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Showing posts with label News update news live. Show all posts
Showing posts with label News update news live. Show all posts

Real Madrid vs Barcelona, El Clasico: live

Real Madrid vs Barcelona, El Clasico, La Liga - Latest score, news updates, live match report and result as Cristiano Ronaldo faces Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi

 REAL MADRID 0 BARCELONA 1
17 mins: Barca with a bit more of the ball now, but they lose it and here are the Whites. Marcelo orchestrating the break, slides it out to Ronaldo who has a shot from distance that's easy for the keeper.
16 mins: Suarez hasn't seen much of it. Corner for Barca. Cleared.
14 mins: Dear me, the more you look a that goal. Terrible defending. Anyhow, Kroos with a run and a shot but straight at the keeper.
11 mins: Benzema has missed a sitter. Neymar has gone into the book for elbowing Carvajal. Real Madrid having all the ball, Ronaldo running the show and an equaliser feels very likely.
10 mins: Messi, that well known enforcer, has committed two fouls. He's slid in on Modric and then done the same to Kroos. Either one could have earned him a yellow, and he is booked for the second.
Poor Amit.
8 mins: Real Madrid took a while to get going but they are in it now. It's a very fine save from Brava to deny Benzema and then the Madrid stiker hits the post with the follow up!
5 mins: And now a chance for Madrid - ball slung into the box, the Barcelona centre halves posted missing, and Benzema should have done better with the opportunity.
GOAL! Barcelona have scored! Neymar. Suarez with the assist. The ball in from the right, Neymar picks it up and cuts inside. The Real Madrid defence back off, he's allowed to run across the pitch and then crack the shot at goal. Neymar with the strike from 20 yards.Real Madrid 0 Barcelona 1 (Suarez 4)
2 mins: Cagey start from both sides. Xavi getting plenty of the ball. Early touch for Suarez.
17.00 We kick off.
16.55 The players are out on the pitch warming up. Pleasant sunny afternoon in Madrid.
16.50 And we're spending those few minutes laughing about the quaint notion that you cannot watch football on Saturday afternoons in the UK. Meanwhile, John McEnerney writes
Hi Alan, this is the first Clasico in years where both sides are equal enough, RM have been super so far as have FCB but in the only big tests they've had up till today both lost, AM beating Real & PSG beating FCB in the CL. Surprised Ivan R isn't starting for FCB & Kroos will be the real star for Real, he's some player! Home win but a close one!
16.45 Just 15 minutes until the biggest game on the planet (other than tomorrow's Edinburgh derby, obviously) kicks off.
16.35 Will Suarez do something mad? Here are some of his best bits (best bites?) so far... Luis Suarez's career flashpoints - none of this please
16.30 And here is the interesting Who Scored.com website on the game. I like this site but it makes me feel old. Feels like it's done by people whose first exposure to football was through PlayStation. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
16.25 Here's Jon Liew on the futility of comparing Ronaldo and Messi.
On Wednesday night, Cristiano Ronaldo played against Liverpool at Anfield. After 63 minutes, Isco played an inch-perfect cross to Karim Benzema, who volleyed an inch-perfect lay-off to Ronaldo. Six yards out, and with only the goalkeeper to beat, Ronaldo’s low shot was saved by the feet of Simon Mignolet.
Real were 3-0 up. Ronaldo had already scored. The game was won. And yet as the shot was saved, his hands shot to his face in pure distress. He looked like he had just lost a close relative. Whatever the score, whatever the circumstance, this is what Ronaldo looks like when he misses a chance.
On Tuesday night, Lionel Messi played against Ajax at the Nou Camp. After 51 minutes, he played a one-two with Pedro, wriggled effortlessly in between two defenders, and got a strong low shot away from a tight angle. The ball rattled into the side netting.
Barcelona were 2-0 up. Messi had already scored. The game was won. And yet as the ball hit the side netting, he marched furiously over to the goal-line official in a futile attempt to convince him that the Ajax defender had got a touch on the ball. He looked like he had just been burgled. Whatever the score, whatever the circumstance, this is what Messi looks like when he misses a chance.
A few minutes later, both men were substituted. There is, after all, the small matter of El Clasico this weekend. Both games were won. Giving them a rest made eminent sense.
Both men looked like someone had just insulted their mothers.
16.22 So some half decent attacking talent on display, then.
Good luck picking the first goalscorer...
16.15 Weird and outdated broadcasting rules will deny Sky the right to show the first 15 minutes in Britain. More on that here.
16.11 Suarez starts.
Barcelona: Bravo, Alves, Pique, Mascherano, Mathieu, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Neymar, Messi, Suarez
Madrid: Casillas; Carvajal, Pepe, Ramos, Marcelo; Kroos, Modrić, Isco, James; Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema.
16.10 Best two club sides in the world? If you're not Bayern Munich, then probably definitely. But which of them is better? There's only one way to find out!
FII----
Or, compare Real Madrid and Barcelona man-for-man in a picture gallery.
16.00 Afternoon all. How exciting! Madrid v Barca. Ronaldo v Suarez and Messi. Who will come out on top? Will Suarez do something bonkers?
And will it look anything like this if he does?
Alan Tyers will be here with build-up and team news ahead of a match that is so ridiculously flamboyant and excessive it may as well be Liberace facing Elton John in a showdown at the Chelsea Flower Show.
Good to Fabrice Muamba enjoying himself.
— fabrice muamba (@fmuamba) October 25, 2014
Instead it's Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo, James Rodriguez and Toni Kroos against Barcelona's Lionel Messi, Neymar and a fella called Luis Suarez who says all his bad days are now behind him ...
Luis Suarez, the Uruguay forward who has bitten opponents on three separate occasions during a four-year period in which he also racially abused Patrice Evra, has claimed "all the bad things" are now behind him.
But in an interview to promote his new autobiography, Suarez showed another flash of his notorious temper by complaining at being questioned about biting, vowing to his agent he would never give another interview.
Suarez, who will make his Barcelona debut against Real Madrid on Saturday after completing the suspension which followed his latest violent attack, said he is now on the right path, being helped by the "right kind of people". The striker is thought to have worked with anger management experts.
But his sensitivity over his behaviour flared up in the face of questions. Cutting the interview short, Suarez raged: "They have asked me about the bite 38,000 times. Never again. This is the last one of them (interviews)."



