Nokia has its wicked way with Bing Maps, stork delivers traffic advice and geocoding

We already knew that Nokia had been running its fingers through Bing's map-like hair, marking it with its scent, now it's added a little lipstick to its collar. The latest addition to the Microsoft-mapping service now uses Nokia's live traffic and geocoding algorithms. This brings the functionality of Nokia's "Where" platform over to 24 nations (including the US, UK and Canada) of Bing users. Best of all for American maps that info also covers side streets. Good to see the Nokia / Microsoft collaboration yielding ever more fruits, let's just hope they're considering the bigger picture, too.

Nokia has its wicked way with Bing Maps, stork delivers traffic advice and geocoding originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 May 2012 09:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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FTSE inches up at the close

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Just How Big Was the Biggest Earthquake?

Image: Unknown, Courtesy of NOAA

Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...

Read More??

This week marks the anniversary of the largest earthquake ever recorded ? a magnitude-9.5 earthquake that ripped along the coast of southern Chile on May 22, 1960.

The colossal quake and the powerful tsunami that followed killed more than 1,400 people and left 2 million homeless in Chile. And its devastation reached far beyond South America.

The tsunami swept across the Pacific Ocean, wreaking havoc in Hawaii, the Philippines and Japan; a day after the earthquake, walls of water up to 18 feet (5.5 meters) high rushed ashore at Honshu, Japan's main island, destroying 1,600 homes and killing 138 people.

The colossal quake was what is known as a megathrust earthquake. These giant quakes, the most powerful quakes the planet is capable of unleashing, occur along subduction zones, where one tectonic plate dives beneath another. [The 10 Biggest Earthquakes in History]

In this case, the quake was caused when a 620-mile-long (1,000 kilometers) stretch of the Nazca plate, an oceanic plate that forms a large swath of the Pacific Ocean floor, lurched deeper beneath the South American plate, producing the only 9.5-magnitude quake on record.

So just how big is a 9.5? An earthquake magnitude video, created with an animation from Nathan Becker, an oceanographer at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, offers a simple way to understand the vast differences between one magnitude and the next.

Essentially, each successive magnitude is 33 times larger than the last. That means a magnitude-8.0 earthquake is 33 times stronger than a 7.0, and a magnitude-9.0 earthquake is 1,089 (33 x 33) times more powerful than a 7.0 ? the energy ramps up fast.

Magnitude measures
Although figuring out an earthquake's power requires lots of complicated math and lots of data, magnitude boils down to three basic factors: area, distance and friction.

"It's about the physical properties of the fault," said Paul Earle, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.

To get the magnitude, Earle told OurAmazingPlanet, you multiply the area of the fault that slipped ? how much real estate moved ? by the distance it moved and by the amount of friction on the fault.

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Fugitive penguin 337 spotted alive in Tokyo Bay

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How Obama has evolved on gay marriage

President Obama will sit down with "Good Morning America" anchor Robin Roberts today at the White House for a wide-ranging interview, his first since Vice President Joe Biden's public support of same-sex marriage and North Carolina voters imposed a new ban on all same-sex unions. When asked Monday about the president's self-described evolution on the issue, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said, "I can tell you that I'm sure it is the case that he will be asked again at some point when he gives interviews or press conferences about this issue, and I'll leave it to him to describe his personal views."

With his "evolving" stance on same-sex marriage in the spotlight, here's a look back at the various positions he has held on the issue: from appearing to support the unions as a young state senate candidate, opposing them outright as a matter of faith in 2004, to suggesting a shift in line with public opinion:

FEBRUARY 1996:??? "I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages," reads a typed, signed statement from then-Illinois state senate candidate Obama in response to a questionnaire by the Chicago LGBT newspaper "Outlines."?? White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer later publicly disavowed the statement, claiming in June 2011 that the questionnaire was "actually filled out by someone else."

OCTOBER 2004:? " What I believe is that marriage is between a man and a woman ? What I believe, in my faith, is that a man and a woman, when they get married, are performing something before God, and it's not simply the two persons who are meeting," then-U.S. Senate candidate Obama said in an interview with WTTW Chicago public television.

"That doesn't mean that that necessarily translates into a position on public policy or with respect to civil unions. What it does mean is that we have a set of traditions in place that, I think, need to be preserved, but I also think we need to make sure that gays and lesbians have the same set of basic rights that are in place.

