San Francisco transit talks resume, strike looms

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) ? With a Sunday night deadline approaching, negotiations between the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit and two of its largest unions have intensified with a possible strike at stake.

As the parties went back to the bargaining table Saturday in Oakland for anticipated around-the-clock sessions, both sides described the talks as tense and said they're far apart on key sticking points including salary, pensions, health care and safety.

About 400,000 riders use BART, the nation's fifth largest rail system, on weekdays. A strike that could start as early as Monday would be chaotic for those commuters and affect every mode of transportation, clogging highways and bridges throughout the Bay Area.

BART said it has agreed to at least a handful of minor proposals from members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Local 1021 and the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), Local 1555, but not on the major issues.

BART spokesman Rick Rice said that while talks were stagnant after the agency offered employees a new contract proposal on Thursday, he said both parties were talking by midday Saturday. On Friday, a mediator exchanged proposals between the parties who did not meet.

Rice said he expects long discussions right down to Sunday's deadline.

"Nobody wants a strike," ATU local president Antonette Bryant said Saturday. "We are prepared to spend the night ? a couple of nights ? in order to finally reach a deal."

The unions want a 5 percent annual raise over the next three years. BART said Saturday that train operators and station agents in the unions average about $71,000 in base salary and $11,000 in overtime annually. The workers also pay a flat $92 monthly fee for health insurance.

Meanwhile, BART has offered a 1 percent raise annually over the next four years and for employees to contribute to their pensions.

The unions' current contract expires at midnight Sunday. On Friday, the ATU asked California Gov. Jerry Brown to issue a 60-day "cooling off" period if no deal can be reached by Sunday's deadline, but the SEIU and BART officials have urged Brown not to issue such an order.

The governor's office has declined to comment.

"Negotiations are frustrating," Rice said. "But, we'll be here, no matter long it takes. We're committed to work this out."

BART's last strike lasted six days in 1997. On Friday, other area transit agencies urged commuters to consider carpooling, taking buses or ferries, working from home and, if they must drive to work, to leave earlier or even later than usual.

"The bottom line is that a BART strike will be an absolute nightmare for everyone," said Jim Wunderman, president and CEO of the Bay Area Council, a business advocacy organization. "Our transportation system simply does not have the capacity to absorb the more than 400,000 BART riders who will be left at the station. There will be serious pain."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/san-francisco-transit-talks-resume-strike-looms-230845272.html

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Tahrir protesters show Egypt's Morsi the 'red card' | Morocco World ...

CAIRO, June 30, 2013 (AFP)

Thousands of demonstrators waved red cards in Tahrir Square Sunday to demand the resignation of Egypt?s Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, as the spirit of 2011?s revolution returned to the iconic Cairo protest venue.

?The people want the ouster of the regime!? protesters chanted ? the signature slogan of the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak and brought Morsi to power.

Jubilant men, women and children brandished red cards, blowing whistles and vuvuzelas and chanting ?Leave, Morsi!?

?This is the second revolution and Tahrir is the symbol of the revolution. The revolution will be launched from here,? said Ibrahim Hammouda, a carpenter who had came from the northern city of Damietta to join the protests.

In 2011, when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets to end Mubarak?s authoritarian three-decade rule, they held up posters of regime figures with their faces crossed out.

This time, protesters are holding pictures of senior leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood, from which Morsi hails.

Morsi was elected a year ago in Egypt?s first ever free vote. But today, his critics accuse him of betraying the revolution by concentrating power in the hands of Islamist groups.

They accuse him of breaking his promise to be a president ?for all Egyptians? and letting the economy dive into free fall.

?I?m here because Morsi, who I voted for, betrayed me and did not keep his promises. Egypt will be liberated again from Tahrir Square,? said Mohammed Samir who travelled from the Nile Delta city of Mansura.

The Tahrir protest began hours before scheduled rallies and marches due to begin at 5:00 PM (1500 GMT), with several hundred people having spent the night in the square.

Street vendors sold flags and patriotic songs boomed from loudspeakers.

On the outskirts of the square, security checkpoints were manned by protesters in fluorescent vests under signs reading: ?No entry to the Brotherhood?.

?We are protecting the revolution from those who are against the revolution,?said protester Essam Ahmed.