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Jaylen Fryberg: Megan Silberger Was Hero Teacher Who Stopped His Massacre

Megan, a social studies teacher at Marysville-Pilchuck High School, heroically stopped the horrific shooting that took place in Washington on Oct. 24, by reportedly grabbing the 15-year-old gunman, Jaylen Fryberg’s, arm before anymore shots could be fired. According to a new report, she potentially saved dozens of lives. 
Social studies teacher Megan Silberger heroically confronted Jaylen Fryberg, 15, as he fired bullets across Marysville-Pilchuck High School’s cafeteria on Oct. 24, preventing what could have been a bigger massacre than it already was, according to witnesses.
Marysville Shooting: Hero Teacher Stopped Jaylen Fryberg
Megan allegedly ran into the cafeteria after hearing Jaylen shoot one student dead and critically wounding four others, according to Daily Mail. As the popular teenager went to reload his gun, Megan allegedly went over and grabbed his arm.
In a struggle, Jaylen allegedly pointed the gun at Megan before shooting himself dead.
Erick Cervantes, a student who called 911 during the attack, told KIRO-TV, “I believe [Megan Silberger] is actually the real hero. She’s the one that intercepted him with the gun. He tried either reloading or tried aiming at her. She tried moving his hand away and he tried shooting and shot himself in the neck.”
“It started off with an argument, but then I looked back and there was just gunshots and just people falling down. She heard the gunshots first and she came in running through the door, right next to it. It wasn’t [a] wrestle. She just grabbed his arm, and it lasted like two seconds, and I heard another shot,” Erick added.
The shot, he said, was the final one that killed Jaylen.
Megan, who is a first year social studies teacher and part-time soccer player, is now a hero.
Marysville High School Shooting: 4 Students Still In Critical Condition
Following the deadly shooting, which lasted just two minutes between 10:41 A.M. and 10:43 A.M., hundreds of students, teachers and parents gathered at a nearby church for a candlelit vigil on Oct. 24.
The four teenagers in critical condition, who were shot by Jaylen, are still being treated in the hospital.
Police are still searching for a motive, but students have told news stations that Jaylen was suspended from the football team in the weeks leading up the shooting. He also seemed to be experiencing some relationship troubles.
Our thoughts continue to go out to all those affected by this horrible tragedy.


