- Does Apple want into the 3-D sensor game? That’s a ridiculous question.
If there is money to be made, then of course the House that Steve Jobs built
wants in. To that end, the company has snatched up Israeli 3-D tech company
PrimeSense. Neither company has commented on the ultimate goal for their
partnership, but Apple confirmed Sunday that it had bought PrimeSense, the
company behind Microsoft's Kinect sensor device. The official explanation
was that, “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we
generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.” It was the standard, cryptic
non-statement statement from the tech titan and PrimeSense is already on board
with its new parent company because it then issued a similar statement: “We can
confirm the deal with Apple. Further than that, we cannot comment at this
stage.” The deal is for a reported $350 million, which is a nice piece of
change for PrimeSense’s five founders, who would each make between $50-85
million from the sale if those figures are accurate. Acquiring PrimeSense makes
sense given its development of more compact and device-specific software that
could yield a wealth of applications for mobile devices. Way back in October
2011, Apple filed a patent for “Real Time Video Process Control Using Gestures,”
i.e. the idea of “throwing” content from one device to another. The infusion of
3-D technology could also boost the development of the long-rumored Apple iTV
set. Or maybe Apple is simply in the business of buying up Israeli tech firms,
given its purchase of flash memory controller maker Anobot last year for upwards
of $500 million………
- Brooklyn is a place rife with young hipsters who love to
look down on the world around them. It’s high time someone looked down on those
same hipsters and added a degree of difficulty to their lives. Phil’s Crummy
Corner understands this and it’s why this fine alcohol-serving establishment in
the ever-dangerous Red Hook section of Brooklyn overlooking the Battery Tunnel
is stepping its Prohibition game up by voluntarily raising its drinking age to
25. Owner Felix Marcano made the decision to raise the age required to buy a
pitcher of cheap beer because he is attempting to quell the unrest caused by
rowdy young drinkers who don’t know how to handle their booze. “I’m just trying
to avoid the noise, the fights and it’s working. That’s why I made it 25,”
Marcano said, happily ignoring the fact that watching drunk people fight is
half the reason people go to bars in the first place. Local residents have
mostly supported the new policy and say it has lessened the frequency of loud
people smoking on the street outside the bar, leaving empty bottles lying
around and causing disturbances until 4 a.m. Those same people claim that
Marcano promised a quieter atmosphere before but failed to deliver. Raising the
drinking age to 25 is legal as long as the bar doesn’t discriminate against
other groups based on illegal standards such as race, gender or religion………
- Rarely does the free-agent signing of a solid shortstop
engender such rage across the Major League Baseball universe. The St. Louis Cardinals inked Jhonny
Peralta to a four-year deal worth more than $50 million and judging by the
reaction from fellow MLBers, that was at least $25 million too much. Peralta,
who was suspended for 50 games last summer following Major League Baseball's
investigation of the Biogenesis of America anti-aging clinic, is now branded as
a PED-using cheater and a few of his peers feel like the contract he received
is incongruous with that deal. Arizona Diamondbacks reliever Brad Ziegler, the
team's union player representative, tweeted that "it pays to cheat"
and ripped owners for "encouraging PED use. Fellow pitcher David Aardsma
tweeted, “Apparently getting suspended for PED's means you get a raise. What's stopping anyone from doing it?”
Those thoughts precipitated a response from Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak, who said Monday
that Peralta had admitted wrongdoing and served his penalty. He added that the
Cardinals weren't about to appoint themselves morality "police,” which is
ironic because this season, they were one of the teams that tried to police
other teams’ on-field conduct when it violated the infamous unwritten rules of
the game. "Character and makeup are something we weigh into our
decision-making," Mozeliak said. "In his case, he admitted what he
did, he took responsibility for it. "I feel like he has paid for his
mistakes, and obviously if he were to make another one, then it would be a huge
disappointment." Avoiding future ties to PED-providing businesses such as
Biogenesis would go a long way toward helping Peralta stay clean, although Mozeliak
admitted that the 50-game ban first-time offenders receive seems inadequate. "You
do need a deterrent, and right now 50 games does not seem to be necessarily
stopping it," Mozeliak said. Not when those 50 games are followed by a new
contact for $12.5 million a year……..
- Soooo….not everyone is a fan of democracy in Mali. If
everyone was on board with the concept of free elections to choose new
legislators to run the country, then armed men would not have burst into
voting stations in the region of Timbuktu in northern Mali and carried off
ballot boxes, preventing voters from casting their ballots in Sunday's
legislative elections. Stealing the actual ballots and ballot boxes is a fairly
extreme measure, one typically reserved for situations where a corrupt regime
is known to fix elections and deprive people of their right to vote. That
doesn’t appear to be the case here, although authorities are still attempting
to piece together exactly who was behind the polling station raid and what
their motives were. "There was no voting in several communes of
Goundam," said Oumou Sall Seck, mayor of the town and a member of the
opposition URD party. Seck told a tale of well-organized, armed men travelling
in several vehicles barging into voting stations and picking up the large
ballot boxes and walking out. Polling workers were unable to prevent the
democra-jacking and as a result, the day’s voting received a resounding grade
of incomplete. To further compound the problem, voting materials at other
polling stations “went missing,” which is either code for “were intentionally
lost to prevent people from voting for undesirable candidates” or means “we
have no idea how to run an election on even the most fundamental level.” Either
way, Mali will need to make another run at electing its next group of
legislators and this time, officials should probably invest in some heavy duty
chains to hold their ballot boxes down…….
- In one of the saddest possible examples of life imitating
art imitating life, country singer Wayne Mills has been shot dead in a Nashville bar. There
is rarely a good reason for one man to shoot another man to death, but Mills’
shooting is easily one of the most pointless in recent memory. According to
Nashville police, bar owner Chris Ferrell shot the 44-year-old singer in the
early hours of Saturday morning because…..wait for it….Mills just could not
hold off his cravings for a cancer stick any longer and lit up a cigarette in
the non-smoking area of the bar. From there, what happened depends on whom you
ask. Ferrell claimed that he shot Mills in self-defense, presumably after an altercation
of some sort. That version of the story has not been confirmed, but Mills was
rushed to the hospital, where he died. The Wayne Mills Band has been a fixture
on the country club scene for the past 15 years and notable names such as Jamey
Johnson, Blake Shelton and former “American Karaoke” contestant Taylor Hicks
have all opened for them. Shelter reacted on Twitter to news of Mills’ death,
writing, "Extremely sad to hear about the death of my old friend Wayne
Mills." Bizarrely, the pub where the incident took place, Pit and Barrel,
was due to have been featured on the reality TV show “Bar Rescue,” which helps
struggling bars return to profitability by giving them makeovers. Spike TV
subsequently decided to pull the episode after the shooting, presumably because
people tend not to want to see a man who may have just murdered someone get a
hand in turning his bar around. Of course, there is no denying the fact that of
all the reasons to start an altercation that leads to you being shot to death,
needed your nicotine fix ranks very close to the bottom of the list. The whole
story sounds like made-up fodder from a country music song, but this story is
sadly true and without a doubt, it was also eminently avoidable……..
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