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We've gotten a bunch of messages from readers who originally bought iWork or iLife back when they were still sold on disk in boxes - yeah, you know, the dark ages - saying the Mac App Store is now properly offering them free updates to the new versions. Yesterday, for the same people, the updates were still listed at $19.99 a piece, so it looks like Apple's been fixing things overnight.
We haven't heard anything official about this, mind you, so don't sharpen the stakes and fire up the torches if you're still seeing a sticker price. Just make sure your disk copies are installed before you launch the Mac App Store, and then click around awhile to help them get recognized.
Check out Serenity Caldwell's piece in Macworld for more on identifying what you have, what you qualify for, and how to get it.
Thanks: Keith!
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Editor’s note: Tadhg Kelly is a veteran game designer and creator of leading game design blog What Games Are. He has recently moved into managing developer relations at OUYA. You can follow him on Twitter here.
Pervasive gaming is a well-worn idea that’s drifted through the pages of design theory for at least 20 years. It’s the idea of a game that goes beyond the bounds of one screen. You’d play your game on your computer and then go out into the world with your PDA and keep playing. Your game would seep in to your life in a variety of ways and maybe even the boundaries of play and not-play would become illusive. While the target devices have maybe moved on from computers and PDAs to tablets and smartphones, the idea is alive and well.
Pervasiveness forms the meat of transmedia and gamification. The former is interested in using it as a way to tell stories, going from one format to another. The latter is more concerned with ways that games and behavior usefully coincide. Pervasiveness also features in much of the thinking surrounding massive multiplayer and social game experiences, or at least where the designers of those games believe they should go. When futurist game designers look at smartwatches, smart TVs, iPad minis, microconsoles and other upcoming device types, they invariably forecast a kind of game that hooks into all of the above and gels together.
Yet what we actually see in pervasive gaming is pretty thin. It boils down to little more than notifications nagging players to come back and play some otherwise thoroughly normal game along with some data sharing. Pervasiveness simply means messages that remind you to take your turn and cloud saves.
There are many sensible reasons why it’s not been a big deal so far. The first is the technology. While the pervasive game sounds good in theory, in practice it’s meant getting a lot of different devices to play nice, and that’s not easy. Look at how long it’s taken simple office software to go from a single-device to a cloud-based experience, and you get some sense of the challenge. Until recently PCs didn’t talk to mobile phones. Mobile phones didn’t have reliable-enough connectivity to maintain conversations with clouds. Consoles didn’t talk to anything almost as an article of faith.
The second reason is expertise. Developing a game to work on one platform is hard, never mind porting to similar platforms. Trying to take a game across many form factors and control types and yet somehow make them make sense is a daunting challenge and many game makers balk at the manpower required. This is why many pervasive gamelike experiences (such as Foursquare) tend to be rudimentary, and in turn why they struggle to maintain engagement levels.
We may be starting to overcome many of these issues. The Unity 3D engine, for example, has made cross-compatibility between platforms much easier. It is now much less daunting for a small studio to consider publishing everywhere, and the performance trade-offs that used to exist with middleware have become a non-issue. There’s also the convergence of core technologies in the computing sector. Microsoft may have gotten the implementation of this idea wrong with Windows 8, but the notion that screens of all sizes will start to operate in similar touch-based ways is likely correct. As device categories become better at being interoperable and clouds offload some of the heavy lifting, possibilities emerge.
But there is also a perception issue. Although there is plenty of evidence to suggest that multi-screen multi-device households are becoming the norm (in rich countries at least), game makers tend to think of that as a one-percenter perspective. They believe that the idea that players might move from screen to screen is a nice dream, but most of them won’t. And there is some precedent to this. In the more dedicated end of the video game market gamers tend to be loyal to specific brands and formats. In more casual markets players tend to have a default device, even a default game, that they play regularly but don’t seem inclined to change up. There is also the fractious history of alternate reality games and how they didn’t attract a lot of long term interest.
Video games are usually designed with a target environment and control method in mind, indeed making that control method part of the challenge of the game. Starcraft works really well as a mouse-and-keyboard game but would suck with a joypad. However the experience of playing Mario demands a joypad and would be boring in touch. That close relationship is not easily unpicked, and arguably not one that many players or developers want unravelled. You can’t play World of Warcraft on your iPhone. You can’t even conceive of how it would work because the whole game is designed from a PC perspective.
Pervasiveness is just another way of saying as-a-service. We predicted for a long time that software would move over to that model, and it has. Barring a few holdouts like Photoshop and Maya, the clear direction for growth in the software industry has been all about service for a while. It’s changed how software is thought of and what’s considered to be an important feature versus just another bullet point on a box. It’s changed how community works with software, often being the force that drives its direction.
As a result the powers in the pervasive software landscape look completely different to the older kings. Basecamp to Microsoft Project. Gmail to Outlook. Perhaps the new Numbers to Excel. Successful pervasive games will probably have to do something similar, to be designed from the ground up rather than to think of extra platforms as value-adds.
Imagine, for example designing a pervasive space-trading game. The king of the genre, EVE Online, has existed since 2003 and is designed entirely with the PC in mind. It has a hugely loyal user base that’s sensitive to changes. The game is persistent but not necessarily pervasive unless you sit in front of your PC a lot. It’s attempted to branch out into other platforms (such as through Dust 514) but not been successful in doing so.
Creating a pervasive space-trading game does not mean taking EVE and adding some mobile features. It means rethinking everything from the ground up. It probably means making a game that will always be much simpler than EVE, but that’s okay. The target of the experience is that pervasive feeling rather than the super-featured depth of the current king.