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Ebola Victim Thomas Eric Duncan Passes Away -- But Not Because Drugs Failed

While I was finishing my morning post on brincidofovir’s preliminary efficacy in immune compromised patients with adenoidal infections, the announcement came that Thomas Eric Duncan had succumbed to Ebola Virus Disease in Dallas earlier this morning.
I’ve been asked for some feedback because Mr. Duncan was reported to have received the Chimerix antiviral drug on Saturday afternoon. Adam Feuerstein at TheStreet just expressed his disgust at the response of stock traders within minutes of the announcement of Mr. Duncan’s death, by driving the stock price of Chimerix down 9% and that of rival Tekmira up 4.7%.
Adam closes his post with the single word, “Gross.”
One of his commentators, however, wrote, “The market is reacting to news that brincidofovir failed in its first high profile test against Ebola, not cheering the death of an individual treated with it. Suggesting otherwise indicates the authors moral depravity.”
Well, I’m now compelled to add my own learned analysis of the trading – and that comment: “Stupid.”
More scientifically, n of 1 data do not support any hypothesis that brincidofovir either helped, hurt, or did nothing for Mr. Duncan.
Absolutely nothing can be learned about the effectiveness of brincidofovir from Mr. Duncan’s tragic death. Zero.
Remember, we don’t even know if ZMapp “worked” or “failed.” The highly-heralded antibody cocktail was given to seven patients that included Ebola survivors, Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol. But other “high-profile” recipients, such as Spanish priest, Father Miguel Pajaraes, also received ZMapp – and died.
In the case of Mr. Duncan, he didn't receive the drug until 19 days after the day he was most likely infected with the virus. All non-human primate work done with any of the experimental treatments from any company have never extended beyond treatment four days post-infection.
I cannot hypothesize of any drug that would work if only started 19 days into an Ebola infection.
I even hesitate to turn on cable TV news right now. No one should be speculating on any aspect of Mr. Duncan’s case without comprehensive, firsthand knowledge of his medical care.
Say what you will about Mr. Duncan traveling to the U.S. But the man became infected while helping his landlord’s pregnant daughter to the hospital, then bringing her home after she was turned away. She ended up dying of Ebola hours later.
Mr. Duncan was a man from Liberia who lived, was loved, and is now dead. Those are the only data of which we are certain.


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Fall TV Review: How Freaky Is American Horror Story: Freak Show?

It seems pretty safe to say that Kathy Bates probably never expected to play a bearded lady, let alone one with a broad Canadian accent. Or that Sarah Paulson aspired to play a woman with two heads – the one on the right puritanically grim and skeptical, the one on the left a bit dippy and worshipful of movie stars. 

But anything goes on American Horror Story, starting its fourth season, Freak Show. 

Everything goes. 

This new incarnation of the series stars Jessica Lange, the anchor of every season so far, as Elsa Mars, a failed German actress who runs a barely surviving traveling sideshow in the early 1950s. 

She and her entourage of human curiosities, including a young man with lobster-claw hands and a woman no taller than a shoe box, have pitched their few tents outside Jupiter, Florida. 

Drumming up business is a challenge. The local authorities aren't encouraging, and the townspeople are inclined to stay indoors at night: Just as Elsa's show has arrived in town, so has a maniac killer clown. He has a sutured forehead and a skull's grin. 

