UFC Hall of Fame inductee Tito Ortiz was supposed to headline the first ever Bellator pay per view on Nov. 2 opposite fellow former UFC champion Quinton Jackson until a broken neck took him out of the bout. The card was then turned into a free one on Spike and both Ortiz and Jackson's futures seemed up in the air.
However, Ortiz tweeted followers this week and appeared in good spirits.
"Ppl I will have 100% recovery & will be back n the gym in 6 weeks.I'm a fighter & I love competition. I was doing great n training but accident do happen. Just time to reshuffle the deck & deal another hand. #positiveminded"
Ortiz battled through serious injuries throughout his career before retiring in 2012. The former UFC champ came out of retirement to fight for Bellator.
It appears as if Ortiz' recent set back, serious as it may be, has not dampened his enthusiasm for a come back. As for Jackson, Bellator announced this week that he will face Joey Beltran, who recently lost in the UFC and was released by the organization.
Google's Executive Chairman, Eric Schmidt, was at the Chinese University of Hong Kong earlier today to launch a local entrepreneurship program with the institute. As a man who believes in free and open internet to aid startups and innovation, the exec was happy to give an update on North Korea and ...
Rapid-I — a German specialist in analytics tools that wants to become the industry standard for how enterprises predict the future — is today announcing its first round of funding, a rebrand to RapidMiner, and a new HQ in Boston, Massachusetts to jump with two feet into growing its business in North America. The Series A of $5 million — the first money ever raised by RapidMiner — is led by Earlybird Venture Capital and Open Ocean, the investment firm backed by the founders of MySQL. To gear up for its next stage of growth, RapidMiner is also adding Yahoo’s former chief data officer, Usama Fayyad, to its board, and is starting to hire in the U.S.
The involvement of Open Ocean is strategically important for RapidMiner, both as a mark of its success so far, and also of how it can develop. “With three million product downloads, RapidMiner has rapidly become one of the leaders in the predictive analytics space,” said Monty Widenius, MySQL founder and partner at Open Ocean Capital, in a statement. “We plan to leverage our experience in building MySQL, and the MySQL community, to help the RapidMiner team advance its technology and grow its user community around the world.”
The explosion in data that has been a by-product of the rise of the Internet and cloud-based services has created a knock-on market for business intelligence and big data solutions for companies to better harness this information to their best advantage.
This is where RapidMiner fits into the equation: the company works across a number of verticals such as entertainment and technology, through to pharmaceuticals, government and academia to provide them with the tools to look at their data and make better guesses about what customers and their own business may do next. Typical areas where RapidMiner’s solutions are implemented include customer segmentation; loyalty and retention analysis; credit ratings; resource planning; and asset maintenance. Sitting on an open stack, RapidMiner incorporates data from some 60 different structured and unstructured sources, including those sitting in SAP and Hadoop-based systems.
It’s a lucrative area but one that is still a work in progress. Gartner estimates that the business intelligence market was worth $57 billion at the end of 2010 but that by 2014 it will grow to $81 billion by 2014. Around one-fifth of the $57 billion, or $10.5 billion, was spent on business intelligence platforms/analytics in 2010, but that is projected to grow to $20 billion by 2014.
Why the increase in proportion? I suspect that as more enterprises start to demonstrate how they can actually gain an edge over competitors by relying on better analysis of the data they already have, the more investment you will see in this area. This is a big switch from where predictive analytics first had its beginnings as an academic pursuit. As a measure of that, before co-founding RapidMiner, CEO Ingo Mierswa started and ran the Artificial Intelligence Division of the University of Dortmund, Germany.
So far, RapidMiner has shown to be a strong leader in the space, with some 3 million total downloads (including documents and products) and some 200,000 users, including the likes of eBay, Intel, PepsiCo and Kraft among its paying customers. The company already claims to be leading the market for predictive data analytics services, against competitors like Revolution Analytics, SAS, SQL Server, StatSoft and IBM. To date, that growth has largely been in Europe — specifically, its user base is 65% Europe, 25% U.S. customers and 10% rest of world; with 50% of the company’s open source users in the U.S.
As with so many startups from this part of the world, now that RapidMiner is ready to scale, the U.S. is its prime target.