Designing for pervasiveness probably needs a whole new approach and this is one of the bigger challenges that game makers will face over the next few years because pervasiveness is already here. It’s Netflix remembering your position in a TV series from device to device. It’s collaborating on a Google document on the train while your colleague is doing the same from his desk. It’s checking your text message on your wearable smart watch. It’s whatever a sexier looking Google Glass turns out to be good for. None of these new software experiences really fit the mould of uni-device usages, and increasingly the idea that software in the future would work that way will seem quaint.
It’s not that games will all need to become pervasive to thrive, but the opportunity is opening up for studios willing to think that way to deliver new kinds of play experience.
German officials are scrambling to gather more information and U.S. officials are assessing diplomatic options in the wake of claims that the U.S. National Security Agency has been monitoring German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone for more than a decade. Renee Montagne talks to Tim Naftali of the New America Foundation about America's history of spying and what this recent news means for the U.S. relationship with its European allies.
Some people think a lot can go wrong if you have your emails pass through LinkedIn's servers with the company's new Intro technology.
Earlier this week, the company released LinkedIn Intro, a plug-in for the iPhone's native email app that attaches people's LinkedIn profile information to their emails. The service is meant to add more professional context to emails, but it does that at the expense of users' private data, some security experts say.
[ Build and deploy an effective line of defense against corporate intruders with InfoWorld's Encryption Deep Dive PDF expert guide. Download it today! | Stay up to date on the latest security developments with InfoWorld's Security Central newsletter. ]
By transmitting sent and received emails through LinkedIn's servers, which then scrape and analyze them for data, the service essentially amounts to a "man-in-the-middle attack," security consulting firm Bishop Fox wrote in a staff blog post.
"The introduction of new data sources into a medium rife with security issues such as email is a dream for attackers," Bishop Fox wrote, noting that it could only be a matter of time before someone uses the service to launch a phishing attack.
The concept of being watched online, in an age of targeted advertising, cookies, geolocation data and the National Security Agency, is not new. But in trying to embed LinkedIn profile information into people's email, the company looks at too much information, said Carl Livitt, managing securities associate at Bishop Fox. "The company used a massive hammer to crack an egg," Livitt said.
For online attackers, Intro makes LinkedIn a juicy target, he said.
LinkedIn maintains a privacy policy for the service, which states that each piece of data is encrypted with a key that is unique to the user and his device. "The servers themselves are secured and monitored 24/7 to prevent any unauthorized access," it says.
Though LinkedIn doesn't say that it decrypts emails while they're on the servers in order to make modifications and attach people's profile information, that's what's happening, Livitt said.
But some other observers don't think Intro raises any new security issues. "It's the same situation as every other cloud service provider," including Google, Yahoo, AOL and many others, said security expert and author Bruce Schneier. "You have to trust them."
"It's just another company ... in it for the money," he said. "Before, it was 1,000 companies you had to trust -- now it's 1,001."
LinkedIn may already be walking on thin ice when it comes to data security. The company suffered a major breach of its password database last year, which saw millions of hashed passwords appear in an online forum in Russia.
In a statement, a LinkedIn spokeswoman said the company takes the privacy and security of its members' data seriously, and that it has "taken a thoughtful approach to ensure we've put the right security precautions in place for the LinkedIn Intro product."
If the security risks are real, is the service that Intro provides worth it? That comes down to being a personal choice, Bishop Fox's Livitt said, but for him the answer is "no."
"I would not recommend Intro to any of my clients," he said.
Zach Miners covers social networking, search and general technology news for IDG News Service. Follow Zach on Twitter at @zachminers. Zach's e-mail address is zach_miners@idg.com.
Enjoying a truly feminine event, Kate Bosworth attended Lucky Magazine's East Coast FABB: Fashion and Beauty Blog Conference in New York City on Thursday (October 24).
The "Blue Crush" star wore a long-sleeved cream top and silver short skirt as she posed with her gorgeous magazine cover.
Also plugging her Kate Bosworth for Topshop collection, the 30-year-old actress enjoyed herself, tweeting, "Had the BEST time speaking with @evachen212 at #LuckyFABB - thank you @LuckyMagazine - what a great audience, could have stayed forever!"
Speaking about the new line, Kate explained, "The collection is tailored and classic. For fall, we wanted to create luxurious pieces with a strong minimalist approach. Slim silhouettes are cloaked in a masculine shape, staying true to the mix of masculine/feminine balance that exists in my personal aesthetic."
All WWE programming, talent names, images, likenesses, slogans, wrestling moves, trademarks, logos and copyrights are the exclusive property of WWE, Inc. and its subsidiaries. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. © 2013 WWE, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This website is based in the United States. By submitting personal information to this website you consent to your information being maintained in the U.S., subject to applicable U.S. laws. U.S. law may be different than the law of your home country. WrestleMania XXIX (NY/NJ) logo TM & © 2013 WWE. All Rights Reserved. The Empire State Building design is a registered trademark and used with permission by ESBC.
Source: http://www.wwe.com/shows/hellinacell/2013/big-e-langston-dean-ambrose-require-stitchesAn injury to Ian McCall will force a change to the UFC on FOX 9 lineup as the UFC will seek a replacement for Scott Jorgensen’s flyweight debut. The UFC has yet to confirm the switch but has removed Jorgensen and McCall from the December 19 lineup. MMAJunkie first reported the injury.
UFC on FOX 9 will take place in Sacramento, California on December 19 and features UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis against Josh Thomson. The night’s co-main event will see bantamweights Michael McDonald and Urijah Faber face off in a crucial bout in the division. The FOX network event will take place at the Sleep Train Arena (formerly the ARCO Arena), with prelims airing via FOX Sports 1 and Facebook.
For the latest on UFC on FOX 9 and all UFC News, stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.
