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A Russian doctor sent from Moscow to check on a Dutch autopsy on Milosevic said on Wednesday he was satisfied his death on Saturday was from a heart attack, but he could have been saved if he had gone to Russia for treatment as he asked. |
A Dutch specialist cited blood test evidence suggesting Milosevic may have secretly taken medication to worsen his blood pressure, to boost his case for treatment in Russia. |
I recently discussed cashless transactions with Joseph Bailey, an associate research professor at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. |
Q: According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, nearly 30 percent of Americans say they make no cash purchases during a typical week. How does the use of electronic payments in the United States compare with other countries? |
A: The United States is moving quickly toward more cashless transactions, but it still lags some European countries, such as Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Sweden has reached a tipping point at which only about 2 percent of transactions are conducted in cash. |
In part, that’s because the Swedes are technologically savvy, they have a relatively small market and the government encourages electronic payments of its currency. |
Chinese cities are also embracing the cashless life, with a mobile-phone system that uses encrypted codes for transactions. In India, some 255 million people are making everyday purchases using the Paytm virtual wallet system backed by China’s Alibaba. |
Q: Will the United States catch up with the other countries? |
A: If you want a picture of how we’ll handle money in the future, look at how college students manage their money. And then just imagine a world in which they are the majority, and not the rest of us who grew up in a world where we carried around wallets with paper money and maybe coins in our pockets. |
Q: What are the trade-offs for consumers as we move toward more cashless transactions? |
A: Consumers give up anonymity when they don’t use cash. |
For example, let’s say you go grocery shopping and your payment shows whether you got a discount for using a reusable bag or paid for a plastic store bag. Marketing could be tailored to you based on how you’re perceived to feel about the environment. Or if you use electronic payments to buy a lot of fruits and vegetabl... |
Some consumers may not be comfortable with this type of marketing because they think it’s an invasion of privacy. |
Q: Are there any other drawbacks to a cashless society? |
A: Cashless businesses could hurt low-income consumers who mostly use cash. In addition, we eventually could see a surcharge for using cash. |
Theft could also become a bigger problem. You may be less likely to be pickpocketed because you’re not carrying cash, but you might face a greater financial threat from a remote hacker or data thief who manages to hack into your smartphone. |
Rivan V. Stinson is a reporter at Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine. Send your questions and comments to moneypower@kiplinger.com. |
Miller, Charles L. Beloved husband of Dolores (nee Sobecki). Loving father of Debra (Roger) Hartig, Leonard (Joan), Gerry (Paul) Morales, David (Kathy) Jameson, Michelle Miller, and Lisa Labellarte. Cherished grandfather of Lisa (Jose) Solis, Jenny Morales, Keith Miller, Kevin Miller, Robert Morales, Kyle (Janet) James... |
"I just heard about the passing of Charlie. I am so sorry..." |
MICK HENDERSON, believed to be football’s oldest referee, is hanging up his whistle after 65 years in the middle. |
The 85-year-old, who retired from teaching when he was 54, admits that he’s falling off the pace – and that it’s age which is catching up with him. |
He took up refereeing while on National Service in 1954, when a sergeant suggested that he needed a couple of linesmen and he discovered that he enjoyed it, and has been linesmen at two England schoolboy internationals. |
His two sons also became referees, their careers much more short-lived. “They couldn’t stand the hassle,” he admits. |
He’ll continue to play golf – “that’s not very good either, these days” – has been chairman of the Durham Sunday League for 25 years and is vice-chairman of the local referees’ society, where apathy alarms him. |
We’d last watched him in November 2014, a Saturday morning Over 40s League match between Trimdon Vets and Hartlepool Stag and Monkey. |
That was already his 41st game of the season – “not including friendlies, you don’t count those” – and that afternoon he handled his 42nd, at Durham University. “So long as I get my sausage and chips after the first match I’m happy,” he said. “Why stop doing something you enjoy? |
In the first week of that season he’d shown three red cards. In the 30-odd games which followed he’d not produced so much as a yellow. “I still give them a hell of a bollocking. A hell of a bollocking from Mick is like a yellow card,” he said. |
The undammable surge in offensive language has been one of the biggest changes. “When I started it was like going to church, you just didn’t hear any swearing. |
At Microsoft's Build conference on Wednesday, CEO Satya Nadella laid out his company's vision for the future of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. |
Microsoft has already made plain its ambitions to make Cortana and its machine learning-based engine more useful and pervasive. Nadella elaborated on those ambitions during Wednesday's Build keynote, describing Microsoft's concept of "conversational computing" and how it will be integrated in everything from Windows, i... |
