Are Apple’s new ‘yellow face’ emoji racist?

A selection of the “yellow face” emoji in question

Apple has finally decided to welcome people of color to the emoji club: Developers testing the latest version of Apple’s operating system reported Monday the addition of 300 new emoji, including several variations for skin tone and race.

There are dark-skinned faces, which is good. Different hair colors, which is great! But among the line of life-like skin tones, there’s an obvious outlier: that lurid yellow face.

Some jokesters asked: Is yellow for the Simpsons? For people with jaundice? Not for Asians, surely?! Across the Twitters and the tech blogs, viewers wtf-ed and omg-ed and tut-tutted accordingly. And on Chinese social media, Quartz reports, a veritable storm cloud of controversy is brewing.

If the yellow-faced character is supposed to represent Asians, pundits point out, Apple’s big push for multicultural inclusion just backfired spectacularly. That’s because “yellow face,” much like “black face,” describes a specific, historical portrayal of Asians — one that many consider racist, offensive and hurtful, to this day.


But hold your horses, Apple-haters: The yellow face has nothing to do with Asians, or with race at all. In fact, that bright gold-yellow color — a standard hue for emoticons since the AOL days — it intended to be ethnically neutral. As my colleague Abby Phillip explained in November, when emoji’s governing body proposed the new skin tones, they did it according to an actual, dermatological scale: It’s called the “Fitzpatrick scale,” and it was developed by a professor at Harvard Medical School in the ’70s to describe how different skin tones respond to ultraviolet light.

The yellow face, Unicode makes quite clear, is not part of that scale. It has nothing to do with skin tone. Instead, it’s supposed to be a “generic (nonhuman)” default — the ethnically neutral, post-racial character you can whip out when you don’t feel like getting into the subtleties of your emoji’s identity.

The new emoji skin tones are based on the Fitzpatrick scale

There is a ton of precedent for that already, of course, which is what makes the controversy kind of odd. Default, non-ethnic emoji are already yellow on all major platforms, including Apple, Microsoft and Google. Before Apple even supported emoji, the faces available in Japan and from other carriers had a yellow hue. Even AOL’s Instant Messenger — which supported a mere 12 cartoon emoticons in the late ’90s — used only yellow faces.

“The single point of consistency between the [world’s] emoji collections,” Bianca Bosker wrote last summer, is “… the orange kind of Homer Simpson/John Boehner color.”

In fact, if you trace it back far enough, the color choice seems to date as early as the 1960s, when the commercial artist Harvey Ball designed the iconic yellow smiley for a Massachusetts insurance company. The smiley was intended to boost employee morale after a difficult merger — hence the bright yellow hue. And as the smiley metastasized across popular culture, adorning bags and stamps and bumper stickers, the yellow just stuck. Somehow, no one thought to ask if it was racist when the smiley looked like this:

The problem arises, of course, when the color is applied to a more humanoid face — particularly as part of a big “multicultural” rebranding. Now Apple is asking us to see emoji not as icons, only, but as actual representative stand-ins for real human people. And as many a Twitter pundit has pointed out, when real human people are called “yellow-faced,” it’s … explicitly racist.

In either case, if the yellow face is racially neutral, where is the Asian character among Apple’s new offerings? In a lot of places, it turns out: According to Fitzpatrick’s scale, Asian skin tone can vary from Type III to Type V, depending.

Cr. Washington Post

Samsung Galaxy S6 : 'Six Appeal' Tagline

It’s been a busy few days, and it’s all here on BitStream.

A great phone with a terrible tagline

As is tradition with most major smartphones a week out from their official reveals, renders and landing pages are popping up piecemeal to show off the contours and styling of the much-anticipated devices. Over the weekend, HTC couldn’t escape a leak of its own and the upcoming Galaxy S6 is no different, except it seems this leak wasn’t really an accident because the page, posted by T-Mobile, is still up for anyone to see.

This S6 definitely looks to the be the S6 Edge with the front slightly sloping toward the bezel. But man, that tagline. The look of smartphones, and really any tech devices (except maybe like sex toys) should never, ever be called — or even alluded to — as sexy. Just. No. Whenever someone tells me, “Oh man, that phone is sexy.” I feel like I need to go take a shower.

Seems like a nice-looking phone though. [Android Central]
iWear: Hacker runs iPhone notifications of a Moto 360

The wait for the Apple Watch has been an excruciating one. Not only was the thing announced back in September, but after such a long wait, it seems the first generation won’t even be near as amazing as Apple hoped. With all the great wearables already out there already running Android Wear, one hacker decided he was just going to make his own Apple Watch by successfully pushing text message notifications from his iPhone 6 to a Moto 360. Sure, it’s just one feature, but it’s a start! Take a look.

Rumourtown

    Google may be updating how search results display on mobile, sacrificing space for design. [Android Police]
    iPhones may be giving up on IPS LCD displays and finally transitioning to OLED, meaning deeper blacks and less power consumption. [Trusted Reviews]
    Apple may use an OS X-like public beta program for iOS 8.3 and iOS 9. Apple must be getting tired of “buggy” complaints. [TechCrunch]

Your Apps, Updated

    Microsoft is making an People Sense app to find friends on Windows Phone. Too bad hardly anyone has friends on Windows Phone. [Microsoft Place]

De(vices)

    LG wants to become king of the middle by launching four new mid-range handsets. [The Next Web]
    Motorola says it has something “exciting” to show on February 25-28.   Maybe it’s a new Moto 360 complete with Superfish adware! [The Verge]
    If the teaser image up above wasn’t enough to satisfy your S6 craving, Samsung also released this video that’s all close-ups and expository monologue.

Cr.Gizmodo,Mercedes Benz News

Lupita Nyong'o Dress Stolen !

Kevin Winter/GettyActress Lupita Nyong'o

 The theft of a $150,000 pearl-covered gown worn by Lupita Nyong'o at the Oscars doesn't surprise Hollywood stylists who have personally experienced the seedy side of red carpet fashion.

Style expert and fashion commentator Mary Alice Stephenson has for years heard stories about similar stolen celebrity items.

"It's not shocking to me that this would be taken out of her hotel room," said Stephenson, who once had a nabbed Fendi bag held for ransom.

A dress like the custom ivory one designed by Francisco Costa for the Calvin Klein Collection could fetch a lot of money on the black market, Stephenson said.

"There are a lot of collectors out there who are very private and have private collections of stolen merchandise," she said. "Some of these dresses have global fame as big as any Van Gogh."
However, Los Angeles Auction House director Bryan Abbott noted that the black market would be problematic for fetching top dollar in this case.

"Celebrity-related material has additional value because it's related to the celebrity," he said. "If this was stolen, you wouldn't be able to realize that additional value."
"I can't think of a harder thing to sell than a high-profile Oscar dress by a famous manufacturer that's associated with a famous personality. You'd have to bury it for a hundred years," he added.

