The Huffington Post

Embrace piracy, I say. I know this is controversial but just hear me out. There is no fighting piracy in this world. Even Rovio (maker of Angry Birds) CEO Mikael Hed said, "Piracy may not be a bad thing: it can get us more business at the end of the day."

When there is a way to download something for free than rather pay for it, people will almost always never pay for that item and will fight to continue doing it. The reason why so many people pirate is not only a monetary issue, but a service issue. For example, when you download music from iTunes, you don't really own that music. Apple restricts your usage of the music you bought by limiting how many computers you can transfer it to. That is like a car dealership limiting who can and cannot drive your car. It just does not make sense. Furthermore, when you buy a game from certain companies, such as Ubisoft, there DRM (Digital Rights Management) allows players to only play the game if they are online. Even single-player games like Assassin's Creed, with no multilayer, require you to be online! This DRM is a pitiful excuse for piracy prevention by making sure that only people who bought the game can log in online to play.

I said this was a service issue because politicians and lobbyists need to realize that piracy has become a legitimate means for media distribution. Laws like SOPA and ACTA are not going to end piracy by shutting down the websites. Hackers can get around these barriers or they can just change their website. For example, The Pirate Bay, a leading pirate website, recently changed their domain name from .ORG to .SE. This prevented U.S. authorities from seizing their domain. The industry needs to realize they cannot beat the pirates.

My plan is for media distributing companies to offer better service as an alternative to piracy. Instead of selling music, movies, or games that the user really doesn't own, have a store that has a wide variety of items that are sold for pennies on the dollar. These companies need to do anything to make deals with record companies, movie industries, and game studios so that their library of items is vast and numerous, and can be suited to every buyer.

By allowing these items to actually be owned, the user buys what they want and then instead of getting some excuse for ownership, the user gets a file that they can do whatever they want with. This raises the question, couldn't they just copy it and give it to their friends? Then why doesn't that company offer services that exceed the pros of piracy? The following quotes come from Reddit user solidwhetstone in his post "How Hollywood could kill movie piracy (if they wanted to)." First the industries need to "give us a [media] application like Steam (similar to iTunes but for PC games) that lets us buy movies for cheap." For example, companies could "sell the movies for less than it costs to buy a bluray, have daily/weekly/seasonal sales on movies, NO DRM. Allow users to download the movies to their hard drives in various formats, include special features that would come on a bluray, include box art and other included art as [high quality] jpgs, give us this application on gaming consoles, PC, and other media devices (mobile, tablets, etc.), allow users to gift movies to friends, integrate with all major social networks and show a news feed of purchases, buying [an item] means you ALWAYS own it. Even if you switch computers or devices, give users access to new movies before they hit store shelves... Give pirates some competition by providing something better."

I know that was a whole lot of information I threw at you, but wouldn't you pay for these awesome features? Once our government and the media industry realize that they need to compete with piracy rather than destroy it, they will overcome it. This metaphor is going to sound corny but here I go; piracy is a wave, it cannot be stopped by any means. Rather than fight against it why not ride it, go with the flow, embrace it.

This article comes to us courtesy of California Watch.

By Susanne Rust

With new state regulations demanding an increase in the number of clean and green cars, the future is looking bright for electric cars, such as the Nissan Leaf.

The problem is, most electric cars can't go more than about 100 miles without being recharged.

But a team of Stanford University researchers may have come up with a novel infrastructure design that could solve this problem. They see a future in which magnetic fields could transmit electrical currents on highways, charging cars while they drive.

(SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO)

"Our vision is that you'll be able to drive onto any highway and charge your car," said Shanhui Fan, an electrical engineer at Stanford and a co-author of the paper.

The study appeared in the journal Applied Physics Letters [PDF].

"What makes this concept exciting is that you could potentially drive for an unlimited amount of time without having to recharge," said Richard Sassoon, managing director of the Stanford Global Climate and Energy Project and a co-author of the study. "You could actually have more energy stored in your battery at the end of your trip than you started with."