On the other side of Cairo, in the Nasr City neighbourhood, thousands of pro-Morsi supporters gathered to show support for the president.

They insist that ousting an elected president would be a coup against democracy that they will not allow.

Egypt is deeply divided between Morsi?s mainly Islamist supporters and a broad-based opposition that also includes many deeply religious Muslims.

?Morsi, you hypocrite, you have split the people in two!? the protesters chanted in Tahrir.

The Muslim Brotherhood was long banned under Mubarak?s regime, but since the revolution they have dominated parliament, drafted a controversial constitution and been given key cabinet and local government positions.

?The Brotherhood did not continue our revolution and insisted on monopolising the state,? said Mohammed Abdel Wahab, a marketing manager from Cairo who came to Tahrir with his family.

Sunday?s protests were called by Tamarod (Arabic for Rebellion), a grassroots campaign that says it gathered more than 22 million signatures calling for Morsi to go and for a snap presidential election.

Source: http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2013/06/96032/tahrir-protesters-show-egypts-morsi-the-red-card/

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iPhone News: Vacation Coming? Here are my favorite iOS photo apps

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://forum.iphoneworld.ca/iphone-news/iphone-news-vacation-coming-here-my-favorite-ios-photo-apps-361621.html

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Police: man with guns near Blackhawks parade said he had weapons because he was robbed before

BY TINA SFONDELES Staff Reporter/tsfondeles@suntimes.com June 29, 2013 1:02PM

Roger L. Harrison / photo provided by Chicago Police

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Updated: June 29, 2013 1:17PM

A south suburban man who allegedly had two loaded guns with him along the Blackhawks victory parade route was ordered held in lieu of $75,000 bail Saturday.

When Chicago Police asked to check Roger Harrison?s bag Friday morning, the former Marine told them, ?Ah...I?ll just go the other way,? Cook County prosecutors said.

Harrison then walked toward City Hall as an officer tailed him, authorities said.

The 37-year-old Matteson man kept telling the officer, ?I just want to go to work? and ?I need to get out of here,? according to a police report.

?His voice was nervous and changing pace and tone. His eyes were searching all directions to identify an avenue of escape...and he slowly attempted to walk backwards,? the police report said.

The officer eventually grabbed Harrison?s arm.

That?s when he allegedly came clean and blurted out, ?I might have a handgun on me.?

When asked why he had the weapons, Harrison said, ?I got robbed before.?

In his pocket was a stolen revolver from Ohio with three live rounds, prosecutors said.

Harrison?s backpack held an unregistered 9 mm semiautomatic pistol with seven live rounds, police said.

There was no indication that Harrison was planning to commit a crime at the heavily attended rally and parade, police said.

Harrison was charged with two felony counts of unlawful use of a weapon and one misdemeanor count of cannabis possession.

Source: http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/21042779-418/police-man-with-guns-near-blackhawks-parade-said-he-had-weapons-because-he-was-robbed.html

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Social Media Amplifying TV Advertising - Business Insider

BI Intelligence

Research has shown that TV-watching and social media usage isn't mutually exclusive. Consumers appear to love using social media?while?they watch TV. Many discuss what they're watching, and these conversations continue long after air-time, with TV-linked chatter?accounting for a significant percentage of overall social media activity.

TV industry players and TV-focused marketers realized they could piggyback on this new consumer habit. The idea was not to compete with social media, but to use it so that televised shows, events, and ad campaigns won?more?audience and audience participation.

Social TV is how these ideas are being made tangible.

In a new report?from?BI?Intelligence,?we define what social TV is, analyze?the most important social TV trends, examine the audience for social TV, detail how social TV is forcing broadcasters and advertisers to rethink their strategies, and look at how data vendors are slicing and dicing all that TV-linked social chatter.?

