As developers for tablets and smartphones we like to keep abreast of the latest mobile technology developments . This is a daily digest of mobile development and related technology news gathered from the BBC, the New York Times, New Scientist and the Globe and Mail to name a few. We scour the web for articles concerning, iPhone, iPad and android development, iOS and android operating systems as well as general articles on advances in mobile technology. We hope you find this useful and that it helps to keep you up to date with the latest technology developments.
Can China become a leading global innovator?
Can China shed its “factory of the world” reputation to become a leader in global innovation? The BBC’s China Editor Carrie Gracie travels to the southern Shenzhen city to find out.
Danny Green, NBA Player, Apologizes For Holocaust Selfie
Danny Green of the San Antonio Spurs is apologizing for taking a selfie at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin and posting it on Instagram with a caption that drew criticism on social media.
Green’s selfie at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe initially included the caption: “You know I had to do it one time lol #Holocaust”
“Lol” isn’t the most appropriate caption for a Holocaust selfie, ask #Spurs G Danny Green: http://t.co/fjSvBlJHYJ pic.twitter.com/5XxFHb00e0
— The Fumble (@TheFumbleSports) October 8, 2014
The Guardian reports that Green changed the text to read, “A lot of history here, more than you could imagine…very sad/tragic things happened #holocaust #berlin”
But shortly afterward, he removed the post and apologized on Twitter:
I want to sincerely apologize for the insensitivity of my post!
— Danny Green (@DGreen_14) October 8, 2014
I have great respect n understanding for this country’s history n wanted to continue chronicling my experience in Berlin
— Danny Green (@DGreen_14) October 8, 2014
But showed poor judgement…sorry once again
— Danny Green (@DGreen_14) October 8, 2014
Green has been posting images of his trip to Europe for preseason matches and other events as part of the NBA Global Games.
Twitter news head quits after a year
Twitter’s head of news Vivian Schiller has announced she is leaving, following the departure of three other senior executives.
Bionic arm restores sense of feeling
Advances in bionic hands have restored a sense of touch to two patients for more than a year, report US scientists.
The scenic route to your happy place
Do you live in a happy city?
VIDEO: Headgear measures city stimulation
A company is testing out headgear that measures brain response to the stimulation of the city.
VIDEO: How to build a 'cat camera'
The BBC team who made cat cameras for The Secret Life of the Cat explain the technology behind the show.
Could a machine be your boss one day?
Could an algorithm run your business better?
Sarah Silverman Sends A Powerful Message About The Wage Gap
Sarah Silverman wants everyone to know the wage gap is not OK, and she’s not afraid to get all Sarah Silverman to do it.
Teaming up with the National Women’s Law Center, a nonprofit fighting for equal pay through advocacy and legislature, to kick off its new campaign, The Equal Payback Project, Silverman takes some decidedly NSFW measures to make sure she earns as much money as her male counterparts.
However, the statistics behind the sketch aren’t so funny.
Because the average woman only makes 78 cents to the man’s dollar, in one year, a woman will lose $10,874 to the wage gap. Multiply that by a 40-year career, and one woman will lose $435,049 to the wage gap. Further, with nearly 69 million women in the workplace, the female workforce will lose nearly $30 trillion to the wage gap.
And women of color experience an even greater wage gap: In 2013, African-American women working full time, year-round were paid only 64 cents to the white man’s dollar, the NWLC notes. Hispanic women, meanwhile, were paid only 56 cents to the white man’s dollar.
However, the Equal Payback Project is aiming to highlight this vast gap by attempting to close it. The campaign is crowdfunding the Internet to raise $29,811,746,430,000. (Yep, you read that right.) The money raised will go to the NWLC to aid projects like returning the Paycheck Fairness Act to the Senate floor and protecting pregnant women from being forced out of work.
“The goal may be absurd — but so is the wage gap,” the project’s website says.
Indeed.
To find out more information or to donate to the cause, visit the The Equal Payback Project website.
Why Is the Computer Science Education Act Now the Most Broadly Co-Sponsored Education Bill in the House?
