Another win for the Black Caps is highly logical

But now for something highly illogical: Long before being nerdy was cool, there was Leonard Nimoy. Nimoy, best known for playing Spock on the television show Star Trek and its movies, passed away in his home at the age of 83. The cause of his death was end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which the actor confirmed he had last year. Nimoy was born in 1931 in Boston. His parents were Jewish immigrants from the Soviet Union in an area that is now part of Ukraine. He acted in several amateur productions as a child and then began his movie and TV acting career in 1951. In 1952, he played the title role in the boxing movie Kid Monk Baroni. Although his acting was praised, the movie was a flop, and Nimoy spent over a decade playing largely bit parts in both TV and movies, including roles in Dragnet, Perry Mason, and The Twilight Zone. In 1965, Nimoy passed on a role in Peyton Place to take a part in Gene Roddenberry’s TV show Star Trek – and the rest was history. Unique among most TV shows, Star Trek actually had two pilots. NBC liked aspects of the first pilot, “The Cage” but had some issues and asked Roddenberry to shoot a second pilot. Mr. Nimoy’s Spock, half-human, half-Vulcan, was the only character to appear in both pilots. Nimoy’s Spock became a cultural phenomenon. Characterized by an emotionless devotion to the Vulcan ethos of logic, Spock was an inspiration to a generation of fans and became well known to the public at large. Nimoy had a large part in shaping the character into someone who was non-violent (Nimoy developed the Vulcan nerve pinch as an alternative to punching), ethical, intellectual, and compassionate. Nimoy and the character came back in the Star Trek animated series, six Star Trek movies, two episodes of The Next Generation, and as Spock Prime in the two rebooted Star Trek movies directed by J.J. Abrams. Nimoy continued acting after Star Trek with a starring role in Mission: Impossible and a number of smaller parts (including one of the best murderers on Peter Falk’s Columbo series). He also directed several movies, including two Star Trek films and Three Men And A Baby. He was also a prolific writer of poetry and a photographer, and published several works of each. Mr. Nimoy is survived by his wife, Susan Bay Nimoy (cousin of Transformers director Michael Bay); his children, Adam and Julie Nimoy; his grandchildren; and legions of fans. But cricket fans rejoice because after a tense last few overs with several late wickets, the Black Caps have just beaten Australia by 1 wicket. Australia batted first and made 151 all out. New Zealand scored 152 for 9, with Kane Williamson hitting the game-winning six. May this hot streak live long and prosper at least until the end of the tournament.

FCC 1, big cable 0

Silicon Valley tech firms lauded the Federal Communications Commission’s decision yesterday to preserve equal access online, while cable companies that stood to profit from a cloistered Internet warned that regulating the Web like a utility will lead to higher prices. The commission’s 3-2 vote codifies the concept of net neutrality by barring Internet service providers such as Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T from charging for access to an online fast lane, slowing loading times for certain sites, or blocking any site so long as its content is legal. The rules “ensure that every American — no matter the size of their wallets or the color of their skin — has an equal chance to innovate and reach people online,” said Barbara van Schewick, a professor of law at Stanford University and director of the school’s Center for Internet and Society. But it's not going to happen just yet. The ruling probably won’t go into effect for several months as the formal language is being crafted. But when it does, it should mean a faster and cheaper Internet for all of America - unless, of course, the cable companies pay off the FCC to get a version which better fits their agenda.

The biggest jukebox in the cloud just got bigger

Are you a music buff? Google's recent announcement should sound music to your ears. The search giant has bumped up its music storage limit for Google Play Music users by 30,000, effective immediately. The users will now be able to store up to 50,000 of their personal favorite songs on Google's cloud music storage for free, sharply up from the previous limit of 20,000 songs. Google Play is entirely cloud-based so all your music, movies, books, and apps are stored online, always available to you, and you never have to worry about losing them or moving them again (unless, of course, you do have 20,000 50,000 songs already). In a post on its official blog, the company wrote that the songs can be uploaded directly from the user's iTunes collection or from other local music folders. It can then be streamed or downloaded and played on the web itself, desktop computers, or Chromecast as well as smartphones or tablets running Android or iOS. This is a big boost for music lovers but spells out a threat to its music streaming competitors. For instance, Apple allows its users to upload only half the number of songs on the cloud with iTunes Match, but at an annual fee of US$24.99. So who has more value for money on this one? Google. But when it comes to your next computer or smartphone, just remember if it's not an Apple, it's crapple.

Brown to run it back to the States

Singer Chris Brown's "Between the Sheets" tour apparently won't be stopping in Canada this week after all: He said he had been barred from entering the country. Yesterday afternoon, Brown wrote on Twitter: “Unfortunately I will not be able to perform in front of sold out crowds in Montreal & Toronto.” He followed that up by tweeting: “The good people of the Canadian government wouldn’t allow me entry. I’ll be back this summer and will hopefully see all my Canadian fans!” Brown’s publicist confirmed to the Los Angeles Times that the singer was denied entry into Canada, but offered no additional information. Several factors are used in determining admissibility into Canada, including involvement in criminal activity, human rights violations, or organized crime; and security, health, or financial reasons. I can shed some light on this issue: the Grammy-winning singer has had numerous run-ins with the law, the latest occurring in January when a judge revoked his probation after learning that he had violated orders by leaving Los Angeles County and was present at a nightclub when people were shot. The singer has spent several months in jail for prior violations relating to his conviction for a 2009 assault on then-girlfriend Rihanna. It serves him right. If he hadn't beaten up on Rihanna, he wouldn't have had any probation to violate and he might have been allowed to perform in Canada. But now, because of his criminal past, those that bought tickets now have to seek refunds.

BAD IDEA OF THE WEEK: Threatening shopping malls

The NYPD is on alert following a threat against the United States purportedly by Somalia’s al-Qaida-linked rebel group al-Shabab. A video released over the weekend urged Muslims to attack shopping malls in the U.S., Canada, Britain, and other Western countries. The threat came in the final minutes of a more than hour-long video in which the extremists also warned Kenya of more attacks like the September 2013 assault on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi in which 67 people were killed. The masked narrator concluded by calling on Muslims to attack shopping malls, specifically naming the Mall of America in suburban Minneapolis, as well as the West Edmonton Mall in Canada and the Westfield mall in Stratford, England. It's not going to stop the capitalist machine, though. The threats towards The Interview weren't enough to completely stop its release. Charlie Hebdo bounced back from the shootings last month. Likewise, threatening shopping malls won't keep us away.

Nananananananana, nananananananana, Birdman!

For the third time in four years, Hollywood’s top honor went to a story mostly about itself: “Birdman” won best picture at the 87th Academy Awards on Sunday night. Despite relatively meager domestic ticket sales of $37.8 million, “Birdman” had been the favorite to win best picture, having swept the top prize at banquet after banquet leading up to the Oscars. Minutes before, Alejandro G. Iñárritu had won best director for “Birdman,” which also collected Oscars for best original screenplay and the cinematography of Emmanuel Lubezki. “Tonight I am wearing the real Michael Keaton tighty whities,” Mr. Iñárritu said, a joke about the long Broadway walk Mr. Keaton, the star, takes in his skivvies during the film. “Birdman,” about a washed-up actor’s comeback bid, followed two other Hollywood-related winners: “The Artist,” which won in 2012, was the bittersweet story of a silent film actor seemingly left behind by Hollywood’s transition to sound. The next year, “Argo” won with its reality-based tale of a hostage rescue that used a fake film for cover. Still, no one film this year achieved critical mass in a year that saw all eight of the best picture nominees leave with at least one Oscar.

Careless loss costs the Reds third place

Manchester United slipped to a 2-1 defeat to Swansea City this morning after briefly going ahead at the Liberty Stadium. Ander Herrera finished off a fine move to give the Reds the lead in the first half, but United were in front for less than two minutes when Ki Sung-Yueng slipped through the defence to level the scores. After the break, Bafetimbi Gomis diverted a rasping Jonjo Shelvey shot with his head for a goal that ultimately condemned Louis van Gaal's men to a first defeat on the road since November’s Manchester derby. Not only did the Reds lose and six players receive yellow cards, Man United are down to fourth place and will need to win at least five games to have any chance at the Premiership.

Busch gets tagged with Rice

Only moments after NASCAR suspended 2004 Sprint Cup champion Kurt Busch in the wake of a Delaware court’s ruling on a domestic violence incident with his ex-girlfriend, someone left the driver a message on the window of his garage (pictured). The inscription reads ‘Ray Rice’ which is a reference to the former running back of the Baltimore Ravens who was suspended indefinitely by the NFL last year after punching his then-fiancee and knocking her out in the elevator of an Atlantic City casino. Kent County Family Court commissioner David Jones wrote that Busch was found to have “more likely than not committed an act of domestic violence.” NASCAR said in a statement released yesterday afternoon that it suspended Busch “for actions detrimental to stock car racing.” I'm sure Busch got what was coming to him, just like in a scene in Wild. In that scene, Reese Witherspoon was bunking with three other hikers. One of them was singing the chorus to the 4 Non Blondes song What's Up? when another one of them asked him to stop, so he did, and then he yelled out the next line only to get chased into a tree. That bit was funny, but whether it's being a prick or beating up on your woman, DON'T DO IT. It's not worth it.

Another win for the Black Caps

The British media has been quick to put the boot into England's cricket team after their humiliating eight-wicket loss to New Zealand in Wellington today. They were 123 all out in part due to Tim Southee's remarkable seven-wicket haul before a Brendon McCullum onslaught helped the Black Caps to victory (final score 125 for 2) in little over 12 overs. The performance has been labelled one of the worst days in English cricket, but it's the last game of three that comprise one of the best weeks in New Zealand cricket. The Black Caps might win the World Cup this year if they keep it up (and that includes beating Australia).

