Home Blog Page 123

Employees Love CEOs Who Do What’s Best For Them Above All Else

superadmin
-
0

The results from employment site Glassdoor’s annual CEO survey are out and they show a shocking, yet perhaps unsurprising pattern: Employees don’t care what big corporations are doing to their country.

At least not the employees – past and present – of those companies, according to Glassdoor.

The annual survey is a tally of employee feedback given to the site, where companies must have had over 100 CEO approval ratings over the last year ended April 22nd to make the list. The company with the highest overall CEO approval rating wins.

There’s some surprising results.

For one, Silicon Valley is decidedly in an echo chamber. Two of the top five CEOs on the list preside over the greatest quest in human history to remove personal privacy. Google CEO Larry Page, who’s business is selling the intimate details of your life to advertisers, was number one on the list. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who is literally trying to control the entire internet via Facebook’s slimy internet.org scheme, clocked in at number four. Clearly everyone in the Valley is totally cool with abusing users if it means more stock options.

Another result that shows ‘if you’re getting paid, its OK’ is the infamous chemical company Monsanto, helmed by Hugh Grant, who came in sixth place despite continuing to sell the cancer causing Roundup pesticide and flooding the world with untested genetically modified crops, among other misdeeds.

Further confirming that money makes everything right was the criminal banking racket Goldman Sachs, who’s CEO Llyod Blankfein not only received $10 billion from the government to prevent his firm going bankruptd due to greed but also presided over one of the largest criminal rackets in history. Under his leadership, Goldman has paid nearly $10 billion in fines for a laundry list of offenses related to market rigging, lying to investors, scamming clients and avoiding prosecution. Despite all this Blankfein has nonetheless made hundreds of millions of dollars in a clear show that crime, if big enough, does indeed pay.

While more reputable companies like solar panel maker SolarCity, ethical coffee chain Starbucks and lodging site Airbnb made the list, the trend is clear: Employees, by and large, are willing to support illegal and unethical corporate behavior if it means money in their pocket.

Food for thought as you browse the full list below.

top50CEOS

Tiny Pacific Islands Announce They’re Suing Big Western Polluters

superadmin
-
0

While seven of the world’s wealthiest and supposedly most advanced nations met in Germany to discuss climate change and agreed to stop using fossil fuels by 2100, in the South Pacific a similar conversation was being had about climate change.

Yet the result of that meeting was very different.

The six tiny countries present, under the People’s Declaration for Climate Justice, announced they will bring legal action against fossil fuel companies for their role in contributing to climate change.

The signatories are Fiji, the Philippines, Vanuatu, Kiribati, Tuvalu, and the Solomon Islands.

“As the people most acutely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, we will not let the big polluters decide and assign our fate,” the declaration states. “We refuse to accept the ‘new normal’ and demand for climate justice by holding the big polluters and their respective governments to account for their contribution to the climate crisis.”

Simultaneously, environmental rights group Greenpeace Southeast Asia announced it will submit a petition to the Philippines Commission on Human Rights, requesting an investigation into the role of major polluters in human rights violations caused by climate change.

“The power of this declaration is that it represents what I think is a growing movement of people who are no longer patiently waiting for governments to address the challenges of climate change, and who are actually saying, ‘We are going to use the legal mechanism available to us in our courts, in your courts, and human rights bodies to hold you, the polluters, accountable for the human rights violations we are suffering,’” Carroll Muffett, president of the Center for International Environmental Law, said to reporters.

An example of the devestating effect climate change has on the tiny islands was seen in March, when Cyclone Pam ripped through Vanuatu, killing 24, displacing 3,300, and destroying 90 percent of the island’s infrastructure.

One week later, three more tropical storms smashed through the South Pacific, pounding the region’s island nations with wind and rain.

While no stranger to extreme weather, the islands in the region have seen a notable uptick in the frequency of the most intense storms — from 1975 to 1989, and 1990 to 2004, the occurrence of Category 4 and 5 storms more than doubled in the Pacific region, according to research conducted by the World Bank.

The trend shows no sign of letting up, either. Scientists are already warning of the potential for stronger and more frequent storms in the coming years.

But its not just storms – the islands are also suffering from rising sea levels, which threaten to overrun the islands, and from ocean acidification, which is killing marine life on which the islands depend.

According to David Hunter, director of the Program on International and Comparative Environmental Law at American University’s Washington College of Law, there are significant obstacles with mounting a legal challenge of this unprecedented scope.

“If you are citizens in Fiji and you want to sue Chevron, you’re going to have jurisdictional questions,” Hunter noted. While there are other legal technicalities that must be overcome, Hunter thinks the nations have logic on their side.

“Generally speaking, if we look at this in the simplest form, they are people that are suffering from actions that companies and others have been involved in,” he said. “If we think about the legal system as trying to remedy an injustice or an injury, then you have injury and can probably demonstrate causation from the burning of fossil fuels to ocean acidification or sea level rise.”

There’s already a trend towards using the legal system to assign blame, and damages, to serial polluters, as in April some 900 Dutch nationals filed a lawsuit against their government for failing to mitigate climate change.

Belgium has also seen similar actions, where a lawsuit against the government is in its early stages. Even here at home Our Children’s Trust, an Oregon registered not for profit, has launched several youth-led lawsuits targeting state and federal entities for failing to prevent climate change.

“If you think about tobacco litigation, one case after another lost and lost and lost until the nature of the plaintiffs started changing and started growing, and suddenly the tobacco companies started losing,” Muffett said. “I think that’s the stage we’re at with climate change.”

That should strike fear in the hearts of large corporate polluters and pollution enablers. Big tobacco companies once looked invincible and yet after decades of patient documentation and legal challenges they were finally held accountable for actions they should have known better than to commit.

maldivesairport

Overworked Russian Air Force Suffers Three Crashes In Five Days

superadmin
-
0

The relentless pace of Russian military belligerence appears to be catching up to the communist nation, as a Russian air force TU-95s “Bear” bomber ignited while on a practice flight Tuesday, marking the third such crash of a Russian plane in the last six days.

It seems that Vladimir Putin’s desire to display military might is vastly outstripping the elderly, underfunded Russian army’s ability to showcase it.

In an increasingly erratic and misguided attempt to re-live the Cold War days of his youth, Putin has ordered an increase in both military drills and politically motivated encroachment flights.

Its air force has dramatically increased the number of unannounced patrol flights near European territory, with states from the Baltics to Great Britain having to repeatedly scramble fighters to force Russian planes away from their airspace.

Russia’s news agency Interfax reported last night that the same model of aircraft which Russia flew off the coast of England in January, skidded off a runway at a military base in Russia’s Siberian Amurskaya region after a fire ignited in its engine during training flights. The TU-95s was severely damaged in the incident, with at least one injury.

In response, Russia has grounded all TU-95s while it inspects the ancient aircraft for any faults that could affect the entire fleet.

Its the third such incident suffered by the Russian air force since last Thursday, when two different fighter jets crashed in two different parts of the country.

Last Thursday Russia’s state news agencies reported that a MiG-29 “Fulcrum” fighter jet had crashed near a practice ground in Astrahanskaya region, in northern Caucasus after a malfunction. Later in the day an Su-34 “Fullback” fighter jet went down during a practice flight, sustaining “serious damage” after hitting the ground in Voronezhskaya region, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported.

While in both cases the pilots ejected and were not hurt, the incidents are serious and point to an under-maintained and elderly Russian aircraft fleet.

The Fullback is the newest aircraft currently in the Russian air force, the first unit of which was produced in 1993, though the model that crashed was likely produced well after that date.

