Adidas Wilson's Blog, page 119
July 10, 2017
One of the Largest Pirate eBook Sites in Europe has been Shutdown
One of the largest pirate websites in Europe has been shut down by authorities. Lul.to has been raided and over 200,000 audiobooks, ebooks and digital newspapers have been seized by the police. According to the General Prosecutor’s Office, searches in several locations led to the discovery of around €55,000 in bitcoin, €100,000 in bank deposits, €10,000 in cash, plus a “high-quality” motorcycle.
Lu.to targeted a German speaking audience and the site carried around 160,000 eBooks, 28,000 audiobooks, plus newspapers and periodicals. Its motto was “Read and Listen” and claimed to be both the largest German eBook portal and the largest DRM-free platform in the world. They generated income by charging users €.25 a download and managed to evade authorities for years.
The German Publishers & Booksellers Association welcomed the shutdown of the platform and issued a statement “Intervening against lul.to is an important success in the fight against Internet piracy. By blocking one of the largest illegal providers for e-books and audiobooks, many publishers and retailers can breathe,” said CEO Alexander Skipis. “Piracy is not an excusable offense, it’s the theft of intellectual property, which is the basis for the work of authors, publishers, and bookshops. Portals like lul.to harm the media market massively. The success of the investigation is another example of the fact that such illegal models ultimately can not hold up.”
When big sites like this go down, you have to wonder what the mentality of the average user is. Do they know they are partaking in a pirate e-book operation or do they simply think they are getting a deal? Amazon and Kobo both offer an unlimited program where you can pay a small monthly fee and get access to a copious amount of content. Netflix has trained us that you can get a ton of great stuff, without breaking the bank.
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Kobo Writing Life is a Boon for Indie Authors
Kobo Writing Life is the self-publishing arm of Kobo and it launched in 2012. The e-books that authors submit are stacked side by side with titles from major publishers. Mark Lefebvre theDirector of Self-Publishing & Author Relations sat down with Good e-Reader to give a status update and to let authors know some of the exciting things that are happening.
Many new authors are not familiar with the Kobo ecosystem and what Writing Life can do for them. Mark gave the lowdown on what the platform can do for indies. “In a nutshell, KWL offers you a place to publish your eBook for free to Kobo’s catalog. You get to keep 70% for any title priced $2.99 or higher. There’s no CAP on that 70%, which means authors who want to do great value box sets of multiple copies of their books, can offer their readers a good deal without having to give up on margin. (Kindle drops the royalties to 35% if you price above $9.99).”
“Also, via Kobo Writing Life, you’re not dealing with a faceless corporation. Yes, we have automated tasks and efficiencies so that authors can easily DIY their way all through the publishing process. But if authors need to contact a real human, they can. We’ve re-launched with a new ticketing system that has allowed us to be more efficient than ever before and offer more personalized responses to authors concerns. We also have a new community and forum where authors can easily find answers to popular questions.”
“Part of the mandate of the KWL Team isn’t just to help authors with publishing, but to also help educate and inform authors on the craft and business of publishing. It’s great that we offer free tools to publish, but it’s just as important to us that we ensure they understand the economics of business, best practices for authors, etc. That’s why we have also partnered with trusted companies to offer author services for cover design, editorial support, purchasing ISBNs at a discount (for US authors through Bowker), audiobook production (via ListenUp), etc. KWL offers great price optimization tools so that authors can control their prices in 15 currencies. Again, as mentioned above, we do our best to help educate and inform authors of the importance of the global markets.
Kobo Writing Life has been a massive success for the company and over the course of the past six years over 550,000 titles were published. On a weekly basis, KWL has been averaging between 1,000 to 1,500 new titles every week, so the annual title count increase in a year is somewhere between 50,000 to 75,000. This doesn’t count self-published titles being added through 3rd party self-pub aggregators like Draft2Digital, Smashwords, Pronoun, and Streetlib. Kobo does not track the exact title count through these companies, but it is estimated they contribute an extra 25,000 e-books per year.
Writing Life is constantly evolving and over the last few years they added a pre-order system, author pages and the ability to track free downloads. Mark elaborated about some of the features that did not make the daily news cycle. “We have added far more author services support over the past few years. We initially avoided those paid services because of the history of some other companies out there who seem to exist merely to exploit authors and sell them things they don’t need. But, over time, we realize that there are a multitude of beginning authors who don’t know where to go to get trusted services, so we have a person on the KWL team, Hufsa, dedicated to working with potential partners to secure a discount for KWL authors on services and so we can direct them to people who are going to provide quality service and trusted service.”