Front-Page Photo Credit: Jason da Silva-USA TODAY Sports
Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford (9) celebrates scoring on a 1-yard touchdown run against the Dallas Cowboys in the fourth quarter of an NFL football game in Detroit, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Rick Osentoski)
Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford (9) celebrates scoring on a 1-yard touchdown run against the Dallas Cowboys in the fourth quarter of an NFL football game in Detroit, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Rick Osentoski)
Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson (81) breaks free for a 87-yard reception against the against the Dallas Cowboys in the first half of an NFL football game in Detroit, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson)
Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant (88) catches a 5-yard touchdown reception as Detroit Lions cornerback Darius Slay (30) defends and Glover Quin watches in the second quarter of an NFL football game in Detroit, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson)
Detroit Lions running back Reggie Bush (21) is stopped by Dallas Cowboys inside linebacker Ernie Sims (59), defensive tackle Nick Hayden (96), defensive back Jeff Heath, second from right, and defensive end Kyle Wilber, right, in the first half of an NFL football game in Detroit, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson)
Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson (81) celebrates his 2-yard touchdown reception with Jeremy Ross (12) against the Dallas Cowboys in the first half of an NFL football game in Detroit, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson)
DETROIT (AP) — Calvin Johnson thought Matthew Stafford was going to spike the ball for at least another snap.
The Dallas Cowboys did, too.
Stafford's 1-yard lunge over a pile of linemen with 12 seconds left and Johnson's 329 yards receiving lifted the Detroit Lions to a 31-30 win over Dallas on Sunday.
"I was yelling that I was going to spike the ball," Stafford recalled. "But their linebackers were just standing there."
The Cowboys weren't just standing around letting Johnson make catch after catch, but he made them look helpless.
Johnson almost broke an NFL record, and could celebrate the feat because of a comeback from a 10-point, fourth-quarter deficit that some people who entered Ford Field didn't see because they had left.
"Even our fans didn't think we could pull this one out," he said. "They were leaving, but we knew we could do it."
Johnson's total trails only the 336 yards receiving Flipper Anderson had for the Los Angeles Rams against New Orleans on Nov. 26, 1989 in a game that went into overtime. Anderson had 296 yards receiving in regulation.
The Cowboys dared Detroit to throw to Johnson with a lot of one-on-one coverage. They usually asked cornerback Brandon Carr to do the improbable by defending him by himself, and sometimes attempted to slow him down with a zone.
"He had his way," Carr said. "And, we couldn't find a way to keep him from rolling."
Johnson noticed.
"It was crazy," he said. "We had a lot of one-on-one coverage today, and we were able to take advantage and hit some deep balls. Matt made some great throws to me."
The Lions (5-3) overcame four turnovers without forcing a turnover, becoming the first team to do that and win since New England did against Miami in 2007, according to STATS.
On their last drive, Stafford threw a 22-yard pass to Johnson to set up the winning score. The quarterback caught at least some Cowboys by surprise, including linebacker Sean Lee, who appeared to expect him to spike the ball to stop the clock.
"He kind of caught us off-guard," defensive tackle Jason Hatcher acknowledged.
Dallas (4-4) seemed to set itself up to win three straight for the first time this year to build a bigger lead atop the NFC East when Tony Romo threw his second touchdown — and third of the game — to Dez Bryant with 6:45 left to take 27-17 lead.
The Cowboys, though, allowed Reggie Bush to cap an 80-yard drive with a 1-yard TD with 3:33 left. They also had to settle for Dan Bailey's third field goal with 1:02 left after Tyron Smith was flagged for holding on third down, a mistake that stopped the clock even though Detroit declined the penalty.
"If we don't get called for a penalty, I think they probably had 20 seconds or so left," Romo said.
With no timeouts, the Lions went from their 20 to the Cowboys end zone thanks in large part to a 17-yard pass to Johnson, a 40-yard connection with Kris Durham and Johnson's 14th reception that gave them the ball at the Dallas 1.
Instead of spiking the ball, Stafford took the snap and leaped with his arms extended to beat the team he rooted for growing up in Highland Park, Texas.
"I was just as fooled as the defense was," Lions offensive guard Larry Warford said.
Stafford was 33 of 48 for 488 yards —his second-highest total — with a 2-yard TD pass to Johnson in the first quarter and two interceptions. Reggie Bush had 92 yards rushing and a score.
Romo was 14 of 30, failing to complete half his passes for the first time since 2009, for 206 yards without a turnover.
Dallas began the game without two starters on both sides of the ball: DeMarco Murray and Miles Austin on offense and DeMarcus Ware and J.J. Wilcox on defense.
Late in the first half, Romo threw two straight passes to Bryant — after not making him the intended receiver once — and he caught the second one with his left hand, pinning it against his shoulder pad for a go-ahead, 5-yard TD with 46 seconds left in the first half.
Despite leading by six in the third quarter, Bryant didn't look happy. He flapped his arms and screamed at Romo on the sideline. After the loss, Bryant insisted his demonstrative actions were a result of his positive passion.
"People who have a problem with me are the people that don't understand what is going on," he said.
NOTES: Lions DE Ezekiel "Ziggy" Ansah (left ankle), WR Ryan Broyles (Achilles tendon) and CB Bill Bentley (knee) and Cowboys RG Brian Waters (triceps), CB Morris Claiborne (hamstring) and FS Barry Church (hamstring) were hurt during the game. ... The Lions have a bye next week while Dallas plays the Minnesota Vikings.
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AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org
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Follow Larry Lage on Twitter: http://twitter.com/larrylage
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-10-27-FBN-Cowboys-Lions/id-3fbff09126b14834a6ab29f36d3ec6e2The biggest news coming out of UFC's show in Manchester, England, on Saturday was not the impressive win of Lyoto Machida, but of UFC's plans going forward in the European market. In ways, both obvious and not so obvious, it is going to be a major change in how the company does business.
The biggest news coming out of Saturday's UFC event in Manchester, England, was not the results of any of the matches or any potential title implications.