And yet, if you suffer from clown phobia, he's less upsetting than an actual clown. It's nice, the few times he sculpts a balloon. 

Twisty – which is how the character is identified on IMDB – seems to be operating independently of Elsa, but the plots on AHS always take wild leaps and make wilder connections. It will probably turn out that, back in Germany, he and Elsa performed in an infernal cabaret for Nazi officers on "leather" nights. Or he may have been her manny. Who knows? 

The first few episodes are, in fact, relatively restrained, especially compared to the revolting gore that launched last year's Coven. The sideshow theme, which inevitably harkens back to Freaks, the notorious 1931 horror movie, doesn't have the same meaning for a modern audience. What was once treated with revulsion and perhaps condemned as the sins of the fathers visited upon their children is now understood in terms of genetics and medicine and is protected and accommodated by law. 

And documented on reality television. 

That leaves a viewer to enjoy instead the show's always adventurous performers as they act out, at least initially, a bottom-of-the-barrel allegory about the vagaries and narcissism of Hollywood – what Lange's Elsa, purring with an accent that recalls Marlene Dietrich, refers to as a "long and complicated affair with show business." 

Elsa, who fears that fame has eluded her forever, weeps with shame after she hires Bette and Dot (Paulson) out of a desperate hope that a new headliner will bring in people to hear her sing. Elsa also hires a new barker named Dell (Michael Chiklis), a strongman out of Chicago. He arrives with the beautiful, three-breasted Desiree (Angela Bassett). Tony promotes Bette and Dot, all right, but kicks Elsa's name down to the bottom of the bill. Elsa no likes. 

And then Bette and Dot, who have never been in complete or even approximate harmony, are further unsettled by the spotlight. Are they about to begin descending into a one-woman, two-headed version of whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

If we're lucky, yes. 

The most aberrant yet natural thing in all humanity, perhaps, is the desire to be a star. 

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Blood moon lights up San Diego with lunar eclipse, clear sky

With the Cardiff Kook, the local nickname for a bronze statue of a surfer, officially named "The Magic Carpet Ride", in the foreground, a full lunar eclipse of the moon could be seen in the western sky above Cardiff-by-the-Sea early Wednesday morning. Hayne Palmour IV
Many San Diegans were up early (or late, in some cases) to watch the night sky and see a total lunar eclipse that turned the moon blood red.
Yes, they took photos. Yes, they were beautiful.
Also lovely? This time-lapse video of the eclipse by San Diego photojournalist Greg Torkelson. It's mesmerizing and almost seems three-dimensional.

BLOOD MOON TIMELAPSE

The moon started to move into Earth’s shadow at 1:17 a.m. The full eclipse began at 3:27 a.m. and lasted until 4:22 a.m. The eclipse ended at 6:32 a.m. It was the second time this year San Diego and night-sky watchers elsewhere were treated to a total lunar eclipse.
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World Trade Center's most congested pedestrian zone widened; high-rise gets new funding.
OneWorldTradeCenter

NEW YORK, N.Y. – The most congested pedestrian area by the World Trade Center has been expanded.

World Trade Center construction chief Steven Plate on Monday cut the yellow tape that stretched the public space on Vesey Street in lower Manhattan to more than 10,000 square feet. The walkway flanks the north end of the 16-acre site along 1 World Trade Center, the nation’s tallest building.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey owns the site. Spokeswoman Erica Dumas (doo-MAH’) says up to 1,600 people an hour use the block between Church and West streets.

The area is now 28 feet wide from the 18 feet that at rush hours produced a squeezed human demolition derby.

Also Monday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo (KWOH’-moh) said $1.6 billion in funding has been approved to ensure completion of 3 World Trade Center.
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Inside Amanda Bynes's New Troubles
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Amanda Bynes‘s latest DUI arrestcomes at the tail end of a string of erratic behavior. 

