Blog

Techstars Boston Demo Day was in a glitzy new setting (the House of Blues withing spitting distance of Fenway) and also drew some surprising (non-tech) star power.

Here are my highly subjective highlights:

1: David Ortiz.

A (very fuzzy) David Ortiz at TechStars Demo Day.

There was a bona fide Big Papi moment on stage as the Red Sox superstar and Boston superhero, in general, as David Ortiz strode on stage to greet Fancred CEO Kash Rassaghi. This startup is building a “social platform” to connect sports aficianados with like-minded fans. Ortiz demanded that Rassaghi “get the Yankess off my cell phone.” (I dropped my phone but recovered in time to get one sub-par shot at left.)

Is there really room for a sports fan platform? Doubtful. But, hey, I’ve been wrong before. And did I mention DAVID ORTIZ???

2: A platform for sustainable, local food

I love the idea behind Freight Farms, which takes shipping crates and retrofits them with water, electricity,  internet access and LED lighting to convert them into compact hydroponic gardens.

The elegant idea is to “take the very structure that makes the global food supply chain possible and make it into a platform for producing local food,” said Brad McNamara, Freight Farms CEO.

Freight Farms CEO Brad McNamara.

They are remotely controlled and, because they are stackable, they take up less real estate. Freight Farms has signed several customers including Katsiroubas Brothers,  a 100-year old Boston-based produce wholesaler, which is looking for better ways to cut transport costs and offer customers more local product.

“There is nothing better than fresh local food, but the reality is food distribution is a long complicated supply chain — most goods travel 1,500 miles on average to get to your table,” said McNamara.

Freight Farm-grown crops require less water, no pesticides or herbicides. My question: Will a their tomatoes taste like other hot-house tomatoes (i.e., like cardboard) or like an actual tomato? If it’s the latter, I’m totally sold.

3: DIY clothing design

In a nod to the burgeoning “maker market” or do-it-yourself crowd, Mary Huang was to hand to talk up Constrvct, her startup that’s building service that lets you design 3-D clothing onscreen, tweak the size and styling with easy slidebar controls, preview your design on an onscreen maniquin and then make your clothes to order.

“Makers are underserved in the do-it-yourself market — they’re stuck at the same starting point as their grandmothers,” Huang said. Interest in home-designed clothes is rising thanks to Pinterest and Project Runway, she said, quoting a surprising stat: 3 million sewing machines sold last year, double the number from ten years ago.

4: Fixing manufacturing

LinkCycle says it can use its own data science — and existing data — to help manufacturing plants drastically cut their energy costs.

These facilities — many of them rust belt relics — are notorious for wasting energy and to remedy that many spend millions installing meters and hiring auditors to help. Most of that spending is also a waste, according to LinkCycle CEO Sahil Sahni.

“Why spend so much time gathering data when companies are already sitting on heaps of it?” he asked.

LinkCycle instead takes two exisitng data streams from the ERP systems already running these companies — electricity consumption and total production output. “We developed our own algorithms to take that data and use math — not meters — to save money wihtout having to set foot in the plant,” he said.

Wow, that sounds so easy it makes you wonder why someone else hasn’t done it. Well except for that algorithm part anyway.

So, the new venue was fab but it suffered the same woe as past Techstars events — a lack of reliable connectivity. We soldiered through with personal hotspots and (finally) some intermittent Wifi connections but can’t one of these deep-pocketed sponsors finally figure out how to get reliable broadband into these events? (I’m  looking at you  Microsoft, Rackspace, Verizon and Softlayer.)

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• How to Make Cloud Computing Greener
• The case for low-power servers in the data center
• Data center, meet the smart grid

Big data has become something of a buzzword. Everybody talks about it, but its impact can be elusive. How is big data really changing the way companies and other organizations function? These 12 stories highlight that transformation: from helping health insurers keep better tabs on patients, to changing how cars are made, to easing traffic congestion on busy freeways. These case studies show big data at work.

Healthcare

Getty Images

We’ve got the medicine to treat lots of ailments — the challenge is getting doctors and patients to focus on the the one or two intervention programs that would make a real difference to a person’s health. Aetna is using big data to try to achieve that.

–From How Aetna is using big data to improve patient health

Cars

Getty Images

When most people think about how cars are built, they think about assembly lines and manufacturing robots. But at Ford, big data is impacting the parts and features of those cars before they’re ever part of a design file.