The 6,000 disconnected pearls wouldn't even be worth much on their own, Abbott said.

"Most pearls don't have much of a resale value to start with, unless they're from a famous manufacturer such as Mikimoto," he said. "If the dress were made of Mikimoto pearls, it would be millions of dollars."

Sheriff's deputies responded to call late Wednesday from a West Hollywood hotel after the custom dress was reported missing from the hotel room of the actress, sheriff's Sgt. Richard Bowman said.

Nyong'o was present when deputies took the report, but she wasn't in her room when the elaborate gown was taken, Bowman said. Her publicists said they would not comment on the theft.

Representatives for the actress reported the theft. Detectives suspect the garment was taken sometime between 8 and 9 p.m. Wednesday, sheriff's Lt. William Nash said.

Detectives were at the hotel Thursday looking for clues, including surveillance video that might reveal what happened.

Nyong'o won an Oscar in 2014 for her role in "Twelve Years a Slave" and was a presenter at Sunday's ceremony.

The 31-year-old actress has become a darling of Hollywood's red carpets in the past two years, with commenters and fans praising her fashion choices. She accessorized the dress with Chopard diamond drop earrings and three Chopard diamond rings.
Before the awards ceremony, Nyong'o told The Associated Press on the red carpet, "I'm just wearing my diamonds and pearls. My homage to Prince," referring to a popular song by the musician.

Nyong'o told a reporter for Yahoo Style that she was involved in the design of the dress.

"We talked about it being fluid and liquid," she told the site. "I wanted it to be an homage to the sea."

A representative for Calvin Klein declined to comment. But late Thursday night, the fashion house did tweet a close-up photo of the dress, writing "have you seen this dress?" with the hashtag "freethepearls."

Cr.ABC News

The Dress Blue & Black Or White & Gold ?

Is This Dress : Blue & Black Or White & Gold ?

There’s a debate dividing the Internet that’s splitting apart offices, marriages and friendships alike. It is…

What color is this dress?

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to DressGate. Some see the dress as white and gold. Others see blue and black.

And the two sides cannot agree.

The debate began on Tumblr Thursday when a user named Swiked posted the image of the dress, above, along with a plea: “Guys please help me — is this dress white and gold, or blue and black? Me and my friends can’t agree and we are freaking the [expletive deleted] out.”

Looking at  Blue Black or White Gold ??

This Dress is blue and Blace or white and Gold ??

The image immediately caused controversy: “My class just had a debate over this. Half sees black and blue, the other half sees gold and white. Someone please explain this…”

"If that’s not gold my entire life has been a lie," replied Swiked.

The image spread like wildfire and, from Facebook to Twitter to media sites, everyone is mystified. A Buzzfeed survey says 74 percent say white and gold, while the other 26 percent saw blue and black.



This writer saw gold and white, until I glimpsed this image, below, which, some think is the actual dress in question, from a UK retailer. The dress, on the website, is blue and black. And once I saw this image, the original image changed to blue and black and I can no longer see the dress as white and gold. Try it — does it work for you?



Theories as to why people are seeing the dress differently are running rampant across the internet.

Deadspin examined the Photoshop data attached to the image, pulling the dress image into the program to see what color Photoshop deemed it. The answer: blue and black.

Taylor Swift freaked out on Instagram:

Taylor Swift freaked out on Instagram

Others turned to health experts:

A theory posted on the forum Neogaf blames your eyes:

    Blue and Black: Your retina’s cones are more high functioning, and this results in your eyes doing subtractive mixing. White and Gold: Our eyes don’t work well in dim light so our retinas rods see white, and this makes them less light sensitive, causing additive mixing, (that of green and red), to make gold.

Over at Vice, they asked a color vision expert about the color of the dress.

    After I explained that I saw the dress as blue and black, he said he wanted to ask one of the students working in his vision lab for a second opinion. “Blue and black,” the student replied. There was a long pause on the other end of the phone.

    "Why is this happening? I don’t know," Dr. Neitz told me. "This is one of the most fascinating color vision things I’ve seen in a long time."
    It’s important for me to tell you that Dr. Neitz has been working in the field of color vision research for about 35 years. He runs a renowned laboratory called the Neitz Color Vision Lab. He has a Wikipedia page. And he had no [expletive deleted] clue what was going on with this photo of a dress.

At Buzzfeed, writer Claudia Koerner called a lighting expert friend, who had a pretty interesting explanation:

    After a minor freak-out (because I somehow saw it both ways at different times), I asked my friend Ben, a post production supervisor in Los Angeles, to weigh in.

    You know, the people who make your TV shows look good between filming and the time they hit your screen?

    According to Ben, the photo — taken with a camera phone in poor lighting — casts the whites in a blue tone and mutes the gold to a darker color.
    People who see blue and black are seeing the photo at face value. People who see gold and white are compensating to the photo’s lighting and aesthetic.

photo’s lighting and aesthetic

Wired, however, has perhaps the most complete analysis, saying that the color discrepancy is due to the way human eyes and brains have evolved to see color in a sunlit world.

    Light enters the eye through the lens — different wavelengths corresponding to different colors. The light hits the retina in the back of the eye where pigments fire up neural connections to the visual cortex, the part of the brain that processes those signals into an image. Critically, though, that first burst of light is made of whatever wavelengths are illuminating the world, reflecting off whatever you’re looking at. Without you having to worry about it, your brain figures out what color light is bouncing off the thing your eyes are looking at, and essentially subtracts that color from the “real” color of the object. “Our visual system is supposed to throw away information about the illuminant and extract information about the actual reflectance,” says Jay Neitz, a neuroscientist at the University of Washington. “But I’ve studied individual differences in color vision for 30 years, and this is one of the biggest individual differences I’ve ever seen.” (Neitz sees white-and-gold.)

    Usually that system works just fine. This image, though, hits some kind of perceptual boundary. That might be because of how people are wired. Human beings evolved to see in daylight, but daylight changes color. That chromatic axis varies from the pinkish red of dawn, up through the blue-white of noontime, and then back down to reddish twilight. “What’s happening here is your visual system is looking at this thing, and you’re trying to discount the chromatic bias of the daylight axis,” says Bevil Conway, a neuroscientist who studies color and vision at Wellesley College. “So people either discount the blue side, in which case they end up seeing white and gold, or discount the gold side, in which case they end up with blue and black.” (Conway sees blue and orange, somehow.)

Tomorrow, we’ll call all the neuroscientists and ophthalmologists we know for their opinions, but in the meantime, what do you think: black and blue, or gold and white? 


Cr.Yahoo

'American Horror Story: Hotel'

Lady Gaga Will Star in 'American Horror Story: Hotel'

Shape-shifting pop star Lady Gaga has snagged a major role in the next season of "American Horror Story." The Mother Monster's role hasn't been revealed, but it's sure to be even weirder than the meat dress she donned for the 2010 MTV VMAs. Gaga dropped the news via Twitter, of course, with a delightfully creepy video.