The Teaspoon of Knowledge

Even though it’s looking increasingly likely that humanity will find a way to wipe itself off the face of the Earth, there’s a chance that our creative output may live on. Servers, hard drives, flash drives, and disks will degrade (as will our libraries of paper books, of course), but a group of researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology have found a way to encode data onto DNA — the very same stuff that all living beings’ genetic information is stored on — that could survive for millennia. One gram of DNA can potentially hold up to 455 exabytes of data, according to the New Scientist. But what is an exabyte? It's a huge measure of data. And how huge is it? There are one billion gigabytes in an exabyte, and 1,000 exabytes in a zettabyte. The cloud computing company EMC estimated that there were 1.8 zettabytes of data in the world in 2011, which means we would need only about 4 grams (about a teaspoon) of DNA to hold everything from Plato through the complete works of Shakespeare to Beyonce’s latest album (not to mention every brunch photo ever posted on Instagram). But the estimate was four years ago, and there could've been much more data even then, so I'd suggest they set aside at least a few ounces just to be on the safe side. The question now is, how are they going to get it all on there? There are four types of molecules that make up DNA, which form pairs. To encode information on DNA, scientists program the pairs into 1s and 0s — the same binary language that encodes digital data. This is not a new concept (scientists at Harvard encoded a book onto DNA in 2012) but up to now, it had been difficult to retrieve the information stored on the DNA.

Now he has been arrested and we know why

Because he got high, because he got high, because he got high. Actually, no he didn't. It was an alleged assault. That's right, Afroman was arrested yesterday after he allegedly punched a female fan who got on stage during a performance in Biloxi, Mississippi. The 40-year-old Because I Got High singer was playing guitar when the woman approached him from behind and appeared to try and dance against him, according to an article by TMZ that included a video of the incident. The rapper, real name Joseph Edgar Foreman, appeared to suddenly unleash a right-handed haymaker that knocked the woman off her feet. The woman fell hard after the blow and reportedly was bleeding and crying. A representative for Afroman said the rapper didn't know if the fan was a man or a woman and just reacted to someone being on the stage. The rep also added the incident was completely out of character for Afroman. All you fans out there, please don't let that indiscretion put you off his music. Because I Got High is still a good song even after all those years, and I'm not about to let what happened yesterday ruin it for me.

BAD IDEA OF THE WEEK: Facing the Black Caps

They are proving to be the Chuck Norris of the Cricket World Cup, and for the second time in the current edition, they've dismissed the entire opposition during their turn to field. Scotland batted first today and scored 142 all out setting a lowly target of just 143 runs, which we clearly had no trouble exceeding (despite losing seven wickets in the process) for a final score of 146 for 7. Our next opponents will be England, who could prove to be a challenging team for once.

Touch the value, taste the value

How do you tell which banknote is which? Look at the number printed on it? Look at the colour (not an option if the money in question is American)? What if you were blind and couldn't see either of those? Never fear, people of Australia, there will be a new type of cash in your pockets next year that the vision impaired will find easier to use. The notes will have "tactile features", or bumpy bits (similar to the markings Canada have been using since 2001), that allow people to identify their value with just a touch. They will also have brighter colours and larger numbers (for those who can still see something), while each denomination will be a different size. The Reserve Bank has been testing different designs and consulting with vision impaired people on how well they work, but the details have not yet been finalised, and until the notes have replaced the current series in circulation, it will still be a case of the blind being bowled underarm by the blind.

Drivin' Apple cars, livin' like a star, ice on the fingers and the toes of the Tesla

Yesterday, the Black Caps logged their first victory of the 2015 Cricket World Cup, beating Sri Lanka by 98 runs. The Black Caps scored 331 for 6 and Sri Lanka 233 all out. But victory is also in the air for Planet Earth, as there is one more player in the electric car game: Apple. That's right, Apple Inc. is working on an Apple-branded electric vehicle. The project is code-named Titan and the design resembles a minivan. The Cupertino company has assigned several hundred employees to the vehicle. While a car may not ultimately result, some Apple executives have flown to Austria (the one that had Hitler, not the one with the kangaroos) to meet with contract manufacturers of high-end cars. Apple already has expertise managing a vast supply chain and has technology that may lend itself to an electric car. The company has long researched battery technology for use in its iPhones, iPads, and Macs. The mapping system it debuted in 2012 can be used for navigation. Last year, Apple also introduced CarPlay, a software system for automakers to use in its cars that integrates iTunes, mapping, messaging, and other applications. But all that fancy stuff will be old news if Apple does produce an electric car.

Don't drink and drone

A Singapore restaurant plans to use drones to transport food and drinks from the kitchen to a wait station near customers’ tables by the end of this year. That's all well and good, but delivering plates of food and drink to individual tables sounds like a recipe for disaster. How does the drone know where to hover? What if someone bumps into the drone or is standing in its way? While Infinium Robotics, the Singapore company that’s developing the drones for restaurant chain Timbre, claims it’s all technically possible, Timbre won’t be delivering food from the kitchen straight to customers’ tables. It wants to preserve a human touch. So the drones will fly from the kitchen to two stations frequented by waiters. The routes are 30 and 60 feet (9.15 and 18.3 m). The drones are programmed to fly no lower than 8½ feet (2.6 m), so as not to crash into any guests. And they will need power too, so how will they get that power? It's simple - the drones automatically charge while waiting in the kitchen. After the chef puts an order on the drone, he hits a button on a keypad and the drone automatically flies to one of two wait stations. Sense-and-avoid technology built into the drone won’t allow it to land at the wait station if anything is in its way. The drones are also equipped with sonar and an infrared sensor. A waiter then removes the food or drink from the drone and hits a button that sends it back to the kitchen. The 5⅓-pound (2.4 kg) drones can carry just over four pounds (1.8 kg) of food. Infinium Robotics, which develops the hardware and software, is working on a model that will carry twice as much food. Way to put busboys out of work, Timbre. I knew it was all about money. The waiters will clearly be the next to go.

1800 POSTS!

And another victory for the Reds at Old Trafford yesterday morning. Manchester United were made to work hard for the three points, but they saw off Burnley 3-1 thanks to a first-half double from substitute Chris Smalling and Robin van Persie's late penalty. Sean Dyche's side may feel unlucky to end up with nothing for their endeavours, but Smalling's headers before half-time and a first spot-kick of the campaign proved sufficient, with Danny Ings replying for the Clarets. Seven players received yellow cards, but what matters here is the three points, and LVG will need more of them to get the Premiership back from Man City.

Still holds true six months later

Truth-stretcher stretches his way out of a job

Six months after the suicide of Robin Williams, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams was suspended for six months without pay for exaggerating his role in a helicopter incident in Iraq, marking the first time a network news anchor has been stripped of his duties. The disciplinary action was a stunning fall from grace for Williams, who presided over America's top-rated newscast for a decade and helped lead it to numerous Emmy and Peabody awards. The punishment follows last week's on-air apology for falsely saying that a helicopter in which he was flying on a combat mission in 2003 had come under fire. The apology touched off a firestorm and was widely perceived as insufficient by a chorus of media critics and war veterans. NBC launched an internal investigation as Williams took a temporary leave of absence. By then, though, the damage to the anchor's credibility proved too extensive to keep his job. It serves him right for making up stuff and passing it off as news. You only do that crap with news satire. If your job is to report on the real news, then you do that instead of making stuff up. If your helicopter wasn't shot down, don't say it was otherwise your job could also be on the line.

BAD IDEA OF THE WEEK: "Smart" televisions

I do want one, but not if they're going to be used in ways more befitting of the NSA. And if you have one, watch what you say in your living room. Samsung's smart TV could be listening. And sharing. Voice recognition technology in the South Korean company's Internet connected TVs can capture and transmit nearby conversations. The potential for TVs to eavesdrop is revealed in Samsung's smart TV privacy policy available on its website. Quoting from said policy, "please be aware that if your spoken works include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured." Despite this, some people accept this as a necessary evil because for the voice command feature to work, third party software translates speech into text and sends the command back to the TV. Users can give commands to the TV's built-in microphone such as "find me an action movie," which causes the TV to search as instructed. This is not the first time that smart TVs sparked privacy concerns. In 2013, a user revealed that LG Electronics smart TV was sending information about his viewing habits back to the company without consent and without encrypting data. LG has also experimented with displaying targeted ads on its smart TVs, which requires collecting and utilizing user data, such as their location, age, and gender. Seriously, people, if you don't want your TV doing that to you, don't turn the microphone on unless absolutely necessary. And if you're using other people's televisions to spy on their conversations, STOP IT. That includes you, NSA.

Point obtained at last minute

Daley Blind scored an injury time goal for Manchester United this morning to secure a dramatic 1-1 draw against West Ham - although Louis van Gaal might rue a missed chance to reclaim third place in the Barclays Premier League table. The Reds started the match knowing a victory would be enough to go above Southampton in the table again, but they trailed for most of the second half following Cheikhou Kouyate’s impressive opener at Upton Park. With time running out, after struggling against Sam Allardyce’s hard-working team, the visitors snatched a point from the jaws of defeat with Blind's timely strike. Luke Shaw's subsequent red card for a second bookable offence was only a slight blemish on a battling performance, as were the four other yellow cards that were shown. This isn't good enough. You can't get back to the top on just one point at a time. It's still better than LVG just being the next David Moyes, but come on. This season should be about rebuilding.

Just five posts away

from post number 1800.

To Oxford comma or not to Oxford comma?

I don't know about you losers, but I say yes to the serial comma, and this pic will tell you why:

Happy birthday, Hazel. (for those of you who don't know, she's my niece and she turned 2 today)

Interview to be released over the Atlantic

British cinema audiences will finally be able to see for themselves what all the fuss was about when The Interview, a comedy about two hapless US journalists’ attempts to assassinate the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, is released on over 200 screens across the country today. Unlike in the US, where Sony initially pulled the film from distribution for fear of further retribution from the suspected North Korean hackers who called themselves the Guardians of Peace, the film will get a full cinema release in the UK. Despite Sony back-tracking on its decision to pull the film after the decision drew criticism from President Obama for caving into terrorist demands, the film was only given a very limited theatrical release in the US, shown in only around 500 cinemas instead of the planned 3,000. It was made available to purchase via on-demand services and has already been rented or downloaded 4.3m times and has taken $40m from digital sales and over $6m from cinema takings. Sony have now claimed it is the “No 1 online film of all time”, and with the The Interview costing $44m to make, all production costs have already been recouped. Eat on that, Guardians of Peace. Just like Charlie Hebdo last month, The Interview has come back bigger and stronger than before. And the British, even though they were among America's first enemies, will just add to Sony's profits. It's called the Streisand effect, people. Look it up.

