Tweet Test Finds Barack Obama Tweets Like a 7th Grader

Tweet Test Finds Barack Obama Tweets Like a 7th Grader

NDTV Correspondent

Did you ever try to figure out how smart or dumb your tweet is? Well, according to a new test method for the micro-blogging site, 33 percent of people tweet at a fourth grade reading level.

The tweet test was carried out by Time magazine using a reading comprehension survey known as Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG).

It found that while teenage sensation Justin Bieber tweets like a fifth grader, US President Barack Obama tweets like a seventh grader!

Time magazine analysed one million public tweets and found that most tweets require no more than a fourth grade education to comprehend.

"Although a tweet's limit of 140 characters makes it difficult to compose a message at a higher reading level. But not impossible. This test did pick up a handful of 12th-grade tweets," the report added.

Tweets were downloaded with the Twitter application programming interface (API) and run through a version of the SMOG test written for JavaScript.

Written with agency inputs

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IBM to spend $3 bn aiming for computer chip breakthrough

IBM to spend $3 bn aiming for computer chip breakthrough

IBM announced plans to pump $3 billion into an overhaul of computer chip technology to better meet modern demands of "Big Data" and computing pushed to the Internet "cloud."

The New York-based technology veteran hopes to leave behind the silicon long used in computer chips for a material that could ramp up power while shrinking processors to molecular levels.
Services and programs are increasingly being hosted at data centers in the Internet cloud, and companies are keen to mine and quickly analyze mountains of data available in the Internet age.
But chip technology is hitting limits in regard to improving speed, size, power-efficiency and other features, according to IBM.

The company said the money will be used over the next five years to beef up research teams in areas including carbon nanoelectronics, silicon photonics, new memory technologies, and architectures for quantum and cognitive computing.

"In the next ten years computing hardware systems will be fundamentally different as our scientists and engineers push the limits of semiconductor innovations to explore a post-silicon future," said IBM Systems and Technology Group senior vice president Tom Rosamilia.

IBM maintained there is urgent need for new material to power chips of the future along with "new computing platforms to solve problems that are unsolvable or difficult to solve today."
Among IBM goals is to emulate the processing efficiency of the human brain.

"Businesses are entering a new era of computing that requires systems to process and analyze, in real-time, huge volumes of information known as Big Data," IBM said.

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U.S. sues Amazon for kids' in-app charges without parental consent

U.S. sues Amazon for kids' in-app charges without parental consent

Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Amazon.com <AMZN.O> charged parents millions of dollars for in-app purchases that their children made without getting permission, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said in a lawsuit filed against the online retailer on Thursday.
The FTC filed the suit in federal court asking for the money to be refunded and to ban the practice of allowing unlimited purchases without requiring a password or some other trigger to give parents control over their accounts.

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Zayn Malik Can Even Make a Bad Hair Day Look Good:

It's official: Zayn Malik can make anything look good, even a bad hair day. The One Direction Star apologized to Directioners for neglecting his Twitter account while on tour by drawing a doodle of himself with surprisingly stylish scribbles for hair, and the result is a hairstyle very different than his signature spiky quiff.

For the record, we're not the ones calling it a bad hair day, Zayn added that caption in there himself. 

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Why Police Are Scared of One Direction Fans

One Direction fans are known for being passionate, but are they any reason for the police to be absolutely terrified? When 1D performed in Edinburgh last month for their Where We Are tour, Scottish police were told to beware of Directioners!

While the band has taken security measures over the last few months to make sure that they're fully protected from the overwhelming crowds of fans, this police document called "tearful, excitable, and potentially emotional" 1D fans a major threat to the safety of the concert.

“The main threats to this event are the obsessive fans who are often oblivious to everyday dangers. All normal judgment is lost," the report said.

That's a pretty bold statement, but to be fair, the arena was packed with 65,000 people. It was the largest crowd for a single show in Scotland's entire history! We don't blame the police for being a little worried.

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Ariana Grande Hates Being Compared to Miley Cyrus

We all know Ariana Grande hates being compared to Selena Gomez, but it turns out there's also another former Disney star she's fed up with being compared to — Miley Cyrus!

It's nothing against Miley personally, Ariana just hates that everyone thinks she's in a constant competition with other girls in the music industry.

She told the Daily Star, "There are so many comparisons for girls in this industry, it’s annoying. I’m not thinking: ‘Miley Cyrus is doing this so I ought to do this, too.’ We are all trying to do our own things and be successful in our own right."