Underpinning what is now known as the Third Industrial Revolution, computers and information technology have influenced the the direction of our nation and redefined social norms and youths’ aspirations. Towards the beginning of this transformation, users of information and communications technology (ICT) were self-instructed, frequently tinkering around in their spare time. What previously had been thought of a vocational subject or hobby, decades later, would represent the foundation of commerce, communications and development.
With every revolution, new disciplines of study are begotten. Classical literature, languages, mathematics and sciences have been augmented by modern interpretations; in the 19th and 20th century, for example, the study of political economy developed into the formal subject of economics, emerging from the first two Industrial Revolutions. Studies of time and motion, operational efficiencies and new fields of engineering emerged creating a new lexicon for commerce and production, upsetting the prior status quo associated with the eras prior and inclusive of the the 18th century. In the past half-century, ICT has fundamentally shifted the methods in which we interact, conduct business and develop our future.
Netizens have experienced much of the technology adoption lifecycle associated with the end-user experience of this generation’s computers and mobile devices; but we are still among the “early adoption” stage of ICT education. Consequently, it is vital that Information and computer sciences and languages are integrated into educational curricula as introduced by Representatives Susan Brooks and Jared Polis in their bipartisan bill, H.R.2536, “the Computer Science Education Act (CSEA),” and later introduced by Senators Robert Casey and Marco Rubio in their bipartisan bill, S. 1407, “the Computer Science Education and Jobs Act”, and increase the opportunities for students in primary education to gain valuable work skills.
As a student, I have been fortunate to attend schools where computer education was prioritized and much of this laid the foundation for my interest in computers and technology. Learning how to program and manipulate code has provided me an appreciation of the potential that can be realized when harnessing computational power and enhanced my critical thinking skills. Additionally, being able to speak the language and communicate with others about computing has opened doors for me and allows for individuals with these skills to solve new complex problems in previously unimagined ways.
While in some school districts computer education starts early and there are a number of classes offering in-depth theory and praxis courses, it is important that within our current education policy framework, computer education receives the attention and focus on par with other core subjects in all school districts. Today, 41 states do not allow computer science courses to count towards secondary school core graduation requirements. And of the 3,400,000 AP exams given in 2011, only 20,000 were for computer science AP examination. This is a very troubling trajectory and why this Congressional legislation is urgently needed.
Computer sciences and education has the history of being an equalizer of opportunities — because ICT development is geographic and to a certain extent, socio-economic agnostic, once the framework for developing the knowledge is in place. And the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that by the year 2010, 50 percent of the jobs in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), or 4,600,000 jobs, will be in computing. Computer science jobs are good paying ones that average $76,000 per year. Demand for computer science majors is so strong that the $59,200 starting salary was the second highest in 2012 for college graduates. The need for and potential for computer science majors is so extraordinary that change is required in our education policy and in the classrooms.
The Computer Science Education Act and the Computer Science Education and Jobs Act are important steps forward in ensuring that our students remain competitive and are afforded the opportunity to explore and engage in computer science, among the most transformative fields in education today. And passage of these bills are also important steps forward to ensure America retains its technological advantage in this increasingly competitive world.
Net Literacy is a student-founded digital inclusion and literacy nonprofit that has donated more than 31,000 computers increasing computer and broadband access to over 250,000 individuals and its accomplishments have been included in the FCC’s National Broadband Plan presented to Congress and honored by two American Presidents. As executive director of Net Literacy and in behalf of the 3,500 student volunteers that have learned STEM skills while serving our communities, we wholeheartedly support H.R.2536, the Computer Science Education Act and S. 1407, the Computer Science Education and Jobs Act. And at Net Literacy, we know first hand that Representative Susan Brooks is a strong supporter of digital inclusion, education, and computer science and we are especially proud that Representative Brooks introduced the CSEA and that over one hundred members of the House of Representatives have now joined with Representative Polis and her to co-sponsored this important bill!
If you want to write your Representative or Senator and ask them to endorse these bills, please learn how from Computing in the Core, a nonpartican advoacy coalition, by clicking on this link – http://www.computinginthecore.org/csea
HTC handheld camera to rival GoPro
HTC unveils a wide angle, waterproof, camera that does not have a viewfinder or screen, which is set to compete with the GoPro range.