According to Dr Igor Sutyagin, Russian military expert at the UK’s Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), all signs point to a Russian military that is being stretched too thin.

“This could be an interesting sign of the overstretching of Russian armed capabilities, because the maintenance template for these vehicles does not take into account the much higher operational tempo they have been operating under lately,” Sutyagin says.

“The Bear bombers for example are designed for a single strike on missions not for extended training flights,” he concluded.

Sutyagin thinks that, if Russia continues its military belligerence, a similar crash occurring near European territory is entirely possible.

“Half a year ago when NATO fighters were intercepting Russian ones, some were saying how Nato would soon find itself without jets because it would overstretch them,” Sutyagin says “Instead the opposite has happened.”

“Looking at the Bears, the newest one of them was produced in 1992. It’s more than 20 years old. No one can exclude mishaps on any flying machine especially one that is overexerted. That is why you cannot rule out a mishap such as this happening in European skies,” he adds.

The timing of these failures is far from ideal for Russia. The summer season will see an intense period of practice for its paratroopers, who are scheduled to attend over 1,000 training events over the next three month.

It also is less than ideal given the Kremlin is trying to establish itself as a high quality manufacturer of arms, having recently bragged that its next generation fighter jets will be far better than their US-made equivalents.

The Ministry of Defense is preparing for its Armiya-2015, expo where its latest weapons systems will be sold to representatives from 100 countries.

It will likely have some explaining to do about the latest failures before getting full-priced orders.

su24

Anxiety Running High As South Korea Confirms 9 MERS Deaths And 100 New Cases

superadmin
-
0

South Korean health officials said on Wednesday that more than 100 people are now confirmed to have been infected with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus.

The number of officially confirmed cases is now 108, with nine dying as a result.

The South Korean government has mandated that 32 more hospitals test for MERS and is apealing to people who’ve had contact with infected persons or have MERS-like symptoms, such as fever, to visit one of the designated hospitals.

The World Health Organization has sent a team to visit the hospital in Seoul which has confirmed the largest number of the South Korean MERS cases.

While the WHO says the pattern of infection is similar to the outbreaks in the Middle East, the situation is in flux in South Korea and thus warrants continued study.

The South Korean government, meanwhile, is calling for calm.

Officials have stressed that all infections confirmed so far have happened inside hospitals, and thus the route to infection has been identified.

Four patients have been discharged from the hospital after successfully fighting the virus.

Yet anxiety is running high among the public, despite the relatively small number of infections and diligent response by officials.

Over 3,400 people remain in quarantine and many kindergartens and elementary schools remain closed nationwide.

The measures to stop the virus, it seems, are having a greater effect on people’s daily lives than the actual disease.

mers

Changing Of The Guard: Netflix Is Now Bigger Than Yahoo

superadmin
-
0
Changing Of The Guard: Netflix Is Now Bigger Than Yahoo

Once an internet darling, portal site Yahoo has languished for years. While the company has mostly traded on its value as an Alibaba investment vehicle, due to the 10 percent stake Yahoo had in the Chinese ecommerce giant, it has failed to generate any meaningful new revenue producing assets.

This has finally caught up with the once-darling stock, as today Yahoo’s market value was eclipsed by that of internet TV streaming giant Netflix.

Netflix has had a strong year thus far, beating both the S&P 500 index and old media companies. Its current market cap is $41.17 billion. Yahoo’s sits just below this for the first time ever – at $39.56 billion.

Yet Yahoo will likely remain there from now on as Netflix is one of the great American internet giants of its time. Yahoo, by contrast, looks increasingly like an old media company from the days of portal websites that did everything.

The company, under lackluster leader Marissa Mayer, has engaged in tough financial management but has failed to innovate. Its now trying to copy Google in search, Netflix in video and AOL in content.

While Netflix dominates with hits like House of Cards, Orange Is The New Black and Daredevil, Yahoo has overpaid for NBC niche hit Community and the live broadcast rights to a third rate NFL game in Europe, in a vain effort to try and keep up with today’s internet trend setters like Netflix.

“I’m not suggesting at all we’re going to be Netflix,” said Yahoo CFO Kenneth Goldman “But we do see video more and more in a way we think about how we’re going to grow our business.”

It remains to be seen if this will be profitable growth, as Google, Netflix and host of others all recently declined the NFL’s offer to stream its early morning football game.

The market, apparently, feels the same.

nflxyhoo

Despite No Plan, Obama To Send 450 More Troops To Iraq

superadmin
-
0

While President Obama and his staff have admittedly not figured out a plan for fighting ISIS, the military will send ‘up to’ 450 troops to Iraq to boost the training of local forces. The move comes after an overnight series of bombs on Baghdad by the Islamic State and the Iraqi government’s appeals for more help.

The troops will be used to open an additional training center, bringing the number from four to five, in theory enabling a larger number of Iraqis to join the fight against ISIS. Sunni tribal volunteers would be the target audience for the training.

President Barack Obama, according to White House spokespeople, made the decision at the request of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and based on advice from Pentagon defense planners.

While Obama continues to resist demands for combat troops or for more U.S. soldiers on the ground to call in air strikes, the will of Iraq’s army to fight remains in serious doubt.

Numerous reports have emerged of well equipped soldiers simply dropping their weapons and running when confronted by ISIS attacks. Iraq also does not have a standing army of any sort and instead a mishmash of tribal militias. This means poor coordination and communication between the groups, while ISIS is a battle hardened, tightly organized group that is using innovative tactics to overtake and demoralize its enemies.

iraqtraining

ISIS May Be Plotting Attack On Baghdad As Series Of Bombs Go Off In Capital

superadmin
-
0

ISIS continues to wage war on Iraq and may even have the country’s capital in its sights, as it looks to pounce on a weak army with no apparent will to fight.

Following a successful attack on Ramadi, in which Iraqi soldiers fled and gave up over 2,300 U.S. supplied Humvees, a series of bomb attacks in and around the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on Wednesday left more than 18 people dead.

Eight people were killed in the city center on Palestine Street after a car bomb exploded, striking terror into the heart of Baghdad’s residents.

While Iraq has been wracked for years by deadly sectarian attacks, the overnight offensive was from ISIS, which claimed responsibility.

Other attacks were reported in the capital with many targeting military personnel, likely a tactic to encourage them not to fight and give up as they did in Ramadi.

ISIS also perpetrated another attack on Tuesday against a local government building in Amiriyat al-Fallujah, just west of Baghdad, in which two people were killed.

While Baghdad remains under government control, ISIS has advanced to the edges of the city, as the map below shows.

isisterritory

North Korea Threatens U.S. With Cyber Attack In Response To Recent Revelations

superadmin
-
0

Every country in the world is building cyber armies, even the most disconnected. Hermit kingdom North Korea, which has only one outside link to the internet, is even joining the party.

On Tuesday it responded to a report, which we covered here, that it was the target of an unsuccessful Stuxnet-style cyber attack.

Stuxnet was a virus inserted into Iran’s nuclear control computers, which ran its uranium enrichment centrifuges at improper speeds, irreparably damaging them. It is widely considered the most successful state-sponsored cyber attack known.

North Korea’s largest daily newspaper published an article on Tuesday, which said it would wage a cyber war against the United States. While this is usual rhetoric, the country has recently been blamed for several large attacks, including a devastating hack of Sony Pictures. That attack was in response to a parody film about the assassination of rotund dictator Kim Jong-un.

Aside from the Sony attack, most of its hacks have been against arch-enemy South Korea.

