Britain, edging towards Trump, scolds Kerry over Israel

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry delivers remarks on Middle East peace at the Department of State in Washington December 28, 2016. REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan

Britain scolded U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry for describing the Israeli government as the most right-wing in Israeli history, a move that aligns Prime Minister Theresa May more closely with President-elect Donald Trump.

After U.S. President Barack Obama enraged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by refusing to veto a UN Security Council resolution demanding an end to Israeli settlement building, Kerry's public rebuke of Israel has unsettled some allies such as Britain.

Amid one of the United States' sharpest confrontations with Israel since the 1956 Suez crisis, Kerry said in a speech that Israel jeopardizeds hopes of peace in the Middle East by building settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

While Britain voted for the UN resolution that so angered Netanyahu and says that settlements in the occupied territories are illegal, a spokesman for May said that it was clear that the settlements were far from the only problem in the conflict.

In an unusually sharp public rebuke of Obama's top diplomat, May's spokesman said that Israel had coped for too long with the threat of terrorism and that focusing only on the settlements was not the best way to achieve peace between Jew and Arab.

How to Use Android as Mouse and Keyboard Step by Step Tutorial

Source: www.gadgetsay.com - www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfix33bc_UM

Top 10 Ways To Access Blocked Websites Easily

There are some nations which block opening a particular site because of an unusual restriction. They think that the site will cause detriment to the securities of the nation. Moral police role has been accepted by many countries hence they have to obstruct the NSFW (Not safe/suitable for work) sites. Some countries even obstruct the social media websites which are free to access. Free Wi-Fi connectivity is offered by many educational institutes and administrative centre or organisation but they obstruct access to social networking sites as well as private sites.

Why do dogs sleep so much?

If it seems like your dog sleeps a lot, that's because he does. (Photo: Norbert Beri/Shutterstock)

What's your dog doing right now? Unless it's dinnertime, there's a good chance he's sleeping. As every dog owner knows, dogs sleep a lot.

In fact, according to the American Kennel Club, dogs spend 12 to 14 hours of every 24-hour cycle sleeping. To break it down even more, they spend 50 percent of their time dozing, 30 percent awake but just lying around, and the remaining 20 percent actually being active. And you thought you were a couch potato sometimes!

How much sleep your dog needs depends on several different factors:

Goodbye CyanogenMod, hello Lineage Android

CyanogenMod is shutting down, but the Lineage Android Project is poised to keep its spirit alive.

CyanogenMod is no more.

In a post on the official CyanogenMod blog, we're told that the current state of everything Cyanogen means it's no longer feasible to continue and that the best path forward requires change. Nobody should be surprised after recent events within the Cyanogen Inc. parent company and today's announcement that it has reached the end of the road and will shut down operations.

Why American Jews Eat Chinese Food on Christmas

A lack of dining options may have started Jewish Christmas, but now it's a full-fledged ritual.

Kent Wang / Flickr

If there’s a single identifiable moment when Jewish Christmas—the annual American tradition where Jews overindulge on Chinese food on December 25—transitioned from kitsch into codified custom, it was during Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan’s 2010 confirmation hearing.

How to Convince Someone When Facts Fail

Why worldview threats undermine evidence

Credit: Izhar Cohen

Have you ever noticed that when you present people with facts that are contrary to their deepest held beliefs they always change their minds? Me neither. In fact, people seem to double down on their beliefs in the teeth of overwhelming evidence against them. The reason is related to the worldview perceived to be under threat by the conflicting data.

Only the hardiest remain at Dakota protest camp

A couple of the remaining activists that are left grappling with plunging temperatures that make conditions there more difficult at the protest camp in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, December 14, 2016. Picture taken December 14, 2016. REUTERS/Valerie Volcovici

Two weeks after a victory in their fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline, most protesters have cleared out of the main protest camp in North Dakota - but about 1,000 are still there, and plan to remain through the winter.