In a callback to the name of the conference, Nadella called on developers to "build" the next wave of applications based on tools and services that Microsoft is rolling out, including 22 Cognitive Services APIs for the Azure-based Cortana Intelligence Suite (previously called the Cortana Analytics Suite) and the new Mi... |
The Bot Framework is designed for developers building intelligent bots that use natural language across platforms and apps. Nadella said the Bot Framework, which includes an intelligence runtime, will work in any programming language and will allow developers to build interconnected applications that use speech as the ... |
"We think this intelligence runtime [in the Bot Framework] and Cortana Intelligence Suite is going to be core, just like how the .NET runtimes were, to all of the applications you are going to build," Nadella said. The notion of the Bot Framework runtime, Nadella said is that developers can build intelligence into thei... |
Microsoft will roll out the framework over time, though the company is bringing it to Skype with the Skype Bot Platform, which consists of an SDK, API and workflows available in the new Skype Bot Portal. |
"We want to take that power of human language and apply it more pervasively to all of the computing interface and the computing interactions," Nadella said. "To do that, you have to infuse into the computers and computing around us intelligence. It means you have to bring forth these technologies of artificial intellig... |
Microsoft is not alone in its push to make computing and mobile devices that interact with users through speech. Apple, Google and even Amazon with its Echo device have similar offerings, though they are generally considered novelties due to their frequently unpredictable performance. |
Microsoft's AI efforts have not always gone smoothly, either, as Nadella acknowledged during Wednesday's keynote. The company suffered a black eye last week when its new social media "chat bot" called Tay began Tweeting racist, anti-Semitic and sexist remarks. Microsoft disabled the bot and apologized. |
"We quickly learned it was not up to this mark, and so we're back to the drawing board," Nadella said. |
2018 was a year of accolades and national acclaim for the burgeoning Colorado wine industry. Home to more than 150 wineries, Colorado received recognition for both producing many outstanding wines and as a top destination for its two federally-designated wine regions. Last year began with Wine Enthusiast proclaiming th... |
Other national publications also spotlighted Colorado as a top wine destination. USA Today Top 10 ranked the Grand Valley as one of the top 10 best wine regions in the country. The iconic FOOD + WINE Magazine named Infinite Monkey Theorem one of the top 10 best urban wineries in the country. And VOGUE Magazine included... |
In October, almost 900 American wines were tasted by the critics at JamesSuckling.com, a highly regarded website that focuses on the great wine regions of the world, at Barboursville Winery in Virginia. The tasting provided a comprehensive look at emerging quality producers across the United States, with entries from w... |
Robert Parker Wine Advocate reviewer Mark Squires also doled out some big scores to Colorado wineries in 2018 while noting that good USA wine can come from places other than the West Coast. He proclaimed that he’s found the samples from Colorado to be ”increasingly interesting.” The Infinite Monkey Theorem’s Bubble Uni... |
Finally, in the most comprehensive tasting of Colorado wines ever – the 2018 Colorado Governor’s Cup – 344 wines from 49 Colorado wineries were evaluated by a panel of 16 wine experts from around the country. The winners were poured at a public event at History Colorado Center where BookCliff Vineyards’ 2015 Cabernet F... |
The Colorado Wine Industry Development Board is an agency of the Colorado Department of Agriculture, dedicated to promoting and furthering the development of Colorado’s grape growers and approximately 140 wineries. For additional information, visit www.coloradowine.com. |
Information about the auction and pictures of the items will be available online at hawkinsvilleauction.com in March. For other questions, call the gallery at (478) 783-4343. |
Hawkinsville Auction Gallery is located at 318 Industrial Blvd. in Hawkinsville. |
Danny Ray Hicks from Bonaire, Georgia, was mortally wounded Wednesday night after he reportedly confronted a trespasser in Houston County. Hicks was shot in the chest and leg, he died at a hospital. |
3 retail spacces between 1400-3000 Sqaure Feet. Lease price ranges from $13-$16/foot/year, NNN, and CAMS are required to be paid in monthly rent by tentant on top of /sqft Price. Co Tenants include Dollar Tree and Game Stop and Nearby tenants include Walmart and Lowes. Excellent visibillity and generous signage. |
Prime location in the Diamond Mountain Shopping Center. This Large affordable space could be used for so many retail options. This would also make an amazing Gym or Dance/gymnastics location. Easy to view, lets talk about the possibilities with this spot for lease. |
Owner is related to seller & is a licensed agent. Sold as is1st floor laundry near kitchen. Small bedroom/office on first floor, other two bedrooms upstairs with a full bathroom. |
Nice 3 bedroom 1 bath two story, could be a starter home or rental, some newer updates. Need 24 hrs notice to show. |
It's like Hypercolor but for touch instead of heat. |
