January 18, 2016

Top News Stories –

Friends Reunited website to close down –
Friends Reunited – one of the UK’s first social networks – has announced it will soon close. One of its founders Steve Pankhurst explained in an email that the platform was still used by “a handful of members” but that it was “no longer used for the purpose it was built for”. Friends Reunited launched in the year 2000 and was bought by broadcaster ITV for £175m ($250m) in 2005. However, it failed to keep pace with other social networks. It was sold to comic publisher DC Thompson for only £25m in 2009 and Mr Pankhurst wrote in a blog post that the company had offered it back to him a couple of years ago. [BBC]

Eagles guitarist Glenn Frey, 67, dies –
Eagles guitarist Glenn Frey has died at the age of 67, the band has announced. He died in New York City on Monday from complications arising from rheumatoid arthritis, colitis and pneumonia. “Words can neither describe our sorrow, nor our love and respect for all that he has given to us,” his family and fellow band members said. The Eagles were one of the most successful bands of the 1970s, with multiple hit singles, including Hotel California in 1976. Frey co-founded the Eagles in 1971 with Don Henley, Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner. [BBC]
Glenn_FreyGlenn_Frey

Video of the Day –

Branded Dreams – The Future Of Advertising from STUDIO SMACK on Vimeo.

List of the Day –

The full list of winners for the 36th London Critics’ Circle Film Awards:
FILM OF THE YEAR: Mad Max: Fury Road
BRITISH/IRISH FILM OF THE YEAR: 45 Years
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR: The Look of Silence
DOCUMENTARY OF THE YEAR: Am
ACTOR OF THE YEAR: Tom Courtenay — 45 Years
ACTRESS OF THE YEAR: Charlotte Rampling — 45 Years
SUPPORTING ACTOR OF THE YEAR: Mark Rylance — Bridge of Spies
SUPPORTING ACTRESS OF THE YEAR: Kate Winslet — Steve Jobs
DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR: George Miller — Mad Max: Fury Road
SCREENWRITER OF THE YEAR: Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy — Spotlight
BRITISH/IRISH ACTOR OF THE YEAR: Tom Hardy — Legend, London Road, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Revenant
BRITISH/IRISH ACTRESS OF THE YEAR: Saoirse Ronan — Brooklyn, Lost River
YOUNG BRITISH/IRISH PERFORMER OF THE YEAR: Maisie Williams — The Falling
PHILIP FRENCH AWARD FOR BREAKTHROUGH BRITISH/IRISH FILMMAKER: John Maclean — Slow West
BRITISH/IRISH SHORT FILM OF THE YEAR: Stutterer — Benjamin Cleary
TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Ed Lachman, cinematography — Caro
DILYS POWELL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN FILM: Kenneth Branagh

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1 #زد_رصيدك66 Happy MLK #MLKDay
2 #FelizLunes #WhatWomenWantIn5Words #BlueMonday
3 #MendigoComMafiaSDV #mondaymotivation #AusOpen
4 #BlueMonday #BlueMonday Stephanie
5 #WhatWomenWantIn5Words Linda Perry #UFCBoston
6 #UFCBoston #MLKDay #TennisRacket
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8 #وش_تسوي_اذا_ال… AP YAMS #DemDebate
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10 #자신의_전공을_최��… #ReclaimMLK #CABLive

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January 19, 2016

Top News Stories –

North Korea claims to invent ‘alcohol which doesn’t give you hangover’ –
They already claim to have cured cancer, Aids and Ebola with a miracle drug produced from ginseng root.
Now North Korean scientists seem to have scaled new heights of greatness with their latest invention – a special blend of liquor which doesn’t give you a hangover. According to the state-controlled newspaper Pyongyang Times, the drink also relies on ginseng root for its medicinal qualities and has been hailed as a “national scientific and technological hit.” The recipe replaces sugar with burnt rice, supposedly eliminating the liquor’s bitter taste along with any risks of a hangover. The drink “is suave and causes no hangovers”, claimed the Pyongyang Times piece, which was entitled: “Liquor wins quality medal for preserving national smack.” It is the latest in a string of outlandish claims made by North Korea’s state media, which once congratulated its supreme commander for learning to drive at the age of three. [Daily Telegraph]

Twitter down in global outage –
Twitter went offline on Tuesday morning for users of both its website and mobile apps. Visitors to the social network were met with a “Something is technically wrong” message on a blue background. Twitter’s status page said: “Some users are currently experiencing problems accessing Twitter. We are aware of the issue and are working towards a resolution.” “Something is technically wrong,” a notice on the Twitter website said. “Thanks for noticing – we’re going to fix it up and have things back to normal soon.” At around 10am service resumed as usual, although was down again shortly before midday and at various times over Tuesday afternoon. [Daily Telegraph] The social network later said an “internal code change” had led to the problem, which lasted six hours 10 minutes. “We reverted the change, which fixed the issue,” it added.
Twitter error pageTwitter error page

Video of the Day –

NYC Gifathon from James Curran on Vimeo.