“The DPRK can react to any forms of wars, operations and battles sought by the U.S. imperialists,” the newspaper said. DPRK is an somewhat ironic acronym for the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“It is the firm determination of the DPRK to wage Korean-style cyber war to hasten the final ruin of the U.S. and the forces following it, who attempted to bring down the former with the cyber war,” it went on to say.

The article appeared in Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the ruling Workers Party of Korea. The paper is a key propaganda mouthpiece for the ruling elite.

“The U.S. is greatly mistaken if it thinks the DPRK will just overlook with folded arms the provocations in the cyber space,” the Rodong Sinmun concluded.

While its no match for the United States, North Korea’s lack of internet connectivity makes cyber war against the country difficult. While over 5,500 North Korean cyber-warriors use Chinese computers to attack America, the single connection to the country and tiny use of computers makes it a difficult target for cyber attacks.

northkoreacyberarmy

Two Days After Launch Apple Music Is Under Investigation For Antitrust Violations

superadmin
-
0

Apple’s splashy launch of its Apple Music service wasn’t just being watched by loyal fans and iPhone users looking for great tunes – attorney generals from around the country were also watching. Closely.

Just two days after launch, the company’s music streaming service is already facing antitrust investigations from two U.S. states.

New York and Connecticut are now investigating Apple to see if it has pressured or colluded with record labels to eliminate “freemium” services from competitors like Spotify and Rdio.

The freemium services allow music to be played in exchange for users tolerating ads – an important point to remember. The music is not free, as the record labels would have you believe, its ad supported. The same as radio always was.

The services offer paid tiers for users who to avoid the ads and get access to a better selection of music, among other extra features.

Rich record companies have been hounding the industry to do away with the ad supported tier, trying to use technology to extort users rather than provide a better, cheaper, experience.

According to reports, Apple also pushed hard on this goal, pressuring labels to quit supporting the freemium services.

A spokesman for one of the attorneys general said that the investigation is looking to ensure consumers continue to enjoy the benefits of music streaming and that the industry isn’t colluding to force users to pay more.

Streaming is huge business, as we profiled yesterday, with streaming revenues exceeding those from physical media at several big record levels for the first time in history.

Universal Music Group has already responded to the investigation, indicating it had no agreements with Apple or with other record companies to unduly pressure the freemium tier service.

Apple has a history of content-based anti-trust violations. A U.S. federal judge found in 2013 that the company had violated antitrust laws by colluding with publishers artificially raise e-book prices above the $9.99 charged by Amazon.com.

Worryingly for Apple, the two attorneys general involved in the music probe also worked the e-book antitrust case.

Apple has declined to comment on the investigation thus far.

appleHQ

Russian Space Program Hit By Yet Another Failure As Docked Capsule Pushes Space Station Out Of Orbit

superadmin
-
0

Russia’s space program continues to flounder as a malfunction on a docked Russian space module caused the International Space Station to shift from its normal orbital, the beleaguered Russian space agency Roscosmos announced late Tuesday.

NASA officials confirmed that the engines of Soyuz TMA-15M, one of two such craft docked at the station presently, unexpectedly fired at 10:27am Central time on Tuesday. The unplanned boost pushed the station out of its expected position.

The incident occurred while a test of the radio system that controls the docking procedure was being conducted.

In a statement, NASA said that “actions were immediately taken to reorient the ISS” and that “there was no threat to the crew or the station itself, and the issue will have no impact to a nominal return to Earth of the Soyuz TMA-15M on Thursday.”

TMA-15M is scheduled to re-enter Earth on Thursday, carrying three of the six crew members currently aboard the ISS. The European Space Agency’s Samantha Cristoforetti, Russia’s Anton Shkaplerov, and US astronaut Terry Virts will be returning home on in the capsule.

The three have been scheduled to be home sine May 14th, but have had to remain in orbit following the Russian loss of the Progress M-27M supply ship during a resupply mission to the ISS on April 28th.

This delay means Cristoforettim having spent 200 days in space, will break American Sunita Williams’ record for a woman’s time in space by five days.

Roscosmos still does not know the reason for the accidental engine ignition.

Soyuz TMA-15M

Amazon, Google, Facebook Snub European Commission Officials On Taxes

superadmin
-
0

Big tech companies are known to be global tax evaders, using an elaborate corporate structures to pay virtually no tax. We’ve covered the practice here and here, yet there’s more action on this issue in the Eurozone Wednesday morning.

European members of parliament are digging into the practice and their Tax Rulings Committee, which is the body handling the probe, invited Amazon, Facebook and Google to an informal meeting to discuss their tax practices.

The three tech giants all declined the request, signaling a continued hardline stance on the issue.

The snubbed EU members said on Tuesday that it’s disappointing the tech giants “seem unable to find time to discuss their tax practices in public before the European Parliament’s Tax Rulings Committee, despite its best efforts to accommodate them.”

The Tax Rulings Committee was formed after the “Luxleaks” scandal, which highlighted the vast scale and elaborate measures large multinationals take to avoid taxes.

“If they stick to their refusal, it will come across as if they have more to lose than to win by being transparent about the way they fulfill their legal obligations in Europe,” warned committee chairman Alain Lamassoure.

Co-rapporteur Michael Theurer, who is a leader of the committee, was even more upset, saying the absenteeism was “absolutely unacceptable”.

While the committee has no power to force the companies to participate, it surely will not be viewed favorably by other EU bodies who do have power. Google is already under investigation by the EU competition committee, which has wide ranging authority to impose sanctions on the company.

techtaxes

Embattled World Soccer Body FIFA Suspends Bidding On Future World Cups

superadmin
-
0

FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke, the defacto spokesperson now that disgraced president Sepp Blatter is under investigation, said on Wednesday that FIFA would “postpone” the bidding process for the 2026 World Cup. The announcement comes after investigations are swirling around individual FIFA members, its leadership, host countries and the bidding process used to award the international tournaments.

The bidding process had previously been expected to start soon, with a final award in 2017. But Valcke said it’s “nonsense to start any bidding process for the time being.”

On Monday, in a predictable decision, FIFA said that there are no legal grounds for it to take the 2018 World Cup from Russia or the 2022 event from Qatar, though U.S. and international prosecutors may have a different opinion once their investigations are complete.

Numerous senior officials have agreed to cooperate, raising the possibility that stunning revelations of corruption in the bidding process will be revealed about both tournaments.

FIFA has been embroiled in scandal since the United States indicted 14 people, including nine top FIFA officials, on corruption charges last month. Swiss authorities simultaneously opened a separate investigation into how the 2018 and 2022 World Cup were awarded.

The U.S. indictment against Jack Warner, FIFA’s former vice president, alleges he took a $10 million bribe to vote for South Africa to host the 2010 World Cup.

Valcke, fearing he, too, will become entangled in the case, has strenuously denied any wrongdoing in connection with the $10 million bribe.

He has also insisted that FIFA “has never been described as a corrupt organization” despite numerous allegations, supported by years of rumors, that paint an opposing picture.

Valcke has also suggested that the media is out to get him, similar language used by Blatter before his downfall.

“You have decided that after Blatter, I have to be the head to cut,” he said to reporters.

U.S. Announces ISIS Employees Will Be Targeted For Bombing

superadmin
-
0

While President Obama has admitted the U.S. is in the process of putting together a plan to deal with ISIS, signs are emerging that the plan is coming together. Late Tuesday, U.S. officials revealed that any salaried employee of an oil facility within ISIS territory in Iraq and Syria will be considered a “legitimate target” for coalition airstrikes.