These folks say they are dug in at the Oceti Sakowin Camp in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, despite the cold, for a few reasons. Most are Native Americans, and want to support the tribal sovereignty effort forcefully argued by the Standing Rock Sioux, whose land is adjacent to the pipeline being built.

Others say they worry that Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP.N), the company building the $3.8 billion project, will resume construction without people on the ground, even though the tribes and the company are currently locked in a court battle.

Future decisions on the 1,172-mile (1,885-km) pipeline are likely to come through discussions with the incoming administration of Donald Trump, or in courtrooms.

“I’ve seen some of my friends leave but I will be here until the end and will stand up to Trump if he decides to approve the permit,” said Victor Herrald, of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, who has been at the camp since August.

Firefox 50.1.0 Lands in Ubuntu's Repos, Multiple Security Vulnerabilities Fixed

On December 13, 2016, Canonical published a new USN (Ubuntu Security Notice) advisory to inform users of the popular Ubuntu Linux operating system about the availability of Mozilla Firefox 50.1.0 in the software repositories.

Mozilla released the Firefox 50.1.0 web browser a couple of days ago, and it looks like they patched a total of 13 security vulnerabilities, which could have been used by an attacker to crash the application or run programs as your login if the users were to open a malicious website.

"Multiple security vulnerabilities were discovered in Firefox. If a user were tricked in to opening a specially crafted website, an attacker could potentially exploit these to conduct cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks, obtain sensitive information, cause a denial of service via application crash, or execute arbitrary code," reads USN-3155-1.

California threatens legal action against Uber unless it halts self-driving cars

Threat from the attorney general came shortly after Uber declared it would defy state regulations, a move the company said as ‘an important issue of principle’

Uber’s defiant stance appears to be setting the company on a collision course with California regulators in court. Photograph: Eric Risberg/AP

California’s attorney general Kamala Harris on Friday threatened legal action against the ride-sharing tech company Uber unless it “immediately” removes its self-driving from the roads in San Francisco.

The threat from the office of the outgoing attorney general was contained in a letter released to the public Friday shortly after Uber declared it would defy state regulations, a move the company said was “an important issue of principle”.

Twenty companies have been approved to test self-driving cars in California, according to the DMV. Uber is not one of them, and the company is refusing to abide by the same rules as its rivals – a defiant move that critics argue shows disregard for the law and public safety.

Friday’s development portends a dramatic confrontation between Uber and California state officials, amid mounting anger in San Francisco at Uber’s refusal to abide by the same rules as other companies.

Harris, a rising star in the Democratic party, was recently elected to the US Senate. The letter from attorneys in her office said they were acting on a request from California’s department of motor vehicles (DMV).

The DMV ordered Uber to either remove its self-driving cars from the road or obtain a permit on Wednesday, the first day the company began a trial of its self-driving taxis in San Francisco without permission.

The letter warns that if Uber does not remove the vehicles from the road until it obtains a permit, the attorney general will “seek injunctive and other appropriate relief”.

Earlier Friday, Uber made clear it had no intention of backing down.

The Rise In C-Sections Could Be Changing Human Evolution

CJKPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES

C-sections have been on the rise for decades, now making up more than 30 percent of all deliveries in the United States.

An intriguing new study out of Austria suggests that as C-sections have become more common, they might also be altering the course of human evolution. More babies are being born with heads that are too big for their mothers’ pelvises ... which leads, the theory goes, to more C-sections.

Why?

Gundlach says brace for turmoil if 10-year yields top 3%

An earlier version of this article incorrectly said DoubleLine Capital’s Jeff Gundlach forecast that yields on the 10-year Treasury note will reach 3%. Gundlach said the market would be hurt if yields reach or exceed 3%.

Jeffrey Gundlach, founder and chief executive officer of DoubleLine Capital.