The idea of sending electrical currents through the air to charge appliances and other devices is not new. Famed 19th-century inventor Nikola Tesla designed a 187-foot tower that could transmit electricity to points miles away. But due to a lack of funding - and the industrial world's use and then dependence on wiring - his plans never came through.

Then in 2007, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology figured out a way to light a 60-watt bulb [PDF] using a technology known as magnetic resonance coupling.

This is how it works: Two metal coils, set some distance apart, are tuned to resonate - or vibrate - at the same frequency. One of the coils is connected to an electrical source, which generates a magnetic field that makes the other coil start to resonate. This process results in the invisible transfer of electricity through the air from the first coil to the second.

"Wireless power transfer will only occur if the two resonators are in tune," Fan said. "Objects tuned at different frequencies will not be affected."

Members of the Stanford team wondered if they could apply this energy to moving cars - the trick was to figure out how the coils would need to be placed in a highway and how they should be designed to provide the most effective and directed form of energy.

Two Stanford postdoctoral students figured out that part: A coil bent at 90 degrees and attached to a metal plate can transfer 10 kilowatts of electrical energy to an identical coil 6.5 feet away.

"That's fast enough to maintain a constant speed," Fan said. "To actually charge the car battery would require arrays of coils embedded in the road. This wireless transfer scheme has an efficiency of 97 percent."

You can watch a video of the research below:

Susanne Rust is an investigative reporter for California Watch, a project of the non-profit Center for Investigative Reporting. Find more California Watch stories here.

Dramatic readings are a time-honored Internet tradition wherein people find the most inane, poorly-spelled, and otherwise goofy things they can track down on their social medias, and then give them the out of control serious theatrical interpretations they deserve.

Navy Seals of Comedy found this particular comment thread on a photo posted to a 7th grader's Facebook profile, and the only logical thing to do was parody it.

We don't know what we like more, Adam's secret crush on Keala, or Kelly's out-of-the-blue interjection, but we do know that Zach is not worth Keala's tears. It's time to move on, girl.

Via The Daily What

By Caroline Copley
ZURICH, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Chargers for electric cars may become a "billion dollar business" by 2017, said an executive at Swiss engineering firm ABB, which is teaming up with governments and companies such as RWE to roll out a network.
Building up a network of charging stations is vital to help fuel demand for electric cars, experts say, with some drivers put off by "range anxiety" -- the fear their vehicle will run out of power miles from a charger.
The Zurich-based group, which makes equipment for oil, mining and utility companies, has announced a string of projects in recent months, including a 6 million euro deal to build 200 fast-charging stations throughout Estonia.
"In about five-years' time the infrastructure side of the business will be a billion dollar business," Hans Streng, head of electrical vehicle charging infrastructure at ABB, told Reuters in an interview. The current global market is worth about $50-$100 million he said.
Pressure to cut emissions and reduce pollution in cities has led to ambitious targets for electric vehicle take-up, with some governments targeting as much as a 60 percent market share for electric vehicles over the next 20-30 years.
Consultancy Pike Research forecasts cumulative sales of plug-in electric vehicles to reach 5.2 million worldwide by 2017, up from just shy of 114,000 vehicles in 2011.
By the same period, there will be more than 1.5 million locations to charge vehicles in the United States and a total of nearly 7.7 million locations worldwide, Pike says.
But big oil companies, like BP and Exxon Mobil, are more sceptical, predicting electric cars will only make up 4-5 percent of all cars globally over the same period.

GRID MANAGEMENT
ABB produces chargers that use both direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC). Because DC can carry heavier loads, a battery can be recharged in 15-30 minutes, compared to the six to eight hours it takes with a lower-voltage AC unit.
It has linked up with German utility RWE to investigate how it can integrate its technology into a fully-functioning network.
"ABB delivers the tools for running the grid but does not run the grid. RWE is very complementary there," Streng said.
Another area to work on is how to get businesses selling electricity to the end-consumer. For example, retailers could offer free charging to increase footfall.
"There are many different business models from selling it with Mars bars to charging your car at the hairdresser's. It's like the free wifi model that Starbucks used to sell more coffee," Streng said.

