Worldcrunch
Facebook rolled out a new feature for the Messenger app on iPhone that lets you make free phone calls to your friends using a WiFi or cellular data connection. There are, of course, a few caveats: But the calling feature in Messenger hints at the grander plans Facebook has for you phone. Just like Facebook […]
Let’s conduct a simple experiment: search on Google for any image of a recent American President — Johnson, Nixon, either father or son Bush, Clinton, Obama — at the moment of their first election victory. Then, search again for an image of the same man a few years later. Each will show the fatigue that […]
BBC, ESPN (U.S.), THE GUARDIAN, THE TELEGRAPH (U.K.) Worldcrunch LOS ANGELES – During an exclusive interview with Oprah Winfrey on Thursday night, Lance Armstrong has admitted that he did, in fact, take performance enhancing drugs during all seven Tour de France wins. The BBC callex it the most sophisticated, professional and successful doping program that […]
PARIS – Computer services giant Atos called 2012 the year of evangelization of “Big Data.” Now, in 2013, it’s time we may all be converted. Big Data is the massive volume of digital data that is so large to process that it needs additional management tools and database processing applications. It is much more than […]
BBC, THE GUARDIAN (UK) Worldcrunch NEW YORK– Dan Brown, the bestselling author of the Da Vinci Code, is set to release a new novel on May 14. According to The Guardian, Dan Brown’s dapper, tweed-suited symbologist Robert Langdon, the man who cracked The Da Vinci Code and found The Lost Symbol, is about to embark […]
KANSAS CITY- It looks like the typical American neighborhood home: a flag out front, a terrace with a rocking chair and a barbecue in the backyard. But this ordinary Kansas City street contains a hidden treasure. It’s one of the first places to have access to “Google Fiber,” the super-fast broadband that is 100 times […]
Worldcrunch LOS ANGELES – The 70th Golden Globes ceremony took place Sunday night in Los Angeles, bringing together Television and Cinema… surprise and predictability. Here’s what happened: 1. After being snubbed at the Oscar nominations, Ben Affleck’s drama “Argo” about the hostage crisis in Iran, won Best Picture, Drama, (and Director) beating tough competition from […]
Too many travelers ignore some pretty basic American laws that can seem foreign to them. Here’s how it looks to the Italian go-to lawyer in New York for just such cases.
Thanks to Android boom and strategic mistakes at Microsoft, Bing search is even further behind Google on mobile devices.
At the end of this year, when Apple’s cheap iPhone comes out, it is going to be amusing to listen to all the Apple fans who consoled themselves about Apple’s loss of market share by dismissing competitors’ phones as “cheap plastic crap.” Because the new cheap iPhone is supposed to have a cheap plastic back. […]
John Brennan as CIA Director: What It Means
BBC, CNN, NEW YORK TIMES Worldcrunch WASHINGTON – Barack Obama’s choice for Secretary of Defence is Chuck Hagel, a Vietnam War veteran and former Republican senator from Nebraska. White House officials have also confirmed to multiple sources that Obama is set to name his counter-terrorism advisor John Brennan as the new director of the CIA. […]
A new L.A. exhibit shows the legendary director’s concern that IBM, which advised him on “2001: A Space Odyssey,” would not be happy with the 1968 classic’s scary tech storyline.
In Colorado, meet the nation’s first newspaper weed critic.
Tuesday’s fiscal agreement defuses the fiscal cliff by deferring most tax hikes and pushing back the sequester. A deal has been made, a financial crash avoided, and near-term growth prospects look rosier. Markets have cheered news of the agreement. Is such cheer warranted? That depends on what happens next. By itself, the package raises little […]
AL JAZEERA (Qatar), FORBES, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, CNN (USA) Worldcrunch Al Jazeera Media Network has announced that it has acquired Current TV, a U.S. cable channel created seven years ago by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. We are excited to announce a new U.S.-based news channel and the acquisition of @current TV. aje.me/S5JWw5 […]
PARIS – Hurricane Sandy in the U.S., the tsunami in Japan or the eruption of the Eyjafjoll volcano in Iceland. Could the rising tide of such natural disasters be explained by man’s voluntary action? Could these cataclysms be triggered deliberately by the army, for political reasons? For years, these conspiracy theories, relayed generously on the […]
WALL STREET JOURNAL, CNN, BLOOMBERG (USA), REUTERS Worldcrunch WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives has approved a Senate bill to avoid the American and global economy facing the dreaded consequences of the so-called “fiscal cliff” of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts across the United States. Hailed as a victory for President Barack Obama, the […]
Forget New York, Washington, Boston, Houston, Miami and Chicago. Starbucks, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Hooters, Checkers, Target, Best Buy, 7/11, CVS, Wal-Mart, Family Dollar? Well, forget them too. If you’re looking for the soul of America, get in your car and drive out to back country. Where nothing happens. Nothing at all. Like Hollywood, […]
AP (USA) Worldcrunch WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate has approved a bill aimed at avoiding tax increases and spending cuts. Senators voted 89-9 to approve the proposal. Three democrats and five Republicans dissented. In a statement released by the White House early Tuesday morning, President Obama said, “While neither Democrats nor Republicans got everything they […]
GENEVA – To distinguish themselves from Facebook and Twitter, new social networks are trying to find a different economic model. A trend is emerging – the return to paid subscriptions. From App.net to Diaspora, here is a short review of these new actors. App.net, the paying Twitter “We are selling our product, not our users.” […]