According to The Wrap, creator Ryan Murphy dropped a few clues about the next season in the first two episodes of "Freak Show." Given all the clever theories about how the different seasons are related, this makes perfect sense. (For a quick refresher on those two episodes, check out our recaps here and here.) Plus, there have been plenty of hotel rooms featured in the show over the years, like the one that the Axeman (Danny Huston) rented in "Coven."

The series is slated to start filming in July, so perhaps we'll hear a few more details once production begins. We're waiting on tenterhooks to find out whether or not Jessica Lange will return for another season, and this just adds fuel to our fan fire.

"American Horror Story: Hotel" will air on FX in October, naturally.

Cr.Moviefone

Mirjana Puhar: 5 Things To Know About ‘ANTM’

Mirjana Puhar: 5 Things To Know About ‘ANTM’ Star Who Was Murdered

‘America’s Next Top Model’ fans are reeling after former contestant Mirjana, 19, was murdered in a shocking triple homicide on Feb. 24. In the wake of this terrible tragedy, let’s get to know the beautiful, talented person that Mirjana was.

Mirjana Puhar may be gone but her spirit will live on in the hearts and memories of her friends, family and fans. It has done some digging to bring you the top five things you need to know about Mirjana.
Who Is Mirjana Puhar? — 5 Things About ‘ANTM’ Star Murdered In Triple Homicide

1. Mirjana was born in Srmeska Mitorvica, Serbia, and she and her family were Serbian war refugees, according to an interview she gave The Charlotte Observer. The Puhars fled the country following the Kosovo War, when Mirjana was about five years old. After finding homage in New York City, they eventually relocated to North Carolina, where Mirjana grew up.

2. Mirjana’s name is pronounced “Meer-ee-ah-na”, although people rarely got it right. “It’s okay,” she said in the interview. “I’m used to it by now.”

3. Mirjana had been modeling since she was just 12 years old. She worked with local modeling centers like Barbizon and John Casablancas, but she didn’t enjoy those experiences. Eventually she went on to become a contestant on Season 21 of America’s Next Top Model.

4. Mirjana dropped out of high school at age 16. “I was a wild child,” she revealed. “I went out, had fun, partied, whatever — I didn’t really have the best influences around me.” But right before Mirjana was cast in America’s Next Top Model, she earned her GED at a local community college.

5. Mirjana hinted at her dark past to The Charlotte Observer before her season of ANTM aired, saying, “I don’t want people dabbling in my personal life, and I’m pretty sure they’re gonna do that after seeing the show. Once you watch the show, and you see what they get into, and what I speak about … then I’m pretty sure they’re gonna try to get into [my past].”
Mirjana Puhar: Emmanuel Jesus Rangel Arrested For ‘ANTM’ Star’s Murder

As  previously reported, Mirjana and two others, Jonathan Cosme Alvarado and Jusmar Isiah Gonzaga-Garcia, were murdered in her boyfriend’s home on Feb. 24. The triple homicide is believed to be drug-related and police have already arrested a suspect, Emmanuel Jesus Rangel.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to everybody affected by this trag

Cr.Hollywoodlife

Jamie Dornan leaving 'Grey' is 'conjecture'

Jamie Dornan leaving 'Grey' is 'conjecture'

Jamie Dornan's press representatives have tried to quell the rising rumor storm that the actor will no longer play Christian Grey in the Fifty Shades of Grey franchise.

"All press reports are pure conjecture as the studio (has) not committed to a sequel as yet," said London-based PublicEye communications PR firm in an e-mailed statement Tuesday.
The carefully worded statement does not address some obvious questions, as Focus Features and Universal Studios will certainly do a follow-up to the massive hit. The film has made more than $400 million so far in worldwide box office.

This box office total came after withering reviews from critics and a deep 73% domestic box office slide in its second week of release.

Further, Dornan has signed a contract to play kinky billionaire Christian Grey in follow-up installments of the three-part best-selling book series by author E.L. James.

Australian magazine NW first reported that the actor had decided to depart the series because his wife, Amelia Warner, was uncomfortable with the onscreen bondage-filled sex scenes.

Media reports have run rampant since the initial speculation. Universal Pictures had no official comment on either the statement or the report.

Dornan and co-star Dakota Johnson, who played curious student Anastasia Steele, were also dogged by rumors that they did not get along during and after filming. Johnson presented an award solo at the Oscars on Sunday.

Director Sam Taylor-Johnson addressed that rumor to USA TODAY, saying, "It's a movie. It was work. They get along fine."

Cr. USA Today

Zendaya Coleman blasts Giuliana Rancic over dreadlock jokes

Zendaya Coleman and Giuliana Rancic

Teen star Zendaya Coleman has condemned Fashion Police presenter Giuliana Rancic for suggesting she reeks of marijuana because she wore her hair in dreadlocks.

The K.C. Undercover actress flaunted the bold hairstyle as she walked the Academy Awards red carpet on Sunday and during an Oscars special episode of Fashion Police, which aired in the U.S. on Monday, Rancic analyzed Coleman’s look and said, “I feel like she smells of patchouli oil... maybe weed.”

Coleman has since fired back on Instagram.com, writing, “There is a fine line between what is funny and disrespectful. Someone sad (said) something about my hair at the Oscars that left me in awe. Not because I was relishing in rave outfit reviews, but because I was hit with ignorant slurs and pure disrespect. To say that an 18 year old young woman with locs (dreadlocks) must smell of patchouli oil or ’weed’ is not only a large stereotype but outrageously offensive.”

Rancic has since apologized, writing on Twitter.com, “Dear Zendaya, I’m sorry I offended you and others. I was referring to a bohemian chic look. Had nothing to do with race and never would!!!”



Cr.Toronto Sun

Lady Gaga Headed To Broadway ?

Lady Gaga may be heading to Broadway

Lady Gaga’s ‘Sound Of Music’ performance at the 2015 Oscars blew everyone away! It was so brilliant that immediately after the Feb. 22 ceremony, many Twitter users started saying she should head to Broadway. Will she?

Lady Gaga may be heading to Broadway after her triumphant performance at the Oscars on Feb. 22. The powerhouse vocalist proved how amazing her voice truly is when she performed a medley of hits from the classic film, The Sound of Music. Fans and celebs have been raving on social media ever since, and some users are saying she belongs on Broadway.

Lady Gaga ‘The Sound Of Music’ Performance — Heading To Broadway After Oscars?