Analysis of a recent Delta Force commando raid in eastern Syria last month, which obtained a treasure trove of laptops and cell phones belonging to members of the Islamic State, showed detailed organizational charts about staffing and operation of the group’s lucrative oil facilities.

Prior to the raid it had been thought that such facilities were staffed by conscripts, but workers at the plants were revealed to be “salaried Islamic State employees, thus making them legitimate targets” for military strikes.

CENTCOM, which is leading the aerial campaign against ISIS, takes “great care” in order to minimize the risk of collateral damage, particularly any potential harm to non-combatants,” a government official said.

The key takeaway from the revised policy is that it dramatically expands the range of potential targets for coalition strikes. Strike to date have had narrow target ranges, which has led to many jets returning to base without dropping their bombs.

Yet there are, as in any war, devilishly tough human rights issues.

“It’s certainly problematic from a human rights perspective if they’re describing these people as legitimate targets,” said Matthew Henman, head of defense consultancy IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Centre. “There’s a massive distinction between those who support ISIS because they have no other choice and those who endorse its ideology, the card-carrying members of the group.”

In fact, ISIS, in trying to become a legitimate state, has made a point of paying as many workers as possible in critical services, such as doctors and nurses in its hospitals and teachers at its schools.

But the U.S. appears to draw a line when it comes to individuals with much-needed technical expertise, as such people are key to keeping oil refineries running. Smuggling oil, mostly by way of Turkey, is the number one source of revenue for ISIS, with the group exporting up to 80,000 barrels a day, worth over $1 million, at its peak last summer.

Pentagon officials confirm that U.S. air strikes have notably reduced ISIS capacity to produce oil, yet there are risks with striking the facilities.

As the civilian death toll rises, the population under ISIS control may become disillusioned with the United States and start thinking that ISIS is the only force who can protect them.

“If these lines and boundaries start to blur,” said Henman, “you’ll have a population caught between ISIL forces on the ground and coalition forces in the sky.”

The U.S. has faced similar issues in Afghanistan, where its drone missile attacks on senior Taliban leaders led to horrible morale blowback. One commander was successfully killed, however a further 100 community members also died as the attack took place at a wedding, in which the Taliban accounted for just a small number of the guests. Such events produce generations of hate, as children see parents, grandparent and cousins all killed by U.S. forces. They then grow up despising the United States.

Why Google Doesn’t Need Its Own Streaming Music Service

superadmin
-
0

Streaming music is big business. Big enough that Apple just moved into the space with its Apple Music service, joining Pandora, Spotify, Amazon’s Prime Music, Rdio, Deezer, Songza and a host of other, even smaller, competitors.

While seemingly in direct competition on some fronts with Apple and Amazon, Google’s Play Music product is neglected and unpromoted.

This is telling. Google is notorious for its use of data to analyze whether to be in a business or not and the lack of focus on Play Music suggests that it has done the numbers and does not believe music can help its search business or Android OS.

And that’s the bet for big tech companies like Amazon, Apple and Google: Will adding streaming music attract or retain customers?

In Apple’s case, its mostly about selling hardware, namely the pricey iPhone and iPad. If people become used to Apple Music, it will make it harder for them to switch to Google’s Android, much as iTunes has fulfilled this service in the past. After all, Apple Music replaces iTunes.

Amazon’s making the same bet: Its Prime service, which for a yearly fee gives members all sorts of perks such as free shipping, keeps customers chained to its core e-commerce business. While streaming and free shipping aren’t related, and Prime surely doesn’t make Amazon money from its fee, it keeps people buying and that’s its purpose.

Google’s Play Music, buried among its raft of products and services, is pretty different. For one, it works with rival iTunes, which seems more of a concession to iPhone users switching to Android than a way to keep people on Android. It also features access to YouTube, which seems to be Google’s way of playing the streaming / content game. But at $9.99 a month, it feels like this is an afterthought product, one which Google tries to control losses on, knowing it doesn’t actually add a ton of value for most of its customers.

Google Play Music is also an example of the company entering a market and then finding out that it can create few or no advantages. While Google could press on with Play Music, as it surely has the financial resources and userbase to make it something as big as Spotify, its likely a product that’s a bit too far outside its strike zone and not quite profitable enough to really interest the company, who’s search business is the ultimate high margin cash cow. After all, the streaming industry has no shortage of competition and little to now competitive advantage can be seen in any of the players.

In fact, Google could completely throw in the towel on streaming and allow other players to fill the need. If there’s healthy competition on Android for streaming, don’t be surprised if Google gets out of the business entirely.

Iran To Take Legal Action If U.S. Blocks Jet Liner Sale

superadmin
-
0

Iran has threatened to take legal action if the United States tries to prevent its newly acquired passenger planes from flying international routes, the head of the nation’s aviation authority said on Tuesday.

Iran’s state airline, Mahan Air, is blacklisted by Washington. Yet in May it bought eight used Airbus A340s and one Airbus A321 in defiance of U.S. sanctions. Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported last week that Mahan Air intended to use them on international routes.

The U.S. Treasury department ruled last month that Mahan Air had a “blockable interest” in the planes, which means they would be subject to an asset freeze. This means that Washington may attempt to have them confiscated at airports outside Iran.

“As long as a disruption has not taken place, we cannot make a definite assertion. But if it happens, Iran will take legal action,” said the head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization, Alireza Jahangirian.

“America does not have the right to stop our planes on international trips. Under international laws, it is impossible to seize the new Iranian aircraft.”

In addition to Mahan Air itself, the U.S. Treasury department has imposed sanctions on two firms in Iraq and the United Arab Emirates for assisting with the purchase.

Iran expects the new planes to join its aviation fleet “in the coming weeks”, once their documentation has come through.

News agency Fars, possibly floating a trial balloon on behalf of the government, reported that the four-engined A340s would start flying from Tehran to Dubai and Istanbul. It would later use them on long-haul routes, though it did not elaborate which, possibly for fear of U.S. interdiction.

Iran needs to fly the four engine A340 because the country lacks the approvals needed to fly two-engined aircraft on long-haul routes to developed countries, following years of isolation in the global aviation market.

Developed countries require well documented safety records and aircraft paperwork in order to fly over their airspace. Iran is currently banned from doing so when flying two engined planes.

Sanctions for its nuclear program, leveled by the United State, European Union and others ban the sale of aircraft and parts to Iran.

As a result of the sanctions and old aircraft, Iran’s airlines have one of the worst safety records in the world. Its 189 active passenger aircraft have an average age of 22 years.

New Nielsen Research Confirms It: Streaming Services Are Priced Way Too High

superadmin
-
0

While you can’t blame the companies for trying, new research shows what we reported last week: Consumers just don’t want to pay very much for online streaming.

Released just as Apple finished unveiling Apple Music, Nielsen’s extensive report examined the state of Canada’s music industry. While not the United States, its a very accurate proxy.

The Nielsen Music 360 report looked at, among other things, how much people are willing to pay for online music streaming services. They surveyed about 3500 people and concluded that the average person is willing to pay between $5.50 and $6.30 USD a month to listen to an unlimited amount of songs.

That’s well short of the industry standard $9.99.

This supports the popularity of Spotify’s free ad-supported tier, the least expensive option currently available.

The findings are interesting, given Spotify is under constant pressure from music labels to do away with its free tier or stop “giving so many songs away.”

Yet once again big content providers don’t get it, and are insisting on using technology to give consumers a worse deal than they already have. Radio is, after all, free.

Rdio CEO Anthony Bay said in an interview that “the challenge with the $9.99 price point is it’s more than most people have historically spent on music.”