“It’s very obvious that she is not 100 percent well,” a source who saw Bynes at her Thousand Oaks gym over the summer tells PEOPLE. “She is still obsessed with her body and spends more time in front of the mirror than she actually works out. She doesn’t like when people look at her and has even confronted a few other members.” 

A second source adds that she appeared to be unhappy about being under her parents’ court-ordered conservatorship. 

“Her parents were closely monitoring her, including her driving,” says the source of Bynes, who got her license back in April. “She would have arguments with her dad in the car.” 

The conservatorship ended in June, according to her father, Rick Bynes, who told x17 he has not seen his daughter since. 

“She’s 28, she does what she wants,” he said. “We don’t know a thing.” 

Several Twitter users spotted Bynes leaving John F. Kennedy International Airport and heading back to Los Angeles on Sept. 25. 

“Amanda Bynes, with ridiculous purple hair, is at the gate freaking out about her missed flight to LA,” Jason Persse Tweeted. “Get me the hell out of JFK.” 

RELATED: Amanda Bynes Arrested for DUI



As for Bynes’s current whereabouts, she had been enrolled in the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, but a source says she hasn’t recently been spotted attending classes. 

Representatives for Bynes could not be reached for comment. 
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7 Survival Tools for the Parents of Teenagers
Being a parent is a total bait-and-switch. Your kids start out helpless and adorable, gurgling bundles of ceaseless wonder. You are a god in their eyes, powerful and wise beyond knowing.

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And then, one day, the transformation happens. They turn into teenagers. Everything you thought you knew about them is wrong. Overnight you became the worst human being on the planet. If only you would just disappear (leaving behind a fully stocked refrigerator and the keys to the car) all their problems would melt away.

Of course, there are some benefits to having teenagers in the house. By the time they’re 13 they’re big enough to help carry groceries from the car (provided you can pry them off the couch). They’re intellectually mature enough to engage you in lively debate (assuming you can persuade them to look up from their phones). And they eventually turn into interesting and even charming adults (or so I am told).



Read: 5 Mobile Apps That Should Scare the Pants Off Parents

Mostly, though, it’s a struggle. As a parent of teens, you need all the help you can get. Here are seven items you should be sure to pack in your survival kit:

1. Homework helper.Beyond basic algebra, my knowledge of math falters. I’m even more clueless when it comes to science. That’s why I’m grateful for online video services like InstaEDU, which matches high school students with college- and graduate-level tutors from top universities.

InstaEDU screenshot

(InstaEDU)

Enter the subject where your kid needs help, and InstaEDU displays a list of tutors with expertise in that field. Your teen can view the tutors’ profiles, chat with them to see if they’re sympatico, then find one who’s available to answer her questions right now via a video hookup. The first two hours are free, and it costs 40 cents a minute thereafter.

2. A silent co-pilot.Has your teen driver got too much lead in his Keds? Plug a monitoring device into the car’s on-board diagnostics port (OBD II), and it can record how fast and/or recklessly he’s driving and then send a report to your phone that you can show him the next time he begs for the keys.

Mojio driving monitor

(Moj.io)

Most OBD monitors let you set up geofences, so you can get a text alert when he leaves home and another when he arrives at school, a status update as to your vehicle’s health, and regular snapshots of the car’s location throughout the day.

Read: How to Monitor Your Kids Without Turning into the NSA

Some devices, such as Automatic, rely on the GPS in your teen’s smartphone; others, such as Zubie and Mojio (available next month), have the GPS built in. Prices start around $100; some also charge a monthly subscription fee for wireless data.

3. Texting blockers.According to the National Highway Safety Administration, teens arefour times more likely to get into an accident while using their phones to talk or text. Nip that in the bud by installing an app that detects when the car is in motion, locks out the keyboard, and sends an auto-text saying the recipient is driving and will respond later.

Read: When Should You Buy Your Child a Smartphone?