To be honest,  Ariana and Miley are not that similar.

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Mike Tyson defends Suarez's World Cup bite

Mike Tyson defends Suarez's World Cup bite

In a Reddit AMA session on Tuesday, Mike Tyson said he could understand where soccer player Luis Suarez was coming from when the Uruguay star sunk his teeth into a competitor's shoulder during a World Cup match last month.

The former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, as you may remember, infamously bit Evander Holyfield's ear during a 1997 fight.

Holyfield, for his part, responded to Suarez's bite heard 'round the world with this tweet:
Evander Holyfield✔@holyfieldFollow
I guess any part of the body is up for eating.

11:41 AM - 24 Jun 2014

But Tyson, who now works as a boxing promoter, largely kept his mouth shut on the incident. Until a Reddit user named Weezilwood posed this question:

"Hey Champ,
As a former professional athlete that was suspended from boxing after your biting incident, what are your thoughts on Luis Suarez getting suspended from the World Cup for his habit of biting opponents? What drives highly competitive athletes to bite? Is it all instinct? Intimidation? Do you think he got what he should have, with regards to suspension (he's done it THREE times)?"
To which Tyson responded:
"I think it is just the heat of the moment, really hot blooded and really competitive. The heat of the moment takes over us, we are really competitive and lose bad judgement in our thinking. Sometimes you can just become highly frustrated."

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Tropical storm Neoguri hits Japan's main islands

Tropical storm Neoguri hits Japan's main islands

YURI KAGEYAMA

Associated Press 

TOKYO — A major storm dumped heavy rain on western Japan Thursday after sweeping through the southern islands of Okinawa, where it caused extensive flooding, knocked out power and injured at least 32 people. The storm also boosted rainfall levels in other parts of the country, leaving two people dead.

One of the biggest storms ever to hit Japan during the summer, tropical storm Neoguri reached the southernmost main island of Kyushu on Thursday morning, and was forecast to travel up the Pacific coast of Japan to major cities including Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo.

Kyushu's Fukuoka prefecture issued warnings for strong winds, high tides and heavy rains, and advised people to stay indoors as much as possible.
Neoguri, which hit Okinawa on Tuesday at typhoon strength, was downgraded to a tropical storm Wednesday after losing strength. It toppled trees and flooded cars in Okinawa, which experienced its heaviest rainfall in a half century, according to the Okinawan government.

In central Japan, rainfall elevated by the storm caused floods and landslides, killing two people. In Fukushima, an 83-year-old man fell into a swollen river and died, while a landslide hit a town in Nagano prefecture, killing a 12-year-old boy, according to Japanese media reports.

The torrents of rainfall could trigger more landslides and floods, and much of eastern Japan was at risk of lightning and tornadoes.
On Okinawa, more than 105,000 homes lost power at the storm's peak. The Okinawan government raised the injury toll to 32 on Wednesday, say two were in serious condition.
Neoguri, which means "raccoon dog" in Korean, was packing sustained winds of 93 kilometers (58 miles) per hour on Thursday morning, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

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Bieber gets two years' probation over LA egg-throwing

Bieber gets two years' probation over LA egg-throwing:

Canadian pop star Justin Bieber, who has been in trouble with the law in recent months, got two years of probation in Los Angeles over an egg-throwing attack.

The teen idol did not appear in court on Wednesday. His attorneys entered a no contest plea on his behalf on a single misdemeanor vandalism charge before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Leland Harris.
In addition to the probation, the singer was ordered to complete five days of community service and an anger management program.

He must also reimburse $80,900 of repairs performed on the home of his neighbor in the upscale neighborhood of Calabasas, where many celebrities live. And the singer was ordered to stay away from the neighbor and his family for two years.

Assistant District Attorney Alan Yochelson said Bieber's prank was an "extremely immature and silly act."
Another hearing was set for August 12.

Police had said soon after the attack they would be investigating felony charges against Bieber.
The January incident was just one in a long line of controversial headlines which have tarnished the once clean-cut image of Bieber, who has sold more than 12 million albums since emerging on the music scene in 2009 as a schoolboy sensation.

The 20-year-old star is also facing charges in Florida over an illegal street race in his Lamborghini in Miami Beach on January 23.

He has pleaded not guilty to driving under the influence of substances, resisting arrest and driving with an expired license.