Which makes for an interesting dilemma, as since Nielsen started tracking streaming usage last July, streaming volume has gone up by 94 per cent.

This perhaps points to more innovation in the space in order to come up with a model that pleases both consumers and big record labels.

While each service will have to struggle with what plan to offer consumers, one thing is clear from the report: People won’t be paying for multiple services.

The idea someone would have both a Pandora and Apple Music subscription just won’t happen. In music streaming it will be a winner take all game, where consumers will have just one service and stick to it.

It will be interesting to see data on how consumers feel about TV streaming. The web TV industry currently wants users to maintain 5-10 subscriptions to get cable-like service, without live sports and with the $100 or so per month cable price tag.

If consumers feel about web TV as they do about streaming music, the thought they will buy five or more subscriptions is delusional.

Which bodes extremely well for Netflix and nobody else.

ISIS Is Now Using An Ancient Tunnel Bombing Technique

superadmin
-
0

A deadly modern upgrade to an ancient tactic is emerging as a potent new weapon in Syria, where terror group ISIS has used them to blow up several buildings, it emerged this week. The simple yet effective technique was also used by the group to take the Iraqi city of Ramadi, according to Pentagon officials.

It is a simple enough concept: Dig a tunnel under your target, plant explosives, and press the detonator.

According to the Pentagon organization that studies improvised explosive devices, JIEDDO, at least 45 such devices have been used in the past two years in Iraq and Syria. While most have been used in Syria, U.S. officials say ISIS is building “a network of bunkers, trenches and tunnels” inside Iraq.

“This below the surface attack is particularly destructive to buildings and is appearing increasingly in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria,” according to a recent JIEDDO briefing.

While tunnels are common in war zones, such as as Vietnam, they continue to be used in modern times, most notably by Hezbollah and Hamas in Gaza. Yet those tunnels have mostly been used for transportation. In Vietnam they served as underground highways and places to live, while in Gaza they are generally used to smuggle weapons and launch attacks against Israel.

ISIS, however, is using tunnel bombs against military checkpoints, buildings and other fortified facilities. It takes less than 30 days to dig a short tunnel, while ones that reach a mile long may take up to nine months, according to JIEDDO.

“The use of tunnels for IEDs and other purposes will continue to provide a low risk strategic advantage to extremist organizations and therefore requires continued development efforts and fielding of effective mitigation techniques,” the JIEDDO report said.

In modern war video footage of buildings collapsing, with massive plumes of smoke and debris flying hundreds of feet into the air, are almost as valuable as destroying the target. ISIS frequently posts such dramatic videos to social media, where they generate significant buzz.

“As part of an information operations campaign, these attacks are documented and widely proliferated via social media which increases the likelihood of migration to other conflict areas or adoption by other extremist organizations on a worldwide basis,” JIEDDO says, illustrating that viral videos can lead to the viral spread of terror tactics.

In Syria, rebels have dug tunnels with hand tools to avoid detection. Their targets have been mainly government forces in small attacks.

In Iraq, ISIS has become a heavy user of tunnel bombs, notably to devastating effect in their assault on Ramadi.

A March 11th tunnel bomb under an Iraqi army headquarters killed 22 people. According to the JIEDDO briefing on the matter the blast consumed an estimated seven tons of explosives. The tunnel was 800 feet long and took two months to dig.

But ISIS isn’t just using tunnels for explosives. They’re also using them to stealthily move weapons away from the prying eyes of U.S. drones and fighter jets. They have also likely begun using Saddam Hussein’s legendary network of tunnels, which stretched over 60 miles.

Pentagon planners are now looking to the oil and gas industry for help on ways to detect tunnels. The industry uses seismology to survey the ground and understand the composition of material below the surface. Defense planners are studying which approaches they can roll out to pilots in the region to help them quickly and effectively locate ISIS tunnels.

Yet there’s no certain solution to the problem. Tunnels under city centers will always be difficult to find and tunnels under open areas don’t generally exist.

What is certain is that ISIS will continue to use the tactic, recognizing that it makes life difficult for American forces and also makes for a devastating weapon of war.

The PetroYuan Is Born As Russia Dramatically Ramps Crude Oil Sales To China

superadmin
-
0

It seems world sanctions against Russia are working and yet at the same time they are having an unintended effect: Pushing Russia to increasingly use the Chinese renminbi as its currency of choice.

The fact Russia’s third-largest oil producer is now settling all of its sales to China in renminbi is perhaps the most clear indication yet that western sanctions are both working and driving an increase in the use of the Chinese currency by Russian companies.

The Kremlin’s “pivot to Asia” foreign policy, in response to western sanctions, has basically mandated a shift from the U.S. dollar to renminbi but until now there has been little clarity over just how much trade can actually be settled in the Chinese currency.

Gazprom Neft, the third largest oil producer in the country, announced on Friday that since the start of 2015 it had been selling in renminbi all of its oil for export down the East Siberia Pacific Ocean pipeline to China.

Up until last summer this contract had been settled in U.S. dollars.

Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of state owned Gazprom, responded faster than most. Alexander Dyukov, chief executive officer, announced in April last year that the company had secured agreement from 95 percent of its customers to settle transactions in euros rather than dollars, should they need to.

That statement, while obviously in retaliation for sanctions, was ambiguous as it only alluded to the fact this switch could be made and not that it had been made.

We now know the full extent of that switch. Gazprom Neft’s first-quarter results, issued last month, show the East Siberian Pacific Ocean pipeline accounted for 37.2 percent of the company’s crude oil exports of 1.6 million tons in the three months to March 31st.

That, to many experts, marks the rise of the “PetroYuan”.

According to influential financial newspaper FT, “other Russian energy groups have been more reluctant to drop the dollar for settlement of oil sales,” but the fact other Russian producers are currently considering a shift combined with officials in the U.S. and Europe openly discussing yet more economic sanctions all suggests that the settlements in renminbi will become more prevalent going forward.

This becomes even more fascinating when examining the latest Chinese crude oil import data, which shows their import of OPEC crude is falling dramatically while Russian crude is increasingly dramatically. Venezuela imports were down 11 percent while Saudi crude imports were down 8 percent. Russian imports soared 34 percent.

Just as Russian oil is rising as a percentage of total Chinese crude imports, these contracts are now being settled in renminbi.

The timing gets even more interesting as China is making a big push to only issue loans from its new investment bank (and IMF rival) in renminbi.

In short, China is now making a big push to rival the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency. It won’t happen overnight, but large trade volumes are increasingly being done in Yuan, negatively affecting the value of the U.S. dollar.

Rise Of The Chinese Tech Titans Continues As Search Giant Baidu Announces Self Driving Car

superadmin
-
0

Baidu, the Google of China, is literally working on its own versions of just about every core product Google has or has in the pipeline. It does search, it does maps and now its doing self driving cars.

China’s largest search company confirmed that it would debut its autonomous car prototype in China in the second quarter of 2015, an announcement which comes on the heels of a recent string of partnerships with German car companies to power their car infotainment systems in China. The announcement was delivered by Wanf Jin, Baidu’s Vice President of Tech and Strategy, at the 2015 China Cloud Computing Conference.

Jin did not reveal who will make the cars but the technology will make use of the search company’s mapping services, big data and research conducted by its special projects division Baidu Institute of Deep Learning or ‘Baidu brain’ as its known inside the company. The group’s self driving car program has focused on improving the passenger experience while on Beijing’s highways.

Baidu’s first iteration of self-driving cars will have a steering wheel, gas and brake pedals, which is similar to Google’s fleet of Lexus SUVs it uses for testing.

