Oil down on EU debt worries

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Need to tackle hindrances to broadband access ? The Punch ...

Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson
| credits: File

There seems to be a consensus that it is important for Nigeria to quickly deploy broadband infrastructure and harness its benefits for economic development. DAYO OKETOLA examines on what the Federal Government is doing in this regard

Universal access to broadband has become a significant indicator of development and competitiveness globally. Statistics have shown that every 10 per cent increase in access to broadband in developing countries results in a commensurate 1.38 per cent increase in Gross Domestic Products. As such, experts say any country seeking growth, job and wealth creation must address how it can increase its access to broadband.

In view of this, broadband discourse has permeated the Nigerian Information and Communications Technology industry since the $240m Main One submarine cable and $800m Glo I cable landed in the country.

Experts say this is expected because the country?s over 95 million active mobile users have yet to benefit from the huge broadband capacity provided by Main One, Glo One and other subsea cables due to inadequate last mile infrastructure. The cost of Internet access is still high while the speed remains abysmally slow.

As such, ensuring that Nigeria is able to quickly deploy broadband infrastructure and harness the benefits therein have been the crux of the consistent industry engagement and discussions.

While some countries have gone as far as defining access to broadband (or super fast Internet) as a fundamental human right, Nigeria?s broadband access remains low at six per cent.

The Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, says, ?Despite the fact that we have Internet penetration of 28 per cent (45 million Internet users), only nine per cent (14.5 million people) of the population are actually Internet subscribers and broadband penetration is at a mere six per cent.

?Though access to broadband using mobile phones (smartphones) is increasing, (thereby increasing the number of subscribers) what this statistic tells us is that most Nigerians still access the Internet through public venues (offices, cyber cafes, computer labs). This is as a result of not only the lack of ubiquity of the broadband network but also the cost of access.?

The minister laments that Nigeria currently has one of the highest costs of access in the world at approximately N8 to N10 for 5Mbs of data.

?In fact, recent statistics that I looked at have us as having one of the lowest speeds in Africa,? Johnson adds.

She reiterates that broadband has become a critical ICT infrastructure, saying the goal of the government is to achieve one national network capable of delivering broadband speeds not less than 50 per cent of the average speeds available worldwide at the consumer end within the next five years.

To achieve this, the minister says the government will encourage and enforce the principle of open access/infrastructure sharing to already build transmission networks in order to facilitate an integrated national backbone.

This, she says, has become imperative to expand the building of an integrated national backbone to achieve point of presence in all local government areas in the country. This will be complemented with the adoption of a progressive fibre build up to connect all state capital, as well as the creation of city rings in all major cities.

Some of the things the ministry will do to achieve ubiquitous broadband access in the country, Johnson says, is to remove the bottlenecks and arbitrary additional costs to infrastructure layout such as the cost of right-of-way and conflicting environmental regulations.

Specifically, she says the ministry will collaborate with the Ministry of Environment to resolve conflicting regulations to remove all known and unknown bottlenecks to base station approval.

Emphasising that broadband is a catalyst to economic development, Johnson says government goal is to increase ICT contribution to GDP by, at least, 1.5 per cent by 2015. To actualise this, she says the ministry will facilitate local content development in mobile applications, media and entertainment and support SME untilisation of ICTs. According to her, it is important to get more Nigerian business online as well as increase domestic value added services in the ICT industry.

The minister also says it is important to deepen broadband access for effective and transparent government and governance. This, according to her, will be done by delivering government services via the Internet and improving government to citizen engagement. This will entail creating a single window portal to facilitate easy access to government information.

She says all government MDAs will have functioning websites of the same/similar standards by the end of 2014.

In view of this, the minister discloses that the Federal Government has deployed 86,089 email addresses for government on.gov.ng domain names.

The move, according to her, is in line with the government?s vision to ensure that all its MDAs are migrated from their existing disparate domain names to Nigeria?s Code Top Level domain name .ng both for their websites and official emails.

Apart from the 86,089 email addresses which have been deployed, she says 250 websites of MDAs have been hosted on .gov.ng platform. She also says that the government currently hosts around 200 servers for more than 94 government agencies; adding that 450 government agencies have been connected to a common government network known as OneGov.net.

This seems as an implementation of the call made by the President, Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria, Mr. Lanre Ajayi, that governments at all levels should migrate its services online to boost broadband access in the country.