"I don't think marriage is a civil right," Obama said when asked whether there's an inherent right to marry.

OCTOBER 2010:?? " I have been to this point unwilling to sign on to same-sex marriage primarily because of my understandings of the traditional definitions of marriage," President Obama said during an interview with liberal bloggers. "But I also think you're right that attitudes evolve, including mine. And I think that it is an issue that I wrestle with and think about because I have a whole host of friends who are in gay partnerships."

DECEMBER 2010:?? " My feelings about this are constantly evolving. I struggle with this. At this point, what I've said is, is that my baseline is a strong civil union that provides them the protections and the legal rights that married couples have," Obama said in response to a question from ABC's Jake Tapper at a White House press conference.

"I recognize that from their perspective it is not enough, and I think is something that we're going to continue to debate and I personally am going to continue to wrestle with going forward," he said.

JUNE 2011:? " The president has never favored same-sex marriage. He is against it. The country is evolving on this, and he is evolving on it," Pfeiffer told progressive activists at the Net Roots Nation conference.

JUNE 2011:? " I think it's important for us to work through these issues because each community is going to be different, each state is going to be different," Obama said when asked during a White House press conference about New York becoming the latest state to legalize same-sex marriage.

"I think what you're seeing is a profound recognition on the part of the American people that gays and lesbians and transgender persons are our brothers, our sisters, our children, our cousins, our friends, our co-workers, and that they've got to be treated like every other American," he said. "And I think that principle will win out. It's not going to be perfectly smooth, and it turns out that the President - I've discovered since I've been in this office - can't dictate precisely how this process moves."

OCTOBER 2011:? "I'm still working on it," Obama said when asked by ABC's George Stephanopoulos whether he would move from supporting civil unions for same-sex couples to supporting gay marriage.

"I probably won't make news right now, George. But I think that there's no doubt that as I see friends, families children of gay couples who are thriving, you know, that has an impact on how I think about these issues."

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Delta Calls Cops on Viber Exec for Using His Own VoIP App In-Flight (UPDATED) [Faa]

Talmon Marco, founder of the VoIP app Viber, was met at La Guardia airport this evening by a waiting posse of port authority cops. What did he do? Well, it's not quite as outrageous as Alec Baldwin getting in trouble for playing Words With Friends, but it's still a bit ridiculous. More »

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Etsy Raises $40M To Fuel International Expansion

Etsy, the popular online marketplace for all things handmade, just announced that it has raised $40 million in a new funding round led by Index Ventures with participation by Burda, Union Square Ventures, Accel Partners. All of the investors in this round also participated in the company's $20 million Series E round in August 2010. Including today's round, Etsy has now raised about $92 million.

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HP introduces Officejet 150 all-in-one mobile printer, Photosmart 5220

We've seen mobile scanners and portable printers, but a combination of the two has been slow in coming. Well, the mobile all-in-one has finally arrived. HP's new Officejet 150 has built-in Bluetooth for printing docs from Windows Phone and BlackBerry devices, and it lets you scan to PC and email files in addition to transferring via USB and memory cards. A 2.36-inch touchscreen is on hand for managing prints, scans and copy jobs. One charge on the lithium ion battery should get you up to 500 printed pages. The HP Officejet 150 Mobile All-in-One will ship for $399 in June, and if you own an HP laptop, you'll be able to use its adapter with the printer. HP's other new printer isn't as exciting, but the $129 HP Photosmart 5520 all-in-one does add Wireless Direct, which lets you print directly from any web-connected device and from an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch using Apple AirPlay. Like the mobile model, the Photosmart 5220 will ship in June.

Continue reading HP introduces Officejet 150 all-in-one mobile printer, Photosmart 5220

HP introduces Officejet 150 all-in-one mobile printer, Photosmart 5220 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 May 2012 22:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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President Obama's Same-Sex Marriage Support Applauded By Celebs

Kim Kardashian, 'Glee' stars, Neil Patrick Harris and more take to Twitter after president's announcement.
By Kara Warner

Kim Kardashian
Photo: Gareth Cattermole/ Getty Images

Despite North Carolina's constitutional ban of same-sex marriage, the issue's supporters had reason for celebration Wednesday (May 9): President Barack Obama has officially backed gay marriage.

The news became a trending topic on Twitter almost instantly, with the social-networking site's millions of users — including celebrities — issuing countless tweets of thanks to the president.

