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Harold Drake, who served as reporter for Pacific Stars And Stripes and also helped record the Vietnam War, has died of complications from cancer. He was 83 years old.

Drake traveled the globe in his later years, interviewing different celebrities and public figures. The long and varied list of people he spoke to included musician Rod Stewart, Mother Teresa, and Hollywood icon Elizabeth Taylor. He spoke of the dangers of being in Vietnam and was actually based out of Tokyo for over 40 years, until his retirement in 1995. He was fascinated with Asian culture and made a life, not just a career, there. What made his stories stand out, say his peers, was his ability to weave a tale that pulled readers in on a personal level.

“He managed to find the human element in everything he wrote,” former Pacific Stars and Stripes news editor Ron Rhodes said. “And he was always a gentleman in the process.”

Former co-workers say he was an incredible wordsmith.

“He was quirky, but always fun and always smart,” said Gerry Galipault. “You could tell his mind was working a mile a minute, thinking about what to write next, what to say. And he always said it beautifully.”

It seems that everybody is going into mobile game development these days. The traditional console market is shrinking as more and more gamers tire of the same 6-year-old hardware. They’re beginning to look for new experiences that they can’t get anywhere else, and mobile games provide that experience. It’s a huge industry and developers stand to profit from it.

A new infographic from Adobe shows just how much money a developer stands to make from creating games for mobile platforms. How much money? Let’s just say that the mobile gaming industry now makes about as twice as much as the music industry. That’s $56 billion being pumped into a single industry annually. Beyond the money, those looking for audience have one as 98 million Americans play social or casual games.

Making games is hard though, right? Actually, making games, especially for mobile platforms, is easier than ever. Can you program in Flash? Have an artist for a friend? You have all you need to make the next great mobile title. Adobe AIR allows you to seamlessly port your Flash developed titles to mobile platforms while taking advantage of native hardware acceleration.

Of course, anybody going into game development must have tempered expectations. It’s unlikely that you’re going to have the next Angry Birds or Temple Run on your hands right from the get go. Game development is grueling and sometimes painful, but incredibly rewarding for those who stick with it. Making bank is only a nice bonus on top of creating something that has the power to connect people on a deeper level than anything else available.

In short – If you’re making a game to make money, you’re gonna have a bad time.

Facebook released its Q4 and full-year 2012 earnings today, beating analysts’ expectations.

Revenue for the quarter was $1.585 billion, up 40% year-over-year. Revenue from advertising was $1.33 billion (84% of total revenue), up 41% year-over-year. GAAP income from operations was $523 million down from $548 million for the same period last year. GAAP net income for the fourth quarter was $64 million, compared to net income of $302 million for the fourth quarter of 2011.

Along with the financials, Facebook shared its latest stats. Monthly active users were 1.06 billion as of December 31 (up 25% year-over-year). Daily active users were 618 million on average during December (up 28% year-oever-year). Mobile active users were 680 million as of December 31 (up 57% year-over-year). Mobile daily active users exceeded web daily active users for the first time during the fourth quarter.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, “In 2012, we connected over a billion people and became a mobile company. We enter 2013 with good momentum and will continue to invest to achieve our mission and become a stronger, more valuable company.”

More from the conference call to come…

Here’s the release in its entirety:

MENLO PARK, Calif., Jan. 30, 2013 /PRNewswire/ – Facebook, Inc. (FB) today reported financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2012.

Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Results to Nearest GAAP Measures
(In millions, except for number of shares)
(Unaudited)
			Three Months Ended				Year Ended
			December 31,				December 31,
			2011		2012		2011		2012
GAAP revenue			$    1,131		$    1,585		$    3,711		$    5,089
	Foreign exchange effect on 2012 revenue using 2011 rates				23				123
Revenue excluding foreign exchange effect					$    1,608				$    5,212
GAAP revenue year-over-year change %					40%				37%
Revenue excluding foreign exchange effect year-over-year change %					42%				40%
GAAP advertising revenue			$       943		$    1,329		$    3,154		$    4,279
	Foreign exchange effect on 2012 advertising revenue using 2011 rates				23				123
Advertising revenue excluding foreign exchange effect					$    1,352				$    4,402
GAAP advertising revenue year-over-year change %					41%				36%
Advertising revenue excluding foreign exchange effect year-over-year change %					43%				40%
GAAP costs and expenses			$       583		$    1,062		$    1,955		$    4,551
	Share-based compensation expense		(76)		(184)		(217)		(1,572)
	Payroll tax expenses related to share-based compensation		–		(29)		(7)		(151)
Non-GAAP costs and expenses			$       507		$       849		$    1,731		$    2,828
GAAP income from operations			$       548		$       523		$    1,756		$       538
	Share-based compensation expense		76		184		217		1,572
	Payroll tax expenses related to share-based compensation		–		29		7		151
Non-GAAP income from operations			$       624		$       736		$    1,980		$    2,261
GAAP net income			$       302		$         64		$    1,000		$         53
	Share-based compensation expense		76		184		217		1,572
	Payroll tax expenses related to share-based compensation		–		29		7		151
	Income tax adjustments		(18)		149		(60)		(459)
Non-GAAP net income			$       360		$       426		$    1,164		$    1,317
GAAP diluted shares			1,519		2,506		1,508		2,166
	Assumed preferred stock conversion		545		–		548		203
	Dilutive equity awards excluded from GAAP1		286		–		276		110
Non-GAAP diluted shares			2,350		2,506		2,332		2,479
GAAP diluted earnings per share			$      0.14		$      0.03		$      0.46		$      0.01
	Net income attributable to participating securities		0.05		–		0.20		0.01
	Non-GAAP adjustments to net income		0.04		0.14		0.11		0.59
	Non-GAAP adjustments to diluted shares		(0.08)		–		(0.27)		(0.08)
Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share			$      0.15		$      0.17		$      0.50		$      0.53
GAAP operating margin			48%		33%		47%		11%
	Share-based compensation expense		7%		12%		6%		31%
	Payroll tax expenses related to share-based compensation		0%		2%		0%		3%
Non-GAAP operating margin			55%		46%		53%		44%
GAAP profit before tax			$       520		$       505		$    1,695		$       494
GAAP provision for income taxes			218		441		695		441
GAAP effective tax rate			42%		87%		41%		89%
GAAP profit before tax			$       520		$       505		$    1,695		$       494
Share-based compensation and related payroll tax expenses			76		213		224		1,723
Non-GAAP profit before tax			$       596		$       718		$    1,919		$    2,217
Non-GAAP provision for income taxes			236		292		755		900
Non-GAAP effective tax rate			40%		41%		39%		41%
1 Gives effect to unvested RSUs in periods prior to our IPO for comparability

I noticed on my new BlackBerry Z10 that the 1st party Remember app comes pre-loaded with a spot for you to log in to your Evernote account. I was already of fan of the popular cloud notation and archiving app and BlackBerry 10 has made it easier than ever to access my notes.

The Z10′s Remember loads notes very quickly, much faster than the BlackBerry 7 standalone Evernote app. The only downside is that if you’re used to having your notes sorted by last modified the way Evernote does it by default, be prepared for the Remember app to sort them by creation date instead.

I usually end up writing a lot of notes on my laptop that get synced to my BlackBerry, but with this new deep integration I think I’ll be creating more notes on my Z10.

One of the strengths of the BlackBerry 10 platform is how they allow developers to access the PIN API, giving your apps the access they need to your core apps like calendar, messages and Remember.

Click here to download Evernote for your legacy BlackBerry for free from BlackBerry World.

Click here to download Evernote for the BlackBerry PlayBook for free from BlackBerry World.

If you’ve got a BlackBerry 10 device, just sign in to Evernote to access all your notes.

NASA and the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Herschel Space Telescope has spotted a planet-forming star that wasn’t thought to be possible.