AP, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT (USA) Worldcrunch WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was admitted to a New York hospital on Sunday, after the discovery of a blood clot stemming from a concussion she suffered earlier this month, reports the AP. #SecClinton is being treated for a blood clot stemming from a concussion sustained […]
Bob McMahon and I typically use our weekly podcast to discuss major foreign policy issues likely to be in the news in the coming week. In honor of the approaching New Year, we decided to change things up and examine the issues likely to dominate world politics in 2013. We discussed a sluggish global economy; […]
Americans started eating out a lot more over the past thirty years, a trend that likely caused obesity rates to skyrocket, according to a new USDA report. The study tracked caloric and nutrient consumption at home versus restaurants, fast food establishments and schools between 1978 and 2008. Their results: Over the past 30 years, food […]
REUTERS, FOXNEWS, CNN, AP (USA) Worldcrunch SALT LAKE CITY – Gun-rights advocates in Utah have offered six hours of training in handling concealed weapons for teachers, in the wake of the mass shooting that killed 20 children and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. On Thursday, about 200 Utah teachers […]
NEW YORK TIMES, AP (USA) Worldcrunch Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who commanded the U.S.-led forces that stormed to victory in the first Persian Gulf War against Iraq in 1991, has died at the age of 78. The New York Times called Schwarzkopf the “most acclaimed military hero since the midcentury exploits of Generals Dwight D. […]
REUTERS, CNN Worldcrunch HOUSTON – Former President George H.W. Bush has been in a Houston hospital for more than a month, and in intensive care since Sunday, a family spokesman has revealed. He has been in the intensive care unit at Methodist Hospital since Sunday, spokesman Jim McGrath told CNN late Wednesday. Bush is in […]
For investors just getting into the game, the process can seem a little bit like a middle school dance. Awkward and inexperienced, they suction-cup themselves to the walls and poke around the punch bowl while bullish professionals stampede the floor and steal all the good deals. Ever thought you might be selling yourself a little […]
LOS ANGELES TIMES, NEW YORK TIMES Worldcrunch News spread over the Christmas holiday that the acting trade had lost two of its most ordinarily recognizable faces, Jack Klugman and Charles Durning. Klugman, who died at the age of 90 on Monday, broke through with supporting movie roles in Hollywood, but was mostly remembered for his […]
Using lasers for tracking objects through the sky has been possible for years, but there’s never been anything like Lockheed’s new laser defense system successfully tested last week. It’s not that using high-powered lasers to drop incoming missiles is anything new, and was achieved by Boeing with a nine-year Air Force project that was canceled […]
WALL STREET JOURNAL, CNN (USA), REUTERS Worldcrunch European stocks and U.S. stock futures fell Friday after Republican House members canceled a vote on a tax bill intended to avert a massive budget crisis, reports the Wall Street Journal. Republican lawmakers have rejected party leader John Boehner’s proposal designed to win concessions from President Barack Obama […]
LOS ANGELES TIMES, VOICE OF AMERICA (USA), REUTERS Worldcrunch WASHINGTON – Four senior U.S. State Department officials resigned after an independent review board determined their operational responsibility for “grossly inadequate” security when Islamic militants killed four Americans at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, reports the Los Angeles Times. Among them is Eric Boswell, the […]
PARIS – As the end of the year approaches, it is difficult to escape the gift-giving madness. Santa has the family covered, of course, but the office is a different matter. Here, a postman replaces the old man with the red coat. The person who sent the present is rarely from Lapland – most often […]
PARIS – Adam Lanza, killer of 20 children and seven adults, including his mother, is a mass murderer – he murdered a large number of people in a short time in one place. He then committed suicide in a classroom. Ending your life or having the police shoot you dead is often part of the […]
US STATE DEPT. (USA), AFP Worldcrunch An independent inquiry has criticized the State Department for inadequate security at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on the day of the September attack that killed four American government personnel including Ambassador John Christopher Stevens. The 39-page unclassified report, which also cited intelligence failures, focused much of its […]
NASA and others have chimed in on the likelihood of black holes, solar flares striking on Dec. 21.
CNN, INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES, WASHINGTON POST, CBS, MSNBC (USA) Worldcrunch WASHINGTON – As the devastated Connecticut town continues to bury its young, attention elsewhere in the United States has begun to shift more squarely to Washington and the question of gun control legislation. Will last Friday’s mass school killing n Newton, Connecticut be a tipping […]
-Essay- BERLIN – My five-year-old son Finn goes to an American kindergarten – a place just like Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Bethlehem in Pennsylvania is about as far from Philadelphia as Newtown is from New York – in their own way, both are typical U.S. East Coast towns. Finn’s school even looks […]
BOSTON GLOBE, CNN (USA) Worldcrunch NEWTOWN – On Monday the Connecticut town prepares for the first funerals of the mass shooting at an elementary school that killed 20 young children and six educators. President Obama vowed on Sunday to use “whatever power this office holds” in coming weeks to prevent other mass shootings like the […]
-OpEd- PARIS – America is crying for its children. The country is in mourning, after the Connecticut elementary school shooting that left 28 dead, including 20 children between the ages of six and seven. President Barack Obama shed real tears as he was listing the number of recent shootings: “These neighborhoods are our neighborhoods, and […]