"Bravo, Mr. President, and thank you," Neil Patrick Harris a tweeted. The actor is engaged to his longtime partner, David Burtka, and the pair adopted twins together in 2010.

"Open our hearts & minds! Proud of Obama for speaking up," wrote "Glee" actress Dianna Agron, with co-star Chris Colfer tacking his happy thoughts onto those of Ellen DeGeneres: "I second! RT @TheEllenShow: Thank you President @BarackObama for your beautiful and brave words. I'm overwhelmed."

"Star Trek" and "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" star Simon Pegg summed things up succinctly with initials and an emoticon: "GO BO!!! :)"

If there were awards handed out for the most LOL-inducing celeb tweet, that would go to "Modern Family" star Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who had a message for the first lady and his partner: "With @MichelleObama & @JustinMikita permission I would like to marry @BarackObama right now!"

Even more excited was Kim Kardashian, who had way more than 140 characters to express on the subject, so she took to her website. "This is such a huge step forward in our country's fight for civil rights and I hope that today this will give hope to so many young people across the country," she wrote. "We've never had a president so supportive of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and today I am proud to be an American!! I'm so happy that our country is making history and moving forward. No more living in the past!"

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Decline Of Reader Apps Likely Due To News Feed Changes, Shows Facebook Controls The Traffic Faucet

No, Facebook news reader apps aren't declining because?users suddenly got fed up with auto-sharing. The user loss is likely due to the transition to?"trending articles", a new way of surfacing recently read articles in the news feed that Facebook is testing. Update: The Washington Post confirms my hypothesis: "Social reader "collapse" is b/c of evolving FB modules. Before: "double-double," 4-5 stories down in a list, w/ friend icon - drove growth." Previously, Facebook had been driving huge numbers of installs and re-engagements to news reader apps with a "recently read articles" box that would often appear at the top of the news feed. But in mid-April following a massive reader app user count spike it replaced this with a redesigned "trending articles" box that shows fewer articles, and that seems to appear less prominently. The transition period where Facebook may not have been showing any "recently read article" box is likely to blame for the decline, along with a leveling off from the spike and reduced traffic from a weaker "trending articles" design. What the these user count?fluctuations?really mean is that Facebook is in firm control of what apps and content types receive traffic from its news feed.

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Amtrak readies conductors to trade in their hole punchers for iPhones

Pilots aren't the only ones updating their workflows with modern technology. Amtrak conductors have been getting schooled on how to use iPhones to scan passenger tickets on select routes since November -- forcing hole punches to collect dust on a lonely shelf at the station. By the latter part of this summer, 1,700 conductors will be using the aforementioned smartphones on the outfit's trains throughout the US which allows them to track passengers with more ease than manual ticketing. The $7.5 million system affords passengers the choice of printing the tickets or loading a bar code on their smartphone of choice before getting the iPhone's scan. Inside the dedicated app, riders can book and modify reservations easily without having to worry with a refund from an agent first. There's only one small hiccup: currently Amtrak's app is only available for iPhones. But, the government-owned corporation says that an Android release is in the hopper and should see daylight this fall. For now, non-iOS users must load their tickets though a mobile site in order to save a tree or two.

Amtrak readies conductors to trade in their hole punchers for iPhones originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 May 2012 13:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Switched On: Competing by hook or by Nook

Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

Microsoft has a long history of supporting bitter rivals -- even those that have long publicly disparaged the company, offering funds to Nokia, Corel and, most famously, Apple. It also has a long history of supporting e-reading. Prior to ending development last year, the company offered its Microsoft Reader software for about a decade -- first on handheld devices using Windows CE and Windows Mobile and later on desktop Windows. Those two traditions intersected yesterday as Microsoft invested in a new Nook e-book business designed to compete better against Apple and especially Amazon.com.

Continue reading Switched On: Competing by hook or by Nook

Switched On: Competing by hook or by Nook originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 May 2012 18:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Supermoon Saturday: Why it's the biggest, brightest of 2012 (+video)

Supermoon Saturday: It's also called the 'Flower Moon,' and 'Milk Moon.' The 'supermoon' will be only 221,802 miles from Earth, the closest to our planet this year.

On Saturday (May 5) at 11:35 p.m. EDT, the moon will officially turn full. And only 25 minutes later the moon will also arrive at perigee, its closest approach to Earth ? a distance of 221,802 miles (356,955 kilometers) away.?