–From How data is changing the car game at Ford

Presidential campaigns

Getty Images

Many people use Facebook to update their status, share photos, and “like” content. The Obama presidential campaign used all that data on the social network to not just find voters but to assemble an army of volunteers.

–From How Obama’s data scientists built a volunteer army on Facebook

Highway traffic

Shutterstock

Anyone who has driven in Los Angeles has experienced the traffic nightmare. The goverment is using big data to keep traffic moving on the I-10 and I-110 freeways for drivers who are willing to pay for less congestion.

–From Hey, Los Angeles, Xerox thinks it can clear traffic on I-10

Pro basketball

Pro sports teams collect vast amounts of data, yet they’re struggling to make sense of it. Are there two or three things that will guarantee teams a win or at least tip the scale in their favor? That’s Krossover’s premise.

–From How to make your mark in professional basketball at 5′ 9″

Music

 

More than a decade ago, the music metadata company Gracenote received some cryptic advice from Apple to buy more servers. It did, Apple launched iTunes and the iPod, and Gracenote became a metadata empire.

–From Gracenote co-founder on ‘iPod day’ and better music through data

Social networking

Ghosh’s diagram of LinkedIn’s data architecture, with Hadoop plans laid out

Five years ago, LinkedIn was a shell of the technology company. Today, it’s an engineering powerhouse. Here’s how it got there.

–From How and why LinkedIn is becoming an engineering powerhouse

Insurance

The insurance industry hasn’t exactly been a beacon of technological innovation. But MetLife has bet $300 million on a new system that for the first time puts everything it knows about its customers in one place.

–From The promise of better data has MetLife investing $300M in new tech

Television

How RUWT might work on the TV.

For sports fans, keeping up with what’s on TV is a near impossibility. On many nights there are hundreds of events spread across 8,000-plus channels. One app tracks all that sports and rates games based on how exciting the action is — so you know what to tune into.

–From How one sports geek wants to save cable TV with data

Social change

One of India’s highest-rated TV shows aggregates and analyzes the millions of messages it receives from viewers on controversial issues like female feticide, caste discrimination and child abuse — and uses that data to push for political change.

–From How India’s favorite TV show uses data to change the world

Prescription drugs

Shutterstock

While drug prices tend to dominate discussions about prescription drugs, we shouldn’t overlook the economic problems caused by abuse and misuse. One company is using sophisticated models to detect fraud and predict when people will stop taking medications on time.

–From Not taking your medication, or taking waaay too much? The data knows…

Email

MailChimp’s core business is email — it sends about 35 billion emails a year on behalf of roughly 3 million users. But it’s what the company is doing with the data from all those emails that may represent its future.

–From How MailChimp learned to treat data like orange juice and rethink email in the process

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• GigaOM Research highs and lows from CES 2013
• How HR can make the case for workforce analytics
• The 2013 task management tools market

Times are tough, and when the economy slumps, everyone feels it. Unfortunately, some bar owners in New Jersey tried to crawl out of their slump by mixing food coloring with rubbing alcohol to pass it off as scotch.

In a sting called “Operation Swill”, state police say they have raided 29 bars and restaurants and are accusing them of serving cheap alcohol from expensive bottles. Fortunately, only one used rubbing alcohol, though officials aren’t saying which one. They have released information concerning 13 of the accused restaurants, which are all T.G.I. Fridays. An internal investigation is underway, according to a statement released by the company.

“This alleged scheme is a dishonest ruse to increase profits, and it is a slap in the face to the consumer,” said state Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa in a statement. “Consumers should have the peace of mind of knowing that they will get what they spent their hard-earned money on every single time – no exceptions.”

Over 1,000 bottles of liquor have been seized and are undergoing tests. Officials say no health complaints have been registered.

Google has a crisis response map for those affected by the giant tornado that ripped through Moore, Oklahoma. Included in that is imagery of the area from Google Maps.

Google posted a before/after look at the area to its Google Maps Google+ account today:

Google Maps7 hours ago

We've published post-tornado imagery of Moore, OK on our Google Crisis Response Map ( http://google.org/crisismap/2013-oklahoma-tornado ). Here's a before (collected on 29th April by CNES 2013, Distribution Astrium Services/Spot Image) and after (collected on 22nd May by Digitalglobe) view showing Briarwood elementary school and the surrounding area – http://goo.gl/9pazZ. You can check/uncheck the boxes on the right of the map link to explore more information.

