Run Skidmark Run! Google Steps-up Internet Paedophile Hunt

It’s en ease to bag out the behemoth that is Google, outwardly the company looks like a money making machine – without a huge social conscience – Scratch the surface a little however, and your glimmered by small signs of hope. There’s a bunch of cool stuff coming out of Google’s X-Labs, Project Loony’s superneat wifi via balloon power. Google Culture  dictates that the company has a social conscience, exercising that conscience is - it seems – a little harder?

In it’s latest effort to set-things-right, Google is doing what it does best, it’s creating an image database to help law enforcement control the traffic of offensive images and remove child pornography from the web. Indeed, it’s a no-brainer, Google’s mission statement outlines the company’s intention to ‘organize the worlds information’ and mapping a world of depravity in order to be rid of it,  something the company is exemplary at.

While we’d love to sing Google’s praises, we are left wondering why that hadn’t happened sooner, search, categorize and list is after all what Google does best?

Now that Google has announced plans to setup an online database of offensive images, you can expect that the war will escalate quickly. The ethos of the plan is to enable law enforcement agencies, not-for-profits and private companies to detect and remove offensive content more easily :: Read the full article »»»»

Adelaide Exhibition: The Australian Ballet on the International Stage by Lisa Tomasetti

UPDATE! Hill Smith Gallery, Adelaide May 10 to June 8, 2013 - Behind the Scenes: The Australian Ballet on the International Stage is an exhibition by Sydney-based  - South Australian born – photographer, Lisa Tomasetti. This latest set of pictures were shot over several years, taken on the Australian Ballet’s tours to Tokyo, New York and Paris :: Read the full article »»»»

The City For Singles? PRAGUE!

I’m unsure if it still goes on, but there was once a supermarket – Woolworths  in Double Bay – that held an informal singles night. My recollection is a little foggy, but I believe the code for single and available was a bunch of celery pointing out of your shopping basket, a little complex perhaps. Well the Czech’s have a much simpler resolution.

Transport officials in the Czech capital, Prague, say they plan to help the city’s lonely hearts by introducing train carriages reserved for singles. Prague transport company Ropid wants to set aside carriages on some or all of its trains for singles seeking a soul mate.

The city-owned company will start polling passengers to determine whether they would be interested. Spokesman Filip Drapal says the initiative is one of the activities Ropid hopes will lure people out of their cars and onto public transportation :: Read the full article »»»»

Apple’s Tim Cook Flatout Rejects US Senate Caining

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook has defended his company’s tax avoidance  tactics, Cook faced a grilling by US lawmakers accusing the tech-behemoth of sham subsidiaries and convoluted strategies to shift profits offshore, however Cook strenuously denied the company used gimmicks to avoid paying taxes. Cook told a US Senate committee Apple paid all the taxes it owed, complying with not only the law, but the spirit of the law.

Cook said last year Apple paid $US6 billion to the US coffers, a tax rate of about 30 percent.

The high level US Senate committee investigating corporate offshore tax avoidance has accused Apple of shifting billions of dollars in profits to avoid paying US taxes on a massive scale. It found Apple avoided paying $9 billion in tax in 2012. Earlier, Panel chairman Senator Carl Levin accused Apple of “exploiting an absurdity” in its tax payments.

Mr Cook told the hearing that Apple lives up to its tax obligations and more, but some lawmakers expressed outrage over findings of the panel’s probe that the tech-behemoth avoided taxes by using a web of foreign subsidiaries, some without any tax jurisdiction :: Read the full article »»»»

Did Yahoo Just Flush A Billion Bucks?

Internet pioneer Yahoo has confirmed that it intends to purchase popular blogging website Tumblr for more than $AU1.1 billion. Analysts say the acquisition is part of an effort by Yahoo to connect with a younger, hipper crowd as part of its battle to revive an ailing audience, and to up the fight with rival search engine Google’s global domination.

Tumblr, which was founded in 2007 by a high school drop out, is now one of the web’s most popular social media sites. Yahoo has been searching through a range of possible acquisitions since the mighty Ms Mayer took the helm last year, vowing to revive the company, which has seriously wilted in the face of competition from Google.

Tumblr could be key to Yahoo’s strategy, its popularity with younger internet users is unsurpassed. A survey this year conducted by the online data group Survata found Tumblr more popular than Facebook among those aged 13 to 25. While Tumblr generates very little cash, bringing it in the Yahoo family could offer the potential for new advertising and other revenue sources :: Read the full article »»»»

REBLOG! Copper Beech Farm …$US190 Million

Earlier this month Sydney’s house prices topped out at $AU50 million – Altona, a Point Piper harbour front mansion – In the US however, a house has just gone on the market with an asking price of $AU195 Million.

Copper Beech Farm – named for the Copper Beech trees, not a US misspell - is set on 20 hectares/50 acres of manicured (subdividable) lushness, it boasts 12 bedrooms – excluding separate staff quarters – 9 bathrooms, standout views across Long Island Sound, two islands, private beach, grassed tennis court, 25-metre swimming pool, a proper geenhouse, gatehouse and stone carriage house.

The Neo-French Renaissance style isn’t the reason for such a high asking price, nor is it’s history, Copper Beech Farm is a breezy 45 minute drive – as if you’d drive – to New York City. What’s that sound real-estate agents keep making? “Location, location, location.” :: Read the full article »»»»