Parenting in the Time of Viral
It happens almost every week. Someone spots the faces of my beautiful girls peering back at them from somewhere they never expected. Shared on a friend’s page who I’ve never met before. Buried in a newsletter they get delivered through their email. Squished in between advertisements on a parenting website. No matter the location, every time they send it to me, it takes my breath away.
I thought it would feel exciting to have something of mine shared — and to be honest, lots of times it does. However, when I see the faces of my 6- and 8-year-olds, slyly smiling in the far corners of the Internet, I want to yell at them for traveling too far. How did you get here? I want to demand, but I know the blame fully resides with me. I put them out there and now I can’t control where they go. It is the risk of sharing the lives of our children in a time where things can go “viral.”
A friend recently asked me my thoughts about posting pictures of your kids on social media, and the greater dilemma of creating an online presence for your child. Despite what it might seem with my children’s faces scattered across the web, it is something that I think about often. I am a mother, a blogger and a social being. I aim to connect with people through sharing stories. But where do my rights as a parent end and my children’s rights as digital citizens begin? In a huge gray area of unknown, that is where.
As disturbing as it can be to “find” your children in different places, my biggest lesson came from my daughter herself. Both of my children love the spotlight and could spend hours being photographed or recorded. However, when my youngest was 5, I started recording some hilarious conversations with her where she would give life advice and I would post them to social media. I never thought twice about it. Until she came home one day upset and told me to “stop posting freakin’ videos of her on Facebook” (she has a knack for for small talk and politeness, much like I do). People had commented to her about them and she didn’t like it. I felt horrible. Wherever the line lays between expressing yourself as a parent and expressing something on behalf of your children, I had crossed it. I apologized profusely. I asked her if she wanted me to stop posting videos or pictures of her. She said no, but she wanted to tell me with each one if I could post it or not. Done.
The immediate embarrassment is much easier to deal with than the long-term. Since that conversation with my daughter, there has been very little that she has deemed “un-post worthy.” But what about when she is grown? Will her 30-year-old self agree with what her 5-year-old self gave permission to post? Will she still think it is cute when she sings horribly off-key? Will she understand why I shared personal stories about her childhood on my blog? The unknown means the responsibility to make informed online decisions still rests with me.
Because of that each time before I hit “post,” I do weigh the consequences. Where could this end up? Could this cause them harm? Is my now–year-old going to yell at me about this? Obviously, I take more of a chance than most parents for having things go viral, since I purposefully write about parenting on my blog. However, there are many stories of parents posting photos to their own Facebook pages and the picture being used without their permission. So it is something we all need to be aware of.
Even though I take it into consideration, I still usually hit “share.” For myself, parenting can feel very isolating and lonely. I use pictures, stories, statuses and blogs to connect with other people and to share both my children’s progress and my own parenting journey. It is true that I’m starting an online identity for them. I hope it is one they will someday take over and it will be a great opportunity to talk about the considerations and responsibilities that come with it.
At that point, I imagine the amount of personal content that can be found online will be so overwhelming, nobody is going to want to wade through 18 years of updates to find out that one of my kids used to pee her pants on purpose so she could wear skirts. If a potential employer, a hopeful suitor or a school admittance counselor does want to undertake that task, I promise you they will not find anyone who has shared cuter pictures, sweeter stories or kinder sentiments than myself, their mother.
The reality is, we are the first generation of parents having to deal with this dilemma. It is all new territory and we can only do what we think is best. For now, as long as my children aren’t physically ending up in someone else’s living room, and it is only their picture, I will keep on sharing them with all of you (when they give me permission, of course.)
The Converging Worlds of Tech and Music
It’s no secret that the past few decades have seen seismic changes in the music business. From the rise in piracy, to the incredible boom of the “download the single” market, to the death and rebirth of music videos, and to streaming services revolutionizing the concept of ownership, these evolutions are a direct result of the Millennial media consumer and the intersection of technology and music as a whole.
From Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, to Instagram’s Kevin Systrom, and all the way to Kim Kardashian’s reported $200m success story with the Kim Kardashian app: tech careers aren’t just incredibly lucrative, the tech industry is the new red carpet.