“In terms of the systems themselves, we continue to iterate and optimize the KWL dashboard based on ongoing KWL user feedback, and have recently launched a survey to our most active KWL users to learn what they like, what they don’t like, what they want more of, what new things they’d find more valuable. We use the results of those surveys to help us prioritize the 18+ month backlog of tasks/upgrades and updates we want to implement.” Mark also mentioned that they are currently BETA testing a new print on demand service for Canadian and US authors.
Source:
http://goodereader.com/blog/e-book-news/kobo-writing-life-is-a-boon-for-indie-authors
Amazon cuts Echo price by 50 percent for Prime Da
Amazon is offering some big discounts for its Echo and Echo Dot devices today. As part of the company’s annual Prime Day, Amazon is cutting the Echo price by 50 percent, and the Echo Dot by 30 percent. Amazon’s Echo will be available for just $89.99 (£79.99 in the UK) at 6PM PT / 6PM BST / 9PM ET tonight, alongside the Echo Dot priced at $34.99 (£34.99), the lowest price it’s ever been.
Amazon’s Echo competition has been increasing recently, especially with Google’s launch of the Home and the upcoming Cortana-powered Harman Kardon speaker and Apple’s HomePod speaker. Amazon’s Echo Prime Day pricing is even cheaper than last year’s Prime Day or Black Friday. The aggressive pricing could hint that Amazon is ready to refresh its main Echo speaker this year.
Amazon is also previewing some other deals on its Kindle and Fire tablets, as well as TVs, headphones, and laptops. We’ve rounded up the best Prime Day deals below:
Save 50 percent on Amazon Echo, $89.99
Save $15 on Echo Dot, $34.99
Save $30 on Kindle Paperwhite, $89.99
Save $40 on Fire HD 8 Kids Edition, $89.99
Fire 7 tablet for $29.99
Save $75 on Echo Show and Arlo Security Camera bundle
Save 30% on Echo Dot and TP-Link Smart Plug bundle
Save $50 on August Smart Lock
Save up to 50% on select video games, consoles and accessories
Save up to 40% on PC gaming laptops, desktops and accessories
25 percent off select TCL smart TVs
Source:
https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/10/15946532/amazon-prime-day-deals-echo-price-cut
Google is funding the creation of software that writes local news stories
Google’s Digital News Initiative has committed £622,000 ($805,000) to fund an automated news writing initiative for UK-based news agency, The Press Association. The money will help pay for the creation of Radar (Reporters And Data And Robots), snappily named software designed to generate upwards 30,000 local news stories a month.
The Press Association has enlisted UK-based news startup Urbs Media for the task of creating a piece of software that turns news data into palatable content. Once up and running, the team is hoping the software will be able to fill in some of the gaps that are currently being under-serviced as the universal financial strain being experienced by newsrooms around the world deepens.
It’s similar to a model The Associated Press has employed for a while now here in the States, mostly tackling financial and niche sports stories. A quick Google News search of the tell tale tagline “This story was generated by Automated Insights” reveals hits from news outlets across the U.S.
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In a news release heralding the financial commitment, Press Association Editor-in-Chief Peter Clifton called the move a “genuine game-changer,” stressing that the partnership will focus on stories that might not otherwise be written up as local newspapers continue to die off in this massive fourth-estate extinction. Of course, he was also quick to add that the move won’t do away with the human touch entirely.
“Skilled human journalists will still be vital in the process,” he explained, “but Radar allows us to harness artificial intelligence to scale up to a volume of local stories that would be impossible to provide manually.” People will be involved in the curation and editing of the stories and, hopefully, help limit the possibility of accidentally publishing incorrect information in an era when “fake news” is an equally barbed insult on all sides of the political spectrum.
Will robotic writers replace or simply support the work of their human counterparts? A little bit of both, probably. Human news writers regularly point out that AIs tend to lack nuance and a flare for language in the stories they churn out. That’s probably a fare criticism, but it’s easy to see how the rise of robotic news could be a justification — if not a direct cause — for further job loss in the industry. If writers are going to be let go anyway, surely having some software to fill in the gap will help cushion the the blow.
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Google is funding the creation of software that writes local news stories
‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ Suits Up With $140M Overseas; ‘Despicable 3’ Nabs China Records – International Box Office
Among the benchmarks, Homecoming had the highest launch of the Spider-Man franchise (in like-for-like markets and at today’s rates), and DM3 is now the Gru-viest opening weekend ever for an animated movie in China. It also pushed the Despicable Me franchise across the $3B mark worldwide.