It's about UFC publicly tipping its hand for its new European business strategy.
They have made most of the calls on new talent to be signed, and how to bring that talent through the ranks. Matchmaking itself is an art and a minefield. Some fighters have more star power than others. Some fighters with star power may have glaring weaknesses and it's best to avoid a certain type of opponent on their way up. Some fighters may be consistent winners, but boring to the audience, and you have to be cognizant of that as far as where you put them on a show.
There are a multitude of lessons that matchmakers learn based on experience, and this is the first major change of the system as it has been in place.
While a new matchmaker would have to work with Silva and Shelby in coordinating not only the name talent on the main roster, but in time, the newly signed European talent that at some point will have to get exposure on major North American shows if they are truly going to rise to the top. Then it will become a fight as to whether they are used on the European circuit, where they would be the not familiar, or on a major North American show, where they will eventually need to be on if they have potential to be title contenders and worldwide stars.
This represents a major change in the way the company has created its lineups. Inevitably, it was bound to happen, as it's only humanly possible to put together a finite number of shows in a given time period and the company's goals have always been creating a sport practiced and competed in worldwide.
Exactly how many of the European shows will air in the U.S. is unclear. But with 35 televised events, between pay-per-view, FOX, Fox Sports 1 and Fox Sports 2, scheduled for 2014, and attempts to keep up a regular schedule in Brazil as well as North America, the simple math says times are changing.
One UFC source this week noted to us that if and when the plans for Europe go through, that many of the events won't air on U.S. television.
They may air on the Internet, which is fine, but Internet broadcasts of UFC prelims of major shows rarely break 50,000 viewers worldwide. The audience that would watch prelims of smaller shows would, if anything, be less than that. The technology is there for the super fans to see just about everything, but that is only a tiny percentage of the audience, and not the audience that is the key. In a business that revolves around exposing names and creating stars, those shows and the fighters on those shows will mean very little in North America.
Besides having a regular presence throughout Europe, The idea behind this is expanding into new markets and running existing ones on a regular basis. It's also to have live television that will air in prime time throughout Europe. The big UFC events currently start at 3 a.m. in London, for example. That's fine for the biggest UFC fans, it's not a time slot that is going to result in any big numbers of viewers unless there is something gigantic going on.
But to create those new stars, there has to be significant viewership for these events on television in the markets, and a receptive media.
The question becomes how much existing star power will be needed to sell tickets and get viewers in Europe to watch the television. With American fans picking and choosing what they watch more and more, even on shows like Saturday, which are televised into the U.S., the number of viewers for a show airing at noon on the West Coast, where UFC's highest concentration of popularity is - particularly for an Fox Sports 2 broadcast - is limited.
For example, Conor McGregor is a natural to be a European headliner, particularly for a show in Ireland. But if he's on a show that isn't televised, when most fighters are only doing two fighters a year and the goal is three, that takes him off an existing North American show. That removes a potential star from the U.S. scene during that cycle, slightly diluting the star power of the major shows, and the average American UFC TV viewer will see less of him or any European star on the rise.
But the key to the success of this venture is the European audience. Are they willing to support the UFC brand name for shows that will be filled with lesser-name stars, at least at first? Having the shows in prime time is great, but only if the fan base is willing to watch what would be shows with less star power on a consistent basis. If they are, then with familiarity, the successful fighters featured will theoretically become stars to the European fans, and hopefully stars that can be competitive will emerge from different countries. And if a true superstar emerges, perhaps they can become a major national attraction.
The WWE brand name has been successful exported in many European countries, but there is a huge difference. With WWE, they usually tour a few times a year and are careful not to burn out the markets, but the nature of their industry allows then to run the live events filled with the biggest stars. It's not a matter of more places being run diluting the star power of the events.
Historically, the popularity of combat sports in different countries revolves around national heroes. There was amazing short-term popularity of MMA and kickboxing in Croatia during the prime of Mirko Cro Cop in the early and mid-2000s, or in Switzerland in the 1990s during the prime of kickboxer Andy Hug. It's even more pronounced in boxing currently in Germany and The Ukraine with the Klitschkos, or in recent years in the U.K. with Ricky Hatton, David Haye, Amir Khan or Carl Froch.
But a lot of that, such as in kickboxing, it was a short-term boom based on a charismatic superstar and had no legs once that star was no longer around.
Will these types of shows be able to consistently draw in major arenas? And if the television deals are strong enough financially, will it even be necessary to run these frequent events in big halls? Clearly, a key component is television partners who are not just looking at airing the major U.S. events with the big names to garner viewership today, but those with long-term goals in building the sport.
Another key to this growth is training facilities. If, say, a fighter from Poland emerges with some star quality, right now, to really compete at the top level, the best places to learn and grow are still camps in North America and Brazil.
If the Polish star ends up living in Albuquerque, N.M., San Jose, Calif., South Florida, Montreal or Rio de Janeiro, their value in being there all the time for media and public appearances in Poland is compromised. Rome isn't built in a day, but the ultimate goal is not for stars to emerge, but for roots to grow where you can have top quality training and depth or training partners in these emerging markets.
But don't kid yourself, with it is going to come major changes in the UFC business and in American fans being able to keep up with that business.
Here's a look at how Fortunes Changed for Five stars on Saturday night:
The win was so impressive that Machida could get a title shot tomorrow in his new division and few would complain. Very few could solve the Machida riddle at light heavyweight, and it's probably going to be more difficult for the middleweights.
But if Silva wins, as he's favored to do, the situation becomes frustrating. It's questionable whether Machida or Souza would face Silva, although Machida just beat a friend and training partner in Munoz. Silva has also said he has no interest in facing Belfort again. So the division is either en route to its most exciting period in its history, or a frustrating logjam whether the best fights are the ones that can't be made.