So what does that leave for the music industry that once lead in all things career-aspirational? Forbes recently put out an article titled, 4 Reasons Why Music Careers Are Getting Trounced By Tech. In case you haven’t heard, there’s no more glamour, creativity, or freedom in the music industry, and this world of possibility is now owned by the tech industry. Or is it?
When it comes to the theory that there is more potential, creativity, and freedom in tech than music, “there are just as many struggling artists as there are struggling tech founders,” says music manager and tech investor, CEO of Atom Factory, Troy Carter. “You look at a Jay Z, Beyonce, and Kevin from Instagram and Travis from Uber, those are outliers in those particular fields,” he continues.
As our upcoming REVOLT Music Conference heats up, we find that actually the convergence of the two industries reflect the most fascinating innovations driving each forward. Like we are seeing with wearables, where tech and fashion can converge to empower one another, the same is happening with tech and music. Empowering the convergence of music and tech to continue to super serve the insatiable appetite young consumers have for music will move culture forward.
The rise of streaming has unlocked revenue potential for the music industry, and we are just beginning to scratch the surface on the future music experience – and business – as it will exist through emerging technology.
“I think the biggest learning from tech is the meaning of scale. That’s one of the things the music industry has yet to get their heads around. The tech community will give away the product to get the people on the platform and then find ways to monetize it. The music industry has always limited itself from being able to scale as widely as they potentially could just because of the pay wall,” says Troy Carter.
Love it or hate it, as Apple grants U2 the biggest release in music – love it or hate it – by giving away 500 million copes of their album via iTunes, Troy is absolutely right. According to John Jurgensen at the Wall Street Journal, “this promotion highlights the way recorded music is often more valuable these days as a promotional tool than a stand alone product.”
Now is the time to open the dialogue about how the intersection of tech and music mutually pushes the other industry forward, and the future of each will continue to see innovation and disruption. The difference is, disruptions happen to us as brands, and we seek to survive them, while having the foresight to lean in to the future is where “change” looks more like innovation, and the creation of opportunity.
Maker Faire Rome: CasaJasmina
Last year, Maker Faire Roma was a Roman colossus, and this year, the second edition, Maker Faire was American in scale, meaning colossal but normally so. It had the look and feel of SXSW Interactive in Austin, when legions of thousands of geeks invade a city with their gadgets, ideas, energy.
But Austin is smaller than Rome and much, much younger. Rome is a wonder of the world haunted by lost golden ages; a clamorous glamour and a can-do imperial spirit echoes among the old ruins of chipped marble and flat red brick, currently abandoned to cats, rats and tourists.
The crowd of Maker Faire attendees — 90,000 they say, which is enough to populate a “bolgia” of some Dante circle of hell — was loud, demanding and of all ages and nationalities. Security, police, participants and organizers themselves struggled to patch the event when the crowds burst its seams.
This year the Makers were more business oriented and also more politically conscious. The hobbyist tinkers of DIY “do it yourself” are taking on a more Italian and sociable “do it ourselves” DIO solidarity. The first day ten thousand high school students from all over Italy dutifully trampled in to see the show, which was markedly national in character. The “Make in Italy” movement is firmly linking itself to the half-forgotten legacy of Italian electronics, when Ettore Sotsass designed for Olivetti and brainy designers like Munari and Castiglione wrought wonders with their radical re-thinks of simple materials.
Italian Makers are even getting something of an Italian Maker look, of baggy start-up Tshirts, orange pants and spotless well-kept athletic shoes, while solemn purple-haired geek women ponder gleaming and beeping electronic costumes.
As a world export power, the trinity of Italian design is clothing, furniture and food — and that is why Maker Faire is leading the world toward the likes of 3d printed spaghetti. Rather than the standard Milanese design wares created to please wealthy Russians, Japanese and Arabs, Maker innovation is “jugaad Italian style.” It’s open-source Italy as an electronic India — everything is scrounged and make-do, nobody has a budget or a lawyer, and everybody knows everybody. Despite this, or maybe because of it, the Camera del commercio and various ministers for industry were standing by. If the Makers themselves can’t cash in on all this ingenuity, somebody else will.