Jason Whitmire, the Earlybird partner who led the VC’s investment in RapidMiner, says that the company stood out because it was the “only solution we found that puts the person who has to solve a predictive analytics problem right in the middle of a very broad value proposition.” The global traction was also a boost, he added. “With this footprint, we believe that RapidMiner will stand a good chance become the de-facto industry standard for predictive analytics based on an open stack,” he says.
He also believes that the way that RapidMiner was built on an openstack also lends itself to working as well with large enterprises as much as smaller businesses. “We felt that RapidMiner’s products address the core of this market by fulfilling the spectrum of predictive analytics requirements large and small enterprises — i.e. flexibility of the solution based upon level of skill, complexity and overall sophistication of the customer’s analytics needs,” he adds.
The company bills itself as “the first offline dating site” because of its emphasis on real-world activities. Beyond the obvious dating site features (browsing profiles, sending messages to set up dates), HowAboutWe offers the ability to post local date ideas, to browse ideas from others, and to see who’s online nearby.
Head of PR Jade Clark told me via email that the HowAboutWe already has international users, but the app was only available in English, limiting its growth outside the United States. Now it’s available in 15 new languages covering more than 30 countries, including Japan, France, and Russia.
The company says it’s also making all features in the app available for free to international users, in contrast to the US, where premium features like unlimited membership can cost between $8 and $35 per month. Asked why HowAboutWe is taking this approach, Clark said the first step is “to extend our reach as a brand and to hit critical mass in one of these new markets,” and then to look at monetization options.
HowAboutWe Dating (that’s the singles product) has 1.7 million users in the US, while there are half a million HowAboutWe for Couples users in four markets, the company says. When asked about mobile and international plans for the couples product, Clark said, “Yes, we’re working to expand our mobile offerings and have some big announcements tied to this planned for Q1 .”
Co-founder and co-CEO Aaron Schildkrout has also to put together a blog post with his team about “10 Things You Need to Know Before Internationalizing Your App.” Many of those items are pretty technical (“All of your translatable copy should be stored in strings”) but some are more general — for example, he talks about the challenge of languages that require “grammatical differences for men and women”.
His final point: “It will always take 3x longer than you think!”
STAVANGER, Norway (AP) — Residents of the small Norwegian town of Rjukan have finally seen the light.
Tucked in between steep mountains, the town is normally shrouded in shadow for almost six months a year, with residents having to catch a cable car to the top of a nearby precipice to get a fix of midday vitamin D.
But on Wednesday faint rays from the winter sun for the first time reached the town's market square, thanks to three 183-square-foot (17-square-meter) mirrors placed on a mountain.
Cheering families, some on sun loungers, drinking cocktails and waving Norwegian flags, donned shades as the sun crept from behind a cloud to hit the mirrors and reflect down onto the faces of delighted children below.
TV footage of the event showed the center of the crowded square light up a touch, but not as if hit by direct sunlight. Still, residents said the effect was noticeable.
"Before when it was a fine day, you would see that the sky was blue and you knew that the sun was shining. But you couldn't quite see it. It was very frustrating," said Karin Roe, from the local tourist office. "This feels warm. When there is no time to get to the top of the mountains on weekdays, it will be lovely to come out for an hour and feel this warmth on my face."
Like much of Scandinavia, the town of Rjukan often is freezing throughout the winter, but on Wednesday it was 45 degrees Fahrenheit (7 degrees Celsius) there.
The Italian town of Viganella has a similar, but smaller, sun mirror.
The plan to illuminate Rjukan was cooked up 100 years ago by the Norwegian industrialist Sam Eyde, who built the town to provide workers for a hydroelectric plant he located at the foot of a nearby waterfall.
The renowned engineer never saw his plan become reality, but his plant and the Telemark town he founded developed a special affection in the Norwegian imagination as the site of the country's most famous wartime escapade.
Occupied by the Germans during World War II, the factory was a staging post in Hitler's quest for the atomic bomb. The story of how 12 Norwegian saboteurs parachuted into the nearby tundra and survived freezing temperatures to destroy the factory's "heavy water" plant inspired a 1965 Hollywood film, "The Heroes of Telemark," and is being turned into a 10-part TV series by Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle.
