male and female to an eye-watering 50 plus descriptions.
Of course, there's criticism already. An online friend expressed frustration that Facebook does not include their preferred gender option: non-gendered identity.
In addition, Facebook still gives precedence to the gender binary: its online presentation takes the form of male, female or the choice of 48 "custom" categories. Others have objected that the relationship options (both romantic and familiar) still remain gender normative.
More fundamental, though. Is the issue that Facebook kicked off a conversation about gender with trans and gay groups, while omitting one significant voice: women.
Many women have deliberately selected "male" as the only way to remove a succession of tiresome ads for wrinkle cream and diet products from their timeline.
Facebook should remove gender altogether, which might interfere with its commercial activities and interests.
adapted From The Guardian and BBC News
Facebook and Sports
One in six people on the planet use Facebook, posting six billion likes a day, sharing 400 billion photos, sending 7.8 trillion messages, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center. Most of those people visit Facebook daily.
What a cozy world. Sure, Facebook foments a lot of FOMO (fear of missing out), but it’s brought us all closer, yes? Pew reports that among adult Facebook users, the average number of friends is 338. I’m sure they’re all tight.
But, let’s give a nod to a bigger, better social network: sports. Sunday’s Super Bowl was the most watched television event in United States history, with 111.5 million viewers. Nine of the 10 most viewed programs last year were professional football games.
Arguably, those viewers are simply putting down one screen to focus on a bigger, high-definition one. Yet, there is a human connective power in sports that goes beyond the pixels.
I can hear it: sports are the opiate of the people, distracting us from our problems, diverting resources to silly diversions. Give it a rest. Sports are the great unifier, the only thing left that binds people who would never talk to one another, let alone spend time in the same room.
Nelson Mandela understood the power of a game. He didn’t care much for rugby, the sport of white Afrikaners. But he saw the improbable rise of the Springboks in the 1995 rugby World Cup as way to bring together his fractious, newly democratic country, a story told in the movie “Invictus.”
The Winter Olympics, just getting underway in Sochi, have the potential to form similar ties that bind within many nations. That assumes the Games can escape the real life omens of terrorism, and a host nation with a homophobic government.
Is there anything that’s passed between the billion-plus users on Facebook that brings all of them to tears, or prompts dancing in the street?
By Timothy Egan
edited from The New York Times
TED Talk: Synthetic voices, as unique as fingerprints
Northeastern University computer science professor
Rupal Patel looks for ways to give voice to the voiceless. As founder
and director of the Communication Analysis and Design Laboratory
(CadLab), she developed a technology that combines real human voices
with the characteristics of individual speech patterns. The result is VocaliD, an innovation that gives people who can't speak the ability to communicate in a voice all their own.
"There's nothing better than seeing the person who's actually going to use it, seeing their reaction, seeing their smile," says Patel.
"There's nothing better than seeing the person who's actually going to use it, seeing their reaction, seeing their smile," says Patel.
2/09/2014
Montblanc new watch collection
Jérôme Lambert (left) is planning to open up the world of fine watchmaking
Prices for high-end watches and jewellery by leading brands start in the region of €50,000. However, last month at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in Geneva, Montblanc launched the Meisterstück Heritage collection, which includes a perpetual calendar watch in a stainless steel case that will retail for €10,000, and a gold monopusher chronograph made entirely by hand in its Villeret workshop for €27,000. Both are uncommonly low prices for watches in their category.
Led by Jérôme Lambert, the new chief executive appointed in 2013, the German company known for its dominance of the luxury pen market is implementing an aggressive strategy
“We want to open this world of fine watch making to new clients,” he told the Financial Times following the announcement at the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie fair in Geneva.
At Jaeger-LeCoultre, which Jérôme Lambert headed until taking up his new post, he pioneered a pricing strategy that broke with fine-watch making conventions. At Montblanc, he is pushing more accessibly priced high-end watches harder still.
In an industry where significant new collections can gestate for two years or more, Montblanc's Meisterstück Heritage collection was ready in less than 6 months
According to Mr Lambert, writing instruments make up 45 per cent of the business, leather goods and watches 25 per cent each, with the final 5 per cent attributed to jewelry and other accessories.