“Lady Gaga is all about shocking us, and she’s so good at it. She will never just stick to one type of music. Broadway? Nothing is ever out of the question for her. She is an artist first and foremost and if she feels compelled and inspired, she’ll go for it. With Lady Gaga, expect the unexpected. You just can’t pigeonholed her ever,”

A big reason why we love Lady Gaga is because she’s so unpredictable. And she has been proving that over and over again throughout the last few years. We’d certainly love to see her take on Broadway. While nothing is set in stone, we do see Mother Monster heading to The Great White Way at some point during her career.
Lady Gaga’s Oscars Performance: Celebs Praise Her ‘Sound Of Music’ Tribute

After Lady Gaga’s amazing performance, a number celebrities even said they want her to star in a revival of The Sound Of Music!

Now that would be cool. See what else these celebs, including Paris Hilton, Ellen DeGeneres, and more, had to say.

Cr.Hollywood life

Razzies 2015: Kirk Cameron, Cameron Diaz

Worst actress Razzie goes to Cameron Diaz for Sex Tape

Former child star Kirk Cameron tried Saving Christmas, but he more likely killed a career comeback with the movie that ruled at this year's Razzies, the awards for the worst achievement in film.

Cameron, 44, was declared the big winner at Saturday night's 35th Golden Raspberry Awards ceremony, taking four of the six categories in which he and his Christian family comedy Saving Christmas were nominated: worst picture, worst actor, worst screenplay and worst screen combo – for him and his ego.

The tongue-in-cheek answer to Sunday's Academy Awards poked fun at another Cameron, as in Diaz, who won the $4.97 gold spray-painted berry trophy for worst actress for two comedies, The Other Woman and Sex Tape.

But in a sign that there can be redemption after a Razzie, actor/director Ben Affleck won the inaugural Redeemer award, going from his Razzie-earning role in 2003's Gigli to 2013 Oscar best picture winner Argo and box office hit Gone Girl.

Affleck was deemed more redeemable in a popular online vote than fellow nominees Jennifer Aniston, Mike Myers, Keanu Reeves and Kristen Stewart.

Director Michael Bay might have gotten off lightly. His special effects spectacle Transformers: Age of Extinction led all movies with seven Razzie nominations, but was only worthy of worst director and worst supporting actor for Kelsey Grammer.

Megan Fox won worst supporting actress for her role in the reboot film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The award for worst remake, rip-off or sequel went to Annie, the modern telling of the Broadway classic that hackers leaked online before its December opening after attacking Sony Pictures.

The Razzies are handed out at a ceremony in the heart of Hollywood on Oscar eve, although those honored seldom show up.

The ignominious awards are chosen by 811 members in 47 US states and 20 foreign countries who pay a minimum annual fee of $40 their first year and $25 thereafter.

As the Razzie organizers noted, their society is not alone in panning Saving Christmas. Users of the international movie database IMDB.com rated it the No. 1 worst movie of all time, while it scored a rare perfect "Zero" rating on critic aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes.

In the film, the child star of television's Growing Pains who later became an evangelical Christian tries to "put Christ back into Christmas."

Cr.Fairfax Media

Daytona 500 : Joey Logano Wins

Joey Logano  celebrate his victory in the 57th Daytona 500

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — The feel-good stories that Nascar hoped would dominate headlines during its season-opening week, from Jeff Gordon’s last Daytona 500 to the $400 million makeover of Daytona International Speedway, instead had been overshadowed by the ugly suspension of Kurt Busch and a gruesome injury to Kyle Busch on Saturday that cast a pall over the 500, the organization’s showcase event.
But on a sunny Sunday afternoon, Nascar saw the focus return to racing. And amid the domination of Hendrick cars early to the three-wide, nail-biting, breathless finish at 200 miles an hour, Nascar finally had the best story of the week: Joey Logano.

Logano, a driver who was once dumped by Joe Gibbs Racing, found a home at Team Penske and nearly took home the Sprint Cup championship last year, completed his rise by winning his first Daytona 500 and securing his berth in the Cup playoff at the end of the year.
Continue reading the main story
Related Coverage

    Jimmie Johnson after a win at Daytona on Thursday. He has won six of the last nine Nascar Sprint Cup championships.
    With Hendrick Motorsports Dominant, Sprint Cup Is Becoming a One-Team RaceFEB. 21, 2015
    Carl Edwards, who has joined Joe Gibbs Racing, during a recent practice for Sunday's season-opening Daytona 500.
    Daytona 500: Carl Edwards May Be Driver to Watch in Sprint Cup Title ChaseFEB. 19, 2015
    Kurt Busch was suspended Friday, two days before the season-opening Daytona 500.
    After Ruling, Kurt Busch Is Suspended Indefinitely FEB. 20, 2015

“I can’t believe it,” said Logano, who grew up racing quarter-midget cars in Connecticut. “This is absolutely amazing.”
Logano held off a field of Nascar’s elite drives, from Denny Hamlin to the defending Cup champion Kevin Harvick and the defending 500 winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. to win the race under caution after a multicar pileup on the final lap. But as Hamlin said after the race, Logano is among the elite now, too.

For a time, it seemed it would be the same old story for Nascar. The only question through much of the Daytona 500 was which Hendrick Motorsports driver would win. Gordon led 77 of the first 100 laps. Earnhardt powered to the lead at lap 114 and led for 32 laps before a third teammate, Jimmie Johnson, emerged in the last 50. Only a handful of drivers, including Logano, Harvick, Hamlin and Carl Edwards, were able to flirt with the Hendrick cars at the front of the pack.

Logano seemed to be on his way to victory with the lead and three laps to go, chased by Johnson and Hamlin. But Justin Allgaier wrecked on the front stretch to bring out a red flag, stopping the race. The race was extended two laps to try to ensure a green-flag finish but no one was able to catch Logano, who shot out to the lead and was not challenged as the field wrecked behind him and one final caution came out before he took the checkered flag.

Harvick was second and Earnhardt third.

Among those collected in that last wreck was Gordon, who finished 33rd in his final Daytona 500. It didn’t begin that way. The last Daytona 500 of Gordon’s storied career began with his No. 24 Chevrolet on the pole.

“This is an amazing moment,” Gordon said before the race. “Like a storybook in the making or happening live. This is a moment I will cherish forever, for sure.”
He would have cherished holding the Harley J. Earl Trophy for the fourth time in his career even more. And for a stretch, it looked as if no one would challenge him except perhaps Earnhardt, who started third. Earnhardt spent much of the first half on Gordon’s bumper. At the halfway mark, the top three racecars were all from Hendrick Motorsports, including Gordon, Kasey Kahne in second and Earnhardt third.
Continue reading the main story Continue reading the main story
Continue reading the main story

But after leading 87 laps, Gordon fell back into the pack in the second half as Earnhardt, seeking his third win in the 500, moved to the front. Harvick stayed on Earnhardt’s bumper and was in position for his second Daytona 500 win.
Tony Stewart saw his chances of finally winning end when he was involved in a crash on lap 41. Stewart was among the leaders when his car appeared to get loose and fell back in the field before hitting the outside wall near turn 4. Seven racecars were collected, including the two-time winner Matt Kenseth, who fell off the lead lap.