Wall Street investors have largely ignored the recent carnage in the bond market, but they could face a rude awakening next year when Donald Trump takes over the U.S. presidency, warns bond guru Jeffrey Gundlach.

In a webcast presentation on Tuesday, the DoubleLine Capital chief executive said if yields on the 10-year U.S.Treasury note TMUBMUSD10Y, +0.00% jump to 3% or higher , as inflation rates and government debt start to rise under a Trump administration, equity and fixed-income markets could be hurt.

–– ADVERTISEMENT ––

“We’re getting to the point where further rises in Treasurys, certainly above 3%, would start to have a real impact on market liquidity in corporate bonds and junk bonds,” he said in the presentation, according to Bloomberg.

The Gold Bull is Dead

The Gold Bull is Dead; that depends from angle you are looking at it

But what we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope.

- George Eliot

Gold and precious metals in general had a spectacular run from 2003-2011, and it was around that time we published our first article on Gold-eagle. At that period, we were pounding the table on Gold, Silver and the entire precious metal’s sector. Is this the end? Is this monstrous bull dead?  We have stated repeatedly, that every major bull market has to experience one back-breaking correction… Usually the correction ends with a 50% pullback from the highs, which would translate to a low of roughly $960.00. Apparently, Jim Rogers holds a similar view.

Gold is in a correction, and the correction has gone on for four years,” Rogers said. “Although I am not buying gold, I am expecting an opportunity to buy gold sometime in the next year or two. For instance, if gold goes under $1,000, I hope I’m smart enough to buy a lot more gold.

The Top Books of 2016

Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

The Italian writer Italo Calvino defined a classic as “a book that’s never finished saying what it has to say.” This year, The Times’s daily critics reviewed nearly 250 titles. What follows are their lists of the fiction and nonfiction books that most moved, excited and enlightened them in 2016 — books that, in their own ways, are perhaps not finished saying what they have to say.

The New York Times has three daily book critics: Michiko Kakutani, Dwight Garner and Jennifer Senior. Because they review different titles, it is impossible for them to compile a single unanimous Top 10 list. They have favorites, however, and are happy to have a chance to list them here. There is also a list from Janet Maslin, who has stepped down from full-time reviewing but remains a frequent contributor of reviews to The Times.

The critics have presented their lists in rough order of preference.

E-Cigarette Use Falls Among Teens

Vaping and marijuana use more popular among teens than regular cigarettes, according to NIH

A Betamorph E-Cigs employee exhaling vapor from an electric cigarette at the company's store in Albuquerque, N.M. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG NEWS

E-cigarette use among teens dropped in 2016, reversing an upward trend that had prompted the U.S. Surgeon General to recommend increased regulation and taxation.

Among high-school seniors, 12% this year said they had used e-cigarettes in the past month compared with 16% in 2015, according to the National Institutes of Health’s annual Monitoring the Future survey.

E-cigarettes and marijuana are both more popular among teens than regular cigarettes, whose use among teens has been declining for more than two decades, according to the survey. E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that heat nicotine-laced liquid into a vapor.

Among high-school seniors, 23% said they had used marijuana in the past month, and 11% said they had smoked conventional cigarettes. Some 13% of high-school seniors said they had used tobacco with a hookah in the past year, down from 23% in 2014, the peak since the survey began measuring hookah use in 2010.

Lenovo K6 Note Price Leaked Before Launch, Starts At Rs 14,999

The Lenovo K6 Note, which was initially unveiled at IFA 2016, is all set to launch in India this week. Recent company tweets suggest that the upcoming Lenovo device will arrive in India as soon as December 14th. However, Indian e-commerce website OnlyMobiles has jumped the gun and revealed the price ahead of the official launch.

The Lenovo K6 Note flaunts a 5.5-inch Full HD display with 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution. It comes in all-metal unibody design, boasting Dolby Audio surround sound technology and stereo speakers at the back.

