Margaret Thatcher getting a funeral fit for a queen

It’s an announcement that has upset some Brits who feel the former prime minister is undeserving of such an honor.

Luxembourg to ease the secrecy surrounding its banks

Luxembourg has fought hard to maintain the secrecy of its banking system

Luxembourg has said it will ease the secrecy surrounding its banks.

It said it would implement rules on the automatic exchange of bank account information with its European Union partners from 2015. Calls for this have been increasing, as governments seek to raise more taxes to support their finances.

Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said Luxembourg would introduce the reforms in two years. "We can introduce [the rules] without any danger from January 2015," he said.

Luxembourg is a country of only 500,000 people, but its banks and other financial institutions have assets worth more than 20 times the country's economic output. Luxembourg's foreign minister, Luc Frieden, said at the weekend that he wanted to "strengthen co-operation with foreign tax authorities".

Last week, Germany signed a tax evasion treaty with Switzerland - another European banking centre known for its secrecy. The treaty is designed to give the German tax authorities the ability to claw back taxes from their citizens who may be hiding money in Swiss banks.

Story by:

BBC | News Business

The Dexter's Lab Project on Indiegogo

BACKGROUND

I sure do remember how watching Dexter’s laboratory on cartoon network got me inspired and helped me to a very large extent develop a keen interest in science back in my primary and Junior High school days. Even though we lacked the necessary apparatus to bring certain basic concepts in science to our level of understanding at the time, I still remember how my curiosity and passion for science was ignited making me want to think like a scientist and be like one. Today, this ignited passion has been the reason why I chose to pursue science courses both at the second cycle and tertiary level.

An Open Letter to the President of Ghana, His Excellency President John Daramani Mahama

"Following his recent election into office, a concerned Ghanaian has something to say and did it this way... in an open letter."

Dear President Mahama,

I am writing to you as a proud National Democratic Congress (NDC) activist with high hope in my heart for our great party. I have listened to you keenly since you became the President of Ghana and your commitment to job creation and preserving the peace within the NDC family and the nation as a whole is quite critical

Young driver in his 20s in 'critical condition' after crashing his Audi TT into side of house

Three people were asleep in the house at the time but were unharmed. Driver transferred to Addenbrooke's Hospital with serious head injuries.

A man is fighting for his life after crashing his Audi TT into a house in the early hours of this morning.

The male driver, believed to be in his twenties, embedded the red sports car into the side of the house in Lowestoft, Suffolk, at 1.45am after coming off the road and crashing through a fence. He was taken to the James Paget Hospital with serious head injuries but was transferred to Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, where he was in a 'critical condition', said Suffolk Police today.

The driver of the red Audi TT was taken to hospital with life-threatening head injuries after the crash in the early hours of the morning

Ghana Fashion & Design Week Announces Plans for 2013 Event

Ghana Fashion & Design Week® (GFDW) is pleased to announce the return of the event in the city of Accra, this October 2013, with the exact date and venue soon to be made public. With Accra ranked 4th must visit city  this 2013 by New York Times publication out of a list of 46 cities around the world, the second edition of Ghana Fashion & Design Week  event promises to elevate the fashion scene in Accra to the next level of experience and development.

The Phone We've All Been Waiting For!

Samsung Galaxy S 4 Beats The Best With 5-inch, 1080p Display, 1.9GHz Processor, Gesture Controls And A Q2 2013 Release. As if it could be any other way, the just-announced Samsung Galaxy S 4 is Samsung’s, and perhaps even Android’s, best phone yet. In fact, it very well may be the best smartphone on the market, period.

We’ve been through months of speculation, hype, rumors, and leaks, but the truth is out, and the Galaxy S 4 still has much more up its sleeve than the leaks suggested. More than any other Galaxy before it, the Galaxy S 4 is proof that the company can build a central brand the way Apple has with the iPhone. Both the Galaxy Note and Galaxy S series have been selling in the millions, and the Galaxy S 4 looks like it will hold up that trend.

Even with loads of new software, like an enhanced camera application, hover-style gesture features, and a slew of baked-in apps and services from Samsung, the Galaxy S 4 still brings the heat in the hardware/spec department. Here are the specifics:

The Galaxy S 4 clearly has a small ring of competition in the spec department. The only phones that are on this level are the Xperia Z (1080p 5-inch display, 13mp camera, quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU) and the HTC One (4.7-inch 1080p display, 1.7GHz Snapdragon 600 quad-core CPU, and an “Ultrapixel” camera) and LG’s Optimus G Pro (1080p 5.5-inch display, quad-core Snapdragon 600, 13-megapixel camera).