And in Canada, he is accused of assaulting a limousine driver last year.

Toronto police have accused Bieber of hitting a limousine driver "several times" over the back of the head.
In April, Bieber mis-stepped into a bitter fight over history by visiting a controversial war shrine in Tokyo.
The troubled Canadian pop prince posted a snap of himself at Yasukuni shrine on his Instagram account -- tweeting the link to his 51 million Twitter followers -- with the message "Thank you for your blessings."

The shrine is seen across Asia as a symbol of Japan's perceived lack of penitence for its imperialist past.
An attached museum peddles a view of World War II deemed unpalatable by most mainstream historians, casting Japan as a victim and a frustrated liberator of Asia.

A storm erupted across social media after the posting, with fans lambasting the star for historical ignorance, and even China's foreign ministry suggesting the young singer should educate himself on the issue.
That backlash recalled Bieber's visit to the Anne Frank museum in Amsterdam a year earlier, when he sparked a furor with a message in the guest book at the house of the Jewish teenager, who died in a World War II concentration camp.

"Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a belieber," he wrote. "Beliebers" are the nickname given to the singer's legions of fans, many of whom are pre-teen girls.

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BlackBerry Reveals Why its Next Flagship will be Better than Your Current Phone

The new BlackBerry Passport is the most interesting smartphone to emerge out of Canada in ages.

For starters, it has a 4.5″ display with 1,440 x 1,440 resolution (453 ppi), Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, 3 GB worth RAM, 32 GB memory and BlackBerry’s trademark QWERTY keyboard on it.

However, it is the form factor which really differentiates it from the competition, and other BlackBerries too for that matter. Being virtually square, the screen is a lot wider than current flagship smartphones from rivals, meaning more screen estate and practicality. Practicality obviously means productivity.

“It’s hip to be square,” says the flailing manufacturing which once used to be the top-of-the-crop in its class. Here are a few ways in which it will be better than your current phone, according to BlackBerry:

• More screen space = More characters: The average number of characters on a book is 66. A normal smartphone is able to show only around 40 while the Passport is able to take that number up to 60, thanks to its size and unique aspect ratio.
• Better viewing of stocks, charts, spread-sheets and demographics.
• BlackBerry’s trademark security
• Ability to look at full designs and schematics for architects, or X-rays for doctors on the go
• Has a special, shorter qwerty-keyboard which leaves more legroom for the touchscreen.

“Just as a PASSPORT is the universal symbol of mobility and was the inspiration for the size and form factor of this device, your BlackBerry Passport becomes your ticket to open new doors of opportunity.”

There are things which still need mentioning, though. Notable specs such as the camera resolution are still unknown and while it has been revealed that the phone will hit the markets this fall season, the price is still under the covers.

Still, the Passport looks like a very brave move by BlackBerry indeed. Hardly any rectangular phone has been successful to date (LG Optimus Vu anyone?), begging answer to the question of whether the company is correct in its decision to bet its future on this phone.

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Column: Messi missing signature World Cup moment

Column: Messi missing signature World Cup moment

By JOHN LEICESTER

Associated Press 

SAO PAULO (AP) The World Cup can only hope that Lionel Messi is leaving his best for last.
In the most important World Cup match to date in his epoch-shaping career, football's superstar was neither super nor a star. The four-time world player of the year was a bystander, not a decisive protagonist, for large chunks of Wednesday's semifinal, his first on football's biggest stage.

The match dragged on into extra time and then still finished 0-0 in large part because Messi failed to leave his mark on it as he has done on hundreds of others for Barcelona, his club, but not for Argentina, his country that needs him now to step up.

Frankly disappointing. In the penalty shoot-out, Messi did score the all-important nerve-steadying first goal that his teammates then built on, heaping intolerable pressure on the Netherlands after its first shooter, Ron Vlaar, saw his effort saved. But Messi's contribution to Argentina's win pretty much started and stopped there. His thousands of fans in the Sao Paulo crowd chanted ''Ole, ole, ole, Messi, Messi!'' But he didn't really do anything to deserve it.

Bottom line: Messi needs to be spectacular in the final against Germany on Sunday if he is to put his stamp on World Cup history like Diego Maradona.

Pub debates about who was/is a better footballer - Messi, Maradona or Pele - are always entertaining but ultimately can't be answered, because these judgments are very much a personal thing, because the three of them played in different eras and because their careers took different arcs.