Swinging into 56 overseas markets, Sony’s Homecoming set a new bar for Peter Parker on 23,400 screens — and there is joy on the Culver City lot today. The Jon Watts-directed film landed No. 1 starts in 50 of 56 offshore plays and still has 38% of rollout ahead, including in such key hubs as China, Japan, France, Germany and Spain. Combined with domestic, the global launch total is $257M.
In the same set of markets that opened this session, and at current exchange rates, the Tom Holland-starrer is tracking ahead of Marvel cousin Guardians Of The Galaxy 2 (+20%); previous incarnation The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (+30%) and rival superhero Wonder Woman (+59%).
The Sony/Marvel mash-up came in well above pre-weekend predictions which topped out at $110M before folks started to become more bullish in the past few days. With today’s estimate, sources are pointing to emerging markets which helped bolster the major plays like Korea, Mexico, Brazil, the UK and Russia.
Even without China and Japan, Asia was a huge launch with $61.3M and Korea the only major in the mix. And it was major. SMH netted a $25.8M 5-day there for the 3rd biggest opening ever for a Hollywood film.
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Likewise, Latin America was strong with $32.4M led by Mexico ($12M) and Brazil ($9.1M). In the latter, SMH is the biggest opening of all time for the month of July.
In IMAX, SMH grabbed $18M from 669 screens for the 2nd biggest global opening for a Sony title in the format. The international portion is $7M from 277 screens for IMAX’s top bow of all time with a Sony pic.
Of the reboot’s performance, Sony’s President of Worldwide Marketing and Distribution, Josh Greenstein, tells Deadline, “We couldn’t be more thrilled about Spider-Man’s triumphant return to the box office.” For Sony and creative partners at Marvel, this is “a giant win” and the studio is certainly welcoming it after a fair bit of time in the doldrums.
Offshore exits are still being gathered, but the general consensus is that the movie will continue to play amid some more serious offerings, and notably has captured a broad audience. That includes men and women under 25, plus the core Marvel base and a big swath of family business — particularly in Latin America where markets like Mexico and Brazil scored strong numbers propelled by the all-audience component (see more below).
With a $140M debut in 56 markets, Sony’s Spider-Man: Homecoming has topped the launch of all previous pics in the franchise when considering like-for-like plays and at today’s exchange rates.
The last entry, Amazing Spider-Man 2, opened to $97M in like-for-like markets and at today’s exchange rates. Its non-restated ultimate IBO was $506M, led by China, the UK, Korea, Japan and Mexico. China and Japan have yet to open the current film.
Korea is by far the leader on Homecoming this weekend with a 5-day $25.8M start for the 3rd biggest launch of a Hollywood movie ever. SMH dominated at No. 1 with over 80% of the market — its first weekend is already bigger than Transformers: The Last Knight’s total after three frames. Korea is a strong Marvel market, and has done well by Spidey before.
Each of the 11 Asian markets to open this frame did so at No. 1 for $61.3M across the region. India, another solid Spidey hub, roared out of the gate with $6.5M, including previews. Indonesia was worth a very strong $6.9M, and Taiwan weaved $4.8M out of five days.
In Latin America, Mexico led the proceedings with $12M and Brazil was next at $9.1M for the biggest July opening ever. The region was worth $32.4M, pointing to the power of the family pull that SMH exacts. There were No. 1s in 9 plays.
While France and Germany are still to come, the UK led Europe with $11.8M amid strong competition and hot temperatures. A three multiple looks possible here, putting Spidey near the top of the charts for the year so far.
Elsewhere, Russia grossed $7.8M and Australia swung to $7.6M.
One of the softer markets was Italy with $3.1M. That’s not all that surprising given Italy can be a real crap-shoot in the summer as vacations kick in and moviegoing is not top of mind.
Each of the last three Spider-Man titles swung from strength-to-strength internationally, and introducing Tom Holland in Captain America: Civil War teed overseas audiences up for this new standalone spin. Also factoring, Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark has been heavily featured in the marketing and the actor participated in specialty stunt interviews overseas.
Holland was tireless in his promotional efforts, traveling everywhere from Mexico to France, the UK, Spain, Singapore, Russia and Korea. Those visits dovetailed with a nuanced and targeted campaign in global markets.
Next up for Peter and pals (and foes) are Germany and France this week.