It remains unclear just how far along the technology is, as Google envisions production models not actually having manual controls of any sort.

Baidu, for the moment, is eyeing self-driving cars that do not totally take the human driver out of the equation, but rather help give them some freedom. The system would work similar to an aircraft’s auto-pilot system rather than a whole new way of getting around.

BMW way be the manufacturer selected, as the company announced last July a partnership involving driverless technology.

While the announcement sounds more humble than Google’s radical plans, make no mistake: Baidu is eyeing driverless passenger cars that operate as convenient taxi services just as much as Google is.

But in typical Chinese fashion its playing its hand slowly and not showing the world too much. At least not yet.

Facebook Announces Latest Tracking Scheme: Spam You At Retail Stores

superadmin
-
0

In the latest example of a solution looking for a problem, Facebook announced on Monday that its Place Tips program is expanding nationwide.

Place Tips uses Bluetooth beacons to push Facebook posts and photos about a business to shoppers’ phones while they’re in the store.

In short, you will now be spammed by useless content as you wait in line to buy your Starbucks.

Just why you would want to know more about your local coffee shop through this mobile spamming isn’t quite clear. It also remains to be seen why a business would want to give you useful items, like a coupon, if you’re already in the store.

But for those in the know, its obvious what is going: Tracking.

By pushing you useless junk, Facebook has an excuse to collect data about you. In-store or retail analytics is a hot new technology, which allows retailers to track and trace you as you wander around or past a store. If you have a mobile phone, they pick it up and track you.

But existing systems don’t connect to Facebook, which knows the most about you of any big internet company.

Facebook’s new plan pushes you junk and requires you to accept that junk. Once you do, Facebook can now associate the formerly anonymous data with your Facebook life.

As you then walk around town, entering or passing by other Facebook-enabled stores, the privacy invader will track you.

Accept once, get tracked forever.

The program started at a few select retailers in New York City in January, and is now available to all businesses in the United State.

In a sign you, and your personal information, are most definitely the product, Facebook will give the tracking beacons away to retailers for free.

As we’ve said before, beware billionaires bearing gifts. If its free and asks for information its not the product.

You are.

Facebook gave no details on how users might opt out of the program, whether they have accepted a spam request or not.

CNN Thinks It Is “Courageous” To Present Advertiser Content As News

superadmin
-
0

Big media companies, with deep connections to powerful corporations, are always looking for more ad dollars. They’re also deathly afraid of existing ad dollars getting pulled. They routinely spike stories, distort coverage and re-purpose facts to ensure their advertisers are portrayed in the best light possible.

Basically they do the opposite of what we do at Americans.org.

But their current verbal acrobatics isn’t enough, as media giant CNN announced on Tuesday the formation of a new unit that won’t report the news but will instead take money from corporations and produce content that is confusingly similar to news but is actually PR for its clients.

The name of this slimy new unit? “Courageous.”

Seriously.

CNN‘s foray into “news-like content on behalf of advertisers” is the latest in a trend of “news companies from the New York Times to BuzzFeed to the Wall Street Journal having units that create advertiser content,” according to the Wall Street Journal’s own marketing blog.

The Journal‘s Steven Perlberg notes, “These undertakings often raise church-and-state questions about the divide between the editorial and business sides of a company.”

We’ve dealt with this exact issue here at Americans.org. Native advertising, where sponsors present editorial content, is a great way for an operation like us to make money. But it can also be slimy, especially if we’re the ones doing the writing.

Would you trust anything we ever said if we wrote both for Toyota and about Toyota air bag recalls?

Probably not.

CNN claims that advertisers will come to Courageous because of CNN‘s “trustworthiness” and unwillingness to “blur the lines.”

Yet this is a business strategy that only works if the similarity of marketing content outweighs the differentiation.

Which is why we have a policy that we will never write advertiser content. Ever.

We also won’t sell ads directly to advertisers for native ads. We think that even having a direct relationship with an advertiser is enough to corrupt our editorial process and so we won’t do it.

Instead we only run ads through third parties and never know which ad is biggest or best on our site. If an advertiser wants to show up on our site, they place their order with our third party. If they want to pull their ads, they do it with them.

Through this whole process we see nothing and know nothing.

We keep publishing our honest opinion of American and world news. You keep getting great, unbiased, coverage of what’s important each day.

We label all our ads, so you know what is sponsored and what is news coverage.

If we ever change this policy feel free to throw this article in our face. But we firmly believe in being as independent as possible from our advertisers and would never pull a big media company move like writing stories about advertisers.

You have our word.

United Nations Leaves Israel Off List Of Child Killing States Despite It Killing Over 500 Children A Year

superadmin
-
0

While the world continues to expose Israel’s campaign of genocide against the Palestinian people, the United Nations continues to turn a blind eye. This willful ignorance was highlighted on Tuesday as the UN’s latest list of parties that kill or injure children in armed conflict failed to include Israel, despite numerous recommendations it be included.

As we pointed out a couple of days ago, Israel has killed over 1000 children in the last three years and over 500 last year alone. This number doesn’t count the number of women and innocent civilians either.

But for notoriously meek UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, 1000 dead children isn’t enough to classify a state as child killers. He just finds the behavior “unacceptable.”

The decision highlights Israel’s preferential relationship with world super powers, as UN special envoy for children in armed conflict, Leila Zerrougui, had strongly recommended that both Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian armed forces, be put on the report’s list of parties that recruit, use, kill, maim or commit acts of sexual violence against children.

The annual aims to name and shames governments and insurgent groups that lead to children’s rights being violated. It was established by the UN security council in August 2009, with the goal of taking “action”, which includes possible sanctions, against those that violate international law on the rights and protection of children in armed conflicts.

This year’s includes groups, both terrorists and government, in:

  • Afghanistan
  • Central African Republic
  • Congo
  • Iraq
  • Mali
  • Myanmar
  • Somalia
  • South Sudan
  • Sudan
  • Syria
  • Yemen

    • The report does mention Israel and “the state of Palestine” for “grave violations committed against children during armed conflict”. But it does not put them on the list for political and economic reasons, undermining the authenticity of the report.

    In Gaza, over 561 children, 557 Palestinians and 4 Israelis, were killed. A further 4,271 were injured, all but 22 of them Palestinians.

    Just how many children the UN would require to make the dubious list remains to be seen.

    The report is typical of UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, who has assumed a low profile at the United Nations and has failed to achieve any notable accomplishments despite being on the job for over nine years. Lack of a two state peace agreement between Israel and Palestine is seen as his greatest failure, given how close an agreement seemed when he took office.

    Why One Quarter Of Japanese Men Being Virgins Is No Laughing Matter

    superadmin
    -
    0

    Its tempting to think this headline is run of the mill internet click bait but a new survey revealing that a quarter of Japanese men are still virgins by their 30s is actually a very serious problem for the country. It also explains the Japanese obsession with robots.

    So many men in Japan are virgins that they have a special name: “yaramiso.” Yet the problem isn’t just virgins, its that people just aren’t having sex. Over 50 percent didn’t report having sex within the last year and 15 percent within five years, according to the Japan Times poll.

    While some may find this amusing, its very serious: Japan now has a declining birth rate and a shrinking population.

    Its population is also old and getting older. Currently 25 percent of its population is over 65 and this will climb to almost 40 percent by 2055.

    At the same time, its population will shrink 25 percent by 2055.

    Older people require care and by not having sex and making the associated babies, Japan faces a monumental crisis.

    It needs young people to care for the elderly.

    So much so that’s waging a two pronged war against the lack of sex: Relationship training for young Japanese and investing heavily in robots.