Her problem is just that: going against someone her own size. Andrade, at a listed 5-foot-2, is stocky and strong, but doesn't have the genetic size to handle the bigger and stronger women at 135 and that poses a natural limitation to her upside. Her style is entertaining. She had one of the best fights of the night, even though it should have been stopped in the second round and turned ugly in the last round when Sexton seemed like target practice more than competition by round three.
It is likely only a matter of time before more women's weight divisions are opened up. It's not a move I'd recommend rushing into for UFC at this point, but at some point it is a lock to happen. Given Andrade's age, she's likely to be around, and be a star, when that day comes.
Lyoto Machida certainly did his part yesterday to get the MMA world talking about a title run at 185, as not only did he defeat the contender Mark Munoz, he scored a highlight reel KO. If “The Dragon” had won via a tightly contested or sluggish decision win, then obviously the post-fight buzz would be considerably less.
So, with the win, Machida is right in thick of the title shot picture, and while speaking to FOX Sports 2 afterwards he had this to say about his future:
I want to be champion. I want the belt. I have to chase the belt. I want to be busy. If they ask me to fight 205, I can still fight at 205. Bisping is a great fight for me next. If he accepted it, that’d be great.”
Now of course, a bout with Michael Bisping would be a big fight, and “The Count” has already said he was interested in fighting the winner of Machida-Munoz. Bisping was set to fight Munoz at UFC Fight Night 30, until he had to drop out due to an eye injury. The #4 ranked middleweight hopes to return to action in early 2014, so that’s a fight that makes a lot of sense right?
While Dana White didn’t comment on the possibility of Bisping-Machida directly, he was also asked about “The Dragon’s” next fight, and the UFC President relayed (quote via MMA Junkie.com):
“I think, and I’m just talking here as a fan, not as a promoter, I think a lot of people want to see him and Vitor Belfort,” White said. “That would be a fun fight. Vitor’s got to win down in Brazil. And who knows, (Machida) could fight someone else before that. But I’m just saying, as a fan, and speaking for many fans, that’s the fight they want to see. At least that’s what everyone was screaming at me on the way out of the arena tonight.”
That would also be a massive fight, but first things first, Belfort has to get by Dan Henderson on November 9th. If Belfort does defeat Hendo, however, “The Phenom” is almost certainly going to be calling for the winner of Weidman-Silva II.
Stay tuned to MMA Frenzy.com for all your UFC news and coverage.
Front-Page Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sits on a panel to answer questions about the Affordable Care Act enrollment, Friday, Oct. 25, 2013, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sits on a panel to answer questions about the Affordable Care Act enrollment, Friday, Oct. 25, 2013, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
FILE - In this Aug. 1, 2012 file photo, Jeffrey Zients testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. President Barack Obama is calling Zients to help correct problems with the new federal health care website. The White House says Zients will assist a team that is said to be working around the clock on the site, www.healthcare.gov. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans said Sunday they intend to press Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on the Obama administration's troubled launch of healthcare.gov, the online portal to buy insurance, and concerns about the privacy of information that applicants submit under the new system.
The Obama administration will face intense pressure next week to be more forthcoming about how many people have actually succeeded in enrolling for coverage in the new insurance markets. Medicare chief Marilyn Tavenner is to testify during a House hearing on Tuesday, followed Wednesday by Sebelius before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The officials will also be grilled on how such crippling technical problems could have gone undetected prior to the website's Oct. 1 launch.
"The incompetence in building this website is staggering," said Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., the second ranking Republican on the panel and an opponent of the law.
Democrats said the new system needed time to get up and running, and it could be fixed to provide millions of people with affordable insurance. Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat, said the system was "working in Kentucky," a state that has dealt with "some of the worst health statistics in the country ... The only way we're going to get ourselves out of the ditch is some transformational tool," like the new health insurance system.
Blackburn said she wanted to know much has been spent on the website, how much more it will cost to fix the problems, when everything will be ready and what people should expect to see on the site. Blackburn and Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., raised questions of whether the website could guard the privacy of applicants.
"The way the system is designed it is not secure," said Rogers, who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
The botched rollout has led to calls on Capitol Hill for a delay of penalties for those remaining uninsured. The Obama administration has said it's willing to extend the grace period until Mar. 31, the end of open enrollment. That's an extra six weeks. The insurance industry says going beyond that risks undermining the new system by giving younger, healthier people a pass.
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who is seeking a yearlong delay to the penalty for noncompliance, said his approach would "still induce people to get involved, but it will also give us the time to transition in. And I think we need that transition period to work out the things." Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., who has urged the Obama administration to postpone the March 31 deadline, said she was concerned applicants would not have a full six months to enroll.
The administration was under no legal requirement to launch the website Oct 1. Sebelius, who designated her department's Medicare agency to implement the health care law, had the discretion to set open enrollment dates. Officials could have postponed open enrollment by a month, or they could have phased in access to the website.
But all through last summer and into early fall, the administration insisted it was ready to go live in all 50 states on Oct. 1.
The online insurance markets are supposed to be the portal to coverage for people who do not have access to a health plan through their jobs. The health care law offers middle-class people a choice of private insurance plans, made more affordable through new tax credits. Low-income people will be steered to Medicaid in states that agree to expand that safety net program.
An HHS memo prepared for Sebelius in September estimated that nearly 500,000 people would enroll for coverage in the marketplaces during October, their first month of operation. The actual number is likely to be only a fraction of that. The administration has said 700,000 people have completed applications.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said the president had been poorly served by Sebelius "in the implementation of his own signature legislature. So if somebody doesn't leave and if there isn't a real restructuring, not just a 60-day somebody come in and try to fix it, then he's missing the point of management 101, which is these people are to serve him well, and they haven't."