Also, the General Manager, Federal Public Sector, Galaxy Backbone, Mr. Frank Ugbodaga, while speaking on ?Broadband as a Catalyst for e-Government in Nigeria?, says there has been a rise in application of Internet and broadband resources by government, including the deployment of shared ICT infrastructure and services centres.

The Executive Vice-Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission, Dr. Eugene Juwah, says Nigeria is not the only country aspiring to enjoy the broadband revolution.

He says, ?Doubling the broadband speed for the economy increases GDP by 0.3 percentage points. This, according to a report, is jointly conducted by Ericsson, Arthur D. Little and Chalmers University of Technology. The report quantified the isolated impact of broadband speed. The percentage points may appear small but if you apply it to the Nigerian GDP at N40tn, you obtain an incease of more than half a trillion naira in the first instance and N120bn in the second.?

The NCC boss laments that while the regulatory environment in the country has remained stable and attractive to global investment community, there still remain a number of challenges affecting broadband infrastructure roll out.

He says one of the most difficult challenges to widescale broadband infrastructure deployment is the issue of right-of- way.

On the solutions, he says instead of imposing one off charge for right-of-way, state governments may adopt a new regime of periodic revenue stream from their right-of-way assets.

One the way to realise this, according to him, is for the states to contribute to the asset on a participatory basis.

Alternatively, he advises that state governments may choose to barter their right-of-way assets for a specialised service from infrastructure operator. For instance, he says access to righ-of-way can be traded for a security surveillance network provided from the infrastructure.

Juwah identifies the prevalent multiple regulation and taxation by state government as a major hindrance to broadband infrastructure deployment, adding that available infrastructure are characterised by operational issues such as monopoly ownership, exorbitantly high pricing and discriminatory access.

He says, ?The current development has made very little impact with the estimated penetration of broadband in Nigeria varying from less than two per cent to less than five per cent. In fact, it is evident that there is practically no broadband market in Nigeria, the huge broadband capacities on our shores notwithstanding. The challenge of the distribution of this capacity inland is the obvious task the Reflash must confront. ?

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Just Great Bookselling: Bilbary's Simple Vision, Big Ambition ...

As he sees it, [Coates] is simply doing what he has done many times before ? building a bookshop.

By Roger Tagholm

LONDON: There is no one quite like the UK?s Tim Coates in the book industry. He has been a bookseller, an author, a library campaigner and a publisher. Now, with the launch of Bilbary.com ? the international e-bookstore and library that went live in the US in March and opens for business in the UK and Europe in June ? to that list must be added the description digital innovator, though Coates smiles at the suggestion. As he sees it, he is simply doing what he has done many times before ? building a bookshop.

Bilbary.com allows users to download titles to any device ? PCs, laptops, tablets, anything Android, Sony Readers, Nook, Kobo, even the Kindle, although Coates concedes that ?you have to be a little bit tecchie to make it work.? Currently, it has some 320,000 e-books from around 2,300 publishers ? chiefly academic houses, small presses and specialist publishers. But by the end of May a further 110,000 titles will have been added from the big six: Penguin, Macmillan, Random House, Hachette, Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins, and he has hopes for many, many more.

A Viable Alternative to Amazon

He has a simple, open access vision for the site, borne of frustration at the walled garden systems that are proliferating in the digital space. ?We want Bilbary to be a place that people who like reading, who love books, can come and find things and read them on whatever they have.?

Naturally, he wants the site to differentiate itself from Amazon ? a considerable challenge. Here he starts to sound both evangelical and frustrated. ?Amazon is not a site where you want to hang around. They?ve done a brilliant job in promoting Kindle ? they?ve made e-books a proper, viable proposition and they?ve forced publishers to act. But what they haven?t done is force backlist to emerge. We?re really only just getting started when it comes to e-books. A lot of what Amazon offers is self-published. You can find something to read, but the real quality is not there.

?So at Bilbary we have this relentless pursuit of content. We want to replicate the sort of quality and range you find in Foyles or a huge Barnes & Noble ? and the text of all our books will be searchable too. I?d say that at the moment, only 30% of a large, stockholding bookshop is available in digital format. There are vast riches out there. How many Penguins are there as e-books? There are only about 9,000. But how many Penguin titles have there ever been? So we?re speaking to them about Pelican, about the classic green crime?You can go to the big six publishers and it?s the same story.