So the FCC better let net neutrality be

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler has confirmed he will put forward strong rules enforcing net neutrality this month. These protections, if approved, will try to ensure all traffic across the internet is treated equally, with no one able to build so-called "fast lanes" for rich websites. It is feared these expensive web toll roads could be used to squeeze out startups that would otherwise become the next Netflix, for example. The ISPs argue websites should pay towards the networking kit carrying their packets. Following two days of vague leaks from the regulator's staff, the chairman was today unambiguous: "I am proposing that the FCC use its Title II authority to implement and enforce open internet protections." These would represent "the strongest open internet protections ever proposed by the FCC", he continued, and act as "enforceable, bright-line rules [that] will ban paid prioritization, and the blocking and throttling of lawful content and services." We already knew Wheeler was heading in this direction, and one thing is certain - he faces a huge fight, with big cable and Republicans on one side and internet freedom advocates and Democrats on the other. The public opinion fight has already been won, but the more private legal and political fight is about to start. Let's hope the rational side wins this one.

Not much to write about tonight so here's how to use certain memes correctly

BAD IDEA OF THE WEEK: Estate fights

Robin Williams' widow and his three children from previous marriages are currently engaged in a legal battle over everything from his clothing to his action figures, nearly six months after the actor and comic's death. Williams' third wife, Susan Schneider Williams, whom he married in 2011, filed court documents making her case in December, while his children – Zak, born to his first wife Valerie Velardi, and Zelda and Cody, born to second wife Marsha Garces Williams – submitted their papers in January. The New York Times reports that a number of items are at stake - including photographs, bicycles, fossils, toys, and his awards - and that the children would like to see the matter resolved "as quickly and efficiently as possible." The actor's will left his estate to his children in a trust, but it also called for the creation of provisions to benefit his wife, who has two teenage sons of her own. This included the couple's home in Tiburon, California and "the contents thereof." In her filing, Williams' wife alleged that within days of the actor's death, items were "unilaterally removed" from her home. Moreover, when she hired a lawyer, she found that home services like newspaper delivery were canceled. All of this, she claimed, has interfered with the grieving process. For their part, the children said they are "heartbroken" in their petition and underscored their feelings about Susan Williams by mentioning that she was married to the actor for "less than three years." In their opinion, the widow's filing "adds insult to terrible injury" and is a means to "prevent them from receiving what their father wanted them to receive." They allege that she "acted against [their father's] wishes by challenging the plans he so carefully made for his estate." The most hotly debated items are Williams' personal effects, including his awards – an Oscar for Good Will Hunting, six Golden Globes, two Emmys, and five Grammys. An updated version of Williams' trust said that the actor's clothing, jewelry, and photos taken prior to the actor and Susan's marriage, as well as his second home in Napa, California and its contents, should go to his children. You want to know how I see it? Susan Williams is being more than just a wicked stepmother - she is being a pig. She needs to realise that the will is supposed to benefit more than just one person. There could be one or both of Robin's ex-wives, or even some of his co-stars over the years, for instance Pam Dawber, named in the will. So please, Miss Schneider (or Williams depending on whether or not you're keeping his name), let Robin's children have their fair share of his stuff. It's only right.

Own goal helps Reds in continued improvement from last season

Manchester United saw off Leicester City 3-1 yesterday morning with all of the Reds' strikes at Old Trafford coming inside the first half through Robin van Persie, Radamel Falcao, and an own goal by Wes Morgan. Louis van Gaal's side were less expansive after the break and Marcin Wasilewski pulled one back with 10 minutes remaining to raise hopes in the away end of another unbelievable comeback akin to the one that yielded a 5-3 victory at the King Power Stadium. However, there was never too much doubt about the outcome in United's favour, but there was one yellow card in the whole game.

The Three-Year-Old Bigot

The Bellend of the Month for January 2015 is not a person, but rather political correctness gone mad. It's happening in the UK, where children as young as three are being branded racists, homophobes, and bigots over playground taunts. Thousands of pupils are being reported for so-called hate crimes after using innocuous words such as ‘Chinese boy’, ‘Somalian’, or ‘gay’. Teachers also log insults like ‘doughnut’ and ‘fat bucket of KFC’. Even calling a pupil a ‘girl’ can be classified as abuse. Schools file the incidents for local education authorities. The details are also passed to Ofsted inspectors who are required to assess how teachers deal with bullying. Records of a child’s ‘prejudice-related’ behaviour can be passed to their next school, potentially casting a shadow over their secondary education. Alleged offences by more than 4,000 pupils were logged in just 13 council areas – meaning the national total may stretch into the tens of thousands. Civil liberties campaigners warned the practice could have serious consequences for any children labelled as bigots. Particularly worrying is the expansion of incident recording and reporting to ever-greater categories of prejudice, which seem limited only by the strange imagination of education officials. One primary school pupil calling another a girl suddenly becomes a sign of gender image prejudice, subjected to recording requirements more thorough than accompanying most burglaries. A reality check is urgently required. Schools should record such bullying, but they should record and share details of bullying by type, without identifying the children or young people involved. This helps tackle bullying in the most appropriate way and to develop assemblies or programmes about specific issues if required. Recording types and rates of bullying and prejudiced-based incidents is good practice for schools and is data that Ofsted is interested in. Identifying the pupils should be used for disciplinary purposes only.

Justice for Ramarley at long last

The Los Angeles police chief is asking Google to eliminate a cop-spotting feature from its Waze traffic app. Waze is Google’s popular traffic app that lets users collaborate to report locations of heavy traffic, road closures, police speed traps, and other driving incidents. Publicly sharing information about the location of a marked police car, the LAPD chief claims, jeopardizes police officers’ lives. His evidence? The man who recently killed two cops in New York had used the Waze app at some point before the shooting. So what? They had it coming. American cops have been shooting unarmed black teenagers and getting away with it for too long. And the NYPD have successfully weaselled their way out of a lawsuit in relation to one such shooting that took place in 2012, for the family of a Bronx teenager (pictured) who was fatally shot by a police officer who had barged into his apartment after suspecting him of taking part in a drug deal has agreed to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit against the city for US$3.9 million. The agreement to settle the case comes nearly three years after the shooting of the teenager, Ramarley Graham. But as long as they pay up and accept responsibility for their little "accident", I would still consider that an acceptable outcome. The question now: will they pay the $3.9 million?

You can't unboil an egg... or can you?

It has often been said that you can't unscramble an egg. But you might be able to unboil one. When you boil an egg, the heat causes the proteins inside the egg white to tangle and clump together, solidifying it. New research published in ChemBioChem by scientists at UC Irvine shows how they can essentially reverse the clumping process by adding chemicals to a cooked egg. “Yes, we have invented a way to unboil a hen egg,” UCI biochemist Gregory Weiss said in a statement. “In our paper, we describe a device for pulling apart tangled proteins and allowing them to refold." And they didn't just go for a standard 10-minute hard boiled egg. No, the researchers decided, just to make absolutely sure the whites were cooked, to boil the eggs for 20 minutes at 194 degrees Fahrenheit. Adding urea to the eggs untangled the knotted proteins by chemically breaking them into bits, returning the eggs to a liquid form. (Note: Urea is one of the main ingredients in pee, so these unboiled eggs are probably not delicious.) Then the researcher put the (now liquid) solution into a machine called a 'vortex fluid device.' The device pieces the broken proteins back together within minutes — a vast improvement over older methods of reconstituting proteins, which could take days. But unboiling eggs isn't the main focus for the researchers. “The real problem is there are lots of cases of gummy proteins that you spend way too much time scraping off your test tubes, and you want some means of recovering that material,” Weiss said. That's all well and good, but maybe they should try unscrambling eggs next, then look at reversing several other ways to cook eggs.

Search for crap goes too far

A North Texas school district is investigating after about two dozen elementary students were told to pull down their pants after feces was found on a gym floor on Monday. According to a parent, the children at Gustine Elementary School were forced to show their underwear so officials could determine the source of the feces. It is not clear if the search led officials to the source of the feces, and either way, Superintendent Ken Baugh said he does not condone the search and that partially strip-searching students went too far. He said the district is investigating. If they had security cameras in the gym and they had bothered to look through the footage, they could've found the source that way and determine whether it came from a pupil or an animal or even a teacher or somebody that has no other affiliation with the school.

The transhating is over

Google is generally very progressive when it comes to LBGT rights; it's at times put up quotes and Google Doodles on its homepage seemingly with an advocacy lean. The company in 2012 launched a campaign called "Legalize Love", which both supported gay marriage in the U.S. and pushed foreign countries to decriminalize homosexuality. Google has competitive benefits for gay employees, who commonly refer to themselves as "Gayglers." But they have come under fire from LBGT (lesbian, bisexual, gay, and transgender) petition site AllOut.org over flaws in Google Translate, which led to translations to some languages yielding homophobic slurs. Google has now fixed the issue and apologized for its mistake. The controversy came after people noticed that when translating neutral words in foreign languages pertaining to homosexuality, the English translations at times suggested English colloquialisms that are commonly considered homophobic slurs among native speakers. This controversial vernacular was also peculiar as searches for neutral foreign equivalents racial terms (e.g. words which would translate to "Asian", "White", or "Black") or gender terms (e.g. words that would translate to "female") did not display racist or sexist slang. Some of the translations seemed to be especially offensive for languages spoken in regions with active homophobia, such as Russia. "гей", for example - a Russian word which means "gay" - offered some pretty wild suggestions:

But remember, people, that just because Google have admitted and corrected their moment of weakness does not make their smartphone OS any better than Apple's. If it's not an Apple, it's crapple.