The star, named TW Hydrae, is estimated to be 10 million years old – older than the age at which stars are thought to be able to produce planets. However, the star still has an accretion disc massive enough to possiblly produce planets. The new findings appear in a paper published recently in the journal Nature.

“We didn’t expect to see so much gas around this star,” said Edwin Bergin, lead on the new research and an astronomer at the University of Michigan. “Typically stars of this age have cleared out their surrounding material, but this star still has enough mass to make the equivalent of 50 Jupiters,”

The new TW Hydrae data comes out of a new technique for estimating the mass of planet-forming discs. Researchers used the Herschel telescope to analyze the light coming from the star and pick out hydrogen deuteride gas, which emits light at the longer infrared wavelengths that Herschel can detect. The measurements have provided the most precise measurement of the disc’s mass to date.

“Before, we had to use a proxy to guess the gas quantity in the planet-forming disks,” said Paul Goldsmith, project scientist for Herschel at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory(JPL). “This is another example of Herschel’s versatility and sensitivity yielding important new results about star and planet formation.”

The researchers stated that knowing the mass of a star’s gas disc is “crucial” to understanding how planets may form around it. Though they don’t know what TW Hydrae’s massive disc will mean for the system’s future, the astronomers stated that the new data has helped define “a range” of possible future planet configurations.

“The new results are another important step in understanding the diversity of planetary systems in our universe,” said Bergin. “We are now observing systems with massive Jupiters, super-Earths, and many Neptune-like worlds. By weighing systems at their birth, we gain insight into how our own solar system formed with just one of many possible planetary configurations.”

(Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Google launched a major update to Google Earth this week for the desktop, iOS and Android. The update includes the addition over over 100,000 new tours and a million new photos in Tour Guide.

“As you navigate in Earth, tour guide acts as a local exploration expert suggesting interesting places near the location you’re visiting,” Google said in a Google+ update on Tuesday (via TheNextWeb). “Today’s update adds over 100,000 new tours of popular sites, cities and places across 200 countries, as well as enhancements to existing tours.”

“The new, richer tours combine 3D flyovers, Wikipedia snippets and – for the first time – place highlight and more than 1 million user-generated Panoramio photos in order to create an immersive and educational exploration of your favorite places,” Google added. “Each tour ends with a selection of photo thumbnails which were selected from Panoramio as the best representation of a given place. Clicking on one of the thumbnails enables a full screen photo experience.”

The Tour Guide feature is available on Google Earth 7.0. Google introduced this version back in October bringing the tour guide feature to the desktop.

A concept sketch of a HOLOSCENES aquarium. Image: Peter Zuspan / Lars Jan

TED Fellow Lars Jan, the director of the multi-disciplinary art lab Early Morning Opera, is seeking everyday personal rituals from collaborators — perhaps, you? — for a work-in-progress called HOLOSCENES. This public-performance installation — inspired by humanity’s relationship with climate change and flooding — will be made up of three aquariums, each enclosing a performer enacting a looped, choreographed ritual as water rises and falls driven by environmental data drawn from the internet.

Would you like to contribute? Read on.

Can you give us an example of the kinds of rituals you’re collecting?

We had a collaborator on the border of Myanmar who met a family and documented a daily face-painting ritual. It’s for beautification, but it also acts as a sunblock. It involves a kind of wood called thanaka, which is ground on a particular kind of stone with a little bit of water to form a paste, which is applied on the face. This ritual is mostly done by women, who also apply it to their children, often in beautiful patterns. This particular woman used a toothbrush to apply it every morning. That’s the thing that’s important — the ritual might be something that happens in hundreds of thousands of households, but the point of the project is not to recreate the ritual in a generic fashion. We’re making contact with very specific individuals who perform their own ritual in a very specific way. I make coffee in the morning like a lot of people, but I also have my own idiosyncrasies — a personal pattern to this daily ritual that is all my own.