Of course, they each have their own pros and cons, but the Galaxy S 4 seems to be the most compact, lightest, and fastest among them. Samsung hasn’t been clear about the exact brand of the processor for the U.S. version, but it did say that it was a quad-core Snapdragon CPU clocked at 1.9GHz, which we believe may be the Snapdragon 600.

However, “processors vary by region,” says Samsung, and the Asian and European version will sport the long-awaited Samsung Exynos 5 Octa eight-core processor.

    

The Galaxy S 4 design manages to both fit in with the Galaxy S family and stand on its own as a unique breed. For one, Samsung packed a bigger display (5-inches diagonal) into a package that’s actually smaller than before. The GS4 is the same width, slightly shorter, and .7mm thinner than its predecessor.

As such, the bezels on the Galaxy S 4 are slightly thinner on all four sides, which means it’s all screen, all the time. And what a screen it is. The Galaxy S 4 display is 5 inches of unadulterated Super AMOLED 1080p brilliance. Surrounding it, the Galaxy S 4 takes a hybrid shape, something between the straight lines of the Galaxy Note and Galaxy S II with the curved tops, bottoms, and corners of the Galaxy S III. The elongated home button is unmistakably GSIII-style.

The Galaxy S 4 also sticks with familiar materials, and unfortunately that still means a whole lot of plastic. Both the front panel and back panel (which is removable) are made of brushed plastic, but with a textured pattern of tiny circles laid over it. It gives the phone an industrial, textured look, but in reality all you feel is smooth plastic.

Around the edge, you’ll notice a new embellishment to the S series: a metallic bar that runs along the edge of the device. Though it looks a lot like metal, it’s actually polycarbonate and meant to protect the sensitive corners of the device.

It would be nice to see some more premium materials in this generation of the Galaxy S, but the plastic and polycarbonate construction let Samsung fit many components into a very compact, light package, according to Director of Product Planning Drew Blackard.

         

The Galaxy S 4 uses a new 13-megapixel rear-facing camera, bumped up from the 8-megapixel shooter on the Galaxy S III. It’s still centrally placed on the upper back half of the device, complete with LED flash, autofocus, and 1080p video recording. On the front, the Galaxy S 4 sports a 2-megapixel camera.

The higher megapixel sensor is nice, and will surely make a slight difference, but where the Galaxy S 4 camera really evolves from past generations is in the software.

For one thing, the camera app now uses the same UI as the Galaxy Camera, with a brushed silver finish to the buttons and much simpler navigation. Clicking the mode button along the bottom will bring up a simple scroll wheel full of various modes. When one is highlighted, the menu gives the name as well as a description. More sophisticated users can also see these mode options in a grid view for quick changes.

Along with some of the same modes we’ve seen on both the Galaxy Camera and newer Galaxy smartphones like Beauty Shot, Samsung has added way more modes into the mix. One is called Eraser, and it lets you remove unwanted people from a shot. Samsung says it comes in handy for shots that have been photo-bombed, or tourist shots at busy places. The camera senses any motion that goes through the frame and lets you choose to remove it, as if that person had never walked through your shot of the Eiffel Tower.

The Galaxy S 4 also has a dual-shot mode, which is just a button press away from the main camera interface. This lets you use both the front-facing camera and the rear-facing camera at the same time, for both recording and still captures. There are various filters, such as Oval Blur, Postage Stamp, Cubism, and Split, which give you different options for the theme of your dual-shot creation. You can resize the pop-up picture, and move it around the screen using simple drag and drop tools. It’s pretty amazing.

Some other modes include Drama Shot, which lets you take a succession of photos of some action (like someone skiing down a mountain) and turn them into a composite of the entire sequence, and Sound and Shot, which lets you record up to 9 seconds of audio to pair along with a picture.

Samsung even jumped on the GIF train with the likes of Cinemagraph and Vine to create a gif-making mode, called Cinema Shot. It lets you take a short recording, and then determine which parts of the shot stay still and which parts remain animated. In fact, it’s almost exactly like Cinemagraph.

But Samsung took one step past capture and even built an app called Story Album which lets you create photo albums of special events or trips through templates, and use TripAdvisor to add extra location data to your story. You can even print your album through a partnership with Blurb’s print distribution network.



There’s a lot going on here, so try to keep up. We had recently heard that the GS4′s “wow” factor would be all in the software, and that’s exactly right. Most of TouchWiz is the same, though it seems to get lighter and lighter as the phones get faster. The one very noticeable edition was a set of extra toggle buttons available in the pull-down notifications menu.