Skip to next paragraph Another "super-Moon" is in the offing. The perigee full Moon in May will be as much as 14% bigger and 30% brighter than other full moons of 2012.

The effect of this coincidence is a stunning skywatching sight called the "supermoon."

In fact, this month's perigee is the closest of any perigee in 2012 (they vary by about 3 percent, because the moon's orbit is not perfectly circular). The result will be a 16 percent brighter-than-average full moon accompanied by unusually high and low tides this weekend and into the new week.

In contrast, later this year, on Nov. 28, the full moon will closely coincide with apogee, the moon's farthest point from Earth. [Amazing Supermoon Photos from 2011]

?IN PICTURES: Full moons

Spring tides

Every month, "spring" tides occur when the moon is full and new. The word "spring," in this case, is derived from the German springen, to "spring up," and is not ? as is often mistaken ? a reference to the spring season. At these times the moon and sun form a line with Earth, so their tidal effects add together.? The sun, because of its distance, exerts a little less than half the tidal force of the moon.

"Neap" tides, on the other hand, occur at those times when the moon is at first and last quarter and work at cross-purposes with the sun. At these times, tides are weak.

Tidal force varies as the inverse cube of an object's distance. During the supermoon on Saturday, the moon will be 12.2 percent closer at perigee than it will be two weeks later at apogee, which will nearly coincide with a new moon.? Therefore it will exert 42 percent more tidal force during this weekend's spring tides than during the spring tides near apogee two weeks later. ?

Although a full moon theoretically lasts just a moment, that moment is imperceptible to ordinary observation, and for a day or so before and after most will speak of seeing the nearly full moon as "full." The shaded strip is so narrow, and changing in apparent width so slowly, that it is hard for the naked eye to tell whether it is present or on which side it is.?

And while this weekend's moon will be ? as the Observer's Handbook of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada suggests on page 101 ?- the "largest full moon of 2012," the variation of the moon's distance is not readily apparent to observers viewing the moon directly.?

Or is it?

Moon illusion

When the perigee moon lies close to the horizon it can appear absolutely enormous. That is when the famous "moon illusion" combines with reality to produce a truly stunning view.

For reasons not fully understood by astronomers or psychologists, a low-hanging moon looks incredibly large when hovering near to trees, buildings and other foreground objects. The fact that the moon will be much closer than usual this weekend will only serve to amplify this strange effect.

So, a perigee moon, either rising in the East at sunset or dropping down in the West at sunrise might seem to make the moon appear so close that it almost seems that you could touch it. You can check out this effect for yourself by first noting the times for moonrise and moonset in your area here: http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astronomical-applications/data-services/rs-one-year-us

And one final note: Saturday also marks the midpoint of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. The exact moment between the March equinox and the June solstice occurs at 10:11 a.m. EDT May 5.? And this spring's big full moon seemingly places an exclamation point on this seasonal benchmark. Traditionally, the full moon of May is known as the "Flower Moon" since flowers are now abundant most everywhere. It is also known as the Full Corn Planting Moon or the Milk Moon.

Happy moon watching!

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York.

Copyright 2012 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

?IN PICTURES: Full moons

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Campaigning over, politicians await critical Greek vote

ATHENS (Reuters) - A ban on campaigning took effect in Greece on Saturday 24 hours ahead of the most uncertain and critical election for decades, a vote that could throw the country's future in Europe into doubt and shake the common currency.

Pollsters say the result of Sunday's poll is impossible to predict, aggravating fears of political chaos that could revive a euro zone debt crisis that Greece first unleashed in 2009.

Local media underlined the importance of the vote as a ban in campaigning came into effect a day before the polls opened.

"With the tough dilemma of staying in the euro or bankruptcy, voters head to the polls in the most crucial election showdown in recent decades," said the centre-left Ta Nea newspaper.

Proto Thema weekly said the vote was the most critical since the fall of a military dictatorship in 1974 while centre-left daily Ethnos said: "What we are being called to do is determine with our vote whether the country will have a future or not."

Greeks are enraged by one of Europe's worst recessions since World War Two and are expected to abandon the two formerly dominant major parties in droves, turning instead to a raft of fringe groups opposed to a hugely unpopular 130 billion euro international bailout that is keeping Greece afloat - but which comes with painful strings attached.

The last polls before a blackout two weeks ago suggested the conservative New Democracy and Socialist PASOK parties, who support the bailout, will come first and second in the poll.