Blackburn spoke on "Fox News Sunday," Beshear appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press," Rogers was on to CNN's "State of the Union," Manchin was interviewed on ABC's "This Week," and Shaheen and Issa made their comments on CBS "Face the Nation."
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Follow Ken Thomas on Twitter at http://twitter.com/AP_Ken_Thomas
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-10-27-Health%20Overhaul/id-7bfc9eee79bf44989f71ed087e2b9641NEW YORK (AP) — Nokia is expanding its lineup of Windows phones and introducing its first tablet computer, all sporting the powerful camera technology found in its flagship Lumia 1020 smartphone.
The struggling cellphone maker is turning to the camera to differentiate its phones from rivals. The Lumia 1020 has a 41-megapixel camera with technology designed to produce better low-light shots and offer greater manual controls than most smartphones.
The new devices will use Microsoft's Windows system and come as Microsoft aims to complete its 5.44 billion euros ($7.4 billion) deal to buy Nokia's phone business and patent rights. The deal is expected to close early next year.
Nokia, a Finnish company, has seen its cellphone business unravel since Apple revolutionized the way people use handsets with the 2007 introduction of the iPhone. Microsoft, meanwhile, is struggling amid declines in sales of traditional personal computers in favor of smartphones and tablets.
Nokia's new Lumia 1520 will have a larger screen, measuring 6 inches diagonally, compared with 4.5 inches on the 1020. Nokia said the new phone's camera will have only 20 megapixels in order to keep the camera sensor smaller and the phone thinner. But that's still more resolution than most other phones.
The 1520 will also come with new apps designed to organize photos based on where you take the shots and to give you more flexibility in determining —after the fact— where the image should be focused. The phone will cost $740, though wireless carriers are expected to offer it cheaper with two-year service contracts.
Nokia will also make a cheaper version, the Lumia 1320, for a contract-free price of $339. It will have a 5-megapixel camera and a slower processor than the 1520. Both run the latest version of Windows Phone 8, which has new features to accommodate larger screen sizes.
Nokia's first tablet will be the Lumia 2520. It will run Windows 8.1 RT, meaning it shares the tile-based interface of the phone software, but can run various apps designed for Windows tablets. However, RT is the lightweight version of Windows, so it will run only apps specifically designed for it. Regular versions of Windows 8.1 can run apps for older versions of Windows.
All versions of the 2520 will come with built-in 4G LTE cellular access. By contrast, iPads and most other tablets make cellular access optional, with their cheapest models capable of using Wi-Fi only for Internet access.
The 10.1-inch tablet will cost $499. An optional cover with a physical keyboard and extended battery life is $149 extra. The camera is 6.7 megapixels, but shares the low-light technology and manual controls found in the Lumia 1020.
All three devices are expected to go on sale by the end of the year. They will come in multiple colors with a hard, plastic back molded onto the device.
Tbilisi (AFP) - Georgia voted in a presidential poll Sunday with a loyalist of billionaire Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili favourite to replace his larger-than-life nemesis Mikheil Saakashvili at the helm of the ex-Soviet state.
The vote heralds the end of pro-Western Saakashvili's second and last term and a year of his painful political cohabitation with bete noire Ivanishvili, who has promised to also step down in the coming weeks.
"Today we show that we are true Europeans," Ivanishvili told journalists as he voted. "People can truly exercise their right to make a free choice."
Stakes at the poll in the Western-backed Caucasus republic of some 4.5 million are lower this time round as consitutional changes will see the next president hand over many key powers to the prime minister after the vote.
Voting was slow at polling stations around capital Tbilisi and official turnout stood at under 18 percent as at mid-day local time (0800 GMT), according to the election commission.
Giorgi Margvelashvili -- a previously obscure university dean from Ivanishvili's Georgian Dream coalition – was well ahead of former parliament speaker David Bakradze of Saakashvili's United National Movement (UNM) in pre-election opinion polls.
Margvelashvili, 44, has said he is so sure of claiming the 50 percent needed to win the first round -- in which 23 candidates are running -- that he would withdraw if the vote goes to a second round.
"We are confident that the country will make the right choice," Margvelashvili said as he voted with his student daughter.
But with a combative challenge from 49-year-old former parliament speaker Nino Burjanadze -- and up to 20 percent of voters undecided -- the poll could go to a second round.
'Completely different type of president'
At a polling station in a university in central Tbilisi, professor Serge Tsutskiridze said he voted for "reserved" Margvelashvili because he wanted to see a new style of leader after Saakashvili's divisive rule.
"I voted for him because he is a completely different type of person to Saakashvili. We don't need another emotional and headstrong president," said Tsutskiridze, 67.
Other voters said that they hoped to see Saakashvili's party remain a force in Georgian politics despite Saakashvili's exit.
"I voted for David Bakradze -- a moderate and experienced politician – because I don't want one-party rule in Georgia," said journalist Ketevan Kurdovanidze, 50.
Ivanishvili, 57, wrested power from Saakashvili's party in parliamentary polls last year, marking Georgia’s first orderly transition.
Observers from non-governmental organisation Transparency International said in a midday statement that the vote was being held in a "calm environment" but that the number of procedural violations was up on last year's vote.
Ivanishvili's coalition will remain in control of the government whatever the result of Sunday's vote, but the tycoon has promised to stick to a pledge to name a successor as premier and step down.
Georgia under Saakashvili has made joining NATO and the European Union a main priority, and Ivanishvili's coalition has pledged to press on with this drive.
They have also promised to try to mend ties with Moscow shattered by a brief 2008 war between the two that saw Georgia effectively lose two breakaway regions, where Russia has now stationed thousands of troops.
Western allies have expressed concern over perceived selective justice that has seen a string of Saakashvili's close allies arrested since his party lost power.