Under the hood, it is powered by a 1.4GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor coupled with Adreno 505 GPU for graphics. The phone comes in two variants — 3GB and 4GB RAM. The internal memory of 32GB is further expandable up to 128GB by means of a microSD card support.

Terminally ill boy dies in Santa's arms

(CNN) - Knoxville News-Sentinel columnist Sam Venable knew he'd found a sad story, but he didn't know just how many hearts it would break.

Venable's column about a terminally ill 5-year-old boy dying in Santa's arms has spread everywhere since its publication Sunday in the Tennessee newspaper. Among other things, it nails the emotional richness of the holiday season.

"I've gotten a big response to this," Venable told CNN. "People have told me that they were crying when they read it, and I tell them that I was crying when I wrote it."

It all started several weeks ago when Eric Schmitt-Matzen, the Santa in Venable's column, got a call after work.

Can Virtual Reality Help Women Cope With Childbirth?

Clinical trials in Los Angeles plan to explore how virtual reality can be used to deal with acute pain through coaching and distraction. Photograph: Tracey Nearmy/AAP

Clinical trials are using a VR headset to help manage pain during labor

rin Martucci had been enjoying the beach vista and gazing at a flock of birds overhead when something shook her view. The voice of Ralph Anderson, her gynecologist, broke through the sound of the waterfall next to her.

“We’re ready to push!” he said, gently taking Martucci’s virtual reality headset off and bringing her back to a hospital room at Orange Regional Medical Center in Middletown, New York. Martucci, 40, looked around at her husband and mother, their voices swirling excitedly around her: “She’s crowning! She’s ready!”

“I was like, ‘Wait, what are you doing?’. I thought I needed the goggles to push!,” Martucci says. She had been so engrossed in her virtual beachside hideaway, she hadn’t realised that her baby’s head was starting to show. It was time to take off the goggles.

Martucci is believed to be the first woman to use virtual reality (VR) for pain management during labor. With more women moving away from scheduled C-sections – which accounted for 32% of US births in 2015 – VR might offer another drug-free pain option during birth.

“I was on a beach, and there was a fire going,” Martucci recalls. “Wherever you moved, the scene moved with you. If I looked up, I saw the galaxy and the sun setting. On the right, there was a waterfall and a lot of movement with birds,” Martucci says. From time to time, a woman with an English accent peppered Martucci’s virtual world with guidance.

“You wanted to listen to her,” she says. “I remember her focusing on the breathing and your body tensing and relaxing, and tensing and relaxing. She kept saying ‘Focus on the birds,’” says Martucci. “It was really very calming. She would teach me how to breathe and be really in touch with your body.”

‘It made me feel I’m OK here’

Martucci had declined an epidural earlier in the day when she started to think her labor contractions were becoming too painful to manage on her own, but she was open to Anderson’s suggestion to try a pre-programmed VR headset.

Which iPhone 8 rumors can we trust?

The iPhone 8 is nine months away, but we’re already expecting it to have OLED and wireless charging. Watch the video to find out why.

A Frog That Freezes and Thaws, Plus More Ways Animals Cope With Cold

Wild creatures don't have the luxury of curling up under the covers—here's how they make it through winter.

When cold weather arrives, the Arctic fox grows into its winter coat—lighter fur that helps it blend into the snow. PHOTOGRAPH BY TOM MURPHY, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE

Our winter survival skills often involve staying indoors with plenty of blankets, cocoa, and mindless TV at the ready.

But wild animals don't have that luxury—they have to tough it out in the cold. That made Weird Animal Question of the Week wonder: “What are some cool ways animals stay safe and warm in winter?” (See some incredible pictures of winter wildlife.)

Security News This Week: Russian Hackers Are Targeting Germany Now, Too

GETTY IMAGES/EYEEM

GERMANY’S INTELLIGENCE AGENCY accused Russia of deploying cyberattacks against the country, including the spread of propaganda and attempts to destabilize the government. And why not? As we’ve noted before, if the US election taught Putin anything it’s that hacking really can make an impact.