The good news is that there are a mess of Android and BlackBerry apps that can do this — like DriveSafe.ly, Drive Safe Mode, orDriveScribe, to name just a few — for prices ranging from free to a few dollars a month. AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon also offer their own free anti-texting apps for Android.

DriveScribe screenshot

(DriveScribe)

The bad news: There’s currently no iPhone app that will prevent your kids from texting while driving, though a company called TXT Shield is hoping to get one approved by year-end. A recently uncovered Apple patent suggests that this feature might be built into a future version of iOS.

4. A breathalyzer.The next time your high schooler comes home a little wobbly from a party, have her blow into the BACtrack Vio ($50) or the Alcohoot($100) before you launch into a lecture on the dangers of teen drinking. Both devices gauge your teen’s blood alcohol level and send it to an app on your phone. Nothing heads off bald-faced denials like some cold, hard numbers.

BACtrack app and device

(BACtrack)

Just be careful not to give the thing to your teens, lest they decide to use it for a “How high can we blow?” drinking game.

5. A way to do some good.Many high schools require students to log a minimum number of volunteer hours in order to graduate. And you surely wouldn’t mind getting your teenager out of your hair for a few hours each week. Sites like VolunteerMatch connect able-bodied youth with nonprofits that need their help.

VolunteerMatch screenshot

(VolunteerMatch)

Your teen gets to pick an area he’s interested in, whether it’s working with animals or in the arts, helping his elders or focusing on environmental issues. Many opportunities are virtual, so teens can do them via the Net.

6. A mobile bodyguard.If something’s amiss with your adolescents besides the usual teen angst, you might want to take a closer look at their phones. They could be the victim of a bully, or bullying someone else. They could be spending all their time watching YouTube videos when they claim to be studying. Or they might be sharing (ahem) candid photos that could come back to bite them later.

UKnowKids screenshot

(uKnowKids)

Apps like TeenSafe, Mobile Guardian, and uKnowKids Mobile all give you a window into your teenager’s secret mobile life, letting you monitor the texts she sends and receives, the webpages she visits, the apps she downloads, and more. Costs range from $4 to $15 a month.

Read: Spying on Your Kids’ Phones, for Their Own Good

If you decide to go this route, however, I recommend full disclosure. Don’t be a spy. Telling your kids you’re monitoring them — and relaxing some restrictions after they’ve demonstrated good behavior — is usually the best way to keep them on the straight and narrow.

7. Zombies.Struggling to get your perpetually horizontal teenager from exercising something other than his thumbs? It may be time to deploy a clutch of mindless zombies.

Zombies, Run! 3 screenshot

(ZombiesRunGame)

In the immersive mobile fitness app “Zombies, Run! 3,” your otherwise lethargic teen must keep moving to stay ahead of the staggering hordes, gathering water and other critical supplies in an effort to save what remains of civilization. The farther and faster he runs, the better humanity’s chance for survival. If this $4 download won’t inspire him to get off the couch, he might be a zombie himself.

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Windows 10 Undoes the Disaster of Windows 8 (Mostly)
Today, Microsoft took the wraps off the next version of Windows. You’ll be able to install a free, unfinished “technical preview” version this week, or get it in final form sometime next year. It’s called Windows 10.

(Why is it Windows 10? What happened to 9? Making sense of the Windows naming sequence is like solving one of those Mensa “What’s the pattern?” puzzles. So far, we have this: Windows 1, 2, 3, 95, 98, 2000, ME, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10. OK, whatever.)

Windows 8, as the world now knows, was a superimposed mishmash of two operating systems. There was the touchscreen-friendly TileWorld interface, as I called it. (Microsoft, at various times, called it Modern or Metro; it has officially retired both of those terms and replaced them with nothing.)

And, underneath, there was the regular desktop:

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They are quite separate, these two environments. Each has its own Help system, its own Web browser, its own email program, its own control panel, its own conventions and gestures. Worse, each runs its own kind of programs. Regular Windows programs open at the desktop, as always — but TileWorld apps open in TileWorld, with no menus overlapping windows. Like iPad apps.