478    22 Powered by socialditto

In other Google Maps news, the company also revealed that it has been using its Trekker camera device to capture new imager from the Galapagos Islands. This imagery will be making its way to Google Maps later this year. You can see a preview here.

After sports commentators oogled her at a college football game, Katherine Webb, the current Miss Alabama, found fame on social media. Since that time, Webb’s modeling career has taken off and she has starred in the ABC reality TV show Splash. Webb quit Splash, a televised high-dive competition, last month after suffering a minor injury.

All of this success is heavily based on Webb’s good looks, which it turns out she is very disciplined about maintaining. Webb this week told People magazine that she has been “eating healthy for about six or seven years.” This means, according to People, that she eats only about 1,120 calories a day. “It’s all about self-control,” the 5 foot, 11 inch tall Webb told the magazine.

As for what those 1,120 calories consist of, Webb mentioned smoothies, salad, fruit, chicken fingers, and sweet potato fries. Not on the menu are any sweets, such as as cake and cookies, as well as any type of bread.

Though 1,120 calories may not seem exorbitantly low, Webb is also reported to work out (with a focus on cardio) at least three times per week. With that in mind, People has also quoted a nutritionist as stating Webb could easily bump her daily calories to around 1,700.

Though the People report quotes Webb, the beauty queen has now used her Twitter account to contradict the story, stating that she loves chocolate too much to eat so few calories per day:

Follow @_KatherineWebb

Katherine Webb
@_KatherineWebb

No way I only eat 1100 cals a day! I love chocolate too much!

May 23, 2013

Google Chrome already holds the distinction of being one of the fastest, if not the fastest, browsers around. Now Google is working to make it even faster with the latest update to its Chrome beta client.

Google announced that Chrome 28, which is currently available in the beta channel, speeds up the browser with a new threaded HTML parser. What does that mean? Google says that Chrome 28 will load DOM content about 10 percent faster, and reduces the the maximum stop time by 40 percent. In other words, you’re going to see pages load much faster.

For users of Chrome for Android, you’re going to find that WebGL has been added as an experimental feature in the beta alongside Web Audio and WebRTC. WebGL and Web Audio can be combined to create web apps and games that run natively across any browser on any device.

Chrome for Android is also getting the Fullscreen API with this latest beta. When enabled, the browser UI and OS status bar will be hidden in favor of a full screen experience. You can test Chrome for Android’s Fullscreen API with this Chrome Experiment.

Google also details two major deprecated features that users and developers will need to be aware of. First, the Content Security Policy HTTP head is no more. Second, Chrome Extensions have been ditched in favor of the Rich Notifications Chrome API. Many see as a sign that Google Now is about to come to Chrome.

If you want to play around with the above beta features, be sure to download the Chrome Beta here.

A woman is accusing rapper Tim Dog of faking his own death just to get out of paying back money he acquired through scams.

Esther Pilgrim says the rapper, whose real name is Timothy Blair, was ordered by the court to pay her back to the tune of $19,000 after scamming her on a dating site. Pilgrim says she thinks she wasn’t his only victim, and that he actually owed millions. She doesn’t believe he’s dead due to a shady obituary.

“There was nothing of what you would normally find. What city? Who found him? There was nothing with any type of concrete details,” she said.

Reports originally stated Blair had died from complications of diabetes, but The Source, which broke the story, shows a broken link where the page was. A Mississippi prosecutor has issued an arrest warrant for Tim Dog.

“I need proof,” Steven Jubera said. “I need a death certificate showing that he’s dead, because as far as I’m concerned, he’s alive. Nobody said where he died, nobody said where he was buried, which is very odd for an obituary.”

If the rapper is indeed alive, he will promptly be arrested and thrown in jail until prosecutors can figure out what to do with him.

Earlier this month, a 33-year-old man was shot dead in his car while traveling southbound on I-95 near Oakland Park, Florida. After the shots were fired, Nicholas Romondo Walker’s silver Buick crashed into a guardrail and burst into flames. The incident shut down traffic on the interstate for nearly 4 hours.