The Maker world is a seductive world because there is no real barrier to joining in. As a network activist with a fondness for electronic arts I’ve always been an Arduino fan. I was already involved with the Arduinisti working on a project for Arduino home automation, but thrilled at Maker Faire when Massimo Banzi as a true cavaliere suddenly named this project after me: from now on, it’s “Casa Jasmina.” “Casa Jasmina” is not a very high-tech name for an Internet-of-Things experiment, but it is a name for a home and women are still the home queens who often fear technology: plus nobody else seems to be using the #CasaJasmina Twitter hashtag. Sometimes dreams come true, and so do dream houses!
The Italian Maker scene is determined to enter electronic home automation. They can’t sit still while Google Android and Apple HomeKit invade the world of “Domus” and “Casabella,” and the logical response to that challenge, from an Italian point of view, is not just “open source” but “open source luxury.”
“Lusso Open Source” is a strange combination of words for someone who knows Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation, but I have met Richard Stallman, and Richard Stallman is from MIT, he is not an Italian guy. It’s also strange and even sad to realize that beautiful Italy, which is wounded and even oppressed with German, British and American ideologies of “crisis,” has to struggle to survive by being “luxurious.” But an advanced and civilized quality of life is what Italy makes and sells. Open Source is one of the most ragged and rugged things happening in the world today.
Something important is happening in the Italian Maker scene that is similar to the Italian response to McDonald’s fast food chains. The industrial logic and intercontinental scale of McDonald’s looked unstoppable, on paper. The same goes for Google, Apple and Facebook now.
The “Slow Food Movement” even took its own English name from the threat of American fast food. Slow Food has never been so widely spread as McDonald’s, but Slow Food looks quite modern and progressive nowadays while McDonald’s seems old-fashioned. Even MacDonald’s nowadays is making “healthy meals”!
The real secret of Slow Foods is not that it’s a grocery but a curated chain of food production — people will pay much more for food in the store because of the Slow Foods “good, clean and fair” political stamp of approval. The Slow Food empire even makes a lot of money selling cookbooks to masses of people who want to be slow cooks. The Maker Movement also has huge crowds of fans who love open technology and sincerely want to understand it, but would pay somebody else to do the actual hard work.
That’s why there will soon be an all-connected bed and breakfast apartment in a a giant half-abandoned FIAT plant in Turin, which is called “Casa Jasmina.” For traditional Italian crafts people, who I respect very much, this may seem like a threatening prospect. With good reason, too, because now in the year 2014, anybody with eyes in their head can see that the Internet does to everybody whatever it does to musicians.However designers will be invited as guests to share their craft and opinion in that free space.
I happen to be a musician myself, and there will be quite a lot of music in “Casa Jasmina.” An electronic home obviously needs an electronic soundtrack, songs produced with Arduino and that is going to be one of my personal problems in future. Obviously I could steal and pirate a torrent of thundering music through a Bluetooth Jambox in “Casa Jasmina,” but would that be “good, clean and fair?” It’s been quite a while — since 1973, actually — since there was a truly new “new Italian domestic landscape.” When a woman moves house she can also change some bad habits.
It is presumptuous to claim to know the future. but also irresponsible to behave as if the future is not already here. Not only are we part of the future — we are excluded from it and forced to turn to “jugaad.” The “Crisis” is not a “crisis” at all, it’s a global fait accompli where the 1 per centers who have seized all the wealth ignore solution to “the crisis” because they themselves are the crisis. A white plague is turning Italy into a museum of unaffordable monuments, where tourists abound, but children can’t be born and raised and the elderly can’t be sheltered.
“Casa Jasmina” will not be “my” home: young Italian people cannot find steady jobs, so banks don’t give them house mortgages. They live in shareable Internet housing. What is a modern home? When we want a roof to protect us, what are the real threats? What is made affordable, and unaffordable, and why, and for whom? What is politically and ecologically proper. Who are our allies and partners, what unseen friends do we have?
In the Maker scene people don’t just debate like us writers do; they really do things. Enough with the talk; I went to Maker Faire Roma 2014, and now, come what may, I want to try things out.