Saakashvili, 45, has said he wants to remain active in politics but Ivanishvili -- who denies that there has been a political witch-hunt -— has labelled him a "political corpse" and warned that he could face prosecution once his immunity ends when he leaves office.
During a tumultuous decade under Saakashvili -- who came to power after ousting Eduard Shevardnadze in the 2003 "Rose Revolution" -- Georgia cut corruption, built new infrastructure and revived the country's devastated economy.
However, Saakashvili's reforms angered many who felt left out by the rush to change and police brutality used in crushing opposition protests tarnished his image as a pioneering democrat.
Over 3.5 million people are eligible to vote in the election which is monitored by international observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Polls close at 1600 GMT and preliminary results are expected to begin coming out overnight.
A photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA Thursday shows an international expert working at a chemical weapons plant in Syria. Destroying the weapons safely may require them to be moved to another country, experts say.
A photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA Thursday shows an international expert working at a chemical weapons plant in Syria. Destroying the weapons safely may require them to be moved to another country, experts say.
The process of cataloging and destroying Syria's chemical weapons stockpile took another stride Sunday, as the country met a deadline for submitting a formal declaration of its chemical arsenal. Weapons experts must also complete their inspection of all 23 storage and production sites today.
As of Friday, inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons had visited 19 of the weapons sites, the BBC reports. A framework agreed upon by Russia and the U.S. calls for all of Syria's chemical weapons to be destroyed the middle of 2014.
The declaration by Syria "includes a general plan of destruction" of its holdings, the OPCW says. But the process of destroying the weapons is sure to be a complicated one, experts say.
"What is known publicly is that Syria has about 1,000 tons of chemical-weapons-related material," according to NPR's Geoff Brumfiel. "And we think most of that isn't actually chemical weapons — it's chemicals used to make chemical weapons."
As Geoff tells Weekend Edition host Rachel Martin, inspectors may need to take some of the weapons outside of Syria, where a civil war is still raging, in order to destroy the materials safely. And that may be tough to do — Norway recently rejected the idea of taking on the destruction.
Geoff details how the process works — and why it's so tricky. Here's some of his conversation with Rachel:
Geoff: "The good news about these precursor chemicals is that they're a lot less dangerous than chemical weapons themselves. For example, the nerve gas sarin is usually made of two chemicals, and one of which is actually a kind of alcohol that's used in all sorts of industrial processes.
"That alcohol could be pretty easy to dispose of. And one expert I spoke to thought it could even be sold... to help pay for the disposal of the other stuff.
"The other part of sarin is a lot nastier, and there are ways to get rid of it. One of them is hydrolysis. Basically, it involves mixing the chemical with a lot of hot water and other chemicals to break it down. And then you can incinerate those byproducts.
"It's a similar story for mustard gas and VX nerve gas — the two other agents that Syria is thought to have."
Rachel: Is that something that can take place inside of Syria?
Geoff: "Incineration and hydrolysis aren't all that complicated, but you do need a lot of infrastructure. To burn the chemicals, you need an incinerator with protections in place to keep it from leaking out into the environment; hydrolysis requires a lot of electricity and water.
"But Syria is a war zone. So obviously, you can't go taking the time to build these big, complicated operations.
Rachel: Are there chemical weapons that are already loaded into Syrian bombs and rockets? How do you dispose of those?
Geoff: "Finding them, hopefully, won't be a problem, because the Syrians are supposed to disclose all of their chemical stocks, and that includes munitions that are loaded.
"In terms of disposal, though, this is a real issue. Loaded munitions are fragile; they cannot be moved very easily, and they probably can't be taken out of Syria. So, anything that's already been loaded is going to have to be disposed of in the country — and that's going to be probably the most dangerous and difficult part of this entire process."
DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Tanzania's economy grew 6.7 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2013 from 6.4 percent in the same period a year ago, but weakened compared with the first quarter, official data showed on Wednesday.
The economy grew by 7.5 percent in this year's first quarter, according to the state-run National Bureau of Statistics.
East Africa's second-largest economy is targeting GDP growth of 7 percent this year, slightly higher than the 6.9 percent achieved in 2012. Growth in the second quarter was driven by growth in financial services and communications sectors, while the fishing sector lagged, NBS said in a report.
Financial services grew fastest at 15.2 percent, from 11 percent in the same quarter in 2012.
Tanzania's economy has been growing at more than 5 percent a year for nearly a decade but infrastructure spending has lagged, with poor transport links and energy shortages blamed for uneven growth.
Transport and communication grew at 14.8 percent compared with 13.6 percent in the same period in 2012, but was at a slower rate than the 22.2 percent it attained in the first quarter of this year.
Construction grew by 12.3 percent, compared with 4.3 percent in the year-ago period, while mining and quarrying in Africa's fourth-largest gold producer rebounded to 4.3 percent from a negative growth rate of 5.1 percent a year ago.
Gold output fell to 9.827 tonnes in the second quarter of 2013 compared to 9.963 tonnes a year ago.
"The growth rate (of the mining sector) was attributed to increased production of diamonds and Tanzanite," NBS said.
Tanzanite is a blue/purple mineral found only in Tanzania.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tanzania-says-gdp-growth-rises-6-7-pct-120030022--sector.html
One of the great joys of exploring other cultures is seeing how other people eat — but sometimes, you need a strong stomach to deal with what you find. Around the world, people eat fried tarantulas, sheep's heads, duck embryos, and tons of other weird items. Here are the strangest and most revolting food items on Earth.