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1 #TercaDetremuraSdv #NationalPopcornDay #LHHNY
2 #FelizMartes Sarah Palin #NationalPopcornDay
3 #زد_رصيدك67 #TravelTuesday #CharityTuesday
4 #ALDUBFirstCondition #HowIStaySaneInMyWorkspace #ThingsThatShouldBeIllegal
5 #كلمه_تعور_قلبي #BeliebersDay #universitychallenge
6 조경태 #1YearOfWorthIt #BlueMonday
7 #CorridaMalucaNoClubeSDV #twitterdown #TheUndateables
8 #HrantDink Edgar Allan Poe Aunt Viv
9 #BeliebersDay #MISOTS16 Angie
10 #NationalPopcornDay #InequalityIs Glenn Frey

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January 20, 2016

Top News Stories –

2015 was hottest year ever recorded ‘by far’ –
Blistering heat blanketed the Earth last year like never before, making 2015 by far the hottest year in modern times and raising new concerns about the accelerating pace of climate change. Not only was 2015 the warmest worldwide since 1880, it shattered the previous record held in 2014 by the widest margin ever observed, said the report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “During 2015, the average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 1.62 Fahrenheit (0.90 Celsius) above the 20th century average,” said the NOAA report. “This was the highest among all years in the 1880-2015 record.” Compared to 2014, last year was 0.29 Fahrenheit (0.13 Celsius) warmer, the “largest margin by which the annual global temperature record has been broken.” [Daily Telegraph]

New evidence suggests a ninth planet lurking at the edge of the solar system –
Astronomers at the California Institute of Technology announced Wednesday that they have found new evidence of a giant icy planet lurking in the darkness of our solar system far beyond the orbit of Pluto. They are calling it “Planet Nine.” Their paper, published in the Astronomical Journal, estimates the planet’s mass as five to 10 times that of the Earth. But the authors, astronomers Michael Brown and Konstantin Batygin, have not observed the planet directly. Instead, they have inferred its existence from the motion of recently discovered dwarf planets and other small objects in the outer solar system. Those smaller bodies have orbits that appear to be influenced by the gravity of a hidden planet – a “massive perturber.” The astronomers suggest it might have been flung into deep space long ago by the gravitational force of Jupiter or Saturn. [Washington Post]

Video of the Day –

Australia Day Lamb 2016 | Commence Operation Boomerang

List of the Day –

National Television Awards 2016, London

Talent Show

Winner: Strictly Come Dancing

Britain’s Got Talent

The Voice UK

The X Factor

Challenge Show

Winner: The Great British Bake Off

Bear Grylls: Mission Survive

MasterChef

The Apprentice

Serial drama

Winner: EastEnders

Coronation Street

Emmerdale

Hollyoaks

Comedy

Winner: Peter Kay’s Car Share

Benidorm

Birds Of A Feather

Not Going Out

Drama

Winner: Downton Abbey

Broadchurch

Casualty

Doctor Who

New drama

Winner: Doctor Foster

Humans

Ordinary Lies

Poldark

Factual entertainment

Winner: Gogglebox

DIY SOS: The Big Build

Paul O’Grady: For The Love Of Dogs

Top Gear

Live magazine show

Winner: This Morning

BBC Breakfast

Loose Women

The One Show

Drama performance

Winner: Suranne Jones (Doctor Foster)

Sheridan Smith (Black Work)

David Tennant (Broadchurch)

Aidan Turner (Poldark)

Entertainment programme

Winner: I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!

Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway

Celebrity Juice

The Graham Norton Show

Newcomer

Winner: Shayne Ward (Coronation Street)

Gemma Atkinson (Emmerdale)

Richard Blackwood (EastEnders)

Parry Glasspool (Hollyoaks)

Serial drama performance

Winner: Danny Dyer (EastEnders)

Alison King (Coronation Street)

Michael Parr (Emmerdale)

Rakhee Thakrar (EastEnders)

International

Winner: The Big Bang Theory

Game Of Thrones

Orange Is The New Black

Daytime

Winner: The Chase

Pointless

The Jeremy Kyle Show

The Paul O’Grady Show

TV presenter

Winner: Ant & Dec

Graham Norton

Mel & Sue

Rylan Clark

Impact/TV moment

Winner: Aiden Turner, Poldark

Special recognition award

Winner: Billy Connolly

 

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1 Unavailable #PenguinAwarenessDay Unavailable
2 Unavailable #NationalCheeseLoversDay Unavailable
3 Unavailable #1lineWed Unavailable
4 Unavailable #BachaKhanUniversity Unavailable
5 Unavailable Stacey Dash Unavailable
6 Unavailable #MuseumSelfie Unavailable
7 Unavailable Ricardo Durán Unavailable
8 Unavailable #YouCouldntPayMeTo Unavailable
9 Unavailable #ImSoEstablishment Unavailable
10 Unavailable #WEF16 Unavailable

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January 21, 2016

Top News Stories –

President Putin ‘probably’ approved Litvinenko murder –
The murder of ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in 2006 in the UK was ‘probably’ approved by President Vladimir Putin, an inquiry has found. Mr Putin is likely to have signed off the poisoning of Mr Litvinenko with polonium-210 in part due to personal “antagonism” between the pair, it said. Home Secretary Theresa May said the murder was a “blatant and unacceptable” breach of international law. But the Russian Foreign Ministry said the public inquiry was “politicised”. Litvinenko aged 43 in London in 2006, days after drinking tea poisoned with the radioactive substance. The former Russian spy – who is believed to have later worked for MI6 – had been a fierce critic of the Kremlin. [BBC]

Norwegian in underwear clings to car roof to stop thief –
A man clad only in boxer shorts stopped a thief from stealing his car in southern Norway – by clinging on to the roof in a hair-raising ride at -17C. Police say the owner was left “pretty bloody” after the car crashed into a safety barrier on a bridge. A suspect has been taken into police custody. The owner, 25, woke up in Kristiansand in the early hours of Wednesday when he heard his car engine firing up. He raced out, grabbed a car door-handle and refused to let go. The thief drove the car at up to 90km/h (56 mph), he said, but the owner managed to smash the back window with his knee and grappled with the thief before the car hit the safety barrier. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

SEAN PETTIT | Full Part 2015 from SUPER PROOF on Vimeo.

Top Twitter Trends –

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1 #MeGustaCuando #NationalHugDay #SquirrelAppreciationDay
2 #quintaupcomoclubesdv #SquirrelAppreciationDay #NationalHugDay
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4 #FelizJueves #DanielHoltzclaw #Litvinenko
5 #زد_رصيدك69 #RIPBelieberLinda #RIPBelieberLinda
6 the 100 today #ToTheGirls2016 #hsm10
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8 #nosvanadarperobien #CitizensUnited #NTAs
9 #aldub27thweeksary #BlizzardWatch kevin nolan
10 #Lauren4KODE #favoritethrowbackcouple #thevampstruthordare

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January 22, 2016

Top News Stories –

It Cost Google One Billion Dollars to Keep its Search Bar on iPhones –
Google’s search bar has been a fixture on Apple devices for years, something that’s always seemed counter-intuitive, what with Android being iOS’s only real competitor. According to Bloomberg, Google’s search engine is only exists there because of a $1 billion payment made to Apple in 2014. Bloomberg found the details in court proceedings from an Oracle vs Google lawsuit. Oracle has been fighting Google since 2010 over the search giant’s use of Oracle’s Java software in the development of Android. Somewhere along the way, Oracle’s lawyers got their hands on internal Google finances, which were brought up in open court, before Google’s attorneys pleaded to have the transcript redacted and sealed. According to Oracle’s lawyers — and neither confirmed nor denied by Google’s side — Google paid Apple $1 billion (that equates to around £701,000,000) in 2014 to keep its search bar on Apple devices. The two companies then have a revenue-sharing agreement to split any profits Google makes from Apple’s devices, although the breakdown is not known. [Gizmondo]