?Publishers obsess about their front lists ? a certain author is about to publish their fourth novel or whatever. Then they let things go out of print and forget they ever had them. Publishers think their job is to keep publishing, but their job is also to sell what they?ve already published. Instead, they?re always looking for the next pot of gold.?

Publishers Blame Agents for Lack of E-books

He maintains that publishers blame the agents for the lack of digital titles. ?They say they haven?t been unable to negotiate a digital deal. Well, they should sort it out. If print is going to decline, if that industry is going to collapse, then let?s manage the transfer to digital properly. We need a massive digitisation programme. Publishers will say it is happening, but I?m saying to them ?where are the titles?? Why is so little Marquez available digitally, for example? I really don?t think we?ve got started yet.?

Bilbary will also carry reviews, as well as recommendations and comment from booksellers and teachers and experts in their field. It has a library which has a link on the homepage that takes browsers to an interactive illustration of an old, small town library. ?We want people to have fun here,? says Coates. ?This is somewhere they can go for a good rummage around, just as in a physical library. You enter through some swing doors and we?ll have things like a science room where you can see the books being converted into digital in pickle jars. We?ll even have a cat on the rocking chair outside. Jo Budler at the State Library of Kansas [which has recently signed a deal with Bilbary] said ?librarians have a great affinity with cats?.?

Users of the State Library of Kansas who do not want to wait for one of the handful of digital files provided by Overdrive are given the option to buy a title, with a percentage of the revenue going back to the library.

If he sounded critical of publishers above, it?s more a case of urging them to act on the treasures they have. In fact, he despairs at some of the animosity that is currently around. ?We want to be nice to publishers, not at war with them. Publishers produce absolutely wonderful material. There are people who say why do we need publishers, I can publish a book ? but they can?t. What they produce is awful. It?s just that at the moment, you have publishers at war with librarians over lending, and at war with agents over digitisation contracts. And everyone is at war with Amazon. That hostile world is awful.?

Bilbary has private backers, including John Bartle of advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty and a staff of around 14, including representatives in Beijing, Delhi and the US. Its home is in London?s glorious Bedford Square in Bloomsbury, just along from agent Ed Victor?s office and directly opposite Bloomsbury Publishing. Occasionally, the sound of a cello can be heard from an adjacent room, which means Coates? younger son Oliver is practising. He?s a professional musician, artist-in-residence at the South Bank Centre and winner of the Royal Philarmonic Society?s Young Artist award earlier this month. Coates? other son, Sam, is Chief Political Correspondent of the Times.

A Long, Personal Commitment to Bookselling

At the age of 62 Coates is embarking on a big project at a time when many might feel like sitting back. Perhaps it?s a case of Yorkshire grit, as the English phrase has it, but this unusual figure is quite happy tackling new ventures, taking on new challenges.

The son of amateur musician parents ? his mother was a school teacher ? he grew up in Huddersfield and studied maths at Oxford, during which time he became active in musical theatre and composed. Classical music remains a passion today. After university, he joined WH Smith as Marketing Planning Manager, thus beginning his 40-odd years in the industry.

He ran the Smiths-owned Sherratt & Hughes chain of more upmarket bookshops, which was eventually subsumed into Waterstone?s where Coates was briefly MD. Disagreements between Waterstone?s shareholders and WH Smith shareholders led to his departure, with subsequent years seeing him establish Uncovered Editions, which published government reports unearthed in the archives, such as the Titanic enquiry.

Exploring these archives led him to Mary Cornwallis West, mistress of Edward VII, whose story he began writing for his own enjoyment. Bloomsbury heard about it and the house that is now his near neighbour published Patsy (her nickname) in 2003.

He combined these publishing and writing activities with a growing interest in the fate of the UK?s libraries, an interest that led him to some impassioned campaigning which gained him enemies and friends in equal measure. In more recent years he ran Baker and Taylor?s UK office for academic library supply.

E-Lending is a Mess, This May Be an Answer

The idea for Bilbary arose out of his involvement in libraries, with Coates seeing its model as a solution to the current mess that is e-lending. The last year has seen him visit the US frequently, speaking to publishers and librarians and getting his mind around the complexities of the US tax system.

He owns a Sony Reader, currently loaded with Henry James? Portrait of a Lady (?beautiful?) and he has a lifelong love of Josef Svorecky and other Eastern European writers. ?I do like Czech writers very much ? they are subversive in a way that English and Americans don?t quite know how to do.