Now, some interesting details have emerged surrounding the incident, the suspects, and the events leading up to the murder – mainly that an ill-timed 911 butt dial led police to one of the men involved.

The Broward County Sheriff’s Office says that the man who orchestrated the plot , 24-year-old Scott Simon, has been arrested and charged with first degree murder after he pocket-dialed 911 just moments before the fatal shooting occurred. They believe that the plot was hatched after the men got into a fight at a Waffle House.

“On a recorded line, Scott Simon can be heard telling someone else that he’s going to follow the victim home and kill him. Minutes later, 33-year-old Nicholas Walker was shot and killed while driving his car onto the highway,” said the Sheriff’s office in a release.

Authorities do not think that Simon actually pulled the trigger, so they are still searching for two other suspects in the case.

This isn’t the first time that a butt dial to 911 has led to a criminal’s demise. Back in 2011, two men were arrested after one of the made an unknown pocket call to 911 detailing their plot to sell stolen video games at a local exchange store. And last year, a man was arrested after butt dialing 911 during a drug deal.

It looks like the world’s worst superhero, Florida Man, has struck again.

When you first hear disruptive economics guru Clayton Christensen’s prediction that by 2019 half of all K-12 classes will be taught online, it’s easy to wonder if brick-and-mortar schools as we know them are on their way out.

But a new study released Thursday from his think tank, the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, depicts a future of education, particularly at the elementary school level, that isn’t nearly as stark as that. The paper, which refines theories on blended learning Christensen and his colleagues have laid out in the book “Disrupting Class” and other studies, introduces the idea of hybrid innovation. While Christensen’s famous theory of innovation mostly focuses on disruptive and sustaining innovations, the new paper offers the concept of the hybrid.

Often, the researchers argue, sectors experiencing disruption go through an extended phase in which old and new technology exist side by side, providing “the best of both worlds.” In education, many approaches to blended learning, which combine online instruction with traditional classroom learning, fall into this hybrid category.

“What’s clear to us from this theory is that schools will be here for the long haul,” said Michael Horn, executive director of the Institute, a co-author of the paper, as well as a co-author of “Disrupting Class.” “The future of learning is blended learning for the majority of students.”

In particular, he said, elementary schools will increasingly adopt less disruptive styles of blended learning that rotate online learning activities into a student’s schedule but still maintain the basic structure of a traditional teacher-led classroom. For example, schools will continue to “flip” their classrooms with videos (from Khan Academy or other sources) students can watch online, but mostly rely on classroom teachers to shape the experience.

At the middle school and high school levels, where students tend to have more personalized, modular schedules, he said, the school setting will remain in place but the classroom structure will be upended. In those grades, educators will increasingly adopt more disruptive blended learning models.

For example, students looking for more advanced subjects or languages not offered at their school could supplement their in-school experience with online classes – even massive open online courses – that barely involve offline instruction.

Horn said that one of his hopes for this most recent paper is that it helps give educators some clarity around what they can and can’t do to drive innovation in their classrooms and schools.

While superintendents, principals with some autonomy and a healthy budget, as well as philanthropists may be able to introduce more disruptive online learning models into their classrooms, Horn said, the most individual teachers and those with more limited budgets could likely do is encourage hybrid approaches.

“For the first time, it gave us a much clearer idea of what people in education could or could not do to bring about this future,” he said.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• How consumer media will change in 2013
• How to navigate the new world of digital advertising
• Flash analysis: future opportunities for Pinterest

Twitter is letting loose a lot of new advertising and marketing offerings. Earlier this week, Twitter launched a new Lead Generation card for mareters.

Today, the company announced the availability of TV ad targeting, which has been developed through its acquisition of Bluefin Labs. Twitter says it’s designed to make it easier to extend and enhance TV ad campaigns. The offering is now available for Promoted Tweets in limited beta to select partners running national TV commercials in the U.S.

“TV ad targeting enables marketers to engage directly with people on Twitter who have been exposed to their ads on TV,” says Twitter Revenue Product Manager Michael Fleischman. “Synchronized Twitter and TV ad campaigns make brand messages more engaging, interactive and measurable, while making it easy for marketers to run always-on Twitter campaigns that complement and amplify their TV creative.”

Twitter is giving advertisers a new TV ads dashboard, which shows when a brand’s TV ads have aired.