3 Building Blocks of a Budget-Friendly, Customer-Centric Digital Marketing Campaign
In a digital marketing world dominated and driven by data, appealing to customers is essential for catching their attention and standing out above the noise. But that’s easier said than done. How can modern digital marketers build a campaign that speaks directly to consumers?
Econsultancy and Teradata teamed up to survey more than 400 senior marketers across multiple industries and global enterprises. The tallied results can help organizations of all sizes understand how high-level marketers at large enterprises are reaching their target audiences through successful marketing campaigns. The following three building blocks, inspired by techniques practiced by the surveyed global enterprises, can help you create budget-friendly marketing campaigns that connect with customers.
1. Use a highly personalized approach. Thirty-two percent of the enterprise organizations surveyed cited personalization as a “top priority” when it comes to marketing efforts. Another 5% even said personalization was the “highest priority” for their marketing organization.
Why is personalizing your marketing so crucial? Simply put, you have to know your customers. You have to know where your customers spend time online, how they behave and what they’re interested in. The better you know your customers, the more personalized your approach can be when marketing to them.
According to the organizations surveyed, 47% reported improved customer service as a top benefit of personalized marketing, with improved performance and new revenue following close behind at 37% and 36%, respectively. The effects of a more personalized approach to marketing will not only have a greater appeal to your audience, but also give your business a path towards building a community of brand enthusiasts.
2. Use integrated marketing technology to get the most out of your consumer data. Keeping up with the latest marketing technology isn’t easy, but taking a look at the tools that leading global enterprises are using can be a helpful way to stay in the loop. Data management platforms are the absolute top priority in marketing technology for 29% of the organizations surveyed, whereas 43% identify these platforms as a high priority. Just behind them, 23% consider audience management systems to be the top priority and 50% see them as a general high priority.
What do these numbers mean? That using technology to improve customer service is essential. Leveraging consumer data and using it to learn how to better craft your message to connect with customers is crucial for being a better marketer. If you don’t already make use of a data management and/or integrated marketing application system, now is certainly the time.
Additionally, 62% of leading organizations admit that when they spend money on new technology, it’s to improve customer experience, service and satisfaction. Fifty-nine percent spend money on new technology to improve customer retention and another 55% to deliver a better customer experience. If leading organizations care this much about pleasing their customers, then you should too.
3. Create a data-driven budget. How are leading organizations allocating marketing budget? When it comes to making budgeting decisions and choosing how and where to spend marketing dollars, many organizations are caught up in a battle of data versus instinct.
Although it makes sense to follow the numbers, analyze the data and then budget accordingly, many organizations find themselves sticking with same budget year after year, despite changing market conditions, customer behavior, competitors and market trends. Only 23% of organizations make budgeting decisions based on data, while 26% rely on experience and instinct to inform their marketing spend. Relying on instinct and past experience seems like the safest choice, yet allocating spend based on data offers a better representation of what’s to come in the market, so you’ll always be ready to put marketing dollars into top-performing channels and initiatives.
With these building blocks, you can craft more successful, budget-friendly marketing campaigns that truly resonate with your target audience. Learn more about what Teradata and Econsultancy found when they surveyed senior marketers. Download the full eBook here.
Massive New Telescope Gets Off To A Rough Start In Hawaii
HONOLULU (AP) — A groundbreaking and Hawaiian blessing ceremony came to an abrupt end before it could really get underway Tuesday because of protesters who oppose plans to build one of the world’s largest telescopes near the summit of a mountain held sacred by Native Hawaiians.
More than an hour after the event was scheduled to begin near the top of the Big Island’s Mauna Kea, the host of the ceremony’s live webcast said the caravan carrying attendees up the mountain “hit a snag” and would be delayed. He later said the delay was due to a group of people blocking access to the site. The groundbreaking for the $1.4 billion Thirty Meter Telescope was being shown via webcast because of limited access to the construction site, which is at an elevation of 14,000 feet with arctic-like conditions.
Stephanie Nagata, director of the Office of Mauna Kea Management, said several dozen protesters standing, sitting and chanting on the road prevented the caravan of vans from reaching the summit, but some passengers were able to walk the rest of the way to the ceremony.