Regan Smith, who climbed into the No. 41 Chevrolet to replace Kurt Busch, who was suspended after a judge determined he had committed domestic assault last September, finished 16th. Matt Crafton, the Camping World Truck Series two-time champion who was tabbed to start in place of the injured Kyle Busch, who sustained a broken right leg and left foot in a wreck during Saturday’s Xfinity race, finished 18th.

Danica Patrick, in the last year of her contract with her primary sponsor GoDaddy and needing to show improvement in her third full season in the Cup, finished 21st after racing cleanly throughout the day.

Cr. New York Times

Michael Phelps & 2010 Miss California

Michael Phelps got engaged to 2010 Miss California Nicole Johnson.

The engagement comes as Phelps is finishing a six-month suspension from USA Swimming for his second drunken-driving arrest. The suspension ends March 6, and he is expected to return to competition at Mesa, Arizona, in April.

After his Sept. 30 arrest, the 29-year-old Phelps underwent 45 days of inpatient treatment in Arizona. He continued his therapy in Maryland and enrolled in Alcoholics Anonymous, according to his attorney.

Phelps pled guilty to the DUI charge in December and was placed on probation by a judge who warned, "If you haven't gotten the message by now, or forget the message, the only option is jail."

Phelps retired from competition after the 2012 London Olympics, saying he had no desire to keep swimming into his 30s and had accomplished all his goals. He won a record eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Games and, with 18 golds and 22 medals overall, is by far the most decorated athlete in Olympic history.
But Phelps resumed training in 2013 and began competing again last April in Mesa. He won three golds and two silvers at the Pan Pacific championships in Australia, his first major international meet since London, and was named male athlete of the year by USA Swimming despite his suspension.

Phelps is also banned from this summer's world championships in Russia, the biggest meet heading into the 2016 Olympics, but is pressing forward with plans to compete at the Rio Games.

Now, he's got another important item on his agenda.

Cr.The Huffington Post

Mobile, the Metatrend of the Decade

Mobile, the Metatrend of the Decade

Four billion people are buying new smartphones every two years, massively outpacing the PC industry (where we buy 1.6 billion PCs every five years).

Our desire for the most powerful, newest tech in our pocket is the beginning of a symbiotic merger between human and machine.

Check out the explosive growth curves below. They demonstrate why tech will infiltrate you, your business, your family, and every aspect of your life.

How many of us don't let our mobile phones get out of our sight? How often are they more than a meter or two from our grasp?

The data comes from a fantastic presentation by Benedict Evans from Andreesen-Horowitz called "Mobile is Eating the World."

Growth of smartphones vs. PCs

Infinite Computing & Sensing

The power of smartphones comes from the unique mix of connectivity, computing and sensors it brings into our lives. Let's take a look.

With a glimpse of what's to come, Sprint has already demonstrated an over-the-air speed of 1 gigabit per second at their Silicon Valley lab.

    Connectivity: As I discuss in my next book BOLD (February 2015), consider that in 1991, early 2G networks clocked in at a hundred kilobits per second. A decade later, 3G networks hit one megabit per second, while today's 4G networks sport up to eight megabits per second. But in February 2014, Sprint's CEO Dan Hesse (now retired) announced plans for Sprint Spark, a super-high-speed network capability able to deliver 50 to 60 megabits per second to your mobile phone.
    Computing: Just three or four decades ago, if you wanted to access a thousand core processors, you'd need to be the chairman of MIT's computer science department or the secretary of the U.S. Defense Department. Today the average chip in your cell phone can perform about a billion calculations per second. Yet today has nothing on tomorrow.As MIT Technology Review points out, "Generations of chip-making technology are known by the size of the smallest structure they can write into a chip. The current best is 14 nanometers, and by 2020, in order to keep up with Moore's Law, the industry will need to be down to five nanometers.

    This is the point where IBM hopes nanotubes can step in. The most recent report from the microchip industry group the ITRS says the so-called five-nanometer 'node' is due in 2019."

    Beyond the processing power in your phone (a super computer by all standards), your smartphone has access to truly infinite computational power on the cloud over its multi-megabit linkage.
    Sensors: Sensors are the real magic. The growing suite of sensors in our phones is extending our abilities, slowly making us superhuman. The smartphone is our future JARVIS, making us future Tony Starks. For example, in an iPhone, the basics include a proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, accelerometer (senses the orientation of the phone), magnetometer (measures the strength and/or direction of the magnetic field), and a gyroscope.Of course we also have an incredible 8-megapixel camera and microphone to look and listen.

    Beyond what's packed into the phone, your device can connect to the Internet of Everything surrounding you, extending its "sensing capabilities" by orders of magnitude.

    What's next? Sensors that measure your blood chemistries, the quality of the air your breathing, the nutrient content of the food you're eating, even the DNA of the food you're eating (is it shark or swordfish?).

Every new sensor creates a new business.

The Android app store has 1.3 million apps.

Apple's app store has 1.2 million.

While a significant portion of these apps are useless, more and more truly powerful apps are being developed that take advantage of the sensing and computing capabilities of smartphones.

And these apps are sticky.

We spend a lot of time on them.

Heck, today there's more time spent on mobile apps than on the entire Web.

Time spent on Mobile Web vs. Apps vs. Desktop

Small teams can leverage this platform in big ways

I often talk about exponential organizations – small teams of people leveraging exponential technologies and resources to scale quickly and disrupt slow-moving incumbent businesses.

Mobile and infinite computing are one of the core drivers allowing this to happen.

Instagram was acquired for a $1 billion with a team of 13 employees.

There are 1.5 trillion SMS messages sent between smartphones globally every year.

WhatsApp, an app that was built by a team of 30 people and acquired by Facebook for $19 billion, processes 7.2 trillion messages a year.

In 2000, a business with 100 employees would need to raise $10 million to reach 1 million people.

Today, we see many examples of teams of around 10 people raising $1 million and reaching 10 million people.

Or, in the case of the silly app "YO," one person raises $0 and reaches 1 million people in months.

How are you leveraging these platforms?

The opportunity these technologies present to solve the world's grand challenges are incredible.

Don't build dumb apps. Build problem-solving apps.

At XPRIZE, we've launched a $15M Global Learning XPRIZE to incentivize teams to create a piece of software on a tablet that can teach any child anywhere in the world how to read, write, and do basic math.

Today teams are competing to win the $10M Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE to build a mobile device that can diagnose you better than a board-certified doctor.

This is really just the beginning.

Cr.Singularity Hub

The million-dollar question about Android TV

 Google's new TV Android Box

The big story out of this year's Consumer Electronics Show is Google's move to bring Android into your living room -- but when it comes to the company's new Android TV ecosystem, one big question remains:

How will software updates work?