But their support has been ravaged by anger over a crisis that has slashed wages and benefits, pushed unemployment to one of the highest levels in Europe and provoked a rash of suicides by despairing businessmen and pensioners.

If the two parties fail to win a big enough majority to go into a coalition, they will have to woo groups opposed to the bailout, raising fears that Greece will renege on its promises to international lenders and head down a path towards bankruptcy and an exit from the euro, with dire contagion risks for other crisis hit EU states like Spain and Italy.

KINGMAKERS

A record 8-10 parties could enter parliament and four small groups are vying to become kingmakers after the poll.

Antonis Pavlakis, a 40-year-old bank employee said he wouldn't vote for either New Democracy or PASOK.

"Why should I? My salary has been cut, my taxes have gone up and I'm not sure I will still have a job," he said, adding that his pay had been slashed by 15 percent.

PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos appealed to voters to support the bailout to avoid economic disaster. "Greeks are holding in their hands the fate of the country, the fate of the next generation, not just the next four years but the next 20 years," he said in an interview with Ta Nea.

Venizelos negotiated the bailout as finance minister and has managed to claw back some of the support lost by discredited former prime minister George Papandreou. But PASOK's support is expected to drop to 19 percent or less from the 44 percent it took in a landslide victory at the last election in 2009.

New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras is expected to win about 25 percent of the vote but insists he wants to rule alone. Analysts say that if he comes close to the numbers he needs he may be tempted to push for another snap election.

His last public statement before the vote, in an article in Ta Nea, was typically uncompromising, sniping at PASOK's economic record and showing little inclination to rule jointly with them.

Despite pressure across Europe to temper a drive for austerity - that has worsened recession - with measures to boost growth, EU paymaster Germany warned Greeks they could be forced out of the euro if they did not meet the terms of the bailout.

"If Greek voters were to vote for a majority that does not honor those agreements, then Greece will have to bear the consequences," said German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble.

His remarks reflected wide concern in Europe about the consequences of the Greek vote but were likely to stoke the rage of Greeks who have burned German flags and carried effigies of Chancellor Angela Merkel in Nazi uniform because of Berlin's tough insistence on austerity.

The troika of IMF, European Union and European Central bank lenders funding Greece's bailout fear the election could put at risk the fiscal cuts and reforms it must deliver in exchange for the money it needs to stay solvent, including 11.7 billion euros of new savings due in June.

If Venizelos and Samaras fail to win a big enough majority to form a stable government, they are likely to turn first to the Democratic Left party of Fotis Kouvelis, most moderate of the four parties vying for third place.

If he refuses, they would have to woo even smaller groupings in what could be a long-drawn and uncertain period of negotiation after the vote.

(Writing By Barry Moody, editing by Mike Peacock)

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Home-based Business Support You Must Not Skip

In case you have good advice, commencing a home organization isn?t too hard. The listed below article provides many bits of advice about commencing a home based business.

Make an effort to minimize your charges once you begin a residence organization. Working from your home might be a cash-saver, simply because you already possess an area to work and don?t must pay extra hire. Before you make any acquisitions, it?s important that you actually look at if you need the piece you want to acquire. If you maintain a budget and stay with it you?ll realize that you?re capable to offer lower prices than your competition.

One inexpensive approach to acquire online advertising is as simple as spending in form: provide to hold yet another webmaster?s ads to acquire having your very own managed on there website. Not only will this boost your traffic, nevertheless it will favorably affect your search engine rankings. You need to make sure that your business?s ads are proper, which your potential clients know very well what hyperlinks they may be visiting.

Don?t consider fifty percent-measures in terms of pleasing your potential customers. Chuck a bit gift along with their purchase, or write an individual appreciate-you be aware to exhibit your appreciation. Two things people like have the freedom gifts and admiration. They may truly feel they are not being employed.

Make sure you continue to keep data of all the company expenses as this will save you money. Internet services and automobile miles related to your organization certainly are a couple samples of enterprise expenses. You may receive taxation reductions for a number of these bills. To avoid these unnecessary income tax responsibilities, bare in mind to keep up with your enterprise associated expenditures.

If it?s correct, you could gain a few bucks with registration charges. Subscribers can produce repeating cash flow runs and also for most internet sites, it is actually pretty simple to put into practice.