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NASA plans to save Earth by knocking asteroid off its orbit
Aiming to show how to protect Earth from a future killer asteroid strike, NASA plans to crash a refrigerator-sized spacecraft at a speed about nine times faster than a bullet into a space rock, forcing it to change its orbit.
The target for the first-ever mission to demonstrate an asteroid deflection technique for planetary defense — the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) — is an asteroid that will have a distant approach to Earth in October 2022, and then again in 2024, NASA said.
“DART would be NASA’s first mission to demonstrate what’s known as the kinetic impactor technique — striking the asteroid to shift its orbit — to defend against a potential future asteroid impact,” said Lindley Johnson, planetary defence officer at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
The asteroid is called Didymos — Greek for “twin” — because it is an asteroid binary system that consists of two bodies — Didymos A, about 780 metres in size, and a smaller asteroid orbiting it called Didymos B, about 160 metres in size.
DART, scheduled for launch in 2020, would impact only the smaller of the two bodies, Didymos B.
The Didymos system has been closely studied since 2003. The primary body is a rocky S-type object, with composition similar to that of many asteroids.
The composition of its small companion, Didymos B, is unknown, but the size is typical of asteroids that could potentially create regional effects should they impact Earth.
“A binary asteroid is the perfect natural laboratory for this test,” said Tom Statler, programme scientist for DART at NASA Headquarters.
“The fact that Didymos B is in orbit around Didymos A makes it easier to see the results of the impact, and ensures that the experiment doesn’t change the orbit of the pair around the sun,” Statler added.
After launch, DART would fly to Didymos, and use an on-board autonomous targeting system to aim itself at Didymos B.
Then the spacecraft would strike the smaller body at a speed about nine times faster than a bullet, approximately six kilometres per second.
Earth-based observatories would be able to see the impact and the resulting change in the orbit of Didymos B around Didymos A, allowing scientists to better determine the capabilities of kinetic impact as an asteroid mitigation strategy.
The kinetic impact technique works by changing the speed of a threatening asteroid by a small fraction of its total velocity, but by doing it well before the predicted impact so that this small nudge will add up over time to a big shift of the asteroid’s path away from Earth.
“DART is a critical step in demonstrating we can protect our planet from a future asteroid impact,” saiid Andy Cheng of The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, the DART investigation co-lead.
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July 9, 2017
July 8, 2017
Bakari Henderson: Black College Grad Beaten to Death by Crowd During Vacation in Greece
A 22-year-old Black American college student’s vacation to Greece ended in tragedy after he was beaten to death by a large group of people in the ancient country.
Texas-born Bakari Henderson was reportedly found battered and unresponsive by authorities on a street on the Greek Island of Zakynthos after an argument inside a bar spilled out onto the street.
Here’s what you need to know about Bakari Henderson and the tragic incident:
Bakari Henderson was on vacation in the Laganas on the Greek island of Zakynthos
Bakari Henderson was celebrating a recent graduation while he was vacationing in Laganas on the Greek island of Zakynthos — popular with tourists who enjoy its stunning beaches and wild nightlife — when his life was tragically cut short.
Henderson was reportedly beaten to death with brass knuckles after reportedly getting into an argument with a security guard.
The incident reportedly began at around 3 a.m. Friday when Henderson had a minor altercation with a security guard at a sports bar called Bar Code.
According to media reports from Greece, the fight started after a man from a group of Serbians walked up to a group of Americans that included Henderson and broke a glass on their table. One of the Americans then reportedly grabbed the 32-year-old Serbian and punched him, which is believed to have sparked the massive bar brawl.
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The security guard and a 34-year-old Greek bartender chased Henderson out of the bar and beat him to death, allegedly with brass knuckles. Eight others are believed to have joined in the assault, which was witnessed by several horrified onlookers passing by.
Witnesses reported seeing Henderson surrounded by a crowd of as many as 10 people during the attack, which was said to have lasted for about 30 seconds.
The Greek Security Division said that he was rushed to a hospital in Zakynthos, where he was pronounced dead on arrival due to severe head trauma. The grad student’s body was taken to the Patras coroner for further examination, but his death was most likely caused by multiple blows to the head.
After being notified of his death, Henderson’s family released the following statement:
“Bakari loved spending time with family and friends, traveling, and meeting new people. He was a big thinker and enjoyed coming up with new business ventures. Bakari was an inspiration to all he met. He loved life and lived it to the fullest.”