People are watching Coates and Bilbary with interest. Publishers would all like to see a competitor to Amazon, but the Seattle giant is a mighty body to take on, with a name embedded in consumers? minds. And yet there was a time when Twitter was a start-up no-one had heard of.

Coates has taken the bold step of building Bilbary in public, ?so we can learn from people as we go along?. He is also not taking himself too seriously in the process. ?John Sargent at Macmillan in New York said to me. ?Well, this is different. I?m used to having fresh-faced MBA students come and tell me how they can save publishing ? I don?t usually see a grey-haired industry veteran from across the Atlantic??

SURVEY: Should Libraries Sell E-books?

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Ask the Experts: Cooling EfficiencyCNY Energy Challenge

May 21st, 2012 ?|? Published in Ask the Experts:, Challenge News, Residential

More than half of the energy that we use in our homes here in Upstate New York goes to heating and cooling ? wow! Making good decisions about our home?s heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) system can have a huge effect on our utility bills ? and our comfort. Here are a few good tips from our friends at www.energystar.gov:

---

Change your air filter regularly

Check your filter every month, especially during heavy use months (winter and summer). If the filter looks dirty after a month, change it. At a minimum, change the filter every 3 months. A dirty filter will slow down air flow and make the system work harder to keep you warm or cool ? wasting energy. A clean filter will also prevent dust and dirt from building up in the system ? leading to expensive maintenance and/or early system failure.

Tune up your HVAC equipment yearly

Just as a tune-up for your car can improve your gas mileage, a yearly tune-up of your heating and cooling system can improve efficiency and comfort. Learn more:

Install a programmable thermostat

A?programmable thermostat?is ideal for people who are away from home during set periods of time throughout the week. Through proper use of pre-programmed settings, a programmable thermostat can save you about $180 every year in energy costs.

Seal your heating and cooling ducts

Ducts that move air to-and-from a forced air furnace, central air conditioner, or heat pump are often big energy wasters.?Sealing and insulating ducts?can improve the efficiency of your heating and cooling system by as much as 20 percent ? and sometimes much more.

Focus first on sealing ducts that run through the attic, crawlspace, unheated basement, or garage. Use duct sealant (mastic) or metal-backed (foil) tape to seal the seams and connections of ducts. After sealing the ducts in those spaces, wrap them in insulation to keep them from getting hot in the summer or cold in the winter. Next, look to seal any other ducts that you can access in the heated or cooled part of the house. See the ENERGY STAR?Duct Sealing brochure??(1.13MB) for more information.

Consider installing ENERGY STAR qualified heating and cooling equipment

If your HVAC equipment is more than 10 years old or not keeping your house comfortable, have it evaluated by a professional HVAC contractor participating in the Home Performance with ENERGY STAR program. If it is not performing efficiently or needs upgrading,consider replacing it?with a unit that has earned the ENERGY STAR. Depending on where you live, replacing your old heating and cooling equipment with ENERGY STAR qualified equipment can cut your annual energy bill by nearly $200. But before you invest in a new HVAC system, make sure that you have addressed the big air leaks in your house and the duct system. Sometimes, these are the real sources of problems rather than your HVAC equipment.

Ask about Proper Installation of your new equipment

Replacing your old heating and cooling equipment with new, energy-efficient models is a great start. But to make sure that you get the best performance, the new equipment must be properly installed. In fact, improper installation can reduce system efficiency by up to 30 percent ? costing you more on your utility bills and possibly shortening the equipment?s life.?Learn more.

For more information, download the ENERGY STAR?Guide to Energy Efficient Heating & Cooling?(708KB).

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Internet Home Business ? 3 Block Formula to Attract Cash and ...

Learn Technical Abilities.

It is crucial that you simply acquire dirty technical abilities that?s needed to create and run your online home business.

Should you donot acquire that technical understand how you?ll have to depend and work with a technical who is going to do the technical configurations for you personally.

If you?re just beginning out and also you donot have sufficient funds to purchase your online home based business then it will likely be very difficult that you should spend the money for technical costs.

The best brand out there is to buy began learning all of this stuff by yourself. It is simple after you have made commitment to get this done beginning today.