In contrast to the shadow cast over Europe by Hitler's plan for an atomic weapon, the three mirrors — ironically being remotely controlled from Germany — captured the sunlight and sent it in an ellipse that illuminated about one-third of the square below.
A band encouraged a cloud that weakened the effect to move away with the song, "Let The Sunshine In."
Jan-Anders Dam-Nielsen, director of the Norwegian Industrial Museum, located on the site of the famous factory, said the solar experiment would mark another chapter in the history of Rjukan.
"Soon we will celebrate 70 years since the saboteurs struck the factory," he said. "Then we will think about how we mark this. This is a really important day in the history of this town. And like the mirrors reflected the sun, we will reflect this in the museum."
Helicoptered in and installed 1,500 feet (450 meters) above the town square, the 5 million kroner ($850,000) computer-controlled mirrors, or heliostats, are more commonly used to create solar power in sundrenched regions of the Middle East. Here, the solar energy the heliostats capture is used to power their tilting trajectory as they follow the sun's brief dash across the Norwegian winter sky.
The century-old idea was revived in 2005 by Martin Andersen, an artist and resident of the town, who helped raise the sponsorship money. The lion's share has come from Norsk Hydro — the company founded by Sam Eyde.
Once you notice your colleagues are catching up on their sleep during your PowerPoint presentations, you know you need Prezi Desktop. Using this software, you can wake up your presentations using animation that doesn't suck. Forget transitions and effects like dissolve and fly-in, Prezi Desktop focuses in on your important points within your slides, like actually visually focuses in.
Many of Prezi Desktop's 50+ templates include 3D animation. In this one, you start out in a forest and then move through the trees.
Prezi Desktop is similar to the online Prezi, but as you might guess from the name, it doesn't require an Internet connection after the initial registraion. This means that any storage limits are on your end, not on Prezi's cloud. It's also awfully handy to work offline when you're incorporating last-minute changes on a flight or at the slightly-too-rustic site for the company retreat.
The program opens with over 50 slide templates to choose from, all of which include animation built right in, and many of which include photo-realistic graphics or 3D aspects. You add text, images, and YouTube movies to areas of the slide and create a path for the animation to follow. Prezi flows seamlessly between these areas.
Filling in Prezi Desktop slides in a simple click-and-type affair.
Some of Prezi's 3D effects are better than others, with a few giving the impression of rotating the base image rather than actually occurring in three dimensions. You can add shapes and drawings from Prezi's library but they are not editable, so if you want to create a very unique Prezi you'll also need software to create PDF, PPT, or image files to import. And you may want to stick to a very basic Prezi if you're presenting to the National Association of Motion Sickness Sufferers, because the flow of the presentation can be disconcerting.
With credit card information in hand, Prezi Desktop offers a 30-day free trial of the Enjoy ($59 annually) or Pro ($159 annually) subscription, as well as the completely free (no credit card needed) Public version. Your presentations are all public with the Public version of Prezi, and you get only 100MB of storage per user. With Prezi Desktop Enjoy and Pro subscriptions, you can keep your presentations private, eliminate the Prezi branding, and receive 500MB (Enjoy) or 2GB (Pro) of storage space.
You can tweak the text formatting in your Prezi Desktop slides.
Prezi Desktop can get pricey, and it won't fix a really bad presentation, but it will certainly help keep your visuals—and your audience—focused. Plus you'll never be bothered by snoring during a presentation again.
Note: The Download button takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software.
Clare Brandt , PCWorld
Clare Brandt writes about fonts and other obsessions. Her personal blog, which sometimes mentions technology, but mostly not, can be found at clarerobinsonbrandt.wordpresss.com. More by Clare Brandt
Living in cities, driving on freeways, going to work, sitting in cubicles, shopping at supermarkets, surrounding yourself in urban density and all around stepping away from nature makes it easy to forget how beautiful she can be. We should never forget.