SMALL CHANGE
For a company that booked a $1 billion dollar order for an offshore wind power connection last year, electric cars are small change. But ABB is banking on them being big bucks in the future.
Though the development of a car-charging infrastructure is still in its infancy, ABB is hoping a growing demand for electric vehicles will speed-up the need for a more flexible power grid, an area that feeds in to its core power business.
"If you don't take positions now you are too late," Streng said. "The cost of not being there is much, much higher. We're not talking about billions now, but it could be billions in a few years." (Reporting by Caroline Copley; Editing by Helen Massy-Beresford)

WASHINGTON -- A bill to speed the nation's switch from radar to an air traffic control system based on GPS technology, and to open U.S. skies to unmanned drone flights within four years, received final congressional approval Monday.

The bill passed the Senate 75-20, despite labor opposition to a deal cut between the Democratic-controlled Senate and the Republican-controlled House on rules governing union organizing elections at airlines and railroads. The House had passed the bill last week, and it now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature.

The bill authorizes $63.4 billion for the Federal Aviation Administration over four years, including about $11 billion toward the air traffic system and its modernization. It accelerates the modernization program by setting a deadline of June 2015 for the FAA to develop new arrival procedures at the nation's 35 busiest airports so planes can land using the more-precise GPS navigation.

Instead of time-consuming, fuel-burning, stair-step descents, planes will be able to glide in more steeply with their engines idling. Planes will also be able to land and take off closer together and more frequently, even in poor weather, because pilots will know the precise location of other aircraft and obstacles on the ground. Fewer planes will be diverted.

Eventually, FAA officials want the airline industry and other aircraft operators to install onboard satellite technology that updates the location of planes every second instead of radar's every six to 12 seconds. That would enable pilots to tell not only the location of their plane, but other planes equipped with the new technology as well – something they can't do now.

The system is central to the FAA's plans for accommodating a forecast 50 percent growth in air traffic over the next decade. Most other nations already have adopted satellite-based technology for guiding planes, or are heading in that direction, but the FAA has moved cautiously. The U.S. accounts for 35 percent of global commercial air traffic and has the world's most complicated airspace, with greater and more varied private aviation than other countries.

The bill is "the best news that the airline industry ever had," Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said. "It will take us into a new era."

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the bill "will provide the stability and predictability to ensure critical aviation safety programs ... and infrastructure investments move forward."

The FAA is also required under the bill to provide military, commercial and privately-owned drones with expanded access to U.S. airspace currently reserved for manned aircraft by Sept. 30, 2015. That means permitting unmanned drones controlled by remote operators on the ground to fly in the same airspace as airliners, cargo planes, business jets and private aircraft.

Currently, the FAA restricts drone use primarily to segregated blocks of military airspace, border patrols and about 300 public agencies and their private partners. Those public agencies are mainly restricted to flying small unmanned aircraft at low altitudes away from airports and urban centers.

Within nine months of the bill's passage, the FAA is required to submit a plan on how to safely provide drones with expanded access.

The bill's passage culminates a five-year struggle by Congress to pass a long-term FAA authorization bill. The last long-term operating authorization for the agency expired in 2007. The agency has continued to limp along under a series of 23 short-term extensions, but its ability to commit to decisions on major acquisition programs that extend over many years, like air traffic modernization, was hindered by the uncertainty over how much it could spend and by a lack of direction from Congress.

Providing that stability is critical to the health of the commercial aviation industry, which accounts for about 5 percent of U.S. economic output, lawmakers said.

Several labor issues over the years have frustrated efforts to pass a bill. Most recently, a Republican-drafted bill that cleared the House last spring included a provision that would have overturned a National Mediation Board ruling allowing airline and railroad employees to form a union by a simple majority of those voting. Under the old rule, workers who didn't vote were treated as "no" votes.

