Electronic music gets its own televised awards show

Variety is reporting that Fox will broadcast the inaugural Electronic Music Awards on Saturday, April 23rd at 8pm. The network has teamed up with superstar DJ Paul Oakenfold to create the event as a celebration of the genre. It’ll feature red carpet coverage, interviews, the ceremony itself and performances from the world’s biggest artists. Read between the lines and you’ll assume that the move was born out of frustration with the Grammy’s traditional disdain for electronica. As Oakenfold says, he’s “thrilled to be part of an awards show that finally ” (emphasis ours) “recognizes and celebrates… one of the biggest music genres in the world.” You can feel the heat radiating off that burn from a mile away. Stuff that’s been made by a computer has always been treated as a poor cousin of things that are made more “traditionally.” Despite its pervasiveness, CGI gets a bum rap compared to practical effects , and it’s taken years for eSports to receive any degree of recognition from traditional broadcasters . Take a cursory look at the Grammy award categories and you can see where Oakenfold’s annoyance comes from. For instance, R&B and jazz both get five categories a piece, while electronic has to share a table with dance and has just two measly categories. Which seems a little bit unfair, don’t you think? Source: Variety

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Electronic music gets its own televised awards show

New stem cell treatment could ‘cure’ type 1 diabetes

Researchers at MIT and Harvard figured out how to produce pancreatic beta cells — the ones that produce insulin — in large quantities back in 2014. The same intercollegiate team announced in the journal Nature on Monday that they’ve now managed to implant those cells into mice that have been genetically designed to suffer from Type 1 diabetes — without the cells being rejected. Even more impressive, the diabetic mice produced their own insulin during the 174-day study period, eliminating the need for daily injections . Instead, patients would simply need “booster” injections of beta cells once every few years. This method “has the potential to provide diabetics with a new pancreas that is protected from the immune system, ” study co-author Daniel Anderson said in a statement, “which would allow them to control their blood sugar without taking drugs.” Human trials are expected to begin within the next few years. [Image Credit: Getty] Via: Gizmodo Source: Nature

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New stem cell treatment could ‘cure’ type 1 diabetes

Facebook Building World’s ‘Most Advanced’ Data Center In Irish Village

An anonymous reader writes: Facebook has announced it is building a new data center in Clonee, Ireland, a small village close to Dublin. The facility, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg claims will be one of the “most advanced and energy efficient data centers in the world, ” will be the social network’s second outside of the U.S., and its sixth globally. The new center will be located just a 30-minute drive from Facebook’s international headquarters in the country’s capital. It is expected to cost €200 million and employ around 2, 000 people during the construction phase. The company hopes to open the facility in early 2018. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Facebook Building World’s ‘Most Advanced’ Data Center In Irish Village

Symantec Disavows Business Partner Caught Running a Tech Support Scam

An anonymous reader writes: Malwarebytes has caught one of Symantec’s resellers running a tech support scam that was scaring users into thinking they were infected with malware and then graciously offering to sell Symantec’s security software at inflated rates. Malwarebytes played along with their scam and found out the company behind it was Silurian Tech Support, located somewhere in North India (surprised?).Symantec told El Reg that it terminated the reseller’s contract and will work with law enforcement to defend its brand and intellectual property. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Symantec Disavows Business Partner Caught Running a Tech Support Scam

California fines Uber $7.6 million for not reporting driver data

Uber was hit with a $7.6 million fine on Thursday after the California Public Utilities Commission found that the company failed to provide proper data on its drivers in 2014. Uber plans to pay the fine to avoid a suspension of its operating license, though it will appeal the ruling, the Los Angeles Times reports. In July 2015, a judge recommended Uber be fined upwards of $7 million for failing to provide relevant driver data under California’s new ride-hailing laws . Today’s fine stems from that recommendation. The CPUC says Uber failed to provide accessibility information (how many riders asked for accessible vehicles and actually received them), service information (pickup and payment data in each zip code where Uber operates), and the cause of each “driving incident” involving an Uber vehicle. Uber has since provided all of this information to the CPUC, the LA Times reports. Uber’s main competition, Lyft, isn’t facing any penalties in California. While you’re doing the math on all of this, remember: Uber is valued at more than $60 billion . Source: Los Angeles Times

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California fines Uber $7.6 million for not reporting driver data

Snapchat closes its lens filter store despite decent sales

You probably wouldn’t give up hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue a month, but then you’re not Snapchat . The social app will close down its popular lens store this Friday after opening it just a couple of months ago. As a reminder, with the camera in selfie mode, you can add a variety of free or 99 cent filters that make you a snowball target (above) or let you puke out rainbows, for example. The company will let you keep the lenses you’ve already bought, of course, and will eventually offer many of the paid lenses for free. Snapchat told Business Insider that it shut down the store in order to focus on its advertising business, despite the fact that it was selling tens of thousands of filters per day. However, the company will still sell sponsored lenses to businesses like Beats for hundreds of thousands of dollars, reportedly. Snapchat has been trying to monetize its millions of users of late, but has run into to trouble due to a lack of data on how many people actually interact with the app. We’re sure the $10 billion company will figure it out, but in the meantime, if you want to get some lens filters, grab them by January 8th. Via: Business Insider Source: Snapchat

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Snapchat closes its lens filter store despite decent sales

‘Plants Vs. Zombies’ is becoming a theme park attraction

If it’s not Mario or Shepherd and the Mass Effect crew , it’s… plants and zombies. Cedar Fair Entertainment , which runs 14 park attractions across the US, is working with EA on two attractions for Great America in California, and Carowinds in North Carolina. Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare will be adapted into what the theme park is terming a “digital attraction”. This means that it’ll be able to substitute in and reprogram the ride later for sequel content — which sounds a whole lot like its namesake. Carowinds will get the PvZ attraction, which will open next year. Source: Journal Now

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‘Plants Vs. Zombies’ is becoming a theme park attraction

Experts baffled to learn that 2 years olds are being prescribed psychiatric drugs

In 2014, US doctors wrote ~20,000 prescriptions for risperidone, quetiapine and other antipsychotics for children under the age of two; a cohort on whom these drugs have never been tested and for whom there is no on-label usage. (more…)

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Experts baffled to learn that 2 years olds are being prescribed psychiatric drugs

Microsoft Open Sources and Forks Windows Live Writer Into Open Live Writer

SmartAboutThings writes: Windows Live Writer is a blogging tool that Microsoft originally released back in 2006, and it still remains popular today, which has prompted Microsoft to promise that it will make it open source earlier this year. Now the company has officially open-sourced and forked Windows Live Writer into Open Live Writer, having put its repositories on GitHub already. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Microsoft Open Sources and Forks Windows Live Writer Into Open Live Writer

WordPress 4.4 Arrives

An anonymous reader with news of the newest release of open source WordPress, which adds a slew of new features to the blog management tool that will “make your site more connected and responsive.” You can download the new release now from WordPress.org/Download (7.3MB). WordPress is a content management system (CMS) that powers 25 percent of the Web. The latest version is dubbed “Clifford” in honor of jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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WordPress 4.4 Arrives