FILE - In this April 10, 2013, file photo, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Acting Administrator Marilyn Tavenner speaks during a news conference at the Health and Humans Services Department in Washington. Tavenner, the senior Obama administration official closest to the implementation of the health care law’s dysfunctional website faces tough questions Tuesday, Oct. 29, from Congress at the start of a pivotal week. Tavenner will be questioned by the House Ways and Means Committee on what went wrong with HealthCare.gov, and whether she saw any of it coming. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
FILE - In this April 10, 2013, file photo, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Acting Administrator Marilyn Tavenner speaks during a news conference at the Health and Humans Services Department in Washington. Tavenner, the senior Obama administration official closest to the implementation of the health care law’s dysfunctional website faces tough questions Tuesday, Oct. 29, from Congress at the start of a pivotal week. Tavenner will be questioned by the House Ways and Means Committee on what went wrong with HealthCare.gov, and whether she saw any of it coming. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Trying to earn a second chance, the senior administration official closest to the implementation of the health care law's malfunctioning enrollment website will answer questions from Congress at the start of a pivotal week.
Medicare Chief Marilyn Tavenner will be questioned Tuesday by the House Ways and Means Committee not only on what went wrong with HealthCare.gov, but also whether lawmakers can trust Obama administration promises to have things running efficiently by the end of November.
At stake is what the Republicans' partial government shutdown could not achieve: a delay of President Barack Obama's law expanding coverage for uninsured Americans. As a result of widespread sign-up problems, even some Democrats have joined Republicans in calling for a one-year postponement of the law's tax penalties for the remaining uninsured. The insurance industry warns that would saddle the new system with too many high-cost patients.
Less well known than Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Tavenner was closer to the day-to-day work of setting up the enrollment website, which was handled by experts within her agency, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, along with outside contractors. Like other administration officials, she previously had assured Congress that everything was on track for a reasonably smooth launch in all 50 states.
"If people can't navigate such a dysfunctional and overly complex system, is it fair for the IRS to impose tax penalties?" said Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich. In a concession, the White House has said it will waive penalties for anyone who signs up by March 31, in effect granting a limited grace period.
Tavenner began her career as a nurse and built a successful record as a hospital executive before entering public service. Seen as a businesslike manager, she has enjoyed support from lawmakers across the political spectrum. Indeed, Republicans are calling for Sebelius to resign, not Tavenner. But the Medicare chief's professional reputation is also at stake.
On Monday, a spokeswoman acknowledged Tavenner's central role. The Medicare agency "has said we are responsible for the issues the website is currently facing," communications director Julie Bataille said. As administrator, Tavenner "has been in charge of the overall ... implementation effort."
What Tavenner knew about the potential for problems and whom she told will be key questions from lawmakers. Additionally, some are concerned about the security of the HealthCare.gov site. Others worry about unintended consequences from the feverish, hasty work to repair the site.
Sebelius is likely to face some of the same questions Wednesday when she appears before another powerful House panel, the Energy and Commerce Committee.
Momentum to fix the problems has grown since Obama personally acknowledged the problems last week. He sent in management consultant Jeff Zients to assess the situation. By the end of the week, Zients reported that he had two big lists with dozens of needed fixes, and said he was optimistic they could be completed by Nov. 30.
HHS also announced that an outside company would assume the role of general contractor shepherding the fixes, in effect taking over the coordination job that Tavenner's agency had been doing.
Although the administration has released a blizzard of statistics on the numbers of people visiting the website, opening accounts and having their income verified by the Internal Revenue Service, it has yet to say how many have successfully enrolled for health insurance.
The website was supposed to be the online portal to coverage for people who don't have a health plan on the job. Its target audience is not only uninsured Americans but those who already purchase coverage individually. A companion site for small businesses has also run into problems.
Under the law, middle-class people can qualify for tax credits to make private health insurance more affordable, while low-income people will be steered to Medicaid in states agreeing to expand that safety net program.
FILE - In this April 10, 2013, file photo, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Acting Administrator Marilyn Tavenner speaks during a news conference at the Health and Humans Services Department in Washington. Tavenner, the senior Obama administration official closest to the implementation of the health care law’s dysfunctional website faces tough questions Tuesday, Oct. 29, from Congress at the start of a pivotal week. Tavenner will be questioned by the House Ways and Means Committee on what went wrong with HealthCare.gov, and whether she saw any of it coming. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
FILE - In this April 10, 2013, file photo, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Acting Administrator Marilyn Tavenner speaks during a news conference at the Health and Humans Services Department in Washington. Tavenner, the senior Obama administration official closest to the implementation of the health care law’s dysfunctional website faces tough questions Tuesday, Oct. 29, from Congress at the start of a pivotal week. Tavenner will be questioned by the House Ways and Means Committee on what went wrong with HealthCare.gov, and whether she saw any of it coming. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Trying to earn a second chance, the senior administration official closest to the implementation of the health care law's malfunctioning enrollment website will answer questions from Congress at the start of a pivotal week.