Android TV, in case you've had your ears plugged lately, is Google's latest effort at getting its software into your home entertainment setup. At CES this week, Google announced that Sony, Sharp, and Philips all had Android TV-powered televisions in the works for this spring. A set-top Android TV gaming console is supposed to launch next month, meanwhile, and at least one standalone streaming media player is scheduled to arrive later this year.
But with the software coming preloaded on all of those devices, we need to know: Who will be responsible for future OS upgrades? Will Google itself handle rollouts, as it does with its Nexus products and Android Wear watches, or will it be up to each device manufacturer to process every update and send it out to customers?

The questions of how reliably upgrades will be delivered and for how long your TV will receive them are pivotal

As anyone who's familiar with Android knows, it's a critical question to consider. With phones and tablets -- Google's own Nexus devices being the main exception -- the responsibility of OS upgrades falls on the shoulders of individual manufacturers. It's an inevitable part of Android's open nature: Google's approach to the platform means manufacturers can modify the software in any way they wish, which allows for a level of diversity and innovation a closed ecosystem couldn't provide.

But that also means the software has to be handed off to those manufacturers anytime an update arrives -- and it's then up to the manufacturers to modify it as they will and roll it out to users. And, to put it nicely, some manufacturers are better than others at getting upgrades delivered in a timely fashion.

Irksome as that can be, it's par for the course with phones and tablets -- and it's something we've (more or less) come to expect. The same goes for the typical shelf life of a mobile device: Once a phone's been around for about 18 months to two years, you know it's probably not going to get any more major software upgrades. Love it or hate it, smartphones operate under the principle that you're gonna buy a new one every couple of years.

Televisions, though? If you're anything like me, they're a completely different story. Most people I know (myself included) don't buy new TVs terribly often. I've seen some analyst estimates that put the typical TV replacement cycle in the ballpark of once every four to five years, but even that seems a bit on the high side to me.

So with a still-young operating system that's bound to get a fair amount of updates over the months and years ahead, the questions of how reliably those upgrades will be delivered and for how long your TV will receive them are pivotal. If Google puts out a transformative Android TV update in December, you don't want to be waiting six to eight months for it to reach your television.
And if you buy a TV this year, you don't want to find out that it's done getting upgrades two, three, even five years from now. Buying a new phone every couple of years in order to keep up with the latest software is one thing. I don't know that most of us want to be on that regular of a replacement cycle with our televisions, too.

Google has said that all Android TV devices will have a consistent user interface, which gives me hope for a universally streamlined and Google-controlled upgrade system -- but hope isn't the same thing as confirmation. And even if upgrades are guaranteed to be timely across the board, the question of how long TVs will receive updates after they launch still remains.

Maybe an Android TV-based television will be a brilliant way to experience entertainment. Maybe a "dumb" TV with a more easily replaceable set-top box will be the smarter option (better to buy a new $100 box every few years than a new $2000 television, no?). Or maybe sticking with the simplicity of a phone-centric streaming solution like Chromecast will end up being the most sensible solution for some of us.
Popular Resources
  
Here's hoping that by the time Android TV products show up on store shelves, we'll have enough specific and detailed information to make an educated decision.

Cr.Computer World

Audi TTS : Driverless Cars

Stanford's robotic race car, Shelley.

In Driverless Cars, Champion Racing Skills Will Come Standard

An Audi TTS tears around a California racetrack hitting speeds of 120 miles an hour and finessing turns like an elite driver. And it is an elite driver. Just not a human one.

Stanford Dynamic Design Lab’s robotic racer, dubbed Shelley, has been approaching the performance of human race car drivers for a few years now. In 2012, it was a few seconds off the times of expert drivers. These days, it’s neck and neck.

The car, using GPS to pinpoint its position on the track, is piloted by an onboard computer and advanced algorithms. Unlike other driverless cars, like Google’s, Shelley isn’t terribly flexible. It’s been programmed to drive a specific track (Thunderhill near Sacramento) and can’t avoid unexpected obstacles.

But that’s okay. Shelley and team are digitizing the skills of the best drivers. And here's the cool bit: like anything else digital, once you've written the program it's easily transferable. If one robot car can drive like Michael Schumacher or Dale Earnhardt Jr.—they all can. No years of practice required. Just copy the code.

Shelley has been racing David Vodden, an amateur racing champion and CEO of Thunderhill racetrack near Sacramento. In a recent time trial competition, Shelley beat Vodden by 0.4 seconds. The latest robot to beat a human? Stanford's Chris Gerdes cautions it isn’t a perfect “Deep Blue v. Kasparov” moment yet—but still pretty impressive.

"I can start this competition at a different point on the track, and David wins by 0.4 seconds, so there is still not a clear victory here," Gerdes says. "But the point we wanted to make is that we've gotten fairly comparable to an expert driver in terms of our ability to drive around the track."

Gerdes and his team have improved Shelley's abilities by studying the brains of top racers (using EEGs) and plotting their decisions as they lap the track. They’ve found the most experienced human drivers can make split-second, intuitive, out-of-the box decisions to shave tenths of a second off times.

Vodden calls this skill "butt sense." And it's an open question whether computers will ever pair brute force, by-the-book logic with flexible, creative problem solving like ours. Vodden has his doubts.

"A really motivated race car driver is willing to 'bet the car,'" he said. "I think Shelley is precise, whereas a race car driver will do whatever it takes, including betting the car.” Though the list of things computers will never do is dwindling, he may be right. But beyond the track, those tenths of a second matter less.

Why? Because although the vast majority of human drivers will never negotiate a turn or tap the brakes like a professional driver, near approximations of these skills will come stock in future driverless cars.

High-performance maneuvers like those employed by the top drivers can translate into everyday driving, especially when evasive action is needed—dodging an unexpected car or pedestrian in the road and navigating ice or snow.

So, what matters more than driverless cars beating elite race car drivers is that they vastly surpass average drivers. And this is probably the best argument for driverless technology. Put simply, who would you prefer taking the wheel in a risky situation: You, your elderly neighbor, that teenager up the road—or Mario Andretti?

Cr.Singularity Hub

Harris Wittels of ‘Parks and Recreation’ dead at 30

“The Sarah Silverman Program” writer Harris Wittels, Sarah Silverman, executive producer Dan Sterling and actress Laura Silverman in 2008

Harris Wittels, a 30-year-old writer and producer of “Parks and Recreation,” is dead at 30.

TMZ broke the news, reporting Wittels died of a “possible drug overdose” in his home, where he was pronounced dead on Thursday afternoon. Drug paraphernalia was also discovered in the house. The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed Wittels’s death to KPCC.

Wittels, who completed a stint in rehab last fall and said he was clean and sober in a recent stand-up performance, was open about his history with heroin.

“I just really stopped caring about my life,” Wittels said on the podcast “You Made It Weird” in November. “I just really started to think, well, if I’m only here for 80 years, then who cares if I spend it high or not?”

Wittels, a Houston native, first rose to prominence as a writer for “The Sarah Silverman Show.” He appeared on “Parks and Rec” as an all-thumbs animal control officer with a unexpected name: Harris.