Video of the Day –

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1 #SextaBoaPraSdvDetremura White Privilege II #AsAChildIUsedToThink
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8 #BuenViernes #Roe43 #DateMyMum
9 #يوم_الجمعه #ChaseTheDay #FlashbackFriday
10 #AsAChildIUsedToThink Jalen Rose #10000BC

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January 23, 2016

Top News Stories –

Blizzard blankets eastern seaboard of US in deep snow –
A huge blizzard has blanketed the US eastern seaboard in snow, bringing New York and Washington DC to a standstill and affecting some 85 million people. Up to 40in (102cm) of snow settled in parts, paralysing rail and air links, and cutting power to 200,000 people. A travel ban in New York, which saw its second highest snowfall on record, is set to be lifted later on Sunday. At least 18 deaths, from road accidents but also snow shovelling, have been blamed on the weather since Friday. New York’s Central Park received 26.8in, the second-biggest fall recorded since 1869 and just shy of the all-time high, 26.9in, recorded in February 2006. [BBC]

Video of the Day –

Tian Tian in the Snow Jan. 23, 2016

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1 Unavailable #jonasblizzard #WelcomeHistory
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8 Unavailable #OneCarolina #DespiteBeingTaughtInWelsh
9 Unavailable #WelcomeHistory #blizzard2016
10 Unavailable Tian Tian #GrahamNorton

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January 24, 2016

Top News Stories –

Tokyo police roll out 3D mug shots –
Tokyo’s police force is to start taking 3D mug shots of suspects being held in custody, it’s reported. The images will form part of a database which officers hope will make it easier to analyse CCTV footage, the the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reports. All of the Japanese capital’s 102 police stations will be fitted with a 3D camera as part of the new process, which will begin in April. “As we can identify the suspects more quickly and accurately, our arrest rate is expected to become greater,” one senior officer tells the paper. Unlike regular two-dimensional mug shots, the 3D images can be adjusted to match the angle of security camera footage, which is often shot from above, rather than at face height. At the moment police only photograph suspects’ faces from the front and diagonally, making it difficult to match mug shots to CCTV images. Tokyo’s police force says it is the first to roll out the cameras across all of its stations – until now they have only been installed at some regional police headquarters in Japan. [BBC]

Australia makes ‘captain’s call’ on best words of 2015 –
Captain’s call – a phrase “plucked” from the cricket pitch and politicised by former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott – has become the Macquarie Dictionary’s Word of the Year for 2015. Mr Abbott’s controversial choice to award Prince Philip a knighthood was one of his many “captain’s calls”. The noun is defined as “a decision made by a political or business leader without consultation with colleagues”. The dictionary said the word “perfectly encapsulates” Australia in 2015. [BBC] See List of the Day

 

Video of the Day –

Liquid Ping Pong in Space – RED 4K

List of the Day –

Australian Word of the Year runners-up

lumbersexual: a portmanteau of lumberjack and metrosexual – referring to urban men who adopt the style of an outdoorsman as a fashion statement.

deso: Colloquially refers to a designated driver, who refrains from drinking alcohol in order to drive others safely home. Also, deso driver.

open kimono: A business policy of sharing information freely with an outside party.

keyboard warrior: a person who adopts an excessively aggressive style in online discussions which they would not normally adopt in person-to-person communication, often in support of a cause, theory, world view, etc.

ghost plate: a clear plastic numberplate cover which becomes opaque when viewed from certain angles, thereby obscuring the registration number; designed to circumvent identification by speed cameras.

athleisure: clothing, shoes, etc., designed for both exercise and general casual wear.

tri-tip: a cut of beef, taken from the bottom of the sirloin.

digital disruption: Commerce the impact of digital technology in making various established industries and products obsolete.

abandoned porn: a genre of photography which romanticises abandoned buildings and urban areas in a state of decay. Also, ruin porn.

wombat gate: a swing gate installed in a ditch going underneath a fence, so that wombats, who follow very predictable patterns at night, can come and go without destroying the fence.

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1 #growingupwithmyname #growingupwithmyname #PillowTalk
2 #TengoAltoVicioPor SNOWBOARDING WITH THE NYPD #GrowingUpWithMyName
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7 #PillowTalk #ToBeManagementMaterial #ToniBraxtonMovie
8 #MeGustasPeroDeberias Sydney Rain Norwich
9 #HappyBirthdayCalumHood #NationalPeanutButterDay #CongratulationsLouis
10 #congratsarzaylea #DCDigOut #TheVoiceUK

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