Microsoft believed at the time (2012) that the world was going touchscreen crazy. That, sooner or later, every PC would have a touchscreen.

Betting on bothIt bet wrong. Most computers still don’t have touchscreens. Windows 8 was a massive flop with critics. “Windows 8 is a failure — an awkward mishmash that pulls the user in two directions at once,” wrote Woody Leonhard in InfoWorld. “A horribly awkward mashup of two fundamentally incompatible approaches that worked poorly on both PCs and tablets,” wrote Galen Gruman.

Windows 8 was a massive flop with consumers, too. Today, 51 percent of desktop PCs still run Windows 7; only 13 percent have “upgraded” to Windows 8 or 8.1, according to Net Applications.

And at the Windows 10 announcement, you would not have believedthe words coming out of Microsoft’s mouth.

“In Windows 8, when users launched a Modern [TileWorld] app, it sort of had a different environment,” OS Group VP Joe Belfiore said in his demo. “We don’t want that duality.”

Now, when I wrote exactly that in The New York Times, Microsoft PR descended on me like the beasts of hell.

The answer has always been screamingly obvious: Split up the two halves of Windows 8. Or, as a wise man once wrote, “Put TileWorld and its universe of new touchscreen apps on tablets. Put Windows 8 on mouse-and-keyboard PCs.” (OK, it was me.)

Anyway, here’s the big news: In Windows 10, Microsoft has done just that.

Mouse-and-keyboard modeIf you use Windows 10 with a mouse and keyboard, the Start menu is back. Not just the Start button, not just the secret Windows key+X utility menu of Windows 8.1 — the real Start menu.

And TileWorld is gone. No more screen of big flat tiles taking over your monitor.

Tiles aren’t gone completely; they still pop out of the regular Start menu, a little weirdly.

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And what about all those TileWorld apps that could run only in TileWorld? Since TileWorld is gone, these apps now open up on the desktop, in regular windows with regular title bars and window controls. You can still see your desktop, and you can see TileWorld apps and regular Windows programs side by side.

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Tablet modeIf you don’t have a mouse and keyboard, then you still get TileWorld — a Start screen and apps that fill the full screen. In fact, Microsoft demonstrated how, if you’re using a Microsoft Surface with the keyboard attached, you get the Start menu and desktop — but if youdetach the keyboard, Windows automatically offers to switch into TileWorld mode, hiding the Start menu and making your apps full screen.

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New featuresThere are also some useful new features (new to Windows, anyway). Search results now include listings from the Web as well as from your computer. There’s a new “task view,” modeled on Mac OS X’s Mission Control, which shows you miniatures of all open windows when you click a button on the taskbar.

And you’ll be able to “snap” windows together so they all occupy part of your screen.

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 What about Windows Phone? It will resemble Windows 10, although it won’t have the desktop view. Microsoft says that laptops, tablets, and phones will all get their apps from a single, unified app store. (It’s not clear if that means the same apps run on all those platforms; I’d guess not.)

Windows 10 looks as though it will be far more usable and less confusing than Windows 8 and 8.1. It’s too bad the whole tile design is still mixed in there for desktop PCs, but at this point I guess it’s too late for Microsoft to abandon the whole misbegotten tile thing altogether.

But at least mouse-and-keyboard folks won’t sacrifice productivity in the name of the touchscreen revolution that never came, and tablet fans won’t have to work (much) with tiny window controls.

Let us welcome the saner heads that have finally prevailed in Redmond.

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Kansas City Royals run wild in first postseason game since 1985
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The Kansas City Royals led the Major Leagues with 153 stolen bases in 2014, rallying around the mantra “That’s what speed do” as they worked to secure a Wild Card berth. The Oakland A’s started backup catcher Geovany Soto on Tuesday to better suppress the Royals’ running game, but after Soto left the game with a thumb injury, Kansas City ran wild on replacement Derek Norris.