BAD IDEA OF THE WEEK: Being a creep

And here's what I mean by that: a 70-year-old was arrested for posting dirty knickers through the door of The Corrs star Jim Corr. The sole male member of 90s band The Corrs received some unwanted mail that definitely wasn’t from a fan – it was part of a long-running feud between his neighbours, which also included cars being damaged and dog poo being posted through letterboxes. Jim Corr caught the perpetrator by installing security cameras and catching the knicker-poster in the act. Seriously, this is not only obnoxious but unsanitary. I know popstars are probably used to having underwear thrown at them, just not so much used ones because what if the intended recipient were to touch a bit with skid marks or semen on it? That would be really gross, even more so if germs were to spread and somebody got sick. So please don't send dirty undies in the mail.

100 years of long distance

Making a phone call from New York to California doesn't count as an extraordinary feat these days. But pretend it's 1915, when a verbal conversation spanning the continent was a remarkable — almost unbelievable — achievement in technology. Yesterday was the 100th anniversary of what is often called the first transcontinental phone call, made by iconic communications inventor Alexander Graham Bell, in New York, to his assistant Thomas Watson, all the way out in San Francisco. The phone call also included President Woodrow Wilson, who was in the White House, and AT&T president Theodore Vail in Georgia. The first ceremonial transcontinental phone line opened on Jan. 25, 1915. Of course, the actual first transcontinental phone call probably took place the year before, historians agree, after the phone line was completed for testing. The 1915 call was part of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition that year — a celebration of the Panama Canal's completion and a showcase of the newly revitalized San Francisco, which had been decimated by a 1906 earthquake and fire. It was a heavily scripted conversation, one designed to bring in publicity for the achievement, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The only genuine moment came when Bell first asked Watson, "Are you there? Do you hear me?" Bell was also the man behind the very first phone call of all time, which took place on March 10, 1876 — almost 39 years prior to the transcontinental conversation. That phone call was also made to Bell's assistant, Watson. "Mr. Watson, come here," Bell is reported to have said. "Come here. I want to see you." AT&T built the coast-to-coast telephone system, which included 130,000 telephone poles and 2,500 tons of copper wire that spanned 3,400 miles, according to the company. All that for a four-way conference call — quite a long way from being able to FaceTime using iPhones. But enough about all that because tomorrow is the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Meet George Jetson, on the big screen

The Jetsons might just get a second chance on the silver screen. Warner Bros. has hired writer Matt Lieberman to pen a script for a feature film based on the iconic Hanna-Barbera show from the early ‘60s, reports Deadline and Variety. According to those reports, the script is being put together from scratch for an animated feature. Back in 1990, The Jetsons had a less-than-stellar theatrical debut with Jetsons: The Movie. Despite being directed by Joseph Barbera, one of the show's original creators, the film was widely panned. Let's hope they do better this time, because it would be cool if they got back on the big screen.

It was announced a year ago today

During the first five seconds of this clip, the bottom left photo will show the two of them copying two recent fads way before it was cool - Pam has a sweater tied around her neck in a near-perfect copy of the Juvilicious look from the fifth episode of Jonah from Tonga, and Robin is doing a near-perfect imitation of Gangnam Style.

Next round fired in war on bullying

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, the powerful U.S. ally who joined Washington's fight against Al Qaeda and sought to modernize the ultraconservative Muslim kingdom, has died at the age of 90. His successor is his 79-year-old half-brother, Prince Salman, who recently has taken on the ailing Abdullah's responsibilities. But enough about that because a Minnesota man is out of a job after a video with some fairly strong language went viral taking aim at his family, who reportedly bullied a 14-year-old African-American girl. Brad Knudson posted a video on YouTube telling the story of his African-American daughter who he says was being bullied with racist messages via Snapchat. The video was posted Monday and already has more than 300,000 views online. Knudson says a set of twin girls in Prior Lake, Minnesota sent his daughter messages on Snapchat making racist statements and cursing at her. He says his daughter, who they were able to adopt eleven years ago, recieved at least four different messages from the twins. Snapchats are typically deleted as soon as they're watched, so he recorded the fourth message. To watch it, click here, but a word of warning: the video contains strong language which may not be appropriate for all viewers.

Netflix about to go global

Netflix wants to stop its customers from using virtual private networks (VPNs), but not through blocking the services; instead, it plans on signing content deals on a global basis, meaning customers anywhere in the world can get the same TV shows and films at the same time. In its Q4 results released on Tuesday, video-streaming giant Netflix announced aggressive plans to complete an expansion across the entire globe in just two years. First off the rank are Australia and New Zealand in March, where the company has been fairly coy in revealing the price, or exactly what shows will be on the service at launch time. There has been fear that the content offering on the Australian service will be inferior to the US service, because much of the content has already been snapped up in exclusive agreements with Foxtel, or other local players like Quickflix or the upcoming Fairfax-Nine venture Stan. The company is also currently refusing to confirm that Netflix-produced content House of Cards and Orange is the New Black will be available on the Australian service at launch, because of pre-existing deals signed with Foxtel prior to the company's plans to enter the Australian market. It is believed that Netflix will have House of Cards at launch due to the rights expiring with Foxtel at the end of last year. But I'm still not using either country's service while there are BitTorrent sites that can provide you with a lot of that content plus much more for free.

Trial of the Joker: The Beginning

The logistics of putting James Holmes on trial are as staggering as the carnage he allegedly committed in a crowded movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, in July 2012 when 12 people were killed and 58 others injured in gunfire. Consider this: some 9,000 potential jurors are being summoned, and the jury selection that began yesterday could last until May or June when the trial would finally start. Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. told the first pool of potential jurors that if chosen for the jury, they cannot read, watch, or hear anything about the case. "This will require great effort on your part," the judge said three times. Also in the courtroom was Holmes, whose face remained expressionless. He faced forward toward the judge's bench the entire time without looking around or at the potential jurors in the room. Holmes, who colored his hair red and told police he was "The Joker" upon arrest after the mass killing, is now a different picture. In court, he had a clean haircut, trimmed beard, eyeglasses, gray sport coat, tan slacks, and blue-and-white-striped dress shirt. In all, Arapahoe County residents stand a 1-in-50 chance of receiving a summons. The enormous pool of potential jurors, designed to ensure a fair trial for Holmes, is being called one of the largest in U.S. history. The court is casting such a wide net for jurors that it has unwittingly summoned 12 potential witnesses in the case, but Judge Samour has already excused those individuals from the jury summonses. With the removal of those witnesses from the jury pool, the number of potential witnesses receiving a summons could now be as high as 43, though prosecutors acknowledged in court papers "that it is likely two individuals could have the same names and not be the same person as the endorsed prosecution witnesses in this case." But the potential conflicts don't end there. Four potential jurors are related to the prosecutor's staff: two husbands, a father, and an uncle. Another potential juror is a best friend of a prosecution staff member. A wife and a former colleague of prosecution witnesses are also potential jurors. But the judge declined immediately to excuse those seven potential jurors. "Because neither party asks the court to take any action with respect to these individuals, the court refrains from doing so at this time," the judge said. Let's hope that the right twelve are picked and that justice is eventually served on that loser.

BAD IDEA OF THE WEEK: Protesting against free speech

Tens of thousands of people have gathered in the Russian region of Chechnya to rally against the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. They marched through the streets of downtown Grozny, the capital of the predominantly Muslim region, releasing balloons and carrying posters that read "Hands off our beloved prophet" and "Europe has only united us." On Friday, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov wrote on his official Instagram account that those who defended Charlie Hebdo were his "personal enemies," and vowed that at least one million people would join the government-sponsored protest in Grozny. Russia, which has a large and restive Muslim population and waged two devastating wars against Chechnya in the 1990s, offered its condolences to France after the attack but has warned local publications against reprinting Charlie Hebdo cartoons that featured the Prophet Mohammed. Seriously, it's just a few cartoons. I don't see what the big deal is about a magazine exercising their right to free speech. It would be a much better outcome than caving in to terrorist threats like a coward.

Webs in Space

Elon Musk, the man who's determined to move our civilization to Mars, will also tackle creating an Internet in space. The CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX said Friday night that he will use a fleet of satellites to make the Internet speedier and to bring it to those without access, according to media reports of a private event in Seattle. While this new network would initially benefit only those of us on Earth, Musk said he has much loftier plans: using the profits to build a Martian city. He didn't offer specifics on how he'll make money off the project, but he did mention the possibility of selling satellites after the network is completed. SpaceX did not return a request for comment. To create the new network, SpaceX will build and launch roughly 4,000 satellites orbiting about 750 miles above earth. Musk is known for his determination to colonize Earth's relatively nearby neighbor, with plans to put humans on Mars by the mid 2020s. I wish him good luck with that. We've been able to put people on the Moon and return them safely, so he should try there first.

The eyes of the Rangers are upon 'em

After a tight and scrappy first hour at Loftus Road this morning, Manchester United turned up the heat and the attacking intent in the second half to secure a 2-0 win over Queens Park Rangers, thanks to substitutes Marouane Fellaini and James Wilson. On a testing surface against committed opposition and five yellow cards, the game had lacked finesse and clinical finishing – on another day Radamel Falcao could have had a hat-trick at least – but, on the back of defeat to Southampton and three league matches without a victory for the Reds, Louis van Gaal will be happy to be back to winning ways. But it is going to take more than just one win to reach the top, as the Reds are still 12 points behind Chelsea and therefore have a bit of catching up to do.