Other than those particulars, let’s start with the gesture-based head-tracking stuff.

The most useful new feature of the Galaxy S 4 is Air View. It lets you hover over something on the screen to get an extended pop-up view of what’s inside. For example, if you hover over an email in your inbox, Air View will bring up the first few sentences of that email’s contents. If you hover over an album within the photo gallery, you’ll see nine thumbnails of the contents of that gallery. In fact, if you hover over an image while inside the folder, that particular thumbnail will expand to give you a better view of the particular picture. It’s all very reminiscent of what can be done with recent entries in the Galaxy Note line, except without requiring users to keep track of an S-Pen.

Air View is embedded in the email client, photo gallery, calendar, and a Galaxy S 4-edition of Flipboard, which lets you view and select headlines by hovering over a single tile.

Samsung also added an Air Gesture feature, which lets you control the phone without having to hold it — I could see this being used while driving. You can swipe left and right to switch between web pages, songs, photos in the gallery, etc. and swipe up and down to scroll. You can even accept calls by waving at the phone.

Rumors suggested that Samsung had developed some sort of magic-scroll eye-tracking technology, when in reality the Galaxy S 4 can actually only track your head, very much like the Galaxy S III’s Smart stay feature. The front-facing camera can detect that your head is facing the phone directly, which stops the display from dimming.

In the Galaxy S 4, that technology evolves to automatically pause videos when you turn away from the phone with Smart Pause. As far as scrolling is concerned, if you’re on a page that requires reading or scrolling, the Galaxy S 4 will let you tip the phone forward or backward to scroll (as long as the ff-camera senses that you’re paying attention).

Samsung said that using tilt-gestures as well as “head-tracking” technology to streamline browsing a page was “the most intuitive and natural to the end-consumer.”

As far as NFC is concerned, the GS4 includes S Beam and TecTile integration, but Samsung also lets you pair with up to eight other NFC-devices to run a feature called GroupPlay, which lets you play the same song across eight different devices… to create a party on the go.

Samsung also included an IR blaster on the Galaxy S 4 so that you can use it as a remote for just about any modern television. Called WatchON, it also includes rich information proved by an electronic programming guide.

Along with an updated camera and Story Album, the Galaxy S 4 brings a handful of brand new applications to the Galaxy S family. The first, and possibly most important, is S Translator. S Translator is available in nine languages at launch, including Chinese, English U.S., English British, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Portuguese.

It is a standalone app that automatically translates information that is typed or copy/pasted into it. S Translator is also embedded in ChatOn, Messaging, and email.

The Galaxy S 4 also has an optical reader which turns analog information into digital, by reading business cards and turning them into address book contacts. S Translator is also embedded into the optical reader, which scans QR codes as well.

ChatOn, Samsung’s own-branded VoIP application, has been updated to include three-way video calls, screen share, and annotations. You can even use the new dual-camera mode to enjoy ChatOn calls.

Samsung has been making a big push in the health department with the new Galaxy S 4, and has thus preloaded the S Health app on the device. The app originally made its debut last July and seemed to focus mainly on linking up with existing health gadgets like fancy scales and blood glucose monitors. This time around, using the Galaxy S 4′s built-in pedometer, S Health tracks your activity throughout the day and knows when you’re running, walking or climbing stairs. The S Health app also lets you input your consumption activities to track caloric intake and get suggestions.

Speaking of S Health, Samsung is selling a few health-related accessories to tackle the ever-growing quantified self products like the Jawbone Up, Nike Fuelband, and FitBit. That said, Samsung has introduced the wrist-worn S Band that tracks activity, temperature and humidity.

Samsung is even going so far as to sell a heart-rate monitor which you can strap on for your daily workouts, and a body scale. All of the accessories come with Bluetooth so they can pair back to your device and be recorded by the S Health app.

And since Samsung loves making special cases for its big-name phones, the Galaxy S 4 had to go big even with its case. It’s called the S View cover, and it has a little screen on the front that reads information from the phone. That way, even though the phone is locked, you can still see the time, SMS notifications, battery status, and choose to accept or ignore incoming calls.

Samsung didn’t specify which technology they used for the cover’s display, or whether or not it needs a charge or takes battery from the S 4, but it wouldn’t surprise me to hear they took a page out of the YotaPhone playbook and are using low-power e-ink here.

Samsung didn’t clarify exact pricing, but said it would go for the same price as a “Samsung premium smartphone”. The Galaxy S III launched in the US at $199 with a 2 year contact.

In terms of availability, they didn’t give a specific release date but did say it would be on store shelves in 2013Q2, at AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, Cricket and U.S. Cellular.