Medicare Chief Marilyn Tavenner will be questioned Tuesday by the House Ways and Means Committee not only on what went wrong with HealthCare.gov, but also whether lawmakers can trust Obama administration promises to have things running efficiently by the end of November.
At stake is what the Republicans' partial government shutdown could not achieve: a delay of President Barack Obama's law expanding coverage for uninsured Americans. As a result of widespread sign-up problems, even some Democrats have joined Republicans in calling for a one-year postponement of the law's tax penalties for the remaining uninsured. The insurance industry warns that would saddle the new system with too many high-cost patients.
Less well known than Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Tavenner was closer to the day-to-day work of setting up the enrollment website, which was handled by experts within her agency, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, along with outside contractors. Like other administration officials, she previously had assured Congress that everything was on track for a reasonably smooth launch in all 50 states.
"If people can't navigate such a dysfunctional and overly complex system, is it fair for the IRS to impose tax penalties?" said Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich. In a concession, the White House has said it will waive penalties for anyone who signs up by March 31, in effect granting a limited grace period.
Tavenner began her career as a nurse and built a successful record as a hospital executive before entering public service. Seen as a businesslike manager, she has enjoyed support from lawmakers across the political spectrum. Indeed, Republicans are calling for Sebelius to resign, not Tavenner. But the Medicare chief's professional reputation is also at stake.
On Monday, a spokeswoman acknowledged Tavenner's central role. The Medicare agency "has said we are responsible for the issues the website is currently facing," communications director Julie Bataille said. As administrator, Tavenner "has been in charge of the overall ... implementation effort."
What Tavenner knew about the potential for problems and whom she told will be key questions from lawmakers. Additionally, some are concerned about the security of the HealthCare.gov site. Others worry about unintended consequences from the feverish, hasty work to repair the site.
Sebelius is likely to face some of the same questions Wednesday when she appears before another powerful House panel, the Energy and Commerce Committee.
Momentum to fix the problems has grown since Obama personally acknowledged the problems last week. He sent in management consultant Jeff Zients to assess the situation. By the end of the week, Zients reported that he had two big lists with dozens of needed fixes, and said he was optimistic they could be completed by Nov. 30.
HHS also announced that an outside company would assume the role of general contractor shepherding the fixes, in effect taking over the coordination job that Tavenner's agency had been doing.
Although the administration has released a blizzard of statistics on the numbers of people visiting the website, opening accounts and having their income verified by the Internal Revenue Service, it has yet to say how many have successfully enrolled for health insurance.
The website was supposed to be the online portal to coverage for people who don't have a health plan on the job. Its target audience is not only uninsured Americans but those who already purchase coverage individually. A companion site for small businesses has also run into problems.
Under the law, middle-class people can qualify for tax credits to make private health insurance more affordable, while low-income people will be steered to Medicaid in states agreeing to expand that safety net program.
AMSTERDAM (AP) — A group that includes Microsoft and Oracle says Google's bid to settle its antitrust case with the European Union is insufficient.
The EU has been investigating Google over alleged abuse of its dominant position in the Internet search market since 2010.
FairSearch, a Microsoft-led group that complained about Google, confirmed Monday the EU has begun sending out requests for feedback on a settlement, but it cannot reveal details.
Europe's top antitrust official, Joaquin Almunia, said Oct. 1 Google has offered to let competitors display their own logos on Google result pages.
FairSearch spokesman Thomas Vinje said Monday the settlement appears too similar to earlier requests its members rejected.
Google spokesman Al Verney said FairSearch members don't want a settlement, but want Google wrapped up "in a never-ending dispute."
Emily Yoffe, aka Dear Prudence, is on Washingtonpost.com weekly to chat live with readers. An edited transcript of the chat is below. (Sign up here to get Dear Prudence delivered to your inbox each week. Read Prudie’s Slate columns here. Send questions to Prudence at prudence@slate.com.)
Emily Yoffe: Good afternoon, I look forward to your questions!