The webcast later showed protesters yelling during attempts to start the blessing.
“We do hope we’ll be able to find a common ground and proceed with this in the future,” the webcast’s host said before the broadcast was shut down.
The ceremony was interrupted by protesters holding signs and yelling, said Sandra Dawson, a spokeswoman for the telescope project.
“It was a ceremonial thing, and I don’t know whether that will be repeated,” she said. “We listened to the views of the people who were there. Everybody’s in good spirits.”
The disruption doesn’t affect construction from moving forward, Dawson said.
Kealoha Pisciotta said her group, Mauna Kea Anaina Hou, planned to protest nonviolently by holding prayer ceremonies on the road at the bottom of the mountain. She said there were no plans to be disruptive or block people from attending the event.
Some in her group headed up the mountain to make an offering but encountered police blocking the road, Pisciotta said.
“They laid down on the road right there. That’s what stopped the caravan,” she said. “They were reacting to the police blocking the road.”
Nagata said authorities did not block the road. A police spokeswoman didn’t immediately return a call seeking information.
The groundbreaking was to culminate years of permit applications and approvals from the University of Hawaii and the state land board. The university leases land from the state where the telescope will be built. The Hawaii Board of Land and Natural Resources approved the sublease in June and then later denied requests to contest the approval.
Opponents raised questions about whether land appraisals were done appropriately and whether Native Hawaiians were properly consulted.
Some protesters who yelled during the blessing attempt later apologized to event organizers and helped put away chairs, Pisciotta said. “We said aloha to each other and we hugged.”
She said her group’s leaders didn’t intend to stop the ceremony.
“That wasn’t anyone’s goal,” she said. “The organizers were very clear that we weren’t trying to do that.”
But, Pisciotta added, “We can’t control everybody.” She said no one was arrested.
The project was initiated by the University of California, California Institute of Technology and the Association of Canadian Universities for Research in Astronomy. Universities and institutions in China, India and Japan later signed on as partners.
The telescope should help scientists see some 13 billion light years away for a glimpse into the early years of the universe. Mauna Kea is the ideal location for observing the most distant and difficult to understand mysteries of the universe, astronomers said.
Its primary mirror promises to be 100 feet, or 30 meters, in diameter, made up of 492 smaller mirrors.
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Follow Jennifer Sinco Kelleher at http://www.twitter.com/JenHapa .
People Are Cutting Back On Food And Health Care To Afford Technology
CNBC: Nearly half of Americans have cut back on spending, including for travel, food and health care, in order to afford their technology.
The CNBC All-America Economic Survey found that 49 percent of the 805 respondents economize to afford technology. The nationwide survey, with margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent, found the top way to save for technology, chosen by about a third, is to cut back on traditional entertainment such as movies and restaurants. But 20 percent report cutting back on clothing, 11 percent purchase less food and 10 percent have reduced spending on health care.
Two groups that stood out as skimping the most to keep up with the Tech Joneses: women between the age of 18 and 49 and people with incomes between $50,000 and $75,000. Nearly 60 percent of respondents in both of these groups have reduced spending to afford technology.
Read More: Confidence in Obama on economy sinks to new low
When it comes to which technology is the most important, Americans clearly choose the cellphone. Asked which bills they definitely would pay if they ran into hard times, 39 percent said they would make sure to get a check in the mail for their cellphones, compared with 28 percent for Internet services and 20 percent for pay television, such as satellite or cable. But just 46 percent felt totally committed to paying their credit card bills, just five points above the response for paying for cellphone bills.
By contrast, 92 percent say the definitely would pay their mortgage or rent bill and 90 percent would make sure to pay the utility bills. Seniors were the most committed to paying the cable bill.
Read More: GOP agenda this week: Paint Obama as incompetent
More than half of Americans report paying more for technology, with 31 percent saying they do so because it’s more expensive and 13 percent because they are just buying more technology. Nine percent cited both reasons.
More from CNBC:
- Exclusive social media for the rich
- The one cybersecurity threat everyone misses
- 10 apps to boost your career
'The Womansplainer' Will Explain Feminism To Anyone In Need
Know any dudes who just don’t understand feminism? Send them a handy link to The Womansplainer.