Samsung is riding high on the success of the Galaxy S III and from what I’ve seen, the Galaxy S 4 is a worthy successor with innovative features packed into a familiar housing. It’s a bit of a shame that Samsung announced the phone without giving a price or release date, but at this point, with Samsung the global sales and innovation leader in smartphones, it can do pretty much whatever it wants.

courtesy: techcrunch.com,jordan crook

Unedited | Jordan Ayew's temporary retirement letter

Jordan Ayew

Following the unexpected resignation of brothers, Jordan and Dede Ayew, the following unedited letter was published by GhanaWeb.

The following is the letter:

I write to formally communicate to you my decision to withdraw my services from the senior national team, the Black Stars.  temporarily. The reasons for my decision, although personal, I believe, I would eventually inure to the benefit of the Black Stars, the reason being that in this period of my temporary absence, I intend not only to work hard in my club as a young player so I can obtain the quality, experience and stature necessary for a call up to play in the national team, but also ensure that my membership of the national team when I soon come out of my temporary resignation endures in a more secure manner so as to avoid the situation where I am unsure as to when my services are required for the national team.

The point I have just made is  vindicated by the fact that although on every occasion that I have had the opportunity to play for my nation I have played to the best of my ability and served my nation with commitment, it appears that my efforts have not impressed the management team of the senior national team. The reason is that in the position for which my services are required for the national team, I have been ranked way behind several players as not to merit a place in the team on occasions when it mattered. My observation comes against the backdrop of the fact that I was considered not good enough to play for the national team even at a time when my club believed I was doing very well and honoured with player of the month for my club.

In this regard, I have decided that I need to work harder especially in my club in the hope that I can convince the management team of the Black Stars in the very near future by the grace of the Almighty that my efforts merit a place in the national team, not just occasionally or sporadically but more permanently in so far as I still actively play football.

I wish my colleagues in the team all the best and hereby affirm my commitment to my beloved country the Republic of Ghana and pledge to always faithfully and dutifully serve the nation to the best of my ability when I return. I also assure the fans of my love for them and affirm to them that I am as always committed to all matters involving the national team.

Thank you

JORDAN AYEW

Meteorite hits central Russia - Video Collection (16 minutes)

 A meteorite streaked across the sky and exploded over central Russia on Friday, raining fireballs over a vast area and causing a shock wave that smashed windows, damaged buildings and injured 1,200 people.

People heading to work in Chelyabinsk heard what sounded like an explosion, saw a bright light and then felt the shock wave, according to a Reuters correspondent in the industrial city 1,500 km (950 miles) east of Moscow.

The fireball, travelling at a speed of 30 km (19 miles) per second according to Russian space agency Roscosmos, had blazed across the horizon, leaving a long white trail that could be seen as far as 200 km (125 miles) away.

Car alarms went off, thousands of windows shattered and mobile phone networks were disrupted. The Interior Ministry said the meteorite explosion, a very rare spectacle, also unleashed a sonic boom.

"I was driving to work, it was quite dark, but it suddenly became as bright as if it were day," said Viktor Prokofiev, 36, a resident of Yekaterinburg in the Urals Mountains.

"I felt like I was blinded by headlights."

The meteorite, which weighed about 10 metric tons and may have been made of iron, entered Earth's atmosphere and broke apart 30-50 km (19-31 miles) above ground, according to Russia's Academy of Sciences.

The energy released when it entered the Earth's atmosphere was equivalent to a few kilotonnes, the academy said, the power of a small atomic weapon exploding.

No deaths were reported but the Emergencies Ministry said 20,000 rescue and clean-up workers were sent to the region after President Vladimir Putin told Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov to ease the disruption and help the victims.

The Interior Ministry said about 1,200 people had been injured, at least 200 of them children, and most from shards of glass.

WINDOWS BLOWN OUT

The early-morning blast and ensuing shock wave blew out windows on Chelyabinsk's central Lenin Street, buckled some shop fronts, rattled apartment buildings in the city center and blew out windows.

"I was standing at a bus stop, seeing off my girlfriend," said Andrei, a local resident who did not give his second name. "Then there was a flash and I saw a trail of smoke across the sky and felt a shock wave that smashed windows."

A wall and roof were badly damaged at the Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant but a spokeswoman said no environmental threat resulted.

One piece of meteorite broke through the ice the Cherbakul Lake near Chelyabinsk, leaving a hole several meters (yards) wide.

The region has long been a hub for the Russian military and defense industry, and it is often the site where artillery shells are decommissioned.