“This will help digital teams align not only with what’s shown on TV and when, but give insight into how Promoted Tweets can be crafted in the most effective ways to build upon broader marketing themes,” says Fleischman. “TV ad targeting works by using video fingerprinting technology to automatically detect when and where a brand’s commercials are running on TV, without requiring that advertiser to do any manual tracking or upload media plan details. Whenever a commercial airs during a TV show, Twitter not only determines where and when it ran, but can identify users on Twitter who tweeted about the program where the ad aired during that program. We believe a user engaged enough with a TV show to tweet about it very likely saw the commercials as well.”

Twitter also announced a new wave of multi-screen partners today, and named the partnership program Twitter Amplify. New partners (which join BBC America, FOX, Fuse and The Weather Channel) include: A&E, theAudience, Bloomberg TV, Clear Channel, Conde Nast, Discovery, MLB.com, National Cinemedia, New York Magazine, PGA Tour, PMC, Time Inc., VEVO, Warner Music, WWE and VICE.

According to Bloomberg, Twitter plans to release a tool similar to Facebook’s custom-audience feature as well.

Continue reading…

Amazon announced today that they are making their Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HD 8.9 devices available in more than 170 countries and territories around the world starting June 13th. Customers who are interested in one of the devices can go ahead and place a pre-order now by visiting Amazon.com. Along with access to the hardware, buyers in the new countries will get access to the Amazon App store and all of the content contained therein, including more than 300,000 books that are exclusive to the Kindle Store.

Dave Limp, vice president of Amazon Kindle notes the Kindle Fire HD “is the #1 best-selling item in the world for Amazon since its launch.” The 8.9-inch version of the device is available for $284 while the 7-inch version is available for $214. The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 can be preordered by visiting www.amazon.com/global-kindle-fire-hd-8.9 and the Kindle Fire HD is available at www.amazon.com/global-kindle-fire-hd. Interested buyers can also visit retailers who sell Kindle devices.

source: Amazon

Come comment on this article: Amazon adds more than 170 countries as markets for Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HD 8.9

A TED Prize wish must be ambitious and bold, with the ability to impact lives all across the globe. And yet, a TED Prize wish must also be practical — an actionable plan that can flourish with $1 million in seeding and access to leverage the power of the TED community. With nominations open for the 2014 TED Prize — you can nominate a visionary leader (be it yourself, a mentor, a co-worker, or someone whose work you admire from afar) from now through June 16 via the TED Prize website — we wanted to get your mental gears turning on what kind of wishes can be made with this annual award.

TED wishes have ranged from a global art project that lets anyone paste up meaningful portraits to a network of math and science schools in Africa looking to inspire and find the next Einstein. Below, a list of past TED Prize winners who offered great wishes to inspire the world.

Sugata Mitra: Build a School in the CloudSugata Mitra’s TED Prize wish: Build a School in the Cloud Education as we know it was developed under the British Empire, to instill a sense of order. But kids can learn in other ways, too! In this fiery talk from TED2013, Sugata Mitra shares the results of his “Hole in the Wall” experiments, where he placed computers in remote parts of India and watched as kids taught themselves to use them. He calls for a new model — self-organized learning — where kids ask big questions, investigate on their own and teach each other. His wish: the School in the Cloud, a learning lab in India, where children take control of their own learning.

JR's TED Prize wish: Use art to turn the world inside outJR’s TED Prize wish: Use art to turn the world inside out Artist JR makes human faces part of urban landscapes, pasting oversized posters in visually arresting ways. His projects always have a social purpose — to introduce posh neighborhoods to those living in nearby slums, to underline the similarities between Israelis and Palestinians, and to bring attention the quiet power of the world’s women. In this talk from TED2011, JR kicks off Inside Out, a worldwide participatory art project which, to date, has shipped 130,000 posters for pasting across the globe. The project is the subject of a documentary which just aired on HBO.

Jamie Oliver's TED Prize wish: Teach every child about foodJamie Oliver’s TED Prize wish: Teach every child about food Chef Jamie Oliver explains how he can improve the health of young people and extend their lifespans — not with medicine, but with information. In this talk from TED2010, Oliver assaults our ignorance about food and calls for a revolution. His wish: to teach every child about nutrition and the joy of food in school, and to generally inspire people everywhere to cook again.