Tributes to Wittels quickly appeared from his collaborators and peers.

“Today, I lost a friend,” “Parks and Rec” star Amy Poehler said at a charity event sponsored by Variety. “I lost a dear, young friend in my life who was struggling with addiction. … I’m sharing it with you because life and death live so close together, and we walk that fine line everyday.”

“You should know that Harris was brilliant beyond compare,” Silverman wrote. “That his imagination was without limit. That he loved comedy more than anything.”

“I don’t want dead friends’ numbers on my phone and dead friends’ faces in my feed,” comedian Patton Oswalt wrote. “But you rarely get what you want. #RIPHarrisWittels.”

“RIP and thank you, Harris Wittels,” Comedy Central wrote.

As a writer on “Parks and Rec,” Wittels helped guide the NBC hit through its seven-season run — the last episode of the show airs next week. But arguably his greatest contribution to American culture was coining the term “humblebrag” to describe the false modesty he thought endemic on social media.

“A Humblebrag is basically a specific type of bragging which masks the brag in a faux-humble guise,” Wittels explained in a 2011 column for Grantland. “The false humility allows the offender to boast their ‘achievements’ without any sense of shame or guilt.”

Wittels created a Twitter handle, @humblebrag, devoted to retweeting the self-promotional self-deprecation of those in the entertainment business. Some examples from his book “Humblebrag“:

Late-night talk show host Craig Ferguson: “I just got nominated for a damn Grammy. Take that low self-esteem.”

Producer Judd Apatow: “Geek moment. Was introduced to Bono at a party. I said my name clearly when introduced. Praying for any hint of Judd awareness. NOTHING.”

Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren: “Ugh. I just pocket dialed spokesperson for Pentagon.”

For Wittels, humblebragging was a 21st century plague. And he tracked it by the tweet.

“Every time I would read one, I would think, ‘Why would that person say that? What is the point?’ ” he wrote. “It can only serve to make people jealous of you and/or a hate you. No one ever hears one and actually thinks you are cooler.”

Indeed, he thought humblebragging illustrative of a nationwide crisis of confidence.

“People do it because it’s in their nature to prove to others how great their life is, or maybe they’re actually just trying to prove it … to themselves,” he wrote.

Read more from Morning Mix

Eddie Murphy: Way too smart to make fun of Bill Cosby at ‘SNL 40′

Bill Cosby on fatherhood — and why he’s not mad at Eddie Murphy

Chevy Chase: After ‘Saturday Night Live,’ too mean to succeed

Tracy Morgan may not fully recover from traumatic brain injury sustained in car accident

“SNL 40″: Maybe a four-hour clip job would have been better after all

Cr.Washington Post

Frozen Niagara Falls draws tourists

It's so cold, Niagara Falls froze

 What? Not enough snow, ice and cold for you? You say you STILL need some "Frozen" references in your life?

Well, this ought to quench that need for freeze: Ice has suddenly blossomed across the Great Lakes, with the ice pack nearly doubling in just a little more than a week. The lakes are now more than 85% iced over, according to the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, with Lake Erie leading the way at more than 98%.

For the first time in (not quite) forever, Niagara Falls looks pretty much frozen, too.

And here's the thing ... people are going there! And not in a "Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un is going, so we better go and smile, too" way. These folks are going voluntarily.

Niagara Falls has been doing steady business in recent days, CNN affiliate WKBW reported.

"I haven't seen it like this in a long, long time," one visitor, Maryann McCleary, told the station.
Some tourists had come from as far away as Alabama and even from overseas, the station said.

Niagara Falls isn't exactly frozen over

Niagara Falls isn't exactly frozen over; water is still flowing underneath the ice. It's not uncommon for parts of the falls to ice over in winter. The only recorded time the water flow stopped completely was in 1848, thanks to an ice jam upriver.

Icy conditions are also par for the course in the Great Lakes. The current 85% coverage isn't a record; that would be 1979's 94.7%, according to the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory.

But there's still time for this year to contend for the record. The National Weather Service says extremely cold arctic air will allow for expansion of the ice coverage in the coming days.

Queen Elsa, and her pint-sized fans, would be pleased.

Cr. CNN News

Iggy Azalea appears to quit Twitter

Iggy Azalea arrives at the 57th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, 2015

Polarizing hip-hop star Iggy Azalea has quit Twitter, at least temporarily, following nasty social media commentary on her physical appearance in a bikini in several paparazzi photos surreptitiously taken of her while she was vacationing in Hawaii with her boyfriend, Los Angeles Laker Nick Young.

The 24-year-old hitmaker unleashed a series of tweets expressing her exasperation at the body-shaming she endured.

“Just got back from a great vacation, came online and saw apparently it’s shocking and unheard of to be a woman and have cellulite. Lol,” Azalea wrote. “I just want to have peace and relaxation time without a perve [sic] with long distance lense [sic] hiding out taking pictures, everyone deserves peace.”

Citing the “hatred and pettiness” of some members of the online community, Azalea said she was taking a break from social media and that her staff would manage her accounts from now on.

After a sign-off thank you to fans, Azalea tweeted, “The Internet is the ugliest reflection of man kind there is.”

This far from the first public squabble the “Fancy” rapper has been drawn into with her detractors. She has had major spats with fellow rappers like Snoop Dogg – who in a series of tweets last fall compared the Australian-born rapper to the whiteface characters played by Marlon and Shawn Wayans in the 2004 big screen comedy “White Chicks” – and Nicki Minaj, a rival and contemporary, was widely believed to be calling out Azalea’s lack of authenticity during a 2014 BET Awards speech.


And Azalea got into a high profile social media battle with black rapper Azealia Banks over the white rapper’s lack of response to protests in the wake of police-related deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown, both of whom are African-American.

Banks accused Azalea of co-opting black culture without appreciating it, a frequent criticism levied against the T.I. protege.

“Its funny to see people Like Igloo Australia silent when these things happen … Black Culture is cool, but black issues sure aren’t huh?” tweeted Banks. The derogatory nickname “Igloo Australia” soon became a trending topic.

There was also widespread criticism in the hip-hop community when Azalea was nominated for the prestigious Best Rap Album award at this year’s Grammys for her album “The New Classic” alongside more traditional rap artists.

Ironically, she wound up losing the award to another controversial white rapper, Eminem.

Cr.NBC UNIVERSAL

Chinese lunar new year 2015 – in numbers

the number of sheep lanterns clutched by this child at a shopping mall, Canada

Seven

The number of days most Chinese workers will get off work during the 40-day lunar new year period, giving them a rare chance to spend time with their families. At midnight on Wednesday, hundreds of millions of people will celebrate the end of the year of the horse and the dawn of the year of the sheep. For much of the week, they will dispense with their regular routines to eat dumplings, light fireworks and watch television.
3.6bn

Passenger trips (slightly fewer than three trips for every Chinese citizen) will turn China’s roads, airports and train stations into congestion hotspots over the 40-day period, according to government predictions. The annual Chunyun, or “spring festival transport”, is the largest human migration in the world. Major cities empty, sleepy villages spring to life, and traffic jams on major roads stretch for miles.