You can find a lot of people who operate their particular home companies on the web. Attempt reading discussion boards that are the two committed to your potential audience and in many cases these outside of it. Reading through about the experiences of other home-based business owners can assist you in lots of ways. Uncover more concerning your business from mentors on these message boards.

An efficient Internet marketing program is vital to the success of your home business. Once you write blog posts as well as other articles or get involved in message boards that explore subject areas that correspond with your company, men and women will commence viewing you do have a solid groundwork and initiate relying upon your skilled views. This may deliver customer to the organization and increase your revenue.

Specify a certain work space at your residence. Always make sure that you arrange your residence in a manner that is structured and will provide you with sufficient area to the resources you require. This may make sure that everything you do has some company, which is important to the achievements of company.

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Have a split on the taxes by entertaining your clients. Once you captivate clientele with a bistro, it is possible to take a partial deduction in your income taxes. Make sure you conserve all invoices from these trips, since in case you are audited, you will have to show that these particular individuals were absolutely clientele.

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Google Brings More Real-Time Coverage, Google+ Comments To Google News

Google News already featured some integration with Google+ in the past, but today, Google is expanding this integration by bringing "relevant Google+ posts for a new social perspective" to its news aggregation site. Starting today, Google News users will be able to see what their circles, journalists covering the story and those who are the subject of the story have to say about it. Google News will now also feature a new "realtime coverage page" for every news story that will surface these Google+ comments, as well as new articles as they become available.

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Some Guys Have All The Luck: HTC One X Hitting Doorsteps Ahead Of Schedule

Sure, AT&T's One X will officially hit store shelves this Sunday, but you may be in for an early weekend treat if you've taken it upon yourself to pre-order the thing. According to a handful of reports from AndroidCentral's and Phandroid's forums, some lucky HTC fans have already received their new Android handsets well in advance of the device's official launch.

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LG's Optimus L7 brings ICS, 4.3-inch screen to market starting today

The high end edition of LG's new L-Style Optimus line is ready to roll, as the company announced the Optimus L7 is available in various "major" European and Asian locales. In case it's been forgotten in the midst of its fellow L-branded smartphones like the L3 that launched in March, the L7 is an Android 4.0 handset with a 4.3-inch screen and 8.7mm-thick frame. Check out our hands on impressions from MWC for more info, or just look for it to appear on your carrier sooner rather than later.

Gallery: LG Optimus L-series hands-on at MWC 2012

LG's Optimus L7 brings ICS, 4.3-inch screen to market starting today originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 May 2012 23:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yahoo Launches Online Marketing Dashboard For Small Businesses

You may not know this but Yahoo still operates a product called Yahoo Small Business, which provides SMBs and sites with web hosting, domain name registration, web site design templates, e-commerce solutions and more. In fact, Yahoo says that it has helped millions of businesses get online and grow their presence on the web. Today, the company is debuting a new marketing dashboard to give users additional insight into online reputation, web metrics and more. As the company explains, the new tool allows small businesses to analyze website metrics and maintain accurate and comprehensive business listings across the Web. For example, the dashboard enables social media monitoring and provides recommendations on new listing opportunities, including on Yelp, Yahoo and others.

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Murdoch not 'fit' to run firm, UK lawmakers say

Rupert Mudoch told British lawmakers he "failed" and repeatedly apologized about the phone hacking scandal at his tabloid newspaper The News of the World. NBC's Stephanie Gosk reports.

By msnbc.com news services

Updated at 7:14 a.m. ET: LONDON -- Rupert Murdoch is?not "a fit person" to run a major international corporation, a multi-party committee of British lawmakers said Monday.

In a devastating report into the tabloid phone-hacking scandal, the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee accused the News Corp chief of exhibiting "willful blindness" towards the wrongdoing in his organisation.

---

The report says News Corp's British subsidiary, News International, misled Parliament about the scale of phone hacking at its News of the World weekly tabloid.

'Huge failings'
It also said the company had deliberately ignored evidence of malpractice, covered up evidence and frustrated efforts to expose wrongdoing.

"News International and its parent News Corporation exhibited willful blindness, for which the companies' directors - including Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch - should ultimately take responsibility," it said.?

"Their instinct throughout, until it was too late, was to cover up rather than seek out wrongdoing and discipline the perpetrators," the lawmakers said in an 85 page report.?

"Even if there were a 'don't ask, don't tell' culture at News International, the whole affair demonstrates huge failings of corporate governance," they concluded.