Sylvia Earle's TED Prize wish to protect our oceansSylvia Earle’s TED prize wish: To protect our oceans Sylvia Earle has spent her life exploring the deep seas. And she’s scared by the depletion she’s seen to them over the span of just a few decades – 90 percent of the fish in the ocean have been eaten and Arctic ice has eroded unspeakably. In this moving talk from TED2009, Earle asks us to turn our attention to the “blue heart” of the planet and use all the resources at our disposal to support a global network of protected marine areas.

Jill Tarter's call to join the SETI searchJill Tarter’s TED Prize wish: Join the SETI search The director of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Jill Tarter poses a classic question: are we alone in the universe? In this talk from TED2009, she explains why she sees Earth as a “fragile island of life, in a universe of possibility,” and shares the growing array of tools that she and her team are using to search for signs of intelligence elsewhere in the universe. In this talk, she asks everyday Earthlings to join the search, by building a system through which data could be stored, accessed and analyzed in new ways.

Jose Antonio Abreu: The El Sistema music revolutionJose Antonio Abreu’s TED Prize wish: The El Sistema music revolution Jose Antonio Abreu is still amazed that his family and community supported his dream to be a musician. And so he created El Sistema, a national network of youth orchestras and choirs in Venezuela. El Sistema has changed the course of thousands of young lives. And at TED2009, he shared his TED prize wish: to bring El Sistema to other regions, including low-income areas of the United States, by training 50 young musicians. Read about the ripple effect this wish has had so far.

Karen Armstrong: Let's revive the Golden RuleKaren Armstrong’s TED Prize wish: Let’s revive the Golden Rule There is one thing that underlies all major world faiths: compassion. And thus, religious historian Karen Armstrong came up with the idea for the Charter for Compassion — a pledge to unite those of different faiths, rather than divide them, in the pursuit of the common good. In this talk from TEDGlobal 2009, she shares her wish: to draft the charter and spread it widely — online and in physical form — to showcase in both religious and secular spaces around the world.

Neil Turok makes his TED Prize wishNeil Turok’s TED Prize wish: Unlock Africa’s creative potential Neil Turok was raised in villages in Kenya and Tanzania. Later, as a theoretical physicist, he wondered what became of the brilliant students he learned alongside as a kid. So he had an idea to set up an African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, bringing students across the continent to receive training in these fields. At TED2008, he shares his wish: to create out 15 more AIMS centers in hope that the next Einstein be African.

Jehane Noujaim wishes for a global day of filmJehane Noujaim’s TED Prize wish: A global day of film Jehane Noujaim, who made the documentary Control Room and more recently The Square, has always been amazed by the power of film to bring people together. And so at TED2006, she offered a simple TED Prize wish: to create a day for people in towns, villages and cities around the world to have a shared cinema experience. Pangea Cinema Day was held on May 10 of the same year, with millions gathering around screens to partake in a 4-hour program of films.

Cameron Sinclair: A call for open-source architectureCameron Sinclair’s TED Prize wish: A call for open-source architecture Architects have the potential to influence change on some of the world’s most pressing problems. In this talk from TED2006, Cameron Sinclair shares his work helping refugees returning to Kosovo to find shelter, creating mobile health clinics in sub-Saharan Africa and helping with housing solutions in disaster-hit areas of the United States. His wish: to create an open-source network to be a conduit between architects and the humanitarian world, and allow for the sharing of design solutions.

A 5-year old girl who lost her policeman dad in the line of duty over the weekend was overwhelmed with support at her Kindergarten graduation on Wednesday, when hundreds of Arizona police officers showed up in his place.

“The purpose of us is to be here in proxy for Daryl and to let her know that we’re here for her,” Police Officer Keith Garn said.

Tatum Raetz celebrated her day with the people who perhaps knew her father best, and who wanted her to know that he was loved and revered. A sad time for the child turned into a day of love and support as a huge crowd of blue uniforms turned up instead of the originally-planned two or three.

“Word got out that this was happening and it went viral within the department and there was absolutely no way that you could keep officers who could be here away from here. they came, even with their families,” Officer James Holmes explained. “She had 300, 400 parents up here for her this morning. It was absolutely amazing. It was bittersweet and it was a bit overwhelming for all of us.”

Images: Twitter

Reality TV star and amateur porn star Paris Hilton has confirmed to Showbiz 411 that she will be releasing a new house music album. This will be Hilton’s second music album, after the release of her first album, Paris, in 2006.