    One program, “Virgin Academia,” helps the “able-bodied” improve their understanding of sex, while teaching relationship skills.

    While sexual images are everywhere in Japan most people don’t talk about sex and relationships, owing to deep a cultural history of avoiding the topic.

    This shows given “Virgin Academia” is not widely accepted in Japan’s society. Its lectures on how to find a partner, and a three day boot camp featuring intercourse lessons has even been met with online protests and negative press. The backlash was so strong police eventually shut it down.

    Which is why academics in Japan are increasingly looking to robots to solve the pending demographic crisis. Japan is the world leader in robots, specifically focusing on service robots that perform tasks like dispense pills, diagnose medical conditions, assist people with walking and providing companionship.

    World Governments Force Activist Group To Pay Japan’s Illegal Whale Hunting Industry

    superadmin
    -
    0

    In what clearly shows the world is ruled by big money corporate interests, hard-line antiwhaling group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has bizarrely been forced to pay the illegal Japanese whaling industry $2.55 million for “damages”.

    Despite the whaling industry being illegal and despite Sea Shepherd being the only group in the world to fight the illegal slaughter, a U.S. court has nonetheless ruled that the group must pay the substantial sum.

    Facing possible jail time, the group now has no choice and has agreed to pay Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research, a sham front company purporting to do “research whaling” but really just commercially fishing the whales into extinction.

    The “research” fishing started in 1987, immediately following an international moratorium on commercial whaling. Japan officially still defends whaling as a cultural tradition and is the world’s number one killer of marine mammals. In addition to its commercial whaling, it also conducts a yearly mass killing of endangered dolphins.

    The sham whaling company, along with Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha, the provider of the vessels and crew for the illegal activities, sued Sea Shepherd in U.S. federal court in 2011 and the court issued an injunction against the protests in 2012.

    Sea Shepherd uses aggressive tactics like attempting to ram the whalers, throwing smoke bombs and dragging metal-reinforced ropes in the water to damage propellers and rudders to stop the illegal harvest of whales.

    Last December, in a ruling clearly all about money, Sea Shepherd was held in contempt of a U.S. injunction banning the conservation group from attacking the Japanese government-funded whaling fleet and approaching the fleet on the open sea.

    “Sea Shepherd does not agree with the Ninth Circuit [Court]’s holding that it was in contempt, but after more than two years of litigation, we are very pleased to be putting the contempt action behind us,” Sea Shepherd said on its website.

    Sea Shepherd is widely regarded as one of the most honest and effective environmental groups in the world. It specializes action-oriented tactics to stop activities which hurt the environment. It is supported by many notable donors including Bob Barker, Christian Bale, Pierce Brosnan, Sean Penn and even the Dalai Lama.

    Intel Releases Alert Over NSA Created Malware Infecting Its Harddrives

    superadmin
    -
    0

    Each month Intel releases a security bulletin to alert customers to trends in threats it is seeing to computer and smartphone users. This month’s report contained the usual list new criminal malware, trying to steal your identity, your bitcoins or your webcam selfies.

    But for the first time, the company reported on more advanced threats, which attack not just your operating system, but the low-level software, known as firmware, that runs your machine.

    Intel’s report flagged “persistent and virtually undetectable attacks” traced to a group of malware authors known as the Equation Group. These attacks are highly sophisticated, reprogramming hard disk drive and solid state drive firmware.

    The attacks make getting rid of the infection impossible, short of replacing the actual drive itself. Once infected by the Equation Group’s malware, the firmware reloads malware each time infected systems boot. The malware persists even if the drives are reformatted or the operating system is re-installed.

    Anti-virus security software can’t detect the infection, making it impossible to stop.

    Why this is interesting is that the Equation Group has been traced to elite units of the NSA, which has in turn been confirmation by former staffers.

    The Equation Group is the NSA.

    These are the same folks who carried out the successful Stuxnet attack which heavily damaged Iran’s nuclear program and the same folks who also tried a similar, unsuccessful, attack on North Korea.

    Vincent Weafer, senior vice president, McAfee Labs said “These Equation Group firmware attacks rank as some of the most sophisticated threats of their kind. While such malware has historically been deployed for highly-targeted attacks, enterprises should prepare themselves for the seemingly inevitable ‘off-the-shelf’ incarnations of such threats in the future.”

    In plain language, Intel (via its McAfee subsidiary) is warning businesses, hospitals and government agencies to be on the lookout for these attacks. They’re seeing more of them and its likely that China, Russia and other U.S. rivals will be using very similar methods.

    Given that virtually all smartphones are manufactured in China, its very likely many are infected with the same type of super-complex malware that Intel is seeing attack computer hard drives.

    Apple Releases First Android App, To Help Users Leave Android

    superadmin
    -
    0

    Apple and its CEOs have never been shy about their disdain for Android, the rival smartphone operating system created by Google.

    At virtually every press conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook takes at least one potshot at Android’s fragmentation or its poor app store monetization strategy.

    Of course Apple thinks everyone should be on an iPhone and couldn’t imagine any reason to not be using all Apple products.

    At yesterday’s yearly Apple pilgrimage, known as World Wide Developers Conference, Apple quietly announced that with the release of iOS9, it iPhone operating system, it will also release its first and only Android app.

    But this is hardly a peace offering, as the app’s sole purpose is to make it easy for users to back up contacts, calendar information, bookmarks, photos and videos, messages, mail accounts, wallpapers and installed apps, for transition to iPhone.

    Literally named ‘Move to iOS’, the app uploads all your information to iCloud, which will then transfer all your settings, contacts and even installed apps onto your brand new iPhone.

    As a final snub to Google, Apple will also happily accept Android phones for recycling at any of its retail locations.

    Interestingly, Apple will be releasing another app shortly for Android. It announced plans to release its Apple Music service to the Google-run platform, which is a first for the company.

    The moves suggest that as Google’s Android dominates market share, Apple is looking for subtle yet effective ways to migrate Android users to its platform. Apple Music is a good way to do this, as Apple will then have an Apple account will all personal details and billing information.

    From there its just a phone purchase and a ‘Move To iOS’ download away from making you a fully fledged Apple customer.

    New Security Research Shows Hackers Are Actively Infiltrating Hospital Medical Devices

    superadmin
    -
    0

    A shocking new report was published on Monday showing just how compromised America’s healthcare technology has become. After recent incidents involving Chinese hackers stealing patient information, security firm TrapX decided to look a little closer, specifically examining the actual medical devices used by hospitals on patients.

    A report released by the firm claims that attackers are actively using unprotected medical devices such as radiologic (x-ray) systems, to maintain a foothold on healthcare networks. These machines receive less scrutiny from anti-virus software and IT departments, making them ideal staging areas for sophisticated attacks.

    The report is based on actual details from TrapX customer engagements and lab research the firm did on commonly used models of medical devices. According to the report, medical devices, in particular picture archive and communications systems (PACS) radiologic imaging systems, are basically invisible to security monitoring systems which makes them an ideal platform for malware infections. The researchers found that hacker use the un-monitored machines to launch attacks on other, high value IT assets within the hospital, such as customer record keeping systems.

    Among the specific examples mentioned in the report were:

    A malware infection at a TrapX customer site spread from a unmonitored PACS system to a key nurse’s workstation. The result: confidential hospital data was secreted off the network to a server hosted in Guiyang, China.

    A healthcare institution was found to have the Zeus and Citadel malware operating from infected blood gas analyzers in the hospital’s laboratory, which were infected and provided a “backdoor” into the hospital’s network and were being used to harvest credentials from other systems on the network.