Will the rituals you’re collecting form the basis of the performances inside the aquariums?

Yes. The choreography and design of the physical behaviors inside the aquariums are all sourced from people we make contact with who live near any one of the 52 coordinates that we generated randomly across the globe. Our performers simulate these rituals inside the aquariums based on documentation collected by collaborators. Sometimes the people we’re contacting are far away – I’m communicating with people who are, say, in Uganda, having been handed from one interested person to another to another to reach people who are close to a coordinate and want to collaborate with us. What I wanted to do was to create a semi-open source network, dependent on an unpredictable cascade of online and in-person encounters.

A rendering of what HOLOSCENES will look like when staged. Credit: Peter Zuspan

Will the contributors get to participate in performances?

Yes, by providing the source material for the choreography and design at the heart of the project.
The entire collection process is actually referencing 500 years of what could be called a colonialist collection process, starting with imperial menageries, cabinets of wonder or curiosity, down to zoos and world’s fairs and aquariums. And we want to depriortize catastrophe as a lens through which to look at the world.

The project is inspired by flooding. In the last decade, I’ve found myself looking at a lot of places I had never seen before, and the reason I was looking at them, by way of beautiful photographs online and in newspapers, was because they were devastated. I wanted to find a more democratic way to look at the planet and the people on it. Rather than highlight people at the extremes, at their lowest, I wanted to cultivate and collect the mundane — and sacred — everyday behaviors of people across the planet.

How do the rituals then relate to climate change and flooding?

That’s partly where the conceptual and aesthetic leap is. Ultimately, the project is putting the rhythms of daily behaviors and human-scale patterns in conversation with longer-term patterns, such as those driving climate change. That’s a question at the heart of the project: What’s the future of long-term thinking? Are we, as individuals, communities, and a global society, capable of evolution in terms of recognizing complex, long-term patterns and then adapting our everyday behaviors based on that rational understanding?

The aquariums flood and drain with water at varying speeds. What drives the hydraulic system to make water going up and down in the tanks is environmental data scraped from the internet and other sources. Sometimes it floods incredibly slowly, sometimes very quickly. It’s a material data visualization: the water level goes up and down, but rather than seeing it from a remove, the data driving the water movement flooding and draining is dramatically affecting the ritual being performed, and dramatically changing the environment of the person in the tank. I’m curious to see the visceral empathic response viewers will have seeing the water flooding and draining, flooding and draining while a person — a performer — copes with the very mythic yet increasingly present-tense condition of deluge.

This visceral, visual metaphor — a person fighting through flood in an aquariam — is partly about our collective myopia in the face of these changes and our persistence and adaptive capacities in response to our changing environment — a multi pronged, complex visual metaphor that radiates out and connects with all kinds research and thinking, from behavioral science, climate science and palaeontology to questions like “What’s the neurology of long-term thinking? What’s the evolutionary future of empathy in an increasingly mediated world?” All those things are woven together in the project.

Where will HOLOSCENES be performed?

The full public, three-aquarium iteration of HOLOSCENES will premiere at the Yerba Buena Center of the Arts in San Francisco in 2015, and likely premiere in a one-aquarium iteration sometime in 2014. Ultimately, it is meant to be a public performance intervention in an urban environment, running 24-hours a day for 7 days. The intention is to become a pivot for a public discourse and awareness outside of an exclusively artistic context. My collaborators and I are interested in reaching a far broader audience.

To find out more and contribute a ritual to be considered for HOLOSCENES, visit the website »

Twitter has begun to roll out some nice changes to profile pages that have to deal with the media they contain.

First off, Twitter is no longer making you leave the page to view photos when you click them from inside a profile page. Now, these photos should pop up in a lightbox. Another bonus to the new and improved photo-viewing experience is that the photos will also be bigger.

You’ll also see more video content inside the media galleries on the left-hand side of users’ profiles.

“Media galleries now include videos from Vine, YouTube, Vimeo, and other partners whose videos appear in expanded Tweets,” says Twitter.