Apple no longer king of the apps

Apple's App Store may have had a record-breaking start to 2015, but as appFigures reports, Google has a new superlative to brag about. For the first time, the Google Play store surpassed Apple’s online store in number of apps. Google ended 2014 with more than 1.43 million apps compared with Apple’s 1.21 million. Amazon may have been the runt of the litter, but its Appstore saw growth of about 90 percent last year, bringing its total number of apps to around 293,000. So Android users have 200,000 more apps to choose from. But Apple always has been, and always will be, where it's at, just like Man United during their horrendous 7th-place finish under David Moyes last season. And even though Louis van Gaal is turning it around, the silverware isn't quite theirs yet. They have to win several more games, starting with this weekend's match against QPR, and hope the teams above them lose or draw their next few before the Reds even have a chance at the top spot.

Apple Watch: now with more info

Today is the 20th anniversary of the premiere of Star Trek: Voyager, and yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the introduction of the first two North American area codes not to have a 0 or 1 as the middle digit (first one was 334; 360 came a minute later). Fast-forward to 2015, and a leaked iPhone app is revealing new details about Apple’s upcoming Apple Watch, which is due out early this year. The Apple Watch will be able to send text messages using your voice, remind you to stand up once in a while, and track your heart rate. A companion app for your iPhone will help you customize your Apple Watch and arrange its home screen. And you may be able to use your screens as Wi-Fi hotspots at the Marriott again because Marriott International says it will stop blocking guests from using their personal Wi-Fi devices at its hotels after receiving customer complaints. "Marriott International listens to its customers, and we will not block guests from using their personal Wi-Fi devices at any of our managed hotels," the Maryland-based company said in a statement on its website. Marriott, along with the American Hotel and Lodging Association and Ryman Hospitality Properties, had petitioned the Federal Communications Commission last summer to clarify whether or not hotels can disable people's ability to use their mobile phones as personal Wi-Fi hotspots in their conference centers. Marriott had argued that allowing people to do so could expose its hotels to cyberattacks. Google, Microsoft, and other wireless providers had asked the FCC to reject Marriott's request. Soon after, customers became more vocal with their complaints against the practice, arguing that Marriott was trying to force them into paying for the hotel's Wi-Fi. In its statement on Wednesday, Marriott said it would continue to seek guidance from the FCC as to what it can do to keep its network secure. I have a solution for that - it's called a firewall.

Orson-sized tribute to Mork underway in the 585

Robin Williams is being honored at the Dryden Theater in Rochester, New York with a new series featuring nine of the comedian's most loved performances and films. The idea for the series happened after Williams died last year and took months for the theater's assistant curator to gather the films she wanted included. Some of those films include The Birdcage, Good Morning Vietnam, and Good Will Hunting. Caroline Yeager, the Assistant Curator at the Dryden Theater said she felt obligated to honor the tremendous actor and comedian. "When someone like that, a performer like that, people identify with him," Yeager said. "He made so many people happy and brought such joy, he could make you laugh and to lose him it was such a sad thing." That could be worth checking out if you're in the area, but even if you're not, Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer have a lot to celebrate. Not only did the second season of their Comedy Central show Broad City premiere a few hours ago, but the cable network has also picked it up for a third season. “It has just been brought to my attention that Broad City is a female-centric show,” the network’s Kent Alterman joked in a statement, “but we’re going to do more anyway.” If you missed it or can't wait for it to air in your country, it will be available right now on many a BitTorrent site, as will the whole first season. Click here now to get your Broad City fix.

Deaths at a funeral

At least 72 people who drank a homemade beer at a funeral in Mozambique over the weekend have died, health officials have announced. Authorities believe that the beer, a traditional millet-based brew called pombe, was poisoned during the course of the funeral. While the death toll has gone up, the number of individuals hospitalized from the beer has dropped dramatically. There are currently 35 in the hospital following the apparent poisoning, regional health official Paula Bernardo told the Associated Press. Yesterday, more than 169 people were reportedly still seeking treatment. “As we prepared to determine the cause of death of people we began to receive a lot of people with diarrhea and other muscle aches. After that we began to receive dead bodies from several neighborhoods,” Bernardo told a state-run radio station in Mozambique. Officials believe that the brew was poisoned some time during the daylong funeral, but have few leads on the cause or motivation. Those who drank the brew only in the morning had no signs of illness, but those who drank in the afternoon were sick by the next morning. And what was the poison, I hear you ask? Carle Mosse, a provincial health director, told reporters that some suspected the brew was poisoned with crocodile bile. So did a district health official going by the name Alex Albertini. But it’s not clear where the evidence for that suspicion is coming from. Testing has not yet been completed on samples taken from the brew and from victims, according to the BBC. The samples sent to the National Laboratory in the capital city Maputo contain “suspicious objects found inside the drum” where the beer was stored, but to make things even more complicated, the Associated Press reported that the drum in which the beer was held has since “disappeared.” Seriously, people. Don't trust home-made liquor, otherwise it could be your funeral the tainted home-brew is being served at.

BAD IDEA OF THE WEEK: Trying to cut the head off

Remember, guys, it will grow back, starting with French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, which is publishing a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed on the cover of its first issue since the attack that killed 12 people at its office in Paris. The newspaper Liberation hosted Charlie Hebdo staff as they prepared the new issue and is handling its special 1 million-copy print run in numerous languages. Liberation published the Charlie Hebdo cover online late last night, showing a man in a white turban it says represents the Prophet. He is holding a sign reading “Je suis Charlie” (“I am Charlie“) and with a title reading “Tout est Pardonne” (“All is Forgiven“), which French media interpreted as meaning Mohammed is forgiving the cartoonists for lampooning him. In real life, when a pencil is broken, the bit with the rubber on it can be sharpened at the break to make a second pencil. The other bit can be sharpened at the break to make a double-ended pencil, meaning three different ends from where you can write with it. Similarly, if you try to stop Charlie Hebdo, it will come back stronger than ever before. It's called the Streisand effect, people. It got its name from when Barbra Streisand tried to get a photo of her house (pictured) taken down, only for the pic to receive even more attention.

Saints subject Reds to unholiest defeat

Manchester United suffered a first defeat in 12 games and surrendered third place in the Barclays Premier League this morning after Southampton secured a shock 1-0 win at Old Trafford with Dusan Tadic's solitary strike and two of the game's four yellow cards. The Reds controlled large chunks of the game but ultimately struggled to break down an organised Saints team that has increasingly realistic hopes of earning a spot in next season's Champions League. Loser van Gaal has proved himself over the course of the season (except for the Moyes-like start), but there is still more work to be done if the Reds are to win the Premiership. They are twelve points behind the current leaders Chelsea (who currently have 49 points). This means they need to win at least four games to tie for the top, and that's if Chelsea lose their next four games. It can be done, though.

Mad Men finally at its mad end

The climax to acclaimed US drama Mad Men will begin on April 5 when the first of the final seven episodes airs, AMC television announced yesterday. The seventh and last season of the hit show chronicling the lives of New York advertising executives in the 1960s officially got under way last year, with seven episodes being shown. But the last half of the season was held over until 2015, with the final seven episodes now confirmed to begin screening in April. Once that's over, it will join other crap shows like Two and a Half Men and Glee in the "thank goodness it's over" pile where it rightfully belongs. In fact, with all the other bullcrap not coming back for the fall, The Crazy Ones could've come back and filled one of those voids had Robin Williams not killed himself. And maybe Pam Dawber could've been in another episode or two. So think about it, all you suicidal folk out there: do you still want to go through with it?

Shooting suspects join their victims six feet under

A dramatic, violent day ended in France with a hail of gunfire at two separate hostage scenes. Dead are the suspected militants behind the Charlie Hebdo attack - the brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi - who were killed by French law enforcement at a printing shop in Dammartin-en-Goele. An equally tense siege unfolded at a kosher supermarket in Paris, where Kouachi brother ally, Amedy Coulibaly, was killed after a standoff that lasted five hours. That's right, people - just like the gunman who raided a cafe in Sydney last month, the hostage-takers in Paris also died in the crossfire. Before you plan your next siege, ask yourselves this: is it really worth it?

Doubtfire house on fire

A woman has been arrested following an arson attack on the famous house from the Robin Williams film Mrs Doubtfire, according to reports. The woman, 25-year-old Tyqwon Eugenen Welch, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, criminal threats, trespassing, arson, and possession of an incendiary device, a San Francisco police spokesman told The LA Times. Police said petrol was poured onto the doormat and set alight, but it was quickly put out. The homeowner, plastic surgeon Douglas Ousterhout, said he could smell gasoline and called police when he saw the door mat smouldering. The blaze damaged the home's front door and garage. The house, located in the Pacific Heights area of San Francisco, has become a popular tourist destination since the film was released in 1993. It was also turned into a memorial following Mr Williams' suicide last August, and what Welch did to it was a crime not only against the homeowner but also Robin Williams' legacy. What if 1619 Pine Street (Mork and Mindy's address in Boulder, Colorado) was next? Or the bench from Good Will Hunting?

Death by Cartoons

Last night at 11:30pm New Zealand Daylight Time, three masked gunmen armed with Kalashnikov rifles, a shotgun, and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher stormed the headquarters of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris. They shot and killed 12 people, including Charlie Hebdo staff and two French National police officers, and wounded 11 others. The gunmen entered the building and began shooting with automatic weapons, while shouting "Allahu Akbar". Up to 50 shots were fired during the attack. Following a massive manhunt, the French police believe they have located the attackers and are mounting an operation against them. One suspect has turned himself in. The incident is France's deadliest act of terrorism since 18 June 1961, when 28 people died in a train bombing.

Prior to the shooting, the gunmen had burst into number 6 Rue Nicolas-Appert, where the magazine's archives were based. The gunmen reportedly shouted "Is this Charlie Hebdo?", before realizing they had the wrong address and fleeing. They then went to the magazine's headquarters at number 10 Rue Nicolas-Appert. Cartoonist Corinne Rey reported that two armed and hooded men, speaking perfect French, threatened the life of her toddler daughter whom she had picked up from day care, and forced her to type in the code to open the door to the building. The men then moved up to an office on the second floor, where the staff were in an editorial meeting, with approximately 15 members in attendance. The entire shooting lasted between five and ten minutes. Witnesses reported that the gunmen sought out members of the staff by name before executing them with single shots to the head. Other witnesses reported that the gunmen identified themselves as belonging to al-Qaeda in Yemen.