This is the first move by a prominent watch maker towards the “accessible luxury” macro-segment, a space exploited by US apparel and accessories brands like Michael Kors, Tory Burch and Ralph Lauren over the past three years.
Montblanc Meisterstück Heritage collection watches will target younger first-time buyers and wealthy international shoppers with less disposable income than the brand’s traditional clientèle.
Data released last week by Bain & Company suggests middle-class spenders in emerging markets make up almost 130m of the world’s 330m luxury consumers and are fast becoming the engine of industry growth.
Montblanc’s decision to reposition its entry-level price points runs counter to some industry thinking in Europe. Louis Vuitton and Gucci have both said brands must go more upmarket and exclusive to be considered “absolute luxury”. That's why they raised their prices by as much as 10 per cent last year.
Montblanc is the second-largest business owned by Richemont – behind Cartier – and accounts for 8 per cent of the €10.15bn sales reported by the group in its past financial year.
Many analysts think that balancing high-end exposure with a more accessible mid price and entry price point will be vital, since future luxury market growth will come from the explosion of the emerging market middle class, who have lots of appetite but reduced spending power.
By Elizabeth Paton in New York and Robin Swithinbank in London
edited from The Financial Times
2/03/2014
Building Toward the Home of Tomorrow
Although the home of the future is the stuff of science fiction, the tech world is determined to make it a reality. Soon everything from garden products to bathroom appliances will be controlled by the touch of a smartphone. Without setting foot in the door, a person headed home will turn off the security system and turn on the shower, and begin preheating the oven.
The concept of outfitting everyday objects with sensors and connecting them to the web is called the Internet of Things. And the announcement last week that Google was paying $3 billion to acquire Nest, a maker of Internet-connected home products, put a seal of approval on this nascent market.
“Google is showing that the Internet of Things is not a passing fad,” said Jason Johnson, the chief executive of August, a company that makes smart locks controlled by a smartphone app. “It is a legitimate industry, and I’m excited to see big companies taking it seriously.”
Most of the products on this market are made by smaller companies. SmartThings, a start-up in Washington, D.C., sells a kit of small sensors that can monitor moisture levels and detect motion. Canary, a New York company, is working on a video security system that sends alerts when it notices a drastic change in temperature, air quality, motion and more.
And as the Google deal suggests, big companies are positioning themselves to be players as well. Many cable companies, including Time Warner Cable and AT&T, offer connected home systems that include appliances and lights. Even Staples, the retail chain, is selling products like light bulbs that are controlled through a smartphone application.
Apple has some interest in the field, too. The company’s AirPlay system enables the iPhone to become a remote control, for example.
The motivation behind all these companies is clear: the global market for connected home products could be as large as $40 billion in the next five to seven years. But there is more than just money at stake. It is the chance to become a household name in consumer technology products, perhaps the next-generation equivalent of Apple or General Electric.
However, there are challenges. One is that a connected home is expensive to set up. For now, at least, “smart” products cost several times more than their traditional counterparts. For example, the Nest smoke and carbon monoxide detector costs $129, while many typical detectors cost $40 or less. Nest has estimated that its $249 thermostat, its most popular product, is in less than 1 percent of households.
Another hurdle is that many people are reluctant to add more apps and digital services to their lives.
Then there is the data and information generated by many of the devices — lots and lots of information. Some users might find the flood of additional alerts and notifications overwhelming or difficult to understand.
Smart-connected devices also face concerns about security and privacy. A hacker could theoretically target a smart lock or home security system, for example, and the data collected by the products might be used by the companies that make them.
August, the company that is working on making smart locks, will not start shipping until it is certain that its system is safe from breaches.
Despite all these doubts, the tech industry remains confident about the possibilities. Google’s purchase last week made that clear.
“This is the tipping point year,” said Alex Hawkinson, the founder and chief executive of SmartThings. “The big guys are waking up to the opportunity and it'll accelerate.”
Adapted from The New York Times
2/02/2014
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