Billie Lourd says she’ll be back in a bigger capacity for Star Wars: Episode VIII . A Thor supporting character may not return for Ragnarok . . Plus new details for Scream Queens ’ next season, set pictures from Wonder Woman , and a ton of clips from tonight’s Supergirl . Spoilers now! Read more…
Read More:
J.J. Abrams Insists the Portal and Half-Life Movies Are Still Happening
The fallout from Toshiba’s accounting scandal is hitting in force, and it’s not pretty. The Japanese company has announced that it will take a $4.5 billion loss and cut 6, 800 jobs, or about 30 percent of its total consumer electronics workforce. Although some of the losses can be chalked up to a tight market, Toshiba took a serious hit after admitting it lied about profits for nearly six years. As part of the restructuring, it will sell off its TV and washing machine factories to Hong Kong partner Skyworth. The company recently sold its image sensor business to Sony and stopped building TVs for the US market. Toshiba is still far from being out of the woods. To further streamline operations, the company wants to combine its PC operations with Fujitsu and Vaio, and may join forces with Sharp — which is also stumbling — in the appliance business. In addition, former executives may face criminal charges, and Toshiba hasn’t yet accounted for the cost of the 2011 tsunami on its nuclear business. In total, the company employees nearly 200, 000 workers. Via: BBC Source: Toshiba
View article:
Toshiba to cut 6,800 jobs following accounting scandal
David Rothman writes: Eric Posner, the fourth most-cited law professor in the U.S., says the government may need to jail you if you even visit an ISIS site after enough warnings. He says, “Never before in our history have enemies outside the United States been able to propagate genuinely dangerous ideas on American territory in such an effective way—and by this I mean ideas that lead directly to terrorist attacks that kill people. The novelty of this threat calls for new thinking about limits on freedom of speech. The law would provide graduated penalties. After the first violation, a person would receive a warning letter from the government; subsequent violations would result in fines or prison sentences. The idea would be to get out the word that looking at ISIS-related websites, like looking at websites that display child pornography, is strictly forbidden” There would be exemptions for Washington-blessed journalists and others. Whew! Alas, this man isn’t Donald Trump — he is a widely respected University of Chicago faculty member writing in Slate. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Visit link:
Go To Jail For Visiting a Web Site? Top Law Prof Talks Up the Idea
A big story out today confirms that SecureDrop, the anonymizing whistleblower leak service created by Aaron Swartz and made real by Freedom of the Press Foundation, works. (more…)
View the original here:
Massive hack of 70 million prisoner phone calls may be biggest attorney-client privilege breach in U.S. history
SoftBank , Sprint’s Japanese parent company, made a ton of profit over the last three months, but not as much profit as people were expecting. That’s largely due to it having to carry Sprint on its back, since the network has gone from plucky bronze medalist to sitting in the doldrums of fourth place in America’s hotly-contested carrier wars. In order to try and reduce the amount of red printer ink that Marcelo Claure (pictured, right) has to buy, SoftBank has ordered a “sustainable run rate reduction” of more than $2 billion. In order words, the company is about to have to learn how to do a lot more with a heck of a lot less cash. Via: WSJ Source: SoftBank (.PDF)
View the original here:
Sprint faces ‘thousands’ of job cuts and price hikes
An undergraduate student from the University of Alberta has uncovered the fossilized remains of an Ornithomimus dinosaur with preserved tail feathers and soft tissue. The remarkable specimen is offering important insights into the plumage patterns of these ancient creatures, while tightening the linkages between dinosaurs and birds. Read more…
See more here:
Fossil With Preserved Tail Feathers and Skin Reveals Dinosaur Plumage Patterns
Earlier this year, the Record Industry Association of America began to pursue Pandora on behalf of record labels to seek royalties for the use of tracks recorded before 1972. Now, it’s reached a settlement that will see Pandora stump up $90 million for using the songs. Read more…
See original article:
Pandora Has to Stump Up $90M For Its Use of Pre-1972 Songs
The photos taken by Farm Security Administration photographers in the 1930s are some of the most iconic images in American history. We’re all familiar with some of the snapshots of craggy-faced farmers, but unseen photos in government archives tell a more complex story of a struggling country. Yale just released a terrific database of 170, 000 of them. Read more…
Continue Reading:
Yale Just Released 170,000 Incredible Photos of Depression-Era America
schwit1 writes: Anthony Silva, the mayor of Stockton, California, recently went to China for a mayor’s conference. On his return to San Francisco airport he was detained by Homeland Security, and then had his two laptops and his mobile phone confiscated. They refused to show him any sort of warrant (of course) and then refused to let him leave until he agreed to hand over his password. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Excerpt from:
DHS Detains Mayor of Stockton, CA, Forces Him To Hand Over His Passwords
Pledge agreements aren’t the only deals being inked ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s first official state visit to the US. A consortium led by China Railway Group has come to terms with America’s XpressWest Enterprises LLC to jointly build and operate a high-speed rail link running between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The project has already cleared its environmental impact study, obtained all of the necessary DoT licensing and right-of-way approvals, and is ready to begin building as soon as next September. China Railway has already put up $100 million in initial capital . According to China Railway, the route will span 230 miles between Las Vegas and Los Angeles proper. XpressWest’s website, however, claims the tracks will stop in Victorville, California, 85 miles outside of LA, and 55 miles closer to its destination. The route would fling passengers along at speeds topping 150 MPH, shortening the usual 4 hour car ride to a more manageable 80 minutes. What’s more, the train service is being billed as more than just a ride out to the desert, it will reportedly be part of a “Las Vegas Experience.” Amenities will include full-service entertainment club cars (though likely sans the gambling, at least until you cross into Nevada), business and first class seating, food, beverages and WiFi. China, as a nation, operates more than 10, 000 miles of domestic high-speed tracks and competes extensively with neighboring Japan — specifically JR Central, the country’s largest locomotive company — for contracts throughout Asia. As the domestic Chinese market has become saturated with high-speed rail projects, many of its largest railway companies have begun vying for international contracts. As Yang Zhongmin, deputy chief engineer with China Railway Group, pointed out at a recent press conference, “This is the first high-speed railway project where China and the U.S. will have systematic cooperation. It shows the advancement of China-made high-speed railways.” And given that multiple plans to link LA and LV with a rail line have been proposed over the years (with every single one of them failing due to budget or technological issues), China’s expertise in such matters certainly can’t hurt. Via: Bloomberg Source: LA Times
View the original here:
US and Chinese firms agree on high-speed rail plan from LA to Vegas