The targeting of journalists going about their daily work is an attack on the fourth estate and the democratic principles of freedom of speech and expression, which must be strongly condemned. Violence will always lose against freedom and democracy, just like it did when Sony decided they would release The Interview after all. Neither the Sony hackers or al-Qaeda will be able to destroy the most sacred that we human beings have, that is, our rights and our freedoms.

Uber gaming style!

Forget that chubby guy from the North Pole, the real Santa Claus this holiday season is the Internet Archive, a non-profit digital library that now hosts 2,386 DOS games that can be played by anyone at no cost. A digital cache of that size brings with it both good and bad news. On the downside, there's bound to be lots of bad games, even notoriously bad ones like the baffling 1989 fighting game Tongue of the Fatman. But on the upside, the collection also includes some legitimate classics like LucasArts' adventure game adaptation of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and the PC version of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Pool of Radiance campaign. With 2,386 games available there's far too many to briefly describe here, but you can browse the collection by visiting the Archive. The best news, though, is that in lieu of simply archiving .exe files for each game, the Internet Archive listings feature an in-browser version of the ubiquitous DOSBox emulator. It won't be exactly the same experience you had playing these games in the late 1980s, but it's far easier than convincing games from the Reagan (or Thatcher depending on which side of the Atlantic you're on) era to play nicely with modern computers. The emulation is in beta, but to check it out, click here.

BAD IDEA OF THE WEEK: That 2014 has ended

And 2015 has begun. But don't despair, we have lots of good stuff coming, for instance, several movies I'm looking forward to (including but not limited to Jupiter Ascending, Fifty Shades of Grey, the sequels to Hot Tub Time Machine and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, the first Fast and the Furious entry without the late Paul Walker, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ted 2 [which should hopefully be funnier than the first one], Arnold Schwarzenegger's return to the Terminator franchise, remakes of Poltergeist and Point Break, the sequel to Hotel Transylvania, and the final Hunger Games movie), new TV programs like CSI: Cyber and a reboot of 1970s series The Odd Couple, the 20th anniversaries of major changes to telephone numbering plans on both sides of the Atlantic (i.e. area codes that didn't have 0 or 1 as the middle digit were introduced in North America, and a 1 added to most geographic area codes in the UK, i.e. 0632 became 01632), and the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, among many other things. But right now, it's CES time in Vegas and among this year's attractions is 4K made better. Also known as Ultra HD, 4K offers four times the sharpness of today's high-definition video. Now that 4K TV sets have dropped in price, with some models available for less than US$1,000, TV makers are looking for ways to make their sets stand out. Sharp is turning to an engineering trick to make its high-end 4K set look even sharper. While TVs typically show colors by mixing red, green, and blue subpixels, Sharp's top-of-the-line model will add yellow as a fourth subpixel to improve colors. It then splits each of those subpixels in half, creating a total of eight subpixels in the space of three. Content isn't yet available to take advantage of the five extra subpixels, but Sharp uses some mathematical formulas to fill in the blanks. The Aquos Beyond 4K Ultra HD TV will measure about 80 inches diagonally. It will be out in the second half of the year. The price hasn't been set. But that's not all - Samsung is also offering a premium line with better brightness and richer colors, not just increased sharpness. It uses a technology called quantum dot — essentially a layer of materials that allows for purer colors and a wider color range. Samsung says the TV is also brighter because there's no need for a filter to compensate for color distortion. It will be called SUHD and cost more than regular 4K sets, though specifics haven't been announced. But either way, it will be too expensive and it's best to wait until they go down in price (unless, of course, you've got money to spare when the model you want is out).

The Internet of Pedals

Bike thefts are pretty common in major metropolitan areas, and even those who religiously use a bike lock aren't safe from savvy thieves. But there is a gadget in development that will help you get it back should it ever happen to you - the Connected Cycle. The Connected Cycle is a smart bike pedal equipped with GPS and GPRS sensors that are powered by cycling. As soon as your pedals move, the sensors track your activity so it acts as a basic fitness tracker, recording the speed, route, incline, and calories burned of every ride. That data is stored in a connected app that lets you view this activity over time. As all this data is stored on the pedals themselves, you won't need to bring your smartphone with you to track this activity. And since the pedals are always tracking location, they could even help you recover a stolen bike. Cellular service is included with purchase of the Connected Cycle, though as this product is in development, there is no pricing or availability information at this time. Once it's available for purchase, the company claims the Connected Cycle will be compatible with almost any kind of bike, and can only be removed with a special key held by the owner. But of course it's not as big a deal as if you're regretting your decision to save a few hundred bucks on your iPhone or iPad by opting for the smaller 16GB model (mine's a 64GB). But whether you're low on space or have lots but could do with more, there are ways to boost your smartphone's storage capacity. But because swapping in a larger microSD card just isn't an option in the Apple world, you'll have to settle for an external storage solution. And while there are lots of Lightning-friendly flash drives already on the market, the iBridge from Leef features a clever curvy design that wraps around behind your device in an attempt to be less intrusive. Does it succeed? Not entirely. You'll always know the iBridge is connected to your device, but with the bulk of the drive tucked out of sight behind your iPhone or iPad thanks to its unique J-shaped form factor, it's a fair compromise for an additional 256GB of storage capacity for your iOS device. There are some other compromises and trade-offs you'll need to be aware of, though. Thanks to the closed-off nature of iOS you'll need to copy files to and from your iPhone or iPad using the accompanying Leef iBridge app, and it remains to be seen how robust of usable its UI is. The same goes for streaming multimedia content off the drive, but there's at least the potential for the app to support more file formats than iOS does natively. And a starting price of US$60 for the 16GB model is a little on the pricey side as far as flash drives go these days, but with that Lightning port on one end, the Apple tax is probably invoked here.

Cancer patients lose out due to a societal cancer

2014 was a big year for Apple, which shook up the technology industry when it unveiled the large-screen iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Along with the latest iPhones, Apple also introduced the latest-generation iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3, a 27-inch 5K Retina iMac, its HealthKit and HomeKit platforms, the latest OS X Yosemite and iOS 8, and a sneak peek into the still unreleased Apple Watch. It was also a big year for Sony, whose latest film The Interview has won a few fans in between sparking apocalyptic warnings from North Korea, but for defectors who escaped the communist state, there's nothing funny about it. That's not to say they're not watching it. Defectors based in the South have flocked to see the film at the centre of an escalating international row thanks to its lurid depiction of the assassination of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un. The United States claims that the film's presentation of Kim, whose family has ruled the reclusive, impoverished state for more than six decades, prompted Pyongyang to launch a massive cyber-attack on Sony Pictures, the studio that made it. Defectors from the north have reacted to the movie with a mixture of shock and bafflement. It's not just that its crass humour is largely lost on a North Korean audience, it's that growing up immersed in a personality cult, which gives god-like status to the ruling Kim dynasty, is not an experience that can easily be forgotten. Even for defectors who have been in the South for years, it is jarring to see Kim ridiculed as a Katy Perry fan who has a complex about his dad. Speaking of jars, for the second consecutive year on New Year's Eve, police are investigating the theft of two donation jars for a children's hospital that were taken from the Speedway on West Fourth Street. In what appears to be almost an exact replica of an incident from 2013, Ontario police are investigating the theft of two donation jars for Akron Children's Hospital Children's Miracle Network taken from Speedway on 2132 West Fourth St. A surveillance video captured this year's incident, which took place at 1:58 a.m. Dec. 30. Ontario police detective Jon Sigler said the video showed a heavy-set woman reaching over the unattended counter to pick up two jars filled with cash. The woman then placed the jars under her arms, left the store, and drove away in a blue Dodge Avenger. Whoever you are, should you come across this post, you better give back those jars. This has become a police matter now and the cops will be coming after you sooner or later. That money you took was meant to help sick children. How would you feel if I or somebody else were to steal stuff from you?

This is Spartan!

Instead of revamping Internet Explorer for the launch of Windows 10, a new report claims Microsoft plans to start from scratch with a new browser, dubbed “Spartan.” Spartan could ship alongside Internet Explorer 11 in Windows 10, due sometime in the latter half of 2015. The purpose of Spartan is twofold, according to the report: first, as a lightweight alternative to IE, but with the foundation for third-party extensions; and as a marketing “do-over” for Internet Explorer, to do away with Internet Explorer’s legacy once and for all. From there, Spartan could eventually debut on alternative platforms like iOS and Android, much like the Bing search app can replace the search widget on Android devices, for example. But I'm sticking with Safari. It's way better than crap browsers like Internet Explorer.

Draw to begin 2015

Radamel Falcao earned Manchester United a battling point this morning as the Reds fought back from going behind early against Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium. The Colombian striker struck from close range on 26 minutes after the Reds had fallen a goal down to a neat finish from ex-United defender Ryan Shawcross. Another former Red, Mame Biram Diouf, wasted a chance to double the lead when he shot wide, before Falcao pounced for his third strike of the season. Robin van Persie went close to putting Louis van Gaal’s men in front in the second half, but Stoke’s Peter Crouch rattled the woodwork with a header after the break. Chances were few and far between as the game wound down, but United stood firm to extend the unbeaten run to 10 games in a match where no yellow cards were shown. This is not good enough. If LVG wants the Premiership this season, then his men better start pulling their weight. No more draws - it's time to get some three-pointers on the board.