Twitter also announced another cool update today. They’ve expanded individual tweet pages to allow users to scroll through all the replies – not just a handful. This is a long time coming and allows users to better explore the conversation stemming from popular tweets from popular users.

The exterior of the Microsoft data center in Boydton, Virginia. The company said today that it will invest $348 million to build two more facilities at the site. (Photo: Microsoft)

Microsoft Corp. will invest an additional $348 million to expand its modular data center site in southern Virginia, the company said today. The company will build two additional facilities on its data center campus to increase capacity to serve its growing customer base. The expansion boosts Microsoft’s investment in its Virginia data center campus to $997 million.

The expansion is part of an ongoing data center construction program as Microsoft builds future capacity for its battle with Google and other leading players in cloud computing. It has built rapidly at its Virginia facility since it was announced in 2010.

“This expansion will allow us to meet the growing demand from consumers and businesses for our cloud services in the region in an increasingly efficient manner,” said Christian Belady, general manager of Microsoft Data Center Services. ”These facilities showcase state-of-the-art designs developed from our latest technology and infrastructure research that continues to minimize water, energy use, and building costs, while increasing computing capacity, software capabilities, and server utilization.”

Focus on Modular Design

Microsoft’s Boydton facility features the use of a container-based design known as an IT-PAC (short for Pre-Assembled Component). The IT-PAC serves as the foundation of a broader shift to a modular, component-based design that offers cost-cutting opportunities at almost every facet of the project. They are designed to operate in all environments, and employ a free cooling approach in which fresh air is drawn into the enclosure through louvers in the side of the container – which effectively functions as a huge air handler with racks of servers inside.

Microsoft’s original project in 2010 involved an investment of up to $499 million and 50 new jobs. In 2011 the company invested an additional $150 million to expand the site.  The latest expansion project will create 30 new jobs.

“In 2010 we were confident that Microsoft’s plans to establish one of its most advanced data centers in Mecklenburg County would be a transformational project,” said Governor Bob McDonnell. “This second expansion within 16 months of the previous one is a great testament to Microsoft’s success and commitment to Virginia. The company continues to grow its cloud operations, representing a total of nearly one billion dollars in capital investment. The Commonwealth is one of the most active data center markets in the country, and Microsoft’s rapid development helps continue to establish us an industry leader.”

The Microsoft expansion will be supported by $2.2 million in public funding, including $2 million in funds from the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission and $200,000 from the Governor’s Opportunity Fund.

Microsoft’s data centers are a key component in a major business shift at the company, which is expanding beyond its traditional desktop software business to offer cloud computing services, in which Microsoft’s applications will be hosted in its data centers and delivered over the Internet.

Google says more people in Canada search for the “Super Bowl” than for the Stanley Cup, which is interesting, considering there are no NFL teams in Canada, while the NHL has a number of teams in the country.

The company has been analyzing its search trends, and sasy that in 2012, there were twice as many searches on Google for “Super Bowl” in Canada than “Stanley Cup,” with Canadian Super Bowl searches on the rise again ahead of the big game this Sunday. Searches for “Super Bowl” from Canada have risen by over 480% in the past seven days alone, the company says.

Interestingly, Canadians are searching for the Ravens a lot more than for the 49ers.

“Searches for the Ravens and the 49ers are in a dead heat in the US,” says Google in a post on its Canada blog. “But it’s a different story in Canada, where searches for the Baltimore Ravens are outpacing 49ers searches by 45 percent. As we’ve seen in years past, geographic allegiances seem to factor into search activity as British Columbia is showing the highest search rates for the San Francisco 49ers and Ontario has the highest volume of Baltimore Ravens Searches. Nationally, Nova Scotia is leading all provinces in searches for ‘Super Bowl’.”

Interestingly, even the Patriots are attracting more searches than the 49ers. 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh is getting more searches than Ravens coach John Harbaugh – 85% more, according to Google.