Access The Full Report And Data By Signing Up For A Free Trial Today >>

Here's an overview of the rise of social TV:

• There's a lot at stake:?$350 billion was spent on TV ads globally in 2012. If social TV can help make that advertising more effective, or help social media skim some of those dollars, the opportunity is there for social TV to become a major business in its own right.
• Social TV is already here: It's already an established habit with audiences around the world, with majorities of social media users saying they routinely comment about TV shows or events.?activity has grown hand-in-hand with the mobile explosion. Smartphones and tablets have made it much more convenient for people to comment on TV, even as they watch it.?Forty percent or more of U.S. mobile audiences browsed social media on their tablets or smartphones while watching TV. For smartphone users, social media is a more popular companion activity during TV-watching than shopping.
• It can be used in many valuable ways:?There are variety of applications for social TV, including support for TV ad sales, optimizing TV ad buys, making ad buys more efficient, as a complement to audience measurement, and eventually, audience forecasting and real-time optimization. Social TV data can be like having a thousands-strong focus group at your fingertips.?Applied well, social TV can create a positive feedback loop for generating ultra-sticky TV programming and multi-screen ad campaigns.?
• All the major social media platforms are moving into the space, but Twitter is in the lead:?Twitter, Facebook and Google+ have all been used for social TV-flavored strategies. Of the three, Twitter has taken the lead, in part because so much of its data is open and public, making it easier for marketers to target TV fans.?Twitter's?newest ad product, TV ad targeting, is a clever integration of tweets, hashtags, TV advertising, and digital video.?Twitter?is pitching it to advertisers?as a way to continue telling the brand stories they tell on TV commercials, but to do so in TV audience's twitter feeds ? online and on mobile.

In full,?the?report:?

To access BI Intelligence's full reports on The Rise Of Social TV, sign up for a free trial subscription here.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/social-media-amplifying-tv-advertising-2013-66

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How To Take Care of Your Smartphone Battery the Right Way

Your smartphone is a minor miracle, a pocket-sized computer that can fulfill almost every whim. But none of its superpowers matter a bit if it runs out of juice. With removable batteries becoming more and more rare, you've got to take good care of the one you got. Fortunately, it's not to hard keep the lithium-ion powering your everything machine happy if you follow a few simple rules.

Obviously, the first rule for extending your battery life is not using up all your battery life playing candy crush and walking around with Wi-Fi and GPS enabled when you're not using either and really, really need your phone to last that extra hour. But aside from that, there are some basic rules for care and charging, and they're the simplest baseline for a healthy battery.

Top it off

You may vaguely recall hearing something about rechargeable batteries and the "memory effect." You know, that if you don't "teach" your rechargeable batteries their full potential by taking them from totally full to totally empty, they'll "forget" part of their capacity. Well forget all that. Right now. It's wrong.

Battery memory is a real thing, but it applies to nickel-based batteries; your trusty sidekick (literal Sidekick or otherwise) doubtlessly has a lithium-ion battery, and it needs to be treated a little differently. Specifically, it should be topped off whenever you get the chance.

To get the most out of a lithium-ion battery, you should try to keep it north of 50 percent as much as possible. For the most part going from all the way full to all the way empty won't help; in fact, it'll do a little damage if you do it too often. That said, it's smart to do one full discharge about once a month for "calibration," but don't do it all the time. Running the whole gamunt on a regular basis won't make your battery explode or anything, but it will shorten its lifespan.

But! You don't want to have it charging all the time either; lithium-ion batteries can get overheated. Luckily for you, your charger is smart enough to help with this, and will cut your phone off for a spell once it's full. And to complicate matters a little further your battery doesn't particularly like being all the way full either. In fact, your battery will behave the best if you take it off the charge before it hits 100 percent, and leaving it plugged when it's already full is going to cause a little degradation.

So if you're really particular about optimizing your battery's life, you should try to go from around 40 percent to around 80 percent in one go, and then back down whenever possible. A bunch of tiny charges isn't as bad as going from 100 down to zero all the time, but it's not optimal either.

Keep it cool

It's easy to worry about bad charging habits thanks to the training we've had from old rechargeable batteries, but lithium-ion batteries have a worse enemy: heat. Your smartphone's battery will degrade much much faster when it's hot, regardless of whether it's being used or just sitting around doing nothing.

At an average temperature of 32 degrees fahrenheit, a lithium-ion battery will lose six percent of its maximum capacity per year. At 77 degrees, that number jumps to 20 percent, and at 104 degrees it's a whopping 35. Sure, it's not exactly practical (or sane) to keep your phone in the fridge, but it's worth going out of your way to prevent long stays in hot cars and the like.