Four people were arrested, two were charged with Henderson’s murder and others are being questioned
An investigation has been launched into Henderson’s death, and at least four people have already been arrested for their involvement. Out of the four who were arrested, two were charged with his murder, and a number of other people are being questioned.
Greek newspaper Kathimerini said that only two suspects were taken into custody initially, but after viewing security footage of the attack, police picked up two more suspects who were also of Serbian descent like the security guard.
The State Department released a statement saying:
“Greek police in Zakynthos notified the U.S. Embassy of the death of a U.S. citizen in the early morning hours of Friday, July 7. We are in communication with authorities and providing consular assistance to the deceased citizen’s family. We offer our sincerest condolences to family.”
Police are investigating whether race played any part in the attack on Henderson, who was black.
Henderson graduated from the University of Arizona and played basketball in high school.
Back in May 2017, Henderson, originally from Austin, Texas graduated from the University of Arizona, where he studied business finance and entrepreneurship.
University president Robert C. Robbins said in a statement:
“Our hearts and prayers are with his friends and family. I can only imagine the deep sense of loss they must be feeling at his untimely death. It is always a tragedy when a young life ends before it has really yet to begin.”
Before college, Henderson played basketball for Anderson High School in Austin, which he graduated from in 2013. According to his MaxPreps profile, he played 34 games with an average of 2.7 points per game, 0.5 assists, 2.6 rebounds, 0.7 steals and 0.1 blocks. His Junior year (2011-2012) he scored 92 points, grabbed 89 rebounds and had 18 assists.
One photo of Henderson on Facebook showed him wearing a Los Angeles Lakers T-shirt, and one of his favorite basketball players was said to be Kobe Bryant. Other photos (some dating back to 2012) show him hanging out with his friends at school and various other places.
Source:
Fox News
‘True Blood’ Star Nelsan Ellis Dead At Just 39
Nelsan Ellis — famous for his role as Lafayette Reynolds on HBO’s “True Blood” — has passed away at age 39, Variety can confirm.
“We were extremely saddened to hear of the passing of Nelsan Ellis,” HBO said in a statement. “Nelsan was a long-time member of the HBO family whose groundbreaking portrayal of Lafayette will be remembered fondly within the overall legacy of ‘True Blood.’ Nelsan will be dearly missed by his fans and all of us at HBO.”
“True Blood” creator and executive producer Alan Ball echoed HBO’s epitaph in a statement of his own. “Nelsan was a singular talent whose creativity never ceased to amaze me,” said Ball. “Working with him was a privilege.”
Ellis’ “The Help” costar Octavia Spencer broke the news on Instagram Saturday morning, saying, “Just got word that we lost (Nelsan). My heart breaks for his kids and family.”
Born in Harvey, Ill. in 1977, he and his siblings were moved to Alabama to live with their aunt before Ellis decided to move back to Chicago at age 15. At 17, he joined the Marines, but quit shortly after. After studying at Illinois State University, Ellis went on to get his B.F.A. from Juilliard, where he just so happened to be a class above his eventual “True Blood” costar, Rutina Wesley.
“The studies were so intense and the institution is so white, and I’m a black man from the South with a very specific vernacular and palate,” he recalled to Backstage in 2009. “I felt like an alien, and I struggled the first couple of years. But it transformed who I am as an actor and a person.”
After a single season on Fox’s “The Inside” opposite Rachel Nichols and Adam Baldwin and an episode of “Veronica Mars,” Ellis was then cast in the role that would define his career — gay short order cook Lafayette Reynolds.
“I have more makeup on than any of the females in the (True Blood) cast,” Ellis once famously noted to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “Once they get me with the fake eyelashes and the eye makeup, I listen to some Rihanna and I’m there.”
After 80 episodes over the span of seven seasons, Ellis walked away with a handful of sought after awards: Two Satellite Awards, an Ewwy for best supporting dramatic actor, and a NewNowNext Award for actor on the brink of fame.
Following the success of “True Blood,” Ellis moved from TV to film, landing key roles in movies like “Get On Up,” “The Stanford Prison Experiment,” “Little Boxes,” “The Butler, ” and “The Help.” Most recently, the actor could be seen in a lead role on CBS’ “Elementary,” including the just-wrapped fifth season.
“Crushed today by the loss of my friend and castmate Nelsan Ellis,” said “True Blood” costar Joe Manganiello. “He was a wonderful person, a pioneer, and a one of a kind artist. RIP.”
Ellis is survived by his grandmother, his father, and his son, Breon, as well as seven siblings.
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‘True Blood’ Star Nelsan Ellis Dies at 39