Burger blunder causes early exit

Before I start tonight's post, I would like to say to our Lithuanian readers Sveiki atvykę į eurą (welcome to the euro). This would also be a great time to remind our readers that the Bellend of the Month will be announced on the first of the month going forward instead of the last. The Bellend of the Month for December 2014 is Whitney Beseler, who will remember her stint on Australian game show Millionaire Hot Seat as the day she became famous. But the P.E. teacher and Contiki tour manager from Ballarat didn't write history as one of the lucky game show contestants who go home with a million. She will be remembered as the blonde who didn't get the $100 question right. She was asked by host Eddie McGuire, "Which of these is not a piece of jewellery commonly worn to symbolise a relationship between two people?" There were four choices: anniversary ring, engagement ring, wedding ring, and burger ring. At that moment her nervousness apparently had taken the best of her and Beseler confidently locked in 'anniversary ring'. When host McGuire had troubles to keep a straight face she realised her mistake. "Oh my God, burger ring!" she exclaimed. "Oh, Eddie - that is the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to me. Can we cut and start again please?" No, sorry Whitney, we can't start again. For those of you who don't know what Burger Rings are, they are a burger-flavoured Australian and New Zealand snack food distributed by the Twisties corporation but owned by its parent company The Smith's Snackfood Company (which is in turn owned by PepsiCo) in Australia and Bluebird Foods Limited in New Zealand. And I can tell you it would look really stupid if you were to wear one on your finger.

FINAL FILM BEAT: Horrible Bosses 2

Before I begin, I will not be continuing the Friday Film Beat into 2015. Tonight's post will be one final review before we say goodbye to 2014 and hello to 2015. Also, the Bellend of the Month feature will be moved from the last of the month to the first of the following month. This month's Bellend of the Month will be revealed tomorrow. Now onto the film review: Horrible Bosses 2 was much better than the first one. You really need to see it if you haven't done so. Need I say more?

BAD IDEA OF THE WEEK: That it has to end

But don't despair, people. There's still tomorrow (speaking of which, if you haven't seen Annie yet, please do so) before 2014 has to end. And 2015 will hopefully be better, because we've got a whole new CSI (it's called CSI: Cyber, and yes, they will be using a song by The Who as the theme), the end of Two and a Half Men (which came twelve seasons too late), Robin Williams' final film (which is called Absolutely Anything and will have the distinction of being his first and only British film), this blog's 2000th post, and many more great things to come.

LVG turnaround continues slowly but surely

Manchester United made it nine games without defeat this morning after rounding off the 2014 calendar year with a goalless draw against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane. With both sides playing open, attacking football, the best chances fell to Louis van Gaal's team but some rare lapses in finishing and an excellent display by the hosts' goalkeeper Hugo Lloris led to the game ending in stalemate. Van Gaal named an unchanged side to the one that defeated Newcastle United 3-1 at home on Boxing Day, making it the first time since November 2012 that the Reds' line-up remained the same in consecutive matches, only this time there were six yellow cards all up. A draw is not good enough if Man United want the Premiership back. Man City and Chelsea are still ahead on the table by 7 and 10 points respectively, and one point isn't going to narrow the gap as much as all three points will.

United outclass United in true Reds fashion

Wayne Rooney inspired Manchester United to a 3-1 win over Newcastle yesterday morning by scoring twice and setting up another for Robin van Persie, even if Papiss Cisse's late penalty took some of the gloss off a fine day at Old Trafford. The victory means the Reds are now unbeaten in eight Barclays Premier League matches and have recorded 11 straight wins on Boxing Day. Well done, boys, even if three players did get booked on the day.

Tablet Wars

A not-so-long time ago in a land far, far away, some people had labeled Apple as barking mad for dreaming up the idea of a 12.9-inch iPad Pro. Interestingly however, it appears Sony was not and is not part of such a group. Word on the grapevine this Boxing Day morn is that Apple’s Japanese rival-in-tech has been assembling its own answer to the so-called iPad Air Plus behind the scenes ahead of an intended Q1 launch. Just like the Cupertino company’s slate, Sony’s titanic tablet will apparently boast a 12.9-inch touchscreen and considerably more power than anything we’ve seen from the Xperia lineup to date. As far as the initial round of leaks have so far laid bare, Sony’s as-yet unnamed power-tab will feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 CPU and an impossibly sharp 3,840 by 2,400 pixel touchscreen – aka 4K Ultra HD. Sources have also tipped a thickness of just 8.6mm and a similar keyboard docking-station or cover to that of Microsoft’s Surface Pro. Seriously, people, just stick with Apple's product. They're the only ones you can trust to make a product that's actually of any use to anyone with any sense. If it's not an Apple, it's crapple no matter how "advanced" it is.

FRIDAY FILM BEAT: Big Hero 6

There were plenty of good points about this film - the 3D effects, the animation, and the clever mash-up of San Francisco and Tokyo being used as the film's setting to name a few. Critics reception is good too, so go see it if you haven't already.

And next year, it could be three

In each of the years from 2007 to 2012, we've only seen one new iPhone model (iPhone, 3G, 3GS, 4, 4S, and 5 respectively). Last year, it was two - the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 5C. This year, it was two again - iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. But next year, Apple might be prepping a third iPhone; one that will be welcome to anyone who finds the iPhone 6 too big - let alone the iPhone 6 Plus. Once again, the claim is that Apple is preparing a 4-inch iPhone 6S. The word comes from Cowen and Company analyst Timothy Arcuri in a note obtained by Apple Insider, but the report suggests this is more than just guesswork. Arcuri quoted his own sources, who have indicated that the 4-inch iPhone could be similar to the iPhone 5S but possibly with "curved screen edges" like the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Arcuri's track record with Apple has been hit and miss, but this isn't the first we've heard about a possible 4-inch iPhone. The last rumour pointed to a launch in the second half of 2015, suggesting that we'll see it during the usual September event. And if you want one in your stocking next Christmas, you better be on your best behaviour between now and then otherwise it may well be an iPhone box with a lump of coal in it.

Guess who's back, back again? The Interview's back, tell a friend!

Despite threats from hackers, Sony Pictures is making the controversial Seth Rogen comedy available at a limited number of theaters starting on Christmas, with the movie studio's CEO, Michael Lynton, saying that "while we hope this is only the first step of the film's release, we are proud to make it available to the public and to have stood up to those who attempted to suppress free speech." By last night, slightly more than 200 independently-owned theaters had agreed to show the film. More might still get on board: one Sony source said the studio is "still counting" the total number, and that it could end up "around 300." None of the big theater chains, like AMC or Regal, have said they'll support the Christmas release yet, but they should because it's bound to be a great movie. Even though I might have to wait a bit longer for it to be released in New Zealand (release date not announced yet), I'm looking forward to it even more as a result of what could've been just a publicity stunt.

BAD IDEA OF THE WEEK: That it wasn't Justin Bieber

Robin Williams. Philip Seymour Hoffman. Joan Rivers. Oscar de la Renta. The Hurricane. Just a few of the many good people who died this year. It's a wonder Justin Bieber hasn't joined that list. But a just-as-bad musician has left us. Joe Cocker, the gravelly British singer who became one of pop’s most recognizable interpreters in the late 1960s and ’70s with passionate, idiosyncratic takes on songs like the Beatles’ “With a Little Help From My Friends,” has died at the age of 70 at his home in Colorado. Seriously, why can't Justin Bieber be next? His music is a lot worse than anything else could ever be, so would be perfect for use at Guantanamo as a substitute for waterboarding.

When she thinks about torture, she touches herself

Conservative commentator Ann Coulter was caught masturbating to the Senate’s CIA Torture Report in an Amtrak bathroom as she traveled from Washington DC to New York City via the Silver Service line yesterday. Amy Walker, the Amtrak employee who discovered Coulter, thought the restroom was vacant. When she opened the door, she witnessed Coulter with her legs spread apart and the political pundit playing with her private parts. Coulter, unphased, then told Walker, “Do you mind?” which is when Walker shut the door and patiently waited outside the washroom. “I waited about 45 minutes until she came out and told me ‘Now you can use the bathroom’ and that’s when I noticed she was holding the Senate’s CIA Torture Report,” said Walker. A line had formed outside the bathroom with a dozen witnesses confirming Coulter left the restroom with the torture report in hand and a glowing smile on her face. Multiple passengers waiting in line said, “We were just in DC; everyone was reading that Torture Report and that was definitely what she was holding.” The bathroom wait time continued as Walker said, “It took me another 30 minutes to clean up the wet, smelly mess left inside in the bathroom. I’ve seen some crazy stuff on this D.C. to New York train but this was the grossest. It’s not every ride a solo porn video is being conducted in your bathroom.” Amtrak, however, is unamused by her actions. Spokesman Thomas Cooper has told reporters, “This isn’t Europe. We don’t condone this type of behavior on our trains. We will be looking into the matter and will publish a report when all the findings are assembled and dissected. After our investigation, we will determine if banning Ann Coulter from all Amtrak trains will be necessary. Our apologies to those affected by the bathroom wait time. We want a family friendly environment here at Amtrak. This isn’t a trucker pit-stop off Interstate 80.” Even if it were a trucker pit-stop, I would've waited until I got home before jacking off to the report instead of inconveniencing all the other passengers. And besides, it's more fun to do it in a plane than on a train.

And the three-point streak ends with a draw

Radamel Falcao rescued a point for Manchester United at Villa Park this morning with a brilliant second-half header as the Reds were held 1-1 by ten-man Aston Villa. The Barclays Premier League’s lowest scorers took the lead against the run of play on 18 minutes through Christian Benteke’s fine finish, before Falcao struck early in the second period to earn a draw for United, who remain third in the table. Louis van Gaal stuck with the same system which helped United overcome Liverpool, but he made two changes to the first XI, with Darren Fletcher coming in for the ill Marouane Fellaini and Falcao's first start since Everton at home at the start of October. No yellow cards were shown, but United’s cause was given a boost on 65 minutes when the hosts went down to ten men as Gabby Agbonlahor was sent off for a late tackle. The Reds should've done something with that opening. Drawing isn't good enough when it comes to improving their position on the table. Just one point at a time isn't going to put the silverware back in Old Trafford's trophy cabinet. LVG needs to shape up or ship out.