    “The medical devices themselves create far broader exposure to the healthcare institutions than standard information technology assets,” the report concluded.

    The researchers found that medicals systems that contacted patients were most vulnerable because they are in virtually every hospital department, almost never get software updates due to being in use and run old operating systems like Windows 2000 which are not longer supported for security updates.

    Based upon our experience and understanding, our scientists believe that a large majority of hospitals are currently infected with malware that has remained undetected for months and in many cases years. We expect additional data to support these assertions over time.” the company said.

    The report is among the first of its kind to document medical systems being infected with malware. Many such systems have been demonstrated by researchers to be vulnerable but very few have actively been discovered in the wild.

    It remains to be seen whether these systems are particularly being targeted or are becoming infected randomly due to be older and vulnerable.

    TrapX will release its full report later this week.

    Apple Announces Streaming Music Service To Take On Spotify And Pandora

    superadmin
    -
    0

    At the company’s annual Worldwide Developer’s Conference, Apple saved its big Apple Music announcement for the last keynote.

    After a relatively boring day, focused on technical enhancements to its PC and iPhone operating systems, the audience finally got a peak at a brand new product.

    Apple Music, its streaming service to compete with big players Pandora and Spotify, will feature personalized recommendations, curated playlists and streaming access to Apple’s huge library of music.

    In return users will pay a monthly subscription fee of $9.99 for a single-user plan or $14.99 a month for a six user family plan. While the single user price is the same as virtually all other streaming services, the family plan is notably cheaper. That’s an interesting move for a company that is usually the highest priced.

    Apple hopes to set itself apart with the launch of Beats 1, a new global radio station led by former BBC DJ Zane Lowe. This will replace the free, ad-supported level that most streaming services offer.

    The company touted Connect, an in-app social network where artists share photos, lyrics, and remixes, and speak to fans. Whether this gets used or collects dust remains to be seen – there are already a bevy of places to do all this (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Soundcloud, Mixcloud etc..)

    Right now, Apple Music looks like a very convenient cash grab for the device maker. Apple already has user credit cards and an install base of over 100 million in the U.S. alone. Assuming it has 400 million in use worldwide, and can get Apple Music running in most of those markets, that’s a large number of potential users.

    Apple will also push the software out to users, avoiding the usual marketing spend needed to get installs.

    At $10 a month and 100 million users that some serious money. Granted Apple will only get maybe 25 percent of this, but its still notable. A more importantly recurring.

    The recurring is nice for Apple because the money will just show up every month. That’s a nice stable stream of cash that gets added for relatively little work. More importantly, though, it creates yet more stickiness to Apple products. By making it easy to get high quality streaming music on your iPhone, people are less apt to switch phones.

    And that’s probably the real play here.

    While there remains much to be seen about Apple Music, particularly can it convince users to sign up for monthly subscriptions and is it better than rival apps of varying sorts, Apple Music is a low risk, no-brainer bet. Its the type Tim Cook likes – predictable and nothing that, should it fail, will really rock the boat.

    Apple gets to stay laser focused on devices, adds a nice revenue stream and if the whole thing doesn’t work no big deal – Apple TV hasn’t been setting the world on fire and nobody seems to care. If Apple Music went that way the result would likely be the same.

    Apple Music will launch in the United States and other western markets June 30th with a three-month free trial, 2 months more than competitors at present (though expect a massive marketing push by the competition around the end of June).

    U.S. Army Homepage Is Hacked By Syrian Electronic Army

    superadmin
    -
    0

    Hackers loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime briefly defaced the homepage of the U.S. Army’s website on Monday.

    The official page of the U.S. Army displayed pop-up boxes urging the United States to stop training Syrian rebels late Monday afternoon. The hackers also posted a drawing calling the Syrian regime’s army as “the defender of honor.”

    The Syrian Electronic Army (SEA), a hacker collective aligned with Syria’s government, claimed responsibility for the attack on Twitter Monday.

    The damages caused by the hack were not immediately clear, although it appeared to be primitive and designed to garner headlines rather than steal data. More sophisticated attacks on the United States by China usually go unadvertised.

    The Army’s website was fully accessible by Monday evening.

    The Syrian Electronic Army has made headlines by defacing the homepages of Western media organizations such as International Business Times, the New York Times and the Guardian in recent years.

    Its most notable attack came in 2013 when it briefly created a stock market sell-off by hacking the Associated Press Twitter account and posting a tweet saying that the White House had been attacked.

    The SEA’s goal is to counter propaganda and “fabricated news” against Assad by Arab and Western media. It describes itself as a “group of enthusiastic Syrian youths who could not stay passive towards the massive distortion of facts about the recent uprising in Syria.”

    It is widely suspected that the group has financial ties to the Assad regime, despite past denials.

    Man’s Blood Has Literally Saved Over Two Million Babies

    superadmin
    -
    0

    James Harrison is just an average guy from Australia. Between his daughter, grandchildren, stamp collecting and going for walks he has lots to keep him busy. His other hobby is donating blood. Nearly every week for over 60 years he has made a donation.

    Yet they don’t call him “The Man with the Golden Arm” just for the frequency of his donations, which in and of themselves would be wonderful. Having received a critical blood transfusion as a child, he always vowed he would repay the favor.

    Yet he’s repaid the favor about two million times over thanks to a discovery made shortly after he started donating his blood.

    “In Australia, up until about 1967, there were literally thousands of babies dying each year, doctors didn’t know why, and it was awful,” said Jemma Falkenmire, of the Australian Red Cross Blood Service. “Women were having numerous miscarriages and babies were being born with brain damage.”

    All that death was the result of rhesus disease, a somewhat common condition where a pregnant woman’s blood starts attacking her unborn baby’s blood cells. It results in brain damage and usually death for the unborn child.

    Harrison’s blood donations were flagged by inquiring doctors, who discovered he had an unusual antibody for the disease in his blood. After being contacted by doctors in the 1960s he agreed to work with them to develop an antibody injection called Anti-D. The drug basically cures both mother and child of rhesus disease.

    “Australia was one of the first countries to discover a blood donor with this antibody, so it was quite revolutionary at the time,” said Falkenmire.

    “Every bag of blood is precious, but James’ blood is particularly extraordinary,” says Falkenmire. “His blood is actually used to make a life-saving medication, given to moms whose blood is at risk of attacking their unborn babies. Every batch of Anti-D that has ever been made in Australia has come from James’ blood. And more than 17% of women in Australia are at risk, so James has helped save a lot of lives.”

    Doctors still can’t pinpoint exactly why Harrison has the rare antibody in his blood, though they suspect he developed it as a result of his childhood transfusion. He’s one of about 50 in Australia who have the magical blood, according to the Australian Red Cross.

    “I think James is irreplaceable for us,” says Falkenmire.

    “I don’t think anyone will be able to do what he’s done, but certainly we do need people to step into his shoes,” she added. “He will have to retire in the next couple years, and I guess for us the hope is there will be people who will donate, who will also … have this antibody and become life savers in the same way he has, and all we can do is hope there will be people out there generous enough to do it, and selflessly in the way he’s done.”

    Harrison is considered an Australian hero, winning numerous awards for his work. He’s now donated his plasma more than 1,000 times, but is humble about his service, seeing at his duty to fellow countrymen.

    Harrison’s donations are estimated to have saved over two million babies from certain death. Though that probably means he repaid the favor, he has no intention of stopping now. He’s just happy to help.

    1...122123124...152Page 123 of 152
    © Newspaper WordPress Theme by TagDiv