$100bn

The sum Chinese consumers spent on shopping and eating out during the lunar new year period in 2014, about twice as much as Americans spent during last year’s Thanksgiving weekend.

Six

The number of strokes that comprise the character 羊, the forthcoming lunar year’s name. Pronounced yang, the character can mean either sheep or goat.

1,032

The number of train tickets purchased online every second for a brief period in December before they sold out. While most trips are made by road, travellers will also take 295m train rides and 42m flights. On 19 December alone, China Railway Corporation’s official ticketing website, 12306.cn, sold 5.6m tickets.

12

Animal signs make up the Chinese zodiac. Astrologers posit that babies born under each sign are bestowed with unique personality traits – rat-year babies are cautious, dragon babies resilient, dog babies intelligent, and sheep babies are considered meek.
Nine out of 10

People born in the year of the sheep do not find happiness in their lives, according to Chinese myth, and anecdotal evidence says that many families delay having children until a more auspicious year rolls around. Nationwide statistics, it should be noted, do not bear out the trend.

119

The number of countries, from the US to Rwanda, that will host festivities to mark the new year, according to the Chinese culture ministry.

138

Chinese cities that have banned fireworks this year. Another 536 have restricted their use, largely over concerns about air pollution and personal safety. Yet despite warnings in the official press, most Chinese cities have been filled with red firework stands in the runup to the new year, and explosions will ring out for weeks.

13

The number of years for which fireworks were banned in Beijing before 2006, when authorities buckled under an intense public backlash. Three years later, an unauthorised display sparked a massive fire at the unfinished, Rem Koolhaas-designed Mandarin Oriental hotel in the city’s central business district. The building has yet to be repaired.

814 million

People who tuned in to watch last year’s spring festival gala, an annual government-run variety show, making it one of the most-watched television broadcasts in history (the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremony is number one, with 984 million viewers). The gala is notorious for its lowest common denominator approach to entertainment, rife with cheap gags and thinly veiled official propaganda. Yet most families watch it anyway, if only by force of habit. This year, organisers plan to turn the gala into a global show, which will be promoted through websites and more than 10 foreign broadcasters, according to the state news agency, Xinhua.
10m

Messages sent on WeChat, China’s most popular mobile messaging service, every minute between 10pm and midnight on Chinese new year’s eve 2104. The service boasts 500 million monthly users, and its success suggests that Chinese citizens are becoming increasingly connected each year.

The Guardian

Mardi Gras 2015

Mardi Gras revelers in the St. Ann's parade's

Mardi Gras 2015 sunrise shines on St. Anne's costumed revelry in Marigny
As the Mardi Gras sun rose above the crisp Marigny streets, it revealed revelers, emerging from colorful doorways, their costumed joy overflowing into the light as they giddily anticipated the hours of celebration ahead and prayed for warmer hours to come.

Outside the R Bar at Royal and Kerlerec streets, many of these debaucherous spirits of creativity gradually converged, shining through the Mardi Gras 2015 morning's chill.

Many awaited the Saint Anne marching parade, a relatively informal gathering open to all costumed creatures who understand its customs, route, or at least befriend a previous year's parade goer who can guide them.

It goes by various nicknames, the Krewe of St. Anne, Société of Sainte Anne, or just plain St. Anne, but there was nothing Plain Jane on this last day of Carnival, as its participants' bundled up closely with one another, beers and cocktails in tow, numbing themselves to the weather.

Memories of last year's frostier Mardi Gras also kept the bedecked crowd warm. While Mardi Gras 2014 fell later in the year -- March 4 -- it was raining and infamously cold with a high of just 41 degrees, only 2 degrees above the coldest Fat Tuesday temperature on record. That 39-degree record was set Feb. 14, 1899.

Bywater to the French Quarter on Mardi Gras Day

But masked hoards descended on the streets undeterred to revel before Ash Wednesday's arrival. And those who hailed from elsewhere said they felt warm relative to their snowy and less festive home climates.

Jaomi and Jessica Brasher, of Austin, Texas, lucked into a house a few doors down from R Bar because their friends got snowed in, when their flight was canceled Sunday out of Boston. The Brashers had a place arranged in Uptown but they would have had to trek to the Marigny for their favorite starting-point bar of the day.

"We all come here religiously for Mardi Gras. We'll miss them," said Jaomi Brasher, 40, clad in an overflowing purple wig. "We try to hook up with St. Anne, but then we often get lost, wander off into a bar, head down by the river."

With sunlight barely a twinkle, a few roosters meandered around the Marigny, calling out to all. Remnants of the weekend partying were scattered everywhere: beads now covered in wet leaves from the early morning rain, shards of beer bottles sprinkled within them, one crumpled glove, and couples walking alongside, searching for cars parked the day before.

Mark and Effie Green, of Denton, Texas, arrived Monday and had left their car parked by Washington Square. Unaware of their surroundings, they had a "bodyguard" escorting them, complete with a muscle-man costume and a baby doll in a satchel strapped around his ripped stomach.

"We're trying to find the car," Mark Green, 40, said. They had picked up magic beans at Marie Laveau's House of Voodoo in the Quarter on Monday.

Effie Green had bought special skeleton earrings there, which her husband said had turned her eyes green "and had her head spinning around."

"We almost got divorced," Mark Green said wryly. "I threw my bean at her."

A few blocks away, Chad Rigsby, 42, was an aberration -- an un-costumed man.

"I'm normally the Moss Man," Rigbsy said. He performs as such in Quarter.

"So, today, I'm off work. On my day off, I don't dress up," he said.

A catwoman came speedily by. "Hey, Chad!" she called.

Under her feathered ears, Willow LeMechant, 35, of the Bywater, explained she was racing to the Algiers-Canal Street ferry to meet a friend coming from Belle Chasse. LeMechant is a tarot card reader in Jackson Square, but she is taking the holiday.

"I must really love Nicole," she said, her cat nose red as she continued on her 45-minute journey to the ferry landing.

Outside of R Bar, Mike Wilder, 45, an architect, said he was going by the name "Porkopolis Now" for Mardi Gras. He lives a few blocks down in the Marigny and had set up a grill, selling pulled pork sliders and sausages for $5 a helping.

"This is my neighborhood bar, and I often walk in St. Anne, but this guy 'Red' who normally does jambalaya and crawfish here is gone, so I'm here," Wilder said.

"This is ground zero," said Wilder, dressed as pimp with a leopard cape and feathered hat, as he welcomed an Elvis pulling up on a bicycle for a slider.

Cr.The Times Picayune