Q. Dog Gone?: I am a fiftysomething woman preparing to move in with my boyfriend next March. I have a miniature schnauzer who is 8 years old and has always slept in my room on the floor next to the bed. My boyfriend wants me to banish my dog from our bedroom when we move. I don't think it's a good idea, especially with moving to a strange house, and I think the dog will do better with the transition if he can sleep in our room. Am I wrong on this?
A: Oh, your boyfriend has come to the wrong place. Some nights my husband and I can barely turn over in bed due to the arrangement of the dog and two cats around us. You've got me laughing at the idea of banishing my cavalier from the bedroom. No one would get a minute of sleep due to the whining and howling. You have a beloved pet who sleeps peacefully on the floor. Unless your boyfriend frequently steps on your dog on the way to the bathroom in the middle of the night (if so, just rearrange the dog bed) I do not understand his objection. More than that, if he understands what your dog means to you (and you to the dog), his demand is rather cruel. I've had letters from people who have fallen in love with other humans who are seriously allergic to their pets. Those are very difficult situations, but—much to the annoyance of animal lovers—I come down on the side of human love taking precedence. But there is no good reason here to shut the door on a sleeping dog. You've got a lot of time before the move to hash this out. But I think you're entitled to say, "Love me, love my schnauzer."
Q. Smother-in-Law: My mother-in-law threw me a sort of family baby shower, giving us lots of stuff we don't need even though I specifically requested not to have one because we have such a small N.Y. apartment and I was already given practically everything from my sister who just had a baby. My question is: Do I have to send a thank you note to her for the stuff she bought me even though I specifically requested that she NOT buy anything?
A: Nasty, nasty mother-in-law, wanting to shower you with stuff for her impending grandchild. I hope you understand that now that you're having a child your mother-in-law is likely to be more in your life than ever. Maybe apart from ignoring your express orders about gifts, she's a lovely person who will be an important presence in your baby's life. Although your pen may be dripping poison, write the thank you note and make it sound as sincere as possible. Since you are having a child, surely many of your friends will be too, so a closet of new baby items will be perfect regifting material.
Q. Late Night Sidewalk Etiquette: I'm a young man who works late as a bartender in an urban area. I walk home usually at 2 a.m. I often find myself half a block behind women (either alone or in pairs) going home the same route. How do I act so that they don't fear me as a potential predator? Cross the street? Slow down (looks like stalking) or greet them (equally creepy)? Help!
A: There is nothing that gets a woman's sympathetic nervous system on high alert like hearing footfalls behind her at 2 a.m. Thanks for being sensitive to this. Since you see the woman looming ahead of you, it would be a nice thing to do to cross the street before you're close enough so that she starts glancing behind her, clutching her purse.
Q. Re: Wedding siblings photos: We had the same battle. My view was that after we are married, all photos must involve both of us. However, before the wedding, each family got 30 minutes to get whatever photos they wanted done. After the wedding was my photos on my schedule. I got great photos with my family, and my in-laws chose to get great photos of their grandkids, family portraits, and a siblings photo. The photo in their house is their immediate family and my parents display the one of our new family. It was an easy compromise.
A: After the vows, if the photographer snapped a photo that didn't include you, did you take the camera and smash it like Sonny Corleone in The Godfather? It's good everyone was able to complete their photo assignments in the 30 minutes allotted.
Q. Inappropriate Contact as Children: I'm 47. My dad sexually abused me when I was young. It stopped when I was 12, and I've gotten therapy for it. The only lingering problem for me is what to do about my cousin. When we were younger, I remember playing with her and I'm pretty sure that it was inappropriate. She is three years younger than me, and I couldn't have been more than eight, and it didn't happen with anyone else that I can remember. I've wanted to talk to her about this, but it's been almost 40 years. I know from counseling that I was acting out from what my dad was doing to me, and I didn't have the understanding of it that I do now. It's still painful to talk about, and there are some other family issues that I am dealing with that are connected with my dad's incest, but not relevant to my cousin. We haven't been in contact for more than 20 years because of the family issues. When I found my cousin this summer, she and her parents were delighted to see me, so there doesn't seem to be any long-term hard feelings. My cousin has a good life, with good relationships with her brother, husband, and parents, and she has a master's degree and is successful. I don't know how to approach this topic with her. I want to apologize. Does this seem like a good thing to open this can of worms?