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FILE - In this May 24, 2000 file photo, Patsy Ramsey and her husband, John, parents of JonBenet Ramsey, look on during a news conference in Atlanta regarding their lie-detector examinations for the murder of their daughter. A grand jury indictment issued in 1999 in the JonBenet Ramsey investigation is expected to be released Friday, Oct. 25, 2013, and should shed more light on why prosecutors decided against pursuing charges against the little girl's parents. (AP Photo/Ric Feld, File)
FILE - In this May 24, 2000 file photo, Patsy Ramsey and her husband, John, parents of JonBenet Ramsey, look on during a news conference in Atlanta regarding their lie-detector examinations for the murder of their daughter. A grand jury indictment issued in 1999 in the JonBenet Ramsey investigation is expected to be released Friday, Oct. 25, 2013, and should shed more light on why prosecutors decided against pursuing charges against the little girl's parents. (AP Photo/Ric Feld, File)
This Friday Oct. 25, 2013 photo shows the Ramsey home where JonBenet Ramsey was found in Boulder, Colo. on the day in which new court documents were released in the Dec. 26, 1996 death of the six year old. According to previously unreleased documents from 1999, grand jurors who reviewed evidence in the death of Ramsey indicted both of her parents for child abuse resulting in death and being an accessory to a crime, including a first-degree murder that remains unsolved. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
On a day in which new court documents were released in the Dec. 26, 1996 death of six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey, TV correspondents Shaul Turner, of FOX 31 and Channel 2, right, and CNN's Ana Cabrera broacdast live in front of the Boulder County Justice Center in Boulder, Colo. on Friday Oct. 25, 2013. According to the previously unreleased documents from 1999, Grand jurors who reviewed evidence in the death of Ramsey indicted both of her parents for child abuse resulting in death and being an accessory to a crime, including a first-degree murder that remains unsolved. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — A grand jury found enough evidence to indict the parents of JonBenet Ramsey for child abuse and accessory to first-degree murder in the 6-year-old's death, newly unsealed documents revealed Friday, nearly a decade after DNA evidence cleared the couple.
But the 1999 documents shed no light on who was responsible for the child beauty queen's death, and 14 years later, authorities are no closer to finding her killer.
The documents confirmed reports earlier this year that grand jurors had indeed recommended an indictment in the case, contrary to the long-held perception that the secret panel ended their work without deciding to charge anyone.
At the time, then-District Attorney Alex Hunter didn't mention an indictment, saying only that there wasn't enough evidence to warrant charges against the Ramseys, who had long maintained their innocence.
The grand jury met three years after JonBenet's body was found bludgeoned and strangled in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, the day after Christmas in 1996. Lurid details of the crime and striking video footage of the child in adult makeup and suggestive pageant costumes propelled the case into one of the highest-profile mysteries in the U.S., unleashing a series of true-crime books and TV specials.
Many tabloid headlines later, tests in 2008 on newly discovered DNA left behind by someone who touched JonBenet's long underwear pointed to the involvement of an "unexplained third party" in her slaying, and not the Ramseys or their son, Burke.
The tests led Hunter's successor, Mary Lacy, to clear the Ramseys, two years after Patsy Ramsey died of cancer. In a letter to John Ramsey, she called the couple "victims of this crime."
Finding a match in the nation's growing DNA database could hold the best hope for someday solving the killing of JonBenet, who would now be 23. Her slaying is considered a cold case, open but not under active investigation.
One of John Ramsey's attorneys, L. Lin Wood, said the documents released Friday are "nonsensical" and the grand jurors didn't have the benefit of having the DNA results.
"They reveal nothing about the evidence reviewed by the grand jury and are clearly the result of a confused and compromised process," he said.
While the killer's identity is still unknown, Wood said there's no mystery about the Ramseys' role.
"The Ramsey family is innocent," he said. "That part of the case, based on the DNA evidence, is a done deal."
Boulder police, who were criticized for their handling of the investigation, issued a statement saying the documents show the grand jury agreed with investigators that probable cause existed to file charges. However, the statement acknowledged that the evidence would have to meet a higher standard than probable cause for prosecutors to take the case to trial.
The current district attorney, Stan Garnett, declined to comment but will publish an op-ed piece on Sunday, given the complexity of the case, a spokeswoman said.
David Lane, a defense attorney not involved in the case, said prosecutors may have handed it over to grand jurors because problems in the investigation could have made it difficult to prosecute. But he said that could have backfired with a "runaway grand jury" that reached its own conclusions.
He said the indictments could have been an attempt to force the parents to turn against each other, which he said was unlikely because both were protected by laws that limit testimony of one spouse against another.
"Somebody killed JonBenet Ramsey," Lane said. "It sounds like they were accused of aiding and abetting each other, with the hope someone would crack and break. That didn't happen, and prosecutors may have decided not to go forward."
Although the grand jury foreman signed the 1999 indictments, prosecutors decided not to bring charges.
Christina Habas, a retired judge who oversaw grand juries in Denver, said it's at the discretion of the district attorney whether to file charges because prosecutors have to consider whether they can convince a trial jury of someone's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
The indictments might have been a compromise among jurors who were divided on what counts should be approved, said Nancy Leong, an assistant law professor at the University of Denver. The release of only four of 18 charging pages, and the numbering of the charges, suggest other possible charges were passed over. The charge of accessory to a crime might have been an attempt to "meet in the middle," Leong said.
"And that would also explain why the prosecutor didn't want to continue with the prosecution of the crime, because there might not have been enough evidence to prove the parents helped someone else cover up the crime," she said.
Whatever the motivation behind them, the documents add little or nothing to the public understanding of what happened to JonBenet, Leong said.
"We don't know much more factually, if anything, than we did in 1996," she said.
The Daily Camera newspaper in Boulder reported earlier this year that the grand jury had issued indictments, and the documents were released in response to a lawsuit filed by its reporter, Charlie Brennan, and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
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Associated Press writers Steven K. Paulson and Dan Elliott contributed to this report.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-10-25-US-JonBenet-Lawsuit/id-47cd954476a444cf9edf8d09f637719a