The most crucial technical steps that you?ll want to understand includes?

a. Web Site Design ? You need to make certain you know the fundamentals of html and web site design.

This should help you to create simple adjustments to your site.

b. Website Automation ? You have to learn to automate your site.

Including establishing auto responders, ad monitoring system, order processing system, etc.

c. Website Promotion ? You need to learn to setup promotion softwares that may help you to automate your promotion stuff.

Including how you can do Search engine optimization that?s seo for the website. Plus apply certain softwares to create reciprocal connecting campaign, etc for the site that may help you they are driving a lot of specific web site traffic.

2. Take Your Online Business Seriously.

It is crucial that you are taking your online home business seriously while you would take any offline business that you?d start.

Regrettably many newcomers start their internet home business going for a chance, stating that whether it works it?s fine otherwise we?ll quit.

With this particular type of attitude they aren?t devoted to discover the needed process to create an online business, they aren?t even prepared to make any type of some time and financial purchase of their online business.

With this particular type of attitude the outcomes are apparent, they surely fail within their internet home business and they finally blame internet for his or her failure instead of accusing themselves.

3. Strive.

They do not realize that they like any company, online business also requires effort to achieve success.

You need to place in efforts, work greatly hard and invest money and time to create an online business.

But when things are into position you could have money moving into your money even when you?re getting around a seaside or having fun with your children.

This it energy of online business automation.

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Tom Cruise bares soul in Playboy interview

By Eric Anderson, Access Hollywood

Frazer Harrison / Getty Images

Tom Cruise discusses Scientology, Katie Holmes and rumors of plastic surgery in a candid interview in the June issue of Playboy.

Despite ?being one of the biggest stars on the planet, Tom Cruise has always done everything he can to keep his private life? private.

But now, in a candid new interview with Playboy magazine, nothing is off limits, as Cruise?opens up about his belief in Scientology, his love for wife Katie Holmes and taking on the rumors that target him in the media.

VIEW THE PHOTOS: Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes

?If I don?t talk about my religion, if I say I?m not discussing it or different humanitarian things I?m working on, they?re like, ?He?s avoiding it.? If I do talk about it, it becomes, ?Oh, he?s proselytizing,?? Cruise?told Playboy of his faith in Scientology. ?I have respect for what other people believe. What I believe in my own life is that it?s a search for how I can do things better, whether it?s being a better man or a better father or finding ways for myself to improve. Individuals have to decide what is true and real for them. I?m fortunate in the life I have.?

So how does the ?Rock of Ages? star deal with rumors that have targeted him and his family over the years?

VIEW THE PHOTOS: Tom Cruise - Hollywood?s Original ?Maverick?

?Does refuting things help? Not really. There comes a point when you just have to go, ?You know what? Here?s how I?ve lived my life: I?ve never been late to a set. I make films I believe in. I feel privileged to be able to do what I love.? You just have to keep going and remember that. The other stuff? I hear it, I read it, I get it. But life is not a matter of trying to prove anything to anybody,? Cruise?explained.

But don?t think that Cruise? will just sit idly by if things cross the line.

?If I have to, I will sue. You start with a letter saying, ?Okay, you know it?s not true. Apologize.??But with certain ones you have to go, ?Okay, you crossed a line, and now you have the attention of my lawyers.? [laughs] When it involves your kids, you have to go, ?Here?s the line, and anytime you cross it?,? ? he added.

VIEW THE PHOTOS: Top 10 Tom Cruise Movie Moments

One rumor Cruise? ? who will turn 50 later this summer (July 3) ? has no problem confronting is the question of plastic surgery.

?I haven?t, and I never would,? he told the mag.

VIEW THE PHOTOS: Filmography: The Movies That Made Tom Cruise A Star!

Even with all of his box office successes, in the end, Cruise? understands what?s important in his life ? his family. And, as he explained, when the lines of personal and professional cross, it?s even better.

?I?ve always had the same values. Family for me has always been important. When I shoot, everybody comes. When Kate?s shooting, I?m there with her and the kids. We?re always together,? Cruise?said. ?I?m always around my mother and sisters. I always wanted to be a father, a husband. And I?ve always had a work ethic.?

And when it comes to Katie, Cruise? is happy to boast about his better half.

?She is an extraordinary person, and if you spent five minutes with her, you?d see it. Everything she does, she does with this beautiful creativity. She?s funny and charming, and when she walks into the room, I just feel better. I?m a romantic. I like doing things like creating romantic dinners, and she enjoys that,? Cruise? said.