A local Emergencies Ministry official said meteorite storms were extremely rare and Friday's incident may have been connected with an asteroid the size of an Olympic swimming pool that was due to pass Earth.

But an astronomer at Russia's Academy of Sciences, Sergei Barabanov, cast doubt on that report and the European Space Agency said its experts had confirmed there was no link.

The regional governor in Chelyabinsk said the meteorite shower had caused more than $30 million in damage, and the Emergencies Ministry said 300 buildings had been affected.

Despite warnings not to approach any unidentified objects, some enterprising locals were hoping to cash in.

"Selling meteorite that fell on Chelyabinsk!" one prospective seller, Vladimir, said on a popular Russian auction website. He attached a picture of a black piece of stone that on Friday afternoon was priced at 1,488 roubles ($49.46).

RARE EVENT

The Emergencies Ministry described Friday's events as a "meteorite shower in the form of fireballs" and said background radiation levels were normal. It urged residents not to panic.

The first footage was shot by car dashboard video cameras and soon went viral.

Russians also quickly made fun at the event on the Internet. A photo montage showed Putin riding the meteorite and Nationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovksy said in jest it was really a new weapon being tested by the United States.

Experts drew comparisons with an incident in 1908, when a meteorite is thought to have devastated an area of more than 2,000 sq km (1,250 miles) in Siberia, breaking windows as far as 200 km (125 miles) from the point of impact.

Simon Goodwin, an astrophysics expert from Britain's University of Sheffield, said that roughly 1,000 to 10,000 metric tons of material rained down from space towards the earth every day, but most burned up in the atmosphere.

"While events this big are rare, an impact that could cause damage and death could happen every century or so. Unfortunately there is absolutely nothing we can do to stop impacts."

The meteorite struck just as an asteroid known as 2012 DA14, about 46 m in diameter, was due to pass closer to Earth - at a distance of 27,520 km (17,100 miles) - than any other known object of its size since scientists began routinely monitoring asteroids about 15 years ago.

($1 = 30.0877 Russian roubles)

(Additional reporting by Gabriela Baczynska in Moscow; Writing by Timothy Heritage and Thomas Grove; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Michael Roddy)
courtesy: liveleak.com, reuters.com

Amazon Beats Apple As Most Trusted Company in U.S.: Harris Poll

Reputation is everything, or at least it is for American corporations. According to the 2013 Harris Poll Reputation Quotient, six out of ten U.S. consumers study a company’s reputation before buying a product or service. It’s not uncommon for large American companies to spend billions on advertising annually to endear themselves into the hearts of the public and to prove that they are trustworthy.

The reputation can impact a company's sales revenue and stock price. Robert Fronk, executive vice president of Harris Interactive Reputation Management, sat down with The Daily Ticker to explain why.

Apple’s (AAPL) dramatic fall in stock price happens to correspond with its fall from the number one most reputable company in the United States last year. “For a number of years, their reputation was driven by their innovation, their products and services almost being ahead of their time and almost driving the market,” says Fronk. “Now, actually, financial performance is a dominant driver of their reputation and of course financial performance can be somewhat out of your control, as they’re finding.”

The American people may have lost faith in Apple but are finding it again in Amazon (AMZN).

Amazon.com earned the highest reputation in this year’s Harris Poll, edging out not only Apple but also companies like Google (GOOG), Disney (DIS), and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). According to Harris, Amazon holds the most emotional appeal, provides the best products and services, and is the most trusted company in the U.S.

Of all households surveyed, 50% had discussed Amazon within the past year and nearly 100% of those conversations had been positive.

“There’s no doubt that having an array of products and services at the right price is valuable,” explains Fronk. “But they take that advantage and actually use a lot of the information that they’re able to define about their consumers and make recommendations back to them, help them lead a better life, and even delight them on occasion.”

Customers trust Amazon to use their private information properly, a significant act of faith given that 70% of survey respondents are concerned about companies invading their privacy.

“I think that the way they do it is that they use that information to create the right level of intimacy with you, but without going over that fine line of being intrusive,” says Fronk. “Perceptions are that they’re not giving that information to anyone else to monetize it.”

Some of the least reputable companies in America include Bank of America (BAC), Goldman Sachs (GS), AIG, Halliburton (HAL) and American Airlines. 

When it comes to reputation, the power may not be in the purse, instead company's must find a gentle balance between soft factors and the bottom line.

Story by 

Nicole Goodkind | Daily Ticker

" This is one of those things you don't hear everyday. Share your thoughts and concerns in the comments section. Thanks for visiting!"