RIM, now known as BlackBerry, unveiled its latest set of handsets today that run its latest BlackBerry 10 operating system. The crowd present at the launch event were excited about the product, but investors were less than impressed.

RIM’s share price was at a little over $16 this morning before the BlackBerry 10 handsets were unveiled. After the unveiling, there was a substantial drop to $14.44. Shortly after, the share price climbed a little to only drop again to $14.25. Since then, it’s been steadily decreasing with its share price now at a little under $14, or a drop of 11 percent.

So, what happened? A new product launch is usually something to celebrate, but the response from investors has obviously been less than positive. Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Dave Garrity of GVA Research says that RIM’s renewed focus as a smaller company may not help in the end as “the list of businesses which ‘successfully shrunk themselves to prosperity’ is short.”

It also seems that many investors were not thrilled with CEO Thorsten Heins performance on stage this morning. The scripted event did little to sell any of them on the future of BlackBerry 10 as Heins’ excitement for the product rang hollow.

RIM needs to boost investor confidence with its latest product, and it hasn’t exactly done that during this first impression. It’s important to remember, however, that today is just that – a first impression. Investors might change their tune once the phone gets in the hands of consumers around the world. It might even end up being more of a success than anybody could have hoped. We’ll all just have to wait and see.

If you need to catch up on all the BlackBerry 10 news of today, check out our extensive coverage here.

Kim Kardashian dropped a bombshell on Tuesday night when talking to Jimmy Kimmel about baby Kimye and whether he/she will appear on “Keeping Up With The Kardashians”. The answer is a big fat “No.”

“I love seeing [Kourtney’s kids], Mason and Penelope on TV [and] Mason is the highlight of our show, I think. It’s a tough decision [but] as of now, that’s just a personal choice that Kanye and I have made…We’re going to try to keep it as private as possible.”

Shock me, shock me, shock me, Kim! One would have thought that Kris Jenner would demand she let that baby star on the show to bring in curious viewers, but maybe Kanye is putting his foot down.

“When he or she decides that’s what they want to do, then that will be a decision,” Kim said.

Ahhh, there it is. They’re going to let the kid decide when he/she is older. How long does she expect “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” to be on the air, anyway?

Missed the launch event and keynote address? Click here (desktop only) to check out this hour-long video featuring all of today’s major announcements.

Twitter has just made an improvement to individual tweet pages that, to be honest, has been a long time coming. Now, users can scroll thorough every single reply made to a tweet, even if that tweet garnered dozens and dozens of replies.

Before, any single tweet page would only contain a handful of replies – even if the tweet received tons more. Starting today, you can simply keep scrolling down to see all replies.

Not only that, but you can also click each reply to see the replies to those original replies.

As Twitter points out, this functionality is especially useful when a popular user with tons of followers posts a tweets that asks for replies. Take for instance this tweet from Jimmy Fallon, who asked users to tweet embarrassing admissions with a particular hashtag.

You can now keep scrolling down to see more replies that you could before:

The producers of the reality show The Ultimate Fighter are bringing a new reality series to TV called Top Hooker.

It’s not what you may be thinking – reality TV hasn’t quite stooped that low. Yet.

The producers have gathered “America’s best and boldest fishermen to take on Animal Planet’s extreme fishing competition.” The show will air on the Animal Planet channel. From last year’s casting call:

On this brand new TV show, you and a handful of daring fishing enthusiasts will tackle exciting and intense challenges on America’s rivers, lakes, streams and even the open ocean. Are you ready for adventure?

We are looking for competitive, outgoing, and skilled anglers, spear fishermen, game fishermen, fly fishermen, trawlers and trappers from all walks of life. It doesn’t matter if your experience is commercial, sport or recreational. As long as you’re skilled, adaptable, and confident enough to take on anything we throw at you, you could win a big grand prize and the title of Animal Planet’s first Top Hooker.