That’s all the more reason to fully investigate Russia’s disruptive role in our election, which this week President Obama, two members of Congress, and prominent GOP Senator Lindsey Graham all did. Of course, as with Obama’s comprehensive cybersecurity plan, anything actionable will likely fall to the Trump administration. And elsewhere in potentially hostile foreign powers, we took a look at incredibly detailed 3-D renders of North Korea’s secretive space command center.

Also this week, secure chat app Wickr introduced an encrypted, self-destructive Slack alternative, while IBM Watson for Cybersecurity took off the training wheels, and is now fighting cybercrime for actual companies. And if we have to leave you with just one piece of advice, let it be this: Don’t trust third-party stores for Android apps. Ever. Just don’t.

And there’s more. Each Saturday we round up the news stories that we didn’t break or cover in depth but that still deserve your attention. As always, click on the headlines to read the full story in each link posted. And stay safe out there.

Confronting Racist Objects

Millions of racist objects sit in the homes of everyday Americans. We asked for your experiences with these objects and received hundreds of responses. Some of you told us about your family heirlooms. Some described antique finds, and many of you simply wanted to know what should be done with racist objects. What is their place today, when racial tensions and racial attacks are on the rise? Here are some of your stories about reconciling, reclaiming and reinterpreting racist objects.

French police defy government in growing protest movement over lawlessness

Hundreds of police officers have been protesting in Paris and other cities to denounce what they say are insufficient resources to fight mounting lawlessness, defying government demands that they stop the unauthorised demonstrations.

Six months from an election, the protest, now in its third day, has put President François Hollande’s Socialist government on the defensive at a time when security forces are struggling to combat the threat of further terrorist attacks.

Political opponents have seized on the discontent to accuse the government of letting violent crime and everyday lawlessness proliferate despite a large police recruitment drive.

“I understand the anger of the police,” conservative former president Nicolas Sarkozy said. “I’ve never seen such an erosion of authority in this country,” Sarkozy, who is campaigning to become president again, told Europe 1 radio.

Carrier to ultimately cut some of jobs Trump saved

It sounded like great news when Carrier said last week that it would invest millions in the Indiana plant it decided to keep in the U.S.

Watch this: http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2016/12/08/carrier-union-boss-jobs-trump-feud.cnnmoney/ -- Title: Union boss on Trump feud: I called him out

The company's deal with President-elect Donald Trump to keep a furnace plant from moving to Mexico also calls for a $16 million investment in the facility.

But that has a big down side for some of the workers in Indianapolis.

Most of that money will be invested in automation said to Greg Hayes, CEO of United Technologies, Carrier's corporate parent. And that automation will replace some of the jobs that were just saved.

Obama Orders Intelligence Report on Russian Election Hacking

President Obama giving a speech at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., on Tuesday. Credit

Doug Mills/The New York Times

Washington — President Obama has ordered American intelligence agencies to produce a full report on Russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election, his homeland security adviser said on Friday. He also directed them to develop a list of “lessons learned” from the broad campaign the United States has accused Russia of carrying out to steal emails, publish their contents and probe the vote-counting system.

“We may have crossed a new threshold here,” Lisa Monaco, one of Mr. Obama’s closest aides and the former head of the national security division of the Justice Department, told reporters Friday. “He expects to receive this report before he leaves office.”

The report, according to senior administration officials, will trace the attacks on the Democratic National Committee and on prominent individuals like John D. Podesta, the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Scorpio Won’t Compete with High-End Rigs, Selling At ‘Console Price-Point’

Microsoft’s Project Scorpio is the last of the three systems to be inevitably unveiled in what is this strange eighth-generation of new, new-ish and upgraded consoles alike. And the head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, has shared a tad bit of insight into Xbox’s decision-making with what Scorpio will be. Speaking to AusGamers, Spencer claims that with Project Scorpio, the focus has been less on the highly-spoken six teraflops claimed and more a balance of other components.