The Royals stole seven bases in their 9-8, 12-inning win over the A’s: One each by Nori Aoki, Lorenzo Cain, Christian Colon, Jarrod Dyson, Alcides Escobar, Alex Gordon and Terrance Gore. Well-timed steals helped key the eighth- and ninth-inning rallies that evened the Royals with the A’s and forced the Wild Card game to extra innings. And Colon came around to score the winning run after stealing second in the bottom of the 12th.

According to baseball-reference.com, the Royals tied a Major League record by stealing seven bases in a postseason game.

The record was first set by the Chicago Cubs in the 1907 World Series, and later tied by the 1975 Cincinnati Reds in an NLCS game.
22:40 | Category: , , , , | 0 comments

Ebola in the United States: What You Need to Know
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TIME answers your questions about Ebola in the United States


A renowned infectious disease expert named Michael Osterholm wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times that said airborne Ebola is possible if the virus mutates enough. As TIME reported in the past, anything is possible with viruses, but there are many other mutations that are more likely than a change in the mode of transmission—meaning how you catch it. For instance, a virus could become more virulent—more contagious—or could develop incubation periods that are longer than the current estimate of 21 days. But in general, scientists are not very concerned about that.

What’s the likelihood it will spread in the U.S.?

Not very, though the patient’s direct contacts must be screened. On Tuesday, director of the CDC Dr. Tom Friedensaid in a press conference: “The bottom-line here is I have no doubt that we will control this case of Ebola so that it does not spread widely.” The CDC has consistently said that given the quality of the U.S. health care system, it’s very unlikely that there will be significant spread of the disease on U.S. soil. Any hospital in the U.S. with an isolation unit—which is most of them—has the ability to isolate a person with Ebola as well as treat them with supportive care. Even though Ebola has no cure, monitoring patients’ heart rates and providing fluids and electrolytes can go a long way. For instance, if a patients’ potassium plummets, doctors and the U.S. can replenish it fairly easily. That’s a different situation from West Africa, where health care workers are dealing with a significant lack of resources and less sophisticated equipment.

But could there be more cases?

It’s certainly possible. This is not the first time Ebola has crossed borders via air travel. Nigeria’s outbreak started when a Liberian-American man infected with the disease traveled from Liberia to Nigeria. That same patient was en route to Minnesota. In a press conference on Tuesday, Dr. Frieden said: “As long as the outbreak continues in Africa, we need to be on-guard.” The CDC has been working for months with U.S. hospitals to make sure they feel prepared to handle any cases of Ebola by informing hospitals about the warning signs, as well as what kind of protective equipment they should wear.

Are the people on the plane at risk?

That’s highly unlikely. Ebola is only contagious when a person starts exhibiting symptoms of the disease, like a fever. And even then, a person can only contract the disease from direct contact with bodily fluids. The patient with Ebola in Dallas did not start exhibiting symptoms until four days after landing in the U.S., which means it’s extremely unlikely people on his plane are at any risk.

Why did the Dallas hospital originally send the patient home?

Though we don’t know the hospital’s reasoning, we do know that Ebola presents similarly in the beginning to other diseases, like malaria for instance. It’s possible the health care workers thought it was something else. After all, Ebola has never arrived in the U.S. before. The CDC said they are also unsure how the patient got infected. A health care worker traveling home from Liberia would likely set off more red flags. The CDC has still been prepping the U.S. health system for the possibility, which is why we’ve had so many false alarms.

Should I be freaking out?

The CDC and the Texas Department of Health are confident that Ebola will be contained in the U.S., and if the current patient’s health is similar to that of other infected people evacuated into the U.S., they have a better shot at survival. The disease’s high mortality rate in West Africa is largely due to the state of the health care systems in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, as well as overcrowding and lack of resources.

So what’s the bottom line?

The Ebola outbreak as a whole is terrifying, with over 3,000 dead and the worst yet to come, according to reliable predictions. The new case is a reminder that an infectious disease outbreak like Ebola truly is a global health emergency.
22:38 | Category: , , , , | 0 comments