Avoid wireless charging

Wireless charging is can be incredibly convenient if your phone can do it, but it's not without its disadvantages. The inductive, wireless chargers out there today have this nasty habit of generating a fair bit of waste heat. And while wasted energy is just a bummer in general, that heat will also toast your battery in the process. That's no bueno. It's a little less convenient, but standard plug-in charging is going to keep your battery in better shape, especially if you're some place warm to begin with.

Never go to zero

Obviously, using your battery is going to make it degrade. But it's going to slowly die even if you just leave that iPad in the closet for a bit. There's a trick to minimizing that inevitable aging though: leave it a little bit of juice.

If you're going to be shelving any lithium-ion battery for a long time, try to leave it with at least 40 percent battery power to tide it over. Lithium-ion batteries don't hemmorage power at 30 percent a month like nickel-metal-hydride batteries do; they'll lose maybe five to ten percent of their charge each month.

And when lithium-ion batteries get too low?like, literally zero percent?they get seriously unstable, and dangerous to charge. To prevent explosion-type disasters if you do try to charge one, lithium-ion batteries have built-in self-destruct circuits that will disable (read: destroy) the battery for good, if it reaches rock bottom. And sure, that'll save you from a face full of battery-acid, but it'll also leave you short one battery.

Don't sweat it too much

It's easy to get protective of your battery, but it's also easy to get lazy. And that's fine, because as long as you're not a complete idiot, you'll be OK. Typically, a lithium-ion battery lasts for three to five years, and chances are you're going to want to swap out your gadgets sometime in that window anyway. The slight damage of a technically bad idea like leaving your phone plugged in all night every night, or using wireless charging, might be worth the convenience.

Still, it's pretty easy to keep your battery reasonably healthy just by avoiding particularly egregious torture like letting your phone discharge from full to zero every single day, or leaving it in a hot car all the time. And the next time you make it back home with power to spare, you'll thank yourself for it.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/how-to-take-care-of-your-smartphone-battery-the-right-w-513217256

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Exclusive: The Evolution of the Minifig

We have worked with Lego to painstakingly collect and catalog almost every minifig ever produced into a photographic timeline. You will be able to see the evolution of the iconic figure starting with the iconic 1970s space, city and castle sets that you can see in our exclusive tour of the secret historic Lego vault. Sensory overload ahead.

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1978

Introduction of the first minifigs as part of the Town, Space and Castle sets. They are all plain. The first female minifig is introduced two months after the first male minifigs.

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1989

First changes in faces introduced with the Lego Pirates. They maintain the basic expression but add extra features, like eye patches and beards.

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1990

The first specialized minifig appears in Lego Castle: a ghost.

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1993

Lego Island Adventure theme is introduced. That means minifigs wearing bikinis and thongs. Lego truckers also appear in Lego Town. Obviously, there's a connection between truckers and thongs.

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1995

The Lego skeleton comes out of the closet, the second specialized minifig. Aquanauts line introduced.

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1996

Lego Western appears, at last opening the possibility of forming the Village People with Lego minifigs: The sets include cowboys and, for the first time ever, a different Lego race: Native americans. By the way, this contradicts the answers about race that Lego gave us in our Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Lego Guide.

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1998

Adventurer Johnny Thunder, an Indiana Jones wannabe, appears. This comes before Lego ever got into the whole licensing of movies intellectual property.

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1999

The now famous Lego Star Wars appears, introducing the first ever licensed minifig: Luke Skywalker.

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2000

Lego Soccer scores a few goals with spring-loaded tabletop game action. This is a very bad year for the history of the minifig, however: Jar-Jar Binks minifig appears, the first figure with a molded head ever. It should have never happened. The minifig. And the movie.

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2001

Lego Studios appears, so people can film movies with minifigs as characters. You know what that means (see bottom of post).

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2002

Shorter legs appear for the same time. Now you can have short characters like Yoda. Double-sided heads are added too, so you can change the expresion of the minifig on the go.

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2003

Real races are introduced at last, as part of the licensing program. Lego Mars Mission is announced, marking the return of astronauts.

Source: http://lego.gizmodo.com/exclusive-the-evolution-of-the-minifig-5070884

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