Millennials don't think Trump will affect their wallets. But they should

Why Trump's tax plan could raise taxes for 8.7 million households

Millennials don't think a Trump presidency will matter for their wallets.

At least, that's the conclusion reached by a recent survey. Young Americans are among those most likely to think the outcome of the election won't make a difference for their financial security, according to Bankrate.com's December Financial Security Index.

About 45% of respondents aged 18-35 said they think the results of the election won't affect their personal finances either way.

The Bridge Headset Powers Up iPhone VR With Positional Tracking

BRIDGE

IF YOU’VE BEEN holding onto your trusty iPhone 6, 6S, or 7 and wondering when a cool VR headset will be available for it, this is your lucky day. The Occipital Bridge headset looks like it’s well worth the wait, as it’s more powerful than any other phone-driven headset on the market.

That’s because it’ll have positional-tracking capabilities other mobile-driven headsets lack. The Bridge comes from the same company that created the Occipital Structure Sensor, an iPad and iPhone add-on that uses infrared to scan objects and gauge distances automatically.

Yemen: US-Made Bombs Used in Unlawful Airstrikes

Dozens of Civilian Deaths Underscore Need for Saudi Arms Embargo

(Beirut) – The Saudi Arabia-led coalition killed several dozen civilians in three apparently unlawful airstrikes in September and October 2016, Human Rights Watch said today. The coalition’s use of United States-supplied weapons in two of the strikes, including a bomb delivered to Saudi Arabia well into the conflict, puts the US at risk of complicity in unlawful attacks.

The attacks underscore the urgent need for foreign governments to suspend all arms sales to Saudi Arabia and for the United Nations human rights office to send additional investigators to Yemen to carry out credible investigations of alleged abuses by the coalition, the Houthis and their allies, and all other parties to the conflict, Human Rights Watch said.

“Saudi-led forces are bombing civilians in Yemen with newly supplied US weapons,” said Priyanka Motaparthy, senior emergencies researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Obama administration is running out of time to completely suspend US arms sales to Saudi Arabia or be forever linked to Yemen wartime atrocities.”

Inauguration protesters barred from National Mall, other sites

Washington (CNN) - Activists planning the "Women's March on Washington" and those protesting the inauguration of Donald Trump won't be able to do so near some of DC's most iconic monuments.

The National Park Service filed documents on behalf of the Presidential Inauguration Committee to secure large sections of Pennsylvania Avenue, as well as the Washington Monument, the National Mall and the Lincoln Memorial for the inauguration festivities.

That means activists who were hoping to hold demonstrations at the Lincoln Memorial like many iconic marches and the other sites won't be able to do so.

The National Park Service requests permits for the inauguration a year in advance of the event, said Mike Litterst, spokesman for the agency.

Democrats' revolt threatens government funding bill

(CNN) - Senate approval of a must-pass short-term government spending bill was threatened late Thursday as West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and other Democrats worked to bolster miners' health insurance provisions in it.

They warned they might block the must-pass funding bill if their demands were not met, potentially leading to a government shutdown.

It was not clear if the Democrats could muster the 41 votes they need to block the Republican-authored bill. Adding more uncertainty to the situation, that procedural vote is currently scheduled for Saturday morning, hours after the Friday midnight deadline for when the government would run out of money.

Praying Mantis Looks Like a Flower—And Now We Know Why

The mantis orchid of Southeast Asia evolved in a way that's completely unique to insects.

An adult male Malaysian orchid mantis perches atop a female.

 
PHOTOGRAPH BY LIFE ON WHITE, ALAMY

When is an orchid not an orchid? When it's a female orchid praying mantis, a Southeast Asian insect that masquerades as a flower to attract prey.

With petal-like legs and a yellow or whitish pink color, females share little resemblance to males, which are about half the size and sport a dull, greenish brown color.