TORONTO (AP) — Toronto Mayor Rob Ford apologized Sunday for "a lot of stupid things" and acknowledged the need to curb his drinking, but he didn't address allegations of drug use and said he will continue to lead Canada's largest city despite pressure to resign.
"I'm going to weather this storm," he said.
Ford made his remarks on his local weekly radio show three days after police said they had obtained a copy of a video that appears to show the mayor puffing on a crack cocaine pipe.
The video was recovered from a computer hard drive during an investigation of an associate of Ford's who is suspected of providing him drugs. Police have said they don't have grounds to charge the mayor with any crime.
Ford didn't address the contents of the video Sunday, saying he cannot comment on a tape he hasn't seen. "Whatever this video shows, Toronto residents deserve to see it and people need to judge for themselves what they see on this video," he said.
Police said the video will come out when Ford's associate and occasional driver, Alexander Lisi, goes to trial on drug and extortion charges. Lisi is accused of threatening two alleged gang members who had been trying to sell the video to the media.
Police have said they want to talk to Ford, but his lawyer so far has declined.
Ford on Sunday acknowledged making "mistakes" but declined to take a leave of absence or resign.
"I sincerely apologize, there's absolutely no excuse, no one to blame but myself," he said. "I am going to fight like no one has seen before to win the next election" in October 2014.
Later, he told Toronto radio station AM640 in an interview that "I am not a crack addict. I'm not an addict of any type of drug -- even alcohol."
All four major Toronto newspapers have called on Ford to resign. Municipal law makes no provision for his forced removal from office unless he's convicted and jailed for a criminal offense.
The populist, conservative mayor also said Sunday he would agree to have a full-time city driver, a proposal he had rejected before as a waste of taxpayers' money.
Even before police announced they had the video, Ford had drawn criticism for erratic behavior.
Ford said Sunday he shouldn't have been drunk in public when he appeared at a street festival in August, calling it "pure stupidity."
He also said he got "a little out of control" after St. Patrick's Day in 2012, when city hall security guards said they witnessed a "very intoxicated' Ford having trouble walking and swearing at aides.
An incident report released last week said that at 2:30 a.m. that day, Ford "visited the security desk alone with a half empty bottle of St. Remy French Brandy." The mayor said his car had been stolen and he wanted to call police, the report said. Security told Ford his car was at home, took the bottle from him and found him a taxi.
Ford warned Sunday, "I'm not saying here I'm not going to drink again. That's not realistic. Just slow down on the eating and drinking and everything."
The mayor also met over the weekend with ally and Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly, who had said he wanted to express the concerns of city council members.
Kelly said Sunday he was "encouraged" by Ford's decision to hire a driver to pick him up in the morning and take him home at night.
But Kelly said there would be "no generosity by any of the sides" if Ford slips up again.
City Councilor Doug Ford, the mayor's brother and co-host of the radio show, said the mayor should stay in his basement when he drinks.
Ford drove himself to the radio station Sunday, blasting the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" on his car stereo as he arrived.
Pre-installed apps can sleep with the fishes if you know where to look to do it
Recent versions of the Android platform have enabled a pretty powerful little trick — the ability to put just about any app to sleep. It's one of those thing folks who rooted their phones have been able to do, but now anyone can, thanks to Android's built-in application manager.
If you're new to all this (and we're seeing plenty of new faces every day) you'll need to know how before you dive in. You could probably find a short and incomplete explanation in the user manual that came with your phone, but we've a better idea. AC Ambassador Haalcyon has written up a complete primer that will show you how to put any app into a coma, as he calls it. Take a few minutes to read through it, and you'll be ready to say goodbye to those apps you never wanted to begin with.
You've got a powerful little box in your hands. We're always here to help you learn how to effectively use it. Jump into the forums and have a look.
It's pretty much agreed that Google's Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption is a good thing. Why not get a little free protection given that our search queries are often a good way of piecing together exactly what's going on in our lives?
Google's Executive Chairman, Eric Schmidt, was at the Chinese University of Hong Kong earlier today to launch a local entrepreneurship program with the institute. As a man who believes in free and open internet to aid startups and innovation, the exec was happy to give an update on North Korea and ...