So, the real Top Hooker isn’t likely to be as interesting as a different sort of Top Hooker might be. However, the world is probably better off with the reality TV show America’s Next Top Hooker remaining only a dark parody from the video game Grand Theft Auto IV.

It takes a veritable perfect storm of factors for an artist to become successful enough to make what they love to do the thing that brings in a paycheck; trust me, I know. More than talent alone, it also takes some excellent marketing skills and knowing your way around the business. And while there are many, many successful working artists out there today, there are many more who classify themselves as “starving”.

One artist in London may be just that if someone finds the blank check he hid somewhere in the Milton Keynes Gallery, and he says he’s ready to face the consequences of the stunt.

Tomas Georgeson says he made out a check for $12,000 and left the “To” line blank, then stashed it somewhere in the building in an effort to bring patrons into the gallery. If someone does find it, he’ll essentially be broke, but he says it will be worth it.

“You can’t just implant culture in a city and expect it to thrive,” Georgeson says. “It seems it’s the time for culture to come to Milton Keynes.”

While some of those who are familiar with the gallery think it’s a hoax–the building is cube shaped and there aren’t many hiding places–Georgeson insists this is the real deal. The only catch? If the check hasn’t been found by March 1st, it will be collected and taken off the table.

It seems like everything is getting the retro treatment these days – popular TV shows included. Today’s latest 16-bit-it project is Showtime’s hit drama Homeland.

The concept RPG, courtesy of CollegeHumor, starts off my letting you pump up your favorite characters’ attributes. Saul Berenson: Wisdom +10, Beard +10. Carrie Mathison: Sanity +1 (should probably be a bit lower).

From there we take an entertaining journey through Claire Danes’ cry face, PTSD rage punches, awkward car sex, and much much more. Spoilers lurk, if you haven’t ever seen an episode of the show.

[via College Humor]

Google is running a doodle on its home page in Russia, honoring comedy director Leonid Gaidai.

“We (along with Thus, Balbes and Byvalyi) wish a happy 90th to Russian director #LeonidGaidi,” Google tweeted through its Doodles account.

Gaidai directed 23 titles including a handful of short films, according to IMDB. He’s credited as a writer on 17 titles. He also acted in titles.

Here’s what Google’s English version of his Knowledge Panel looks like (he has one in Russian as well):

More recent Google Doodles here.

TwitchTV, the popular video gaming streaming website, today announced that players will soon be able to stream their Call of Duty: Black Ops II gameplay directly to their Twitch channel using the in-game streaming option. The feature is available today on the Xbox 360 version of the game, and is “coming soon” to the PlayStation 3 and PC).

Black Ops II was the first Call of Duty game to launch with a live-streaming feature. The game previously allowed players to stream their gameplay directly to YouTube.

The new Twitch streaming options will include a webcam feature that uses the Xbox Kinect to provide a picture-in-picture view of players. Gamers can also automatically share their live stream via Facebook or Twitter posts.

TwitchTV is the gaming subsidiary of JustinTV. The website has grown steadily over the past year, and received $15 million in venture capital funding in September 2012. The site has become one of the most popular broadcasters of eSports programming.

Linkwell Health said Wednesday it raised $11 million in Series C funding led by WellPoint. Existing investors Spark Capital and HLM Venture Partners also participated in the round. New York-based Linkwell develops health and wellness consumer engagement platforms.

PRESS RELEASE

Linkwell Health, an innovative developer of health and wellness consumer engagement platforms, today announced that the company has raised $11 million in Series C funding led by WellPoint (NYSE: WLP), the nation’s leading health benefits company. Existing investors Spark Capital and HLM Venture Partners also participated in the round. With a unique model of consumer engagement that brings together health plans, better-for-you brands and retailers, Linkwell Health will use this new round to extend the breadth and reach of its platform to consumers across multiple channels.
PR Newswire (http://s.tt/1z8TC)