In addition to cutting a new album, Hilton is also reportedly set to launch a new perfume and will soon be taking on tan extended role as a DJ. She will reportedly be DJ-ing this summer at a club in Ibiza, Spain. Hilton debuted her DJ skills last year at a club in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where she was reportedly heckled and booed.

The new album will be released through Cash Money Records, and will be produced by Dutch DJ Afrojack. The release date of Hilton’s album has not yet been revealed, though Cash Money Records co-founder Birdman has tweeted that it will be “soon.”

Follow @BIRDMAN5STAR

BIRDMAN
@BIRDMAN5STAR

RT @ComplexMusic: Hey @BIRDMAN5STAR, when can we expect to hear @ParisHilton‘s next single? http://t.co/ZQpnLuqHkc.Soon RichgangRichgirl

 Reply  ·  Retweet  ·  Favorite
22 hours ago via UberSocial for BlackBerry · powered by @socialditto

The Hangover 3 didn’t seem like it would wow critics, but we couldn’t be for sure until the reviews came in. Well, Hangover 3 reviews are now coming in and critics aren’t exactly in love with it.

Currently sitting at a 25 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, The Hangover 3 is a certified critical bomb. Critics around the country are complaining that the film isn’t funny, and that it reeks of a cheap cash-in. Here’s what some of the critics are saying:

Odie Henderson for the Chicago Sun-Times says: “I had to wait until halfway through the closing credits for my first, and only, laugh.

Scott Weinberg of GeekNation was a little more harsh: “Exists for the producers, the studios and nobody else. Insulting, amateurish garbage.”

Richard Roeper delivers what is perhaps the most damning review: “Director Todd Phillips delivers a film so different from the first two, I’m not even sure it’s supposed to be a comedy.”

Despite all the hate for the film, some critics seemed to have enjoyed the film. Those who did enjoy it say that it’s not as good as the first one, but argue that it’s better than the second. Some are also saying that Zack Galifianakis’ performance is solid.

It seems that audiences who have seen the film so far overwhelmingly agree with the minority of critics that liked it. It’s currently sitting at an 88 percent on the audience meter on Rotten Tomatoes.

Thankfully for those who didn’t like it, The Hangover 3 is being billed as the last film in the franchise.

UK “Facebook phone” fans will have to wait to see if they ever get the HTC First. A spokesperson for carrier EE in the UK confirmed in a statement that Facebook has “recommended holding off launching the HTC First in the UK” as they work on a better Facebook Home experience with new customization features.

Facebook’s prized phone is not having much success in the United States, with the price dropping from $99 to under a dollar, followed by news that the phone will reportedly be discontinued by AT&T. It will be interesting to see if the improvements Facebook makes to Home  will spark a renewed interest in users who had previously given up on the app.

Source: Android Central

Come comment on this article: Facebook puts HTC First launch in UK on hold

For the past six years, the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University has compiled a list of the top 10 new species named in each year. They’ve just released the new list, which features a glow-in-the-dark cockroach, and carnivorous sponge, and a blue-bottomed monkey.

But about those glowing roaches – Lucihormetica luckae, country of origin Ecuador. The first luminescent cockroach was discovered in 1999, and since then over a dozen similar species have been found. This new glowing cockroach is special, however:

“This cockroach is known from a single specimen collected 70 years ago from an area heavily impacted by the eruption of the Tungurahua volcano. The species may be most remarkable because the size and placement of its lamps suggest that it is using light to mimic toxic luminescent click beetles,” says LiveScience.

Other species named to the list?

• Lilliputian Violet, a tiny Peruvian flower.
• Lyre Sponge, a plankton-eating deep-water sponge
• Lesula Monkey,  blut-butted old-world monkey

Of the nearly 9 million (debated) species in the world, these are some the best discoveries to finally be named by scientists. Over 140 new species were whittled down to 10.

“For decades, we have averaged 18,000 species discoveries per year which seemed reasonable before the biodiversity crisis. Now, knowing that millions of species may not survive the 21st century, it is time to pick up the pace,” Quentin Wheeler, director of the Institute at ASU, said in a statement. “We are calling for a NASA-like mission to discover 10 million species in the next 50 years.”

[Image via LiveScience]