The labor provision, which was opposed by the Democratic-controlled Senate, became the principal issue holding up the bill. A compromise reached two weeks ago by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, allows the mediation board's rules to stand, but it also toughens some lesser requirements that must be met in order to hold a union organizing election.

While the compromise was acceptable to some unions, more than a dozen other unions that represent airline industry workers – including the Teamsters, Communications Workers, Machinists and Flight Attendants – complained the deal was reached without their input and urged its rejection.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said he decided to vote against the bill because of the labor provisions even though the measure contains "many good things." He said he was taking a stand against "a few of these powerful companies who don't want their workers to have representation" because someday they "might have to put a few additional dollars in their workers' pockets."

The bill also limits air service subsidies to the approximately 150 communities that already receive subsidized service. And it would trim about a dozen communities from the program after a year if they are within 175 miles of a hub airport and average less than 10 passengers a day, at a savings of about $20 million a year.

House Republicans initially had proposed eliminating the entire $200 million-a-year program except for subsidized service in Alaska and Hawaii. Conservatives had singled out the program as an example of government extravagance.

Last summer, a partisan standoff over a House attempt to cut 13 cities from the program, as well as the labor provision, resulted in two-week, partial shutdown of the FAA. More than 4,000 FAA employees were furloughed, work was halted on more than 100 airport construction projects and the government lost an estimated $350 million in airline ticket taxes.

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LONDON (Reuters) - A cat that invaded the famous Anfield turf for three minutes during Liverpool's 0-0 Premier League draw with Tottenham Hotspur on Monday has become an internet celebrity.
Several Twitter sites claiming to be the real deal sprung up within hours of the cat's Lionel Messi-like slalom across the pitch during the first half.
One, @AnfieldCat, had already attracted 17,368 followers early on Tuesday while video footage of the feline's antics were proving popular on the internet.
The latest post on the Twitter site had a gentle dig at Liverpool's city rivals: "Everton rumoured to be interested in signing me, Bill Kenwright too paw to stump up the money."
Liverpool fans, known for their humor, serenaded the tabby cat on the night with the chant "A cat, a cat...a cat, a cat, a cat" to the tune of the Kop battle cry "Attack..Attack"
The cat eventually sauntered off and was last seen in the arms of an Anfield steward.

Watch the video below:

(Reporting by Martyn Herman. Editing by Patrick Johnston)

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama called on Tuesday for millions of dollars in new funding to improve math and science education, an effort he said would be crucial to the nation's long-term success.

Obama said his upcoming budget proposal, set to be released next week, would include a request for $80 million from Congress for a new Education Department competition to support math and science teacher preparation programs. Obama made a similar request to Congress last year but the measure didn't pass.

Separately, he announced $22 million in investments from the private sector to support math and science efforts. Among the organizations committing fresh funding are Google and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Obama said a renewed focus on math and science education should be an American imperative.

"The belief that we belong on the cutting edge of innovation, that's an idea as old as America itself," Obama said. "We're a nation of thinkers, dreamers, believers in a better tomorrow."

Obama has set a goal of preparing more than 100,000 math and science teachers and training a million additional math, technology, engineering and science graduates over the next decade.

Seeking to highlight the benefits of math and science education, Obama hosted a White House science fair earlier Tuesday, featuring projects designed by over 100 students from across the country. The projects included a robot that helps senior citizens connect with their families via Skype and a portable disaster relief shelter that could be used to house people who have been displaced from their homes.

"It's not every day you have robots running all over your house," Obama said of the science fair. "I'm trying to figure out how you got through the metal detectors."

The president said the students participating in the science fair were an inspiration, and made him confident that the nation's best days were yet to come.

"You're getting America in shape to win the future," Obama said.

Facebook requires its members to be at least 13 years-old to use the site. However, 44 per cent of British children aged between eight to 12 years-old are routinely flouting this age limit and logging onto the popular social networking site.