?I don?t know what to say ? I?m just happy, and I have been since the moment I met her. What we have is very special,? he added.

For more with Cruise?, check out the June issue of Playboy, on newsstands May 18 or visit playboy.com/cruise.

Will you be reading Tom Cruise's Playboy interview? Tell us about it on Facebook.?

Related

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Can You Turn Off Server Room Air Conditioners At Certain Times?

As a homeowner or a renter, you may have thought about saving money by turning your air conditioning unit off at certain times of day. For example, you may have decided to turn it off from nine to five because you are at work. As the owner of a business, you might want to use these same principles to keep your costs down. They can work in your main office buildings, to be sure, but they are not ideal when considering your computer servers. Keep your server room coolers running at all times.

The reason is that the servers also have to run all night, at least to some extent. You may not be using them as much, so they will not experience the same high levels of traffic, but you will not turn off all of the equipment for the night. If you host your own website, you need it to be up and running so that people can access it for information or make purchases.

As long as these computers are running and generating heat, you need to use a portable air conditioner to keep them cool. This task does not end when there are no people in the building. In fact, it may be more important at these times, since no one will be there to monitor what happens.

What you can do is set the server room coolers to turn off at a certain temperature. Perhaps you want to make sure that the room does not get up to over 68 degrees. On cold days in the winters, the odds of this will be lower, so the system will run less often. You should always set a top-end shutoff temperature like this so that the machine does not keep running indefinitely. If your main air conditioning units for the whole building are doing a good job, they may keep the room very close to this temperature during all but peak hours.

Furthermore, you can turn the portable air conditioner off if the servers have been switched off for some reason. Perhaps some remodeling is going on in the building and you have to shut everything down for a few days. You do not need to keep the room cool for computers that are not running. Perhaps you have a small business and you have no need to keep your servers on overnight even if business is not interrupted. You can then switch everything off when you go home at the day's end.

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Page Not Found - Yahoo!

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Avengers Origins: Trivia Galore For the Movie-Crazed Fanboy [App Of The Day]

Have you seen The Avengers yet? Even if you have, you can continue to enjoy the mania with Avengers Origins, a new app that from Disney and Marvel that tells the tale of how the team came to be. More »

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Twitter Now Putting Tweets In Your Inbox With A Weekly Email Digest

Not content just to be your source of 140-character communications on the web, in its desktop app and on your mobile device, Twitter is now trying to creep into your email inbox. Twitter announced on its company blog Monday that it is launching an email digest, which will highlight Tweets that you might not have otherwise seen. The email digest, which will start appearing in users' inboxes over the next few weeks, is designed to emulate the "Discover" tab in Twitter's mobile apps. The idea is to feature the "best" content that appears on the network, even if it was written or promoted by folks you don't follow.

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Nick Diaz no shows for grappling superfight, Facebook post blames ?shady promoter?

Suspended UFC fighter Nick Diaz was supposed to take on BJJ star Braulio Estima in a grappling supermatch in California Saturday. Diaz was supposed to show his grappling chops off in a match against one of the world's best jiu-jitsu players. He was supposed to donate his entire purse to St. Jude's Children Hospital.

Most importantly, he was supposed to show up for his first competitive match-up since being suspended by the Nevada Athletic Commission for a positive marijuana test after losing to Carlos Condit in February. He didn't.

Diaz never showed up to the World Jiu-Jitsu Expo in Long Beach, where the bout was scheduled to take place. Estima was reasonably steamed for the no-show.

"I know he's supposed to be the big MMA bad guy and he's all tough, he's supposed to be showbiz, but what is this?" said Estima. "When you make an announcement that you're going to fight for charity and you don't show up, what the hell is going on? It's not about showbiz. It's about being a good person. I don't know what is going on."

The Facebook page that purports to represent the Diaz brothers had this post on it early Sunday morning:

Promoter fails to donate the money to charity as agreed. (shady) Promoter changes rules for weigh ins to accommodate fellow Brazilian
Match ain't happening

When Estima communicated with the WJJE organizers that he couldn't get down to the agreed-upon 180-lb. weight limit, they renegotiated the weight to 185 lbs. Diaz's camp agreed to the weight change ahead of time. As for the donation, could Diaz not have deposited his purse into his account and then write a check to St. Jude's? Taking five minutes to make the donation himself surely would have been better than depriving the hospital completely.