Still, at this stage of the 1986 World Cup, Maradona was pretty much winning the thing single-handed. Captain of Argentina, just like Messi, Maradona scored both goals against Belgium in the semifinal, carrying the team to the final where it beat West Germany, 3-2.

Maradona also scored both Argentine goals that eliminated England in the quarterfinals. The first was the infamous ''Hand of God'' punched in with his raised fist; the second was a gem after a sublime dribble past five England players.

Messi, on the other hand, hasn't scored since the group stage here in Brazil. He scored in Argentina's win against Bosnia in its opening match and made a splash with a fabulous injury-time winner against Iran. He also got Argentina's first two goals in a 3-2 victory against Nigeria.


Since then, zilch. Just an assist for Angel Di Maria's winning goal against Switzerland in the first knockout game. It doesn't add up to enough to put Messi on a higher pedestal than Maradona. We can have this conversation again if he scores the goals that beat Germany in the final.

Nigel De Jong can claim much of the credit for keeping Messi out of the action under damp, dark skies in Wednesday's semifinal that felt flat compared to the previous day's fireworks of Germany destroying Brazil 7-1.

De Jong glued himself to Messi so closely that when he shuts his eyes for days to come, he'll no doubt still be able to picture the face of the Netherlands midfielder and the feeling of him breathing down his neck. In the first half, Messi did fire a free-kick hard and flat past the Dutch wall into the arms of goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen. In the second half, Messi wasted a free-kick by hoofing it harmlessly long.

The Netherlands allowed Messi no time on the ball and tackled him en masse when he had it. Jordy Clasie took over as Messi's handcuffs when De Jong tired and was taken off after an hour. After 105 minutes, data crunchers Opta noted that Messi still hadn't touched the ball once inside the Dutch penalty area.
''We didn't see Messi,'' said Dutch coach Louis Van Gaal.

Still, the Netherlands' suffocation of Messi couldn't alone explain his failure to make an impact. Of all the Argentine players who stayed on the pitch for the entire 120 minutes, Messi covered the least ground. He strolled a lot of the time, fiddling with his captain's arm band, using his shirt to wipe his nose and watching play happen around, not through, him.

Perhaps the hope was that the Netherlands would eventually forget about him, giving him breathing space to exploit. If so, the tactic didn't work. In the second period of extra time, Messi did come alive for a brief instant, sprinting with the ball at his feet and riding tackles to then cut back a cross for Maxi Rodriguez. But Rodriguez's  right-footed volley had neither the power nor accuracy to trouble Cillessen.

Messi's European and Spanish trophies with Barcelona and his world player of the year awards are enough, already, to make him one of football's greats. But to be considered a World Cup great, worthy of mention with Maradona and Pele, he also needs a signature moment in a big game in Brazil.
He has one last chance to do it.

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Adidas Fit Smart Fitness Band Announced With miCoach App as Personal Trainer

Adidas Fit Smart Fitness Band Announced With miCoach App as Personal Trainer

by Hitesh Arora

NDTV

Fitness is the new buzz in town. Adidas on Wednesday announced a new fitness wristband dubbed Fit Smart; an activity tracker designed for running, training, and fitness that is paired with the company's miCoach fitness app. The company has priced it for $199  and will release in mid-August in the US, and in rest of the world from August 15 through Adidas' website, and from September 1 through Adidas Sports Performance stores.

The Adidas Fit Smart wristband with its soft touch silicon strap weighs in at 58 grams. The company has put in a distinct LED light array (blue, green, yellow and red) that indicates the user's current workout intensity in different colour zones.

"Vibration and visual prompts provide feedback and coaching so the user can make the most out of every workout" the company wrote on its website.

Fit Smart paired with Adidas' own miCoach Train and Run fitness app help users tailor workouts and measure heart rate, calories, pace, distance and stride rate from the wrist. The pairing of wristband and app is done through Bluetooth.

"The key to the Fit Smart is having heart rate technology on your wrist," says Paul Gaudio, general manager for Adidas digital sports. The intend of the company from Fit Smart is helping people set and reach weekly goals, as well as commit to long term training plans. Adidas has also said that it will release an update to the miCoach app in August along with the release of Fit Smart.

The company says that Fit Smart can store up to 10 hours of workout data and its 200mAh battery will offer up to five days on a single charge.

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