Something unexpected happened when scientists at the University of California, Riverside, started stringing together nanoparticles of gold. |
The gold wasn't golden anymore. It changed colors. |
"When we see these gold particles aggregate, we find out they have very, very beautiful blue colors," chemist Yadong Yin told me. That bright blue would dissipate like a sunset—morphing into purple, then red—when scientists warped the strings, breaking apart the nanoparticles. |
The finding was one of those happy scientific accidents that turns into something bigger. "So after we found out the reason why they show blue colors and what the structure was, then we started to think what kind of use they could have," Yin said. |
What Yin and his colleagues came up with: Sensors made of gold nanoparticles that change colors as you press on them. Think of it as a Hypercolor—those color-changing T-shirts all the cool kids had in the '90s—but for touch instead of heat. But rather than using color-changing sensors for fashion, Yin and his team see ... |
Here's how it works: Scientists combine gold nanoparticles in liquid form until the solution turns blue. Then they embed that solution into a polymer film, thin and flexible like a Band-Aid. As the film gets stretched—by being pressed or hit—those nanoparticles start separating. And when the particles break apart, they... |
In other words, these sensors don't just tell you that there was an impact; they let you visualize how strong of an impact it was. Conventional sensors aren't that nuanced. "For a harder hit, you will see more red," Yin said. "Someplace which is not really hit may remain as blue. So you can actually see that immediatel... |
The technology has other potential applications. Baseball players could coat their bats with sensors to analyze their grips. Sensors could be attached to beds or other furniture—then hooked up to data trackers—to assess sleeping position or posture. University of California, Riverside, has filed a patent on the technol... |
Then again, silver would be cheaper. It would also offer a broader spectrum of color—silver particles absorb far more light than gold ones—which is why researchers are working on developing silver nanoparticle sensors next. Gold is more commonly used than silver in nanotechnology because "chemically, gold is more stabl... |
Yin says he's already received emails from people who have ideas about using the technology in ways he hadn't imagined. A cellist suggested using nanoparticle sensors to teach students how to hold instruments properly, for example. "I can imagine lots of people using it," Yin said. |
Adrienne LaFrance is the executive editor of The Atlantic. She was previously a senior editor and staff writer at The Atlantic, and the editor of TheAtlantic.com. |
Alyson Stoner may have come across as confident and in charge of her sexuality in her touching Teen Vogue piece last week, but she admitted to ET that the process wasn’t easy. |
Stoner got very candid in her piece, revealing that she’s fallen in love with a woman and that she went through intense therapy to try to understand the root of her attraction. |
"Our bond didn't feel quite sisterly or platonic," the 24-year-old actress wrote. "Flashes of her smile progressed to flashes of her wavy hair followed by the curve of her hips through her straight-leg pants. I realized I had never fantasized about a guy this way, nor really ever felt comfortable dating guys." |
After some internal struggles, Stoner is embracing her sexuality. |
Blockers hits theaters on April 6. |
Channing and Jenna Dewan Tatum Can't Keep Their Hands Off Each Other in 'Step Up' Audition Tape: Watch! |
Android Wear is Google's attempt to — finally — take smartwatches and other wearable devices into the mainstream. |
The aim of Android Wear is to create a standard user experience for wearable devices connected to Android-powered smartphones or tablets , starting with smartwatches. |
Google's pitch is that smartwatches can give wearers access to timely information — must-read messages, social media updates or directions — without them having to fish around in their pocket or bag to drag out their smartphone or tablet. |
Google sees health and fitness monitoring as one potentially big growth area for Wear — for example, fitness apps will be able to display real-time speed and distance travelled on wearable devices to give users an insight into their running or cycling regimes. |
In future, Android Wear devices may also serve as remote controls for other devices, such as giving users the ability to launch a playlist on their phone or 'cast' a movie to their TV. |
Google's Android Wear video (below) shows a range of scenarios where Android Wear watches might come in handy, from confirming a taxi pick up, to sending a jellyfish warning to someone about to go surfing. Other scenarios include sending a wearer updates on traffic on their route to work, or sending a QR-code boarding ... |
It's hardly the first time tech companies have claimed smartwatches are the next big thing, but Google is working with consumer electronics manufacturers — including Asus, HTC, LG, Motorola and Samsung — and watch brands such as Fossil to put Android Wear watches in the market later this year, making this the most seri... |
Motorola is planning to launch the Moto 360, a round-faced timepiece, in the summer (it's pictured in the hipster setting above) while LG has showcased a video of the G Watch, which comes with a water-resistant square-faced watch with an 'always on' screen (below). It's expected to launch this quarter. |