And if he really made the decision not to show up because of the promoters, he should have communicated it to his fans well before they spent $12.95 on the live stream of the event. That decision would have truly hurt the "shady" promoters in their wallets.

Instead, Diaz again decided not to show up for a commitment. In October, he skipped out on several media opportunities before his planned title fight and was removed from the bout. Again, he bizarrely blamed everyone but himself.

At this point, Diaz not following through on his commitments is par for the course. The MMA world shouldn't expect anything else.

--

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Connecticut Democrats endorse Murphy for Senate (reuters)

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Serena Williams Rap Song (LISTEN)

The Serena Williams rap song is worth listening to. I think it would really inspire everyone to give the rap business a try, because if what she made passes for a single, then there’s a good chance everyone can do it. Please don’t misunderstand me. As a woman, I am very aware of how amazing her career in tennis has been. She overcame huge racial barriers, and found a successful career in a very snooty sport, known to be popular amongst the wealthy, country-club crowd. She went on to win the biggest tennis contest in the world, which turned her into a role-model for many minority athletes. But if you put all of that aside and listen to this song, it is very difficult to take her seriously. Check the rest of the story out over at TMZ, and watch the video below. I think Ashton Kutcher makes an amazing Steve Jobs – Bumpshack. Man, Jennifer Aniston is really showing signs of being pregnant. I wonder if this is making Brad Pitt jealous… I sort of doubt it – Celebrity Dirty Laundry. The man who murdered Jennifer Hudson’s family was finally found guilty – Diva Artist. So how does the [...]

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Same-sex marriage prompts conservatives to mobilize (Star Tribune)

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Video Collaboration Service TenHands Launches Free Browser-Based WebEx Competitor

As the capabilities of modern browsers expand and developing standards like Google's WebRCT initiative for real-time communications slowly find their way into most popular browsers, we'll likely see more video collaboration software that's currently still client-based move to the browser as well. TenHands, which is launching its private beta today (you can request an invite here) wants to be the first out of the gate in this market and sees itself as a direct competitor to Cisco's WebEx, Microsoft Lync and other incumbents in this space. The service offers free video conference calls, screensharing, as well as built-in support for sharing documents from your desktop and Box.net.

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'Prometheus' Debuts Extended Featurette And New Images

The recent "Prometheus" featurettes have made it really hard to go into the movie spoiler-free. The latest one includes some new footage and a basic set-up of the movie's plot, so if you're looking to avoid plot details for the upcoming movie, our advice is to not read past the jump. Now we already know [...]

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Artificial Space Shuttle Explorer readies for launch at sea, journey to Houston

Were you asleep at mission control during Endeavor's final flight? Did you forget to look to the New York City skyline for the Enterprise's last adventure? Buck up buttercup, there's still one Space Shuttle launch you haven't missed -- a faux Space Shuttle, named Explorer, is prepping itself to ride a barge to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. The full-size shuttle mockup was shuffled out of the Kennedy Space Center Complex to make way for an actual spacecraft last year, and will now embark on a ten day journey by sea to its new home in Texas. "NASA's Space Shuttle changed the way we think about space, making it more accessible, understandable and useful," stated Space Center Houston President, Richard Allen. "It is our intent to continue that legacy with this exciting new attraction." The replica shuttle will be getting a few upgrades, including a new cockpit that more closely resembles the interior of space shuttle Atlantis, and will be housed in a new education facility that is being built around the mock spacecraft. Sure, it's not as exciting as a legitimate shuttle launch, but we're still happy to give the old bird one final send off.

Artificial Space Shuttle Explorer readies for launch at sea, journey to Houston originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 May 2012 12:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pebble smartwatch sells out initial supplies, enters Kickstarter hall of fame with $10m raised

It looks like adding Bluetooth 4.0 was just the trick for taking the Pebble smartwatch over the edge -- and by over the edge, we mean to an insane level of Kickstarter success. The watch not only crossed the $10 million fundraising mark -- it aimed for a paltry $100k -- but its initial 85,000 units are now sold out. The campaign still has eight days to go, and though additional backers won't get in on that first wave of Pebbles, there's a second batch on the way.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Pebble smartwatch sells out initial supplies, enters Kickstarter hall of fame with $10m