The committee agreed unanimously that three key News International executives misled Parliament by offering false accounts of their knowledge of the extent of phone hacking at the News of The World -- a rare and serious censure which usually demands a personal apology to legislators. ??

However,?the report's conclusions about Murdoch's fitness to govern were not unanimous.?MPs from the ruling Conservative party issued a dissenting opinion, and described the characterization of Murdoch as unfit to run a company as "over the top".

The report, published on the House of Commons website in PDF format,?stated: "On the basis of the facts and evidence before the Committee, we conclude that, if at?all relevant times Rupert Murdoch did not take steps to become fully informed about?phone-hacking, he turned a blind eye and exhibited wilful blindness to what was going?on in his companies and publications.

"This culture, we consider, permeated from the?top throughout the organisation and speaks volumes about the lack of effective?corporate governance at News Corporation and News International. We conclude,?therefore, that Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a?major international company."

As well as damning News Corp, the report will?also embarrass Prime Minister David Cameron, who acknowledged again on Monday that politicians were in thrall to the Murdochs and whose Conservative Party faces local elections across much of Britain on Thursday.

Murdoch: Hacking scandal cost 'hundreds of millions'

Cameron was summoned to parliament on Monday to explain why he would not investigate emails revealing that a ministerial aide had assured News Corp its bid for BSkyB would be approved.

He insisted there was no need to refer the case to his independent adviser on ministerial conduct, noting the emails had been handed to a judicial inquiry into press ethics, but did concede that politicians had been too keen to please the media.

James Murdoch was back at the Leveson inquiry, where he claimed he didn't know about phone-hacking at News Corp's U.K. unit, ?and didn't remember being told about it. ITV's Juliet Bremner reports.

"I am perfectly prepared to admit that the relationship between politicians and media proprietors got too close," he said during a rowdy debate, blaming politicians of both main parties for the failing.

Committee Chairman John Whittingdale opened its hearing of James and Rupert Murdoch last year saying his committee found it inconceivable that only one reporter at the News of the World, the weekly tabloid owned by News Corp's UK subsidiary, weekly had been involved in the hacking scandal.

"In the last few weeks, not only has evidence emerged that I think has vindicated the Committee's conclusion, but abuses have been revealed that have angered and shocked the entire country," he said. "It is also clear that Parliament has been misled."

Audiences around the world witnessed the 81-year-old Rupert Murdoch - whose newspapers could make or break British politicians - saying it was the most humble day of his life and saw him hit with a foam pie at the height of the scandal last July.

He answered many of the questions in monosyllables, sometimes flummoxing the committee members, while James Murdoch infuriated them at times with lengthy management-speak.

Rupert Murdoch tells UK phone-hack inquiry: 'I'm not good at holding my tongue'

Media regulator Ofcom will take the report's findings into consideration in its continuing assessment of whether BSkyB's owners and directors are "fit and proper" persons to hold a broadcast license.

A previous critical report by the committee came before last July's revelation that people working for the News of the World had hacked into the voicemail of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, which fuelled public anger and led to more revelations.

Reuters, the Associated Press and msnbc.com's Alastair Jamieson contributed to this report.

More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

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Meat Glue: Pink Slime's Classier Cousin [Wtf]

That juicy filet mignon you just shelled out $25 for may not in fact actually be filet mignon. Chances are, it may well be a patty of scraps pressed together and held in place with a powdered chemical commonly known as "meat glue." More »

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Happy Anniversary, Prince William & Kate Middleton!

The world's most famous newlyweds are no longer newlyweds.

It's hard to believe that a whole year has passed since Prince William and Kate Middleton became Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at London's Westminster Abbey.

The royal wedding was a spectacle unlike any other, and not simply because William is royalty: It's a celebrity news story that isn't the slightest bit negative!

Nary a harsh word is ever said about the couple, who the whole world is rooting for to succeed (while speculating over Kate's future pregnancy) 24/7/365.

Royal Wedding Kiss and Highlights

A year after they declared their love for each other in front of an estimated two billion (!) viewers, they're keeping their first wedding anniversary private.

The Duke and Duchess were to spend part of the weekend with friends in London, then return to their home in Anglesey, on the Welsh coast, by Sunday.

So here's to William and Kate! Click to enlarge some of our favorite photos of the royal no-longer-newlyweds on this, their one-year wedding anniversary:

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