Because smartwatches have tiny screens and batteries compared to the plentiful real estate and processing power of a phablet, Google has rethought the Android user interface and stripped it back to conserve power — and stop smartwatches driving users crazy with constant updates. |
Android Wear builds on the existing notification system used by Android apps, giving devices a 'context stream' made up of a vertically-scrolling list of 'cards' carrying small pieces of information, similar to those seen in Google Now. For example a card might carry a message from a friend, or a weather forecast. Wear... |
Android Wear notifications. Image: Google. |
The cards can also be swiped sideways to show more information on additional cards. Google calls these extra cards 'pages'. The first card from a weather app might show today's weather, with an extra page adding a three-day forecast, for example. |
Developers can build these card alerts into their apps so they can be injected into the stream when they are relevant. These notifications can be triggered by contextually for example geofences can be used to pop up information when the wearer arrives home, or developers can use Android's activity detection APIs to sen... |
An example of an Android Wear alert. Image: Google. |
Google wants developers to emphasise "glanceable" updates that provide "the maximum payload of information with a minimum of fuss". And, rather than risk wearers making mistakes when poking fat fingers at tiny screens, Google said "inputs requiring fine-grained motor skills" should be avoided and recommends interaction... |
Google is also keen to stop apps from being too irritating. "Be respectful of users' attention and aware of how unnecessary interruptions will reflect on your application's reputation," its guide for developers advises. That means notifications that make your watch vibrate should be limited to situations where urgent a... |
Smartwatch sending message. Image: Google. |
Smartwatches have been tried before and failed — the technology wasn't ready (limited battery life was a problem, and few people were willing to charge their watch every day), and wearers struggled to see the point of them. However, growing enthusiasm for fitness bands (such as the Nike+ FuelBand, Jawbone UP, and Fitbi... |
More importantly (at least for them and their shareholders) consumer electronics companies need a new moneyspinner now the smartphone market is showing signs of saturation. Nobody is sure that smartwatches are the answer, but persistent rumours that Apple is working on an 'iWatch' means that most smartphone makers feel... |
More than 19 million wearable devices will be shipped this year according to analyst IDC — triple the number shipped last year — and the analysts predicts this will grow to 112 million units by 2018. |
Cheap, simple to use fitness bands will continue to lead the market, according to analyst IDC. What the analyst describes as 'smart accessories' like smartwatches (so-called because they need a smartphone or tablet to work) will make up another chunk of the market. However, "their value proposition has yet to be comple... |
"While not quite ready for prime time, the smart accessory market will continue to mature as users better understand and accept the value proposition and vendors refine their offerings," IDC said. In other words, manufacturers are trying to figure out what works, and consumers are still figuring out whether they really... |
The third and least developed segment of the market is fully autonomous wearables such as Google Glass, which don't need the wearer to be toting a phone as well; it could be years before these types of device are selling in significant numbers. And it may be that businesses rather than consumers are the first to jump i... |
"To succeed, smart wearable vendors must convince users to shift to a new user experience while offering them a robust selection of third-party applications. It is not a question of 'if,' but 'when' wearables as a whole will extend into the enterprise," the analyst said. |
And getting consumers to buy smartwatches is only the first step. Research suggests that most of these devices get dumped pretty quickly after being bought — the high tech version of joining a gym and only going once. Turning them from novelties into useful devices is one of the biggest challenges. |
The Pebble smartwatch. Image: Pebble. |
Android Wear isn't the only game in town either . Samsung (pointedly missing from the initial set of Android Wear supporters even though it's the biggest Android maker) has been experimenting with the Android rival Tizen OS on its Gear 2 smartwatch. Other smartwatch players include Pebble and Sony's smartwatch, and Mic... |
All you need to fool Tesla’s autopilot into changing lane is a handful of stickers. |
Tesla’s autopilot uses cameras to detect lane markings, so that it can position itself in the middle of the road and automatically change lanes when required. A team at Keen Security Labs, run by Chinese technology giant Tencent, managed to confuse the system on a Tesla Model S with just three stickers placed on the ro... |
The car’s autopilot system incorrectly classified the stickers, which were placed over road markings to make a jagged, rather than straight-edged. This caused the Tesla to move onto the wrong side of the road. |
The hack works because Tesla’s front-facing camera can’t easily distinguish between the genuine markings on the ground and the stickers. |
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