Artist Elizabeth Simins started the satirical site in response to exasperating anti-feminist Twitter trolls:
I should start a “consulting” service where for a fee men can purchase my time to learn about why it’s ok for women to be angry at them
— Killizabeth Simins (@ElizSimins) October 3, 2014
The Womansplainer, as its homepage describes, provides “consulting for men who have better things to do than educate themselves about feminism,” offering services to Twitter trolls and men’s rights activists alike. Clueless patrons can pay between $20 and $100 for Simins to answer certain questions by choosing from a drop-down bar of options including “Are all feminists lesbians?” and “Do feminists hate sex/humor/fun?” The price depends on how deep you’re willing to go — will a quick Google response satisfy you, or do you need an in-depth Twitter conversation?
“I wanted to make people think about what men are really asking for when they ask women questions about feminism that they could easily research the answers to themselves, which happens CEASELESSLY to most women who are vocal on social media,” Simins told The Huffington Post in an email. “When they get angry at women for not immediately taking time out of their day to educate them, what they’re saying is: ‘My time is worth more than yours.’ But it isn’t.”
Simins reports that the response has been overwhelmingly positive, and that most people appreciate the humor and get the message.
“I’ve even had other women ask if they could franchise the business — and to that I will ALWAYS say yes, because that’s the point!” She told HuffPost. “Our time is valuable, and we shouldn’t be expected to treat it otherwise.”
Net Neutrality Matters to Communities of Color
The Internet is a place where people who do not have a seat at the table can amplify their voices. That’s why working people must be front and center when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decides what to do about net neutrality.
Net neutrality — the concept of an open Internet where all content is treated equally — would stop companies that provide Internet access from controlling what you can see online. It means that companies like Comcast and Charter cannot make certain websites harder to visit than others or prevent certain topics from being discussed. An Internet governed by net neutrality is a place where all individuals can engage in public discourse, regardless of the size of their checking account.
An open Internet protects opportunities for communities of color. It lets people report on injustice and organize to confront it. An open Internet helps people of color launch businesses online, with lower startup costs than entrepreneurs often face. It lets artists and creators tell their own stories, rather than depending on traditional media to decide which stories are worth telling.
The recent events in Ferguson, Missouri, serve as an example of how a community can use the Internet to organize and join together in the aftermath of a tragedy. In the aftermath of Michael Brown’s death, images and stories shared by Ferguson residents on the Internet became a major part of news coverage. If Internet providers had made it difficult for residents to share their videos and pictures with the public, the story of Ferguson would be fundamentally different.
But some corporations want to end net neutrality in order to control content and increase profits. They want fast lanes for some web traffic but slow lanes for everyone else. Independent blogs and small startups that cannot afford the fees would be stuck in the slow lane. Communities of color — long underrepresented in public dialogue — would be among those hardest hit by such censorship.
The FCC is currently considering implementing a new regulatory classification for the Internet, which would promote social justice and economic equality. The FCC classifies certain forms of communications as utilities, or “common carriers.” Common carriers, like those providing landline telephone services, are required to provide equal service to all users regardless of what they use it for. Classifying broadband Internet as a common carrier would preserve net neutrality and ensure that the Internet remains a place where all Americans can bring their ideas and be heard.
Four companies control around 60 percent of American broadband Internet access. They argue that making the Internet a common carrier would force them to cut investment in the most underserved neighborhoods in America.
But the evidence says otherwise: Average annual investment by telephone companies was 55 percent higher during the time when their DSL broadband service was considered a common carrier. The cable industry’s average annual investment in building a network was 250 percent higher in the years before the FCC ended common carrier treatment for cable modems. Major Internet service providers are saying they will refuse to expand broadband access unless their profits increase and that’s wrong. A trickle-down approach to Internet service will only fill the pockets of CEOs and increase the digital divide.
As the FCC considers whether to take this much-needed action, we must remember what is at stake. Open, broad access to technology and information spurs innovation, economic growth, job creation, and global competitiveness. Most importantly, it gives artists, activists, community leaders, whistleblowers, citizen journalists and you an opportunity to express opinions freely and openly. That must continue.
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