Linkwell Health’s unique distribution platform reaches the members of 22 major health plans, including Humana, Health Net, and WellPoint. The 100 million members of these health plans receive valuable content through their health plan websites, email, mobile apps and direct mail. In addition to this content, members gain access to coupons for better-for-you products. This combination of useful content with high-value coupons is empowering consumers to make better health decisions, while saving them time and money. Meanwhile, the better-for-you brands offering these coupons – such as such as Kellogg’s, Campbell’s, Unilever and Proctor & Gamble – are achieving higher trial and repeat purchase habits than competitive media in the marketplace.
“There is no question that consumers want help in getting healthier, and Linkwell Health is making that happen with an innovative platform and top-tier partners,” said Linkwell Health CEO Gregg Michaelson . “The company’s market momentum combined with this new round of funding, which includes support from the nation’s leading health benefits company, will give Linkwell Health the fuel to bring consumer engagement to the next level.”
“Linkwell Health is inspiring a self-improvement revolution,” said Spark Capital General Partner Alex Finkelstein. “They already have an extraordinary distribution network anchored by the top health plans and work with major consumer brands. The company’s unique model to wellness is gaining impressive traction with both consumers and health care businesses, and we are excited for what the future holds.”
About Linkwell Health
Linkwell Health (www.linkwellhealth.com) develops proven engagement programs to improve the health and wellness of Americans. The company links together health plans, better-for-you brands and retailers to encourage positive lifestyle change through simple approaches. Linkwell Health creates customized, turnkey incentive and guidance programs for health plans to distribute to their members. Targeted offers and online solutions make it easier and more affordable for members to choose healthier options.
About WellPoint
At WellPoint, we believe there is an important connection between our members’ health and well-being—and the value we bring our customers and shareholders. So each day we work to improve the health of our members and their communities. And, we can make a real difference since we have more than 33 million people in our branded health plans, and approximately 64 million people served through our subsidiaries. As an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, WellPoint serves members as the Blue Cross licensee for California; the Blue Cross and Blue Shield licensee for Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri (excluding 30 counties in the Kansas City area), Nevada, New Hampshire, New York (as the Blue Cross Blue Shield licensee in 10 New York City metropolitan and surrounding counties and as the Blue Cross or Blue Cross Blue Shield licensee in selected upstate counties only), Ohio, Virginia (excluding the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.), and Wisconsin. In a majority of these service areas, WellPoint’s plans do business as Anthem Blue Cross, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia and Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, or Empire Blue Cross (in the New York service areas). WellPoint also serves customers throughout the country as UniCare and in certain California, Arizona and Nevada markets through our CareMore subsidiary. Our 1-800 CONTACTS, Inc. subsidiary offers customers online sales of contact lenses, eyeglasses and other ocular products. Additional information about WellPoint is available at www.wellpoint.com
About Spark Capital
Founded in 2005, Spark Capital is a tight-knit group of partners managing approximately $1,000,000,000 across three funds. Spark invests across a number of key market segments including: advertising & monetization, commerce & services, cloud & infrastructure, social, mobile and content. Spark’s portfolio includes companies such as Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, AdMeld, OMGPOP, ThePlatform and 5Min. The Spark team has previously backed notable companies such as Akamai Technologies, Qtera, Aether Systems and Novatel Wireless.
www.sparkcapital.com
About HLM Venture Partners
HLM Venture Partners is a leading venture capital health care investor, having provided over $400 million in capital to some of the most dynamic, innovative companies. With offices in Boston and San Francisco, HLM is focused on building sustainable companies and profitable exits—benefiting both entrepreneurs and investors. HLM is uniquely positioned to provide insightful guidance on a range of health care industry issues. Longstanding relationships with the senior leadership of some of the country’s largest and most innovative health care organizations enables HLM to provide practical, actionable and meaningful advice and introductions. Emerging health care companies rely on the expertise of HLM Venture Partners with a depth of health care industry knowledge that is unmatched.

http://www.hlmvp.com

PR Newswire (http://s.tt/1z8TC)