Obama leads charge against Sony hackers

President Barack Obama has vowed a US response after North Korea's alleged cyber-attack on Sony Pictures. The US leader also said the studio "made a mistake" in cancelling the Christmas release of The Interview, a satire depicting the assassination of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Sony said it still planned to release the film "on a different platform". US authorities have linked North Korea to the hack, which saw sensitive studio information publicly released. Sony said it cancelled the planned Christmas release of the film after a majority of cinemas refused to show it following anonymous threats. "We will respond," Obama told reporters. "We will respond proportionately and in a space, time, and manner that we choose. We cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship in the United States." I agree with him, and if I was in charge of the release, I would be moving ahead instead of caving in to terrorist threats because not only do the terrorists not get what they want, if even one public showing of any movie takes place in Los Angeles County, California before the end of the year, then it can be nominated for an Oscar. And if my family and I are taken to North Korea and imprisoned for three generations (that is actually a thing over there) over the film's release, then so be it.

FRIDAY FILM BEAT: Paddington

I would've done this week's one about The Hobbit but Paddington was funnier, especially at the bit where he messed up the bathroom and cleaned his ears with the Browns' toothbrushes. Paddington received "very positive" reviews from British critics, according to The Straits Times. Indiewire said critics were "pleasantly surprised" and that the film was "hailed for its warm-heartedness and playful sense of humor and [Ben] Whishaw's charming performance". Rotten Tomatoes sampled 36 reviews and judged 97% of them to be positive. The site's consensus reads "Paddington brings a beloved children's character into the 21st century without sacrificing his essential charm, delivering a family-friendly adventure as irresistibly cuddly as its star." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 77 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". With reviews like that, I suggest you go see this.

Will another Elizabeth Gallagher please stand up?

And it looks like one has, for Toronto man who made headlines last month by offering a free round-the-world air ticket to a woman with the same name as his ex-girlfriend has found Ms. Right. Jordan Axani and his then girlfriend, named Elizabeth Gallagher, booked heavily discounted round-the-world air tickets in May, but their relationship ended and he didn't want her ticket to go to waste. The ticket had a strict no-transfer policy, but since passport information was not required when booking, it can be used by any Canadian named Elizabeth Gallagher. Axani posted his offer last month on the popular Reddit social media website, and received thousands of emails, including 18 from actual Elizabeth Gallaghers with Canadian passports. He's now chosen his travel mate, Elizabeth Quinn Gallagher, a 23-year-old student and part-time office administrator from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia. "It's strictly a platonic trip. It's going to be great," Axani said. At first the new Elizabeth Gallagher thought a trip with a stranger whose ex-girlfriend's name is the same as hers was "crazy" but she hit it off with Axani after talking on the phone with him for hours. She already has a boyfriend though, and she acknowledged her boyfriend isn't thrilled. "He understands that I've always wanted to travel so while he's not happy I'm taking off for nearly a month at Christmas with a random guy he's smiling through it," she said. The trip is scheduled to start Dec. 21 in New York City and continue on to Milan, Prague, Paris, Bangkok, and New Delhi before ending in Toronto on Jan. 12. Axani said that after the breakup he deferred all other planning for the trip, such as making hotel reservations. But since the story became public, Marriott International offered to put him and the new Elizabeth Gallagher up, in separate rooms, during their trip. Axani said the trip will be documented and shared online, and will be a sight to behold once we find out where he's posting it all.

Rouble trouble

Russia's embattled ruble extended a week of catastrophic losses by dropping 4% at the opening of trading in Moscow. The world's worst-performing currency along with the Ukrainian hryvnia, the ruble has lost more than 50% of its value this year. It traded at 70.7 per dollar this morning local time, or 4% lower than at closing yesterday. The ruble lost over 15% of its value this week despite a 6.5% interest rate hike by the Russian central bank. "This is a very dangerous situation, we are just a few away from a full-blown run on the banks," Russia's leading business daily Vedomosti said in an editorial today. "If one does not calm down the currency market right now, the banking system will need robust emergency care." The ruble has fallen sharply in recent weeks and is down more than 50% since January, due to sinking oil prices as well as the impact of Western sanctions imposed over Russia's involvement in Ukraine's crisis. If this is what Putin's doing to Russia, I'm not surprised. It's just proving my point that Russia hasn't really changed that much since its communist days. Even Justin Bieber would be a better president than Putin.

BAD IDEA OF THE WEEK: Extinction

A northern white rhino has died. There are now five left in the entire world. Angalifu was 44 when he died of old age on Sunday at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, California. He was a northern white rhinoceros, a species on the brink of extinction. Following his death, there are just five northern white rhinos left worldwide, all in captivity. That's five northern white rhinos compared to over seven billion humans. The San Diego Zoo has one remaining northern white rhino, an elderly female named Nola. Despite the hopes of conservationists, Angalifu and Nola were unable to breed, and in addition to Nola, the world's only remaining northern white rhinos are:

• Sudan, a male living in the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. He's now the final remaining male of his species.
• Najin and Fatu, two females living in the Kenya preserve with Sudan.
• An elderly female at the Dvur Kralove Zoo in the Czech Republic. The zoo is responsible for the care of Sudan, Najin, and Fatu, and sent them to Kenya as part of a last-ditch breeding program.

Proud of yourselves, poachers? Thanks to your crap, that particular species has likely already lost its last chance for natural reproduction. In October, a male called Suni - the first of his kind ever born in captivity - died of unknown causes in Kenya, where he was part of the breeding program with Sudan, Najin, and Fatu.

Reds continue journey back to the top

Manchester United swept historic arch-rivals Liverpool aside with a fine 3-0 win to record the Reds’ sixth consecutive victory. Goals from Wayne Rooney and Juan Mata gave Louis van Gaal’s side the comfort of a two-goal lead before half-time, with Robin van Persie scoring number three after the break. But even though seven yellow cards were shown all up, United were once again indebted to goalkeeper David De Gea, who made the first of several crucial saves seconds before Rooney’s opener. A magnificent effort to touch a Mario Balotelli shot onto his bar at 2-0 kept the frustrated visitors at bay, and even after van Persie had sealed the game, De Gea was using his body and feet to prevent any kind of consolation goal for the Merseysiders, and he is an asset to the van Gaal-era Man United. If they keep this up, the silverware could be back in their cabinet going into next season.

Search for new search engine is over

Facebook has quietly removed Microsoft-owned Bing as its primary search engine, according to a new report. The social network pulled Bing search from its Graph Search platform in exchange for its own search tool that will allow users to find information related to friends' posts and comments. Facebook was using Bing to produce search results as its in-house search engine, allowing Facebook users to look for more information about their friends. Selecting Bing as a partner was also a way for Facebook to keep rival Google's search engine away from the social network. The move comes as Facebook strengthens its other search tools. Earlier this week, it updated the method to search for old Facebook posts. The social network also revamped its trending news section, which makes it easier to find news and read different perspectives on the day's most popular stories, and it added a Twitter-like live feed that includes user mentions. That's right, people. Facebook is still evolving after ten years, and it's anybody's guess what improvement will come next.

A pox on Angelina

Filmmaker and actress Angelina Jolie has said she has chicken pox and will not be able to attend events for World War Two drama "Unbroken," her second film as director. "I just want to be clear and honest why I will be missing the 'Unbroken' events in the next few days, which is that I found out last night that I have chicken pox," Jolie said in a video released by Universal Pictures on YouTube. "So I will be home, itching and missing everyone and I can't believe it because this film means so much to me. I just can't believe it, but such is life," said the 39-year-old mother of six and wife of Brad Pitt. At the end of the 39-second video, she throws up her hands and then waves goodbye. Speaking of goodbye, New Zealand is having to say goodbye to its only free sports channel, which has folded after 18 months on air and stopped broadcasting yesterday at midday (New Zealand Daylight Time). Sommet Sports says it had the vision of 'Free Sports for Kiwis' but said funding it thought would be available never materialised. A press statement from the company said it was subsequently forced to deliver a nationwide broadcast channel on one third of the finance. "I am totally gutted at not being able to sustain something that we have long held a fervent desire to deliver to New Zealanders. Sommet was born from a dream to deliver free sports to all kiwis. Sadly this dream is not to be." Sommet Sports director Andrew Reeves said in a statement, adding "being the new kids on the block, we also struggled to gain a strong foothold with most advertising agencies. This coupled with an acute funding shortage has left us with the sad reality of having to make the difficult call." Sommet Sports had rights to many events I personally don't care that much about anyway, including but not limited to the Bundesliga (German football league), Chelsea TV, UEFA Europa League (especially as Manchester United didn't even qualify for that no thanks to David Moyes), and MotoGP.

FRIDAY FILM BEAT: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

There was nothing terrible, horrible, no good, or very bad about this one. In fact, this is possibly one of the funniest I've seen this year, especially at the bit where Dick van Dyke was reading a children's book with an unfortunate typo where the word jump was changed to dump. However, not all of the critics agree, but this is still one you need to see.

All's fair in love and football... or is it?

Obviously not, because a die-hard Houston Texans fan who posted a photo of airline tickets to an away game on Facebook had an extremely rude awakening about online security when a rival team's fan apparently used the information to cancel them. The tickets from Houston to Jacksonville were what Alice Rodriguez considered the ultimate birthday surprise from her boyfriend when in her excitement she shared a photo of the boarding passes on the Traveling Texans Facebook page. "I was like 'Oh my God! I'm going to Jacksonville for my birthday!'" she recalled her surprise to local TV station KHOU. It was while gearing up for the big weekend trip that her boyfriend Carlos received an unexpected email from Southwest Airlines, informing them that their tickets had been mysteriously canceled. The apparent villain behind the attack was meanwhile boasting of his success online. "So these people posted their flight info on the Texans going to Jax FB page so I canceled their tix," a complete bellend who went by the Twitter name "DuvalUndertaker" posted while including a screen grab of the cancellation confirmation. The post included a hashtag for a Jacksonville Jaguars supporters group. "We had no idea what was going on, on social media or anything," said Rodriguez, who immediately went about contacting the airline and making things right. People shouldn't be doing that. But at the same time, people shouldn't be posting their flight details online unless they remove the booking numbers and any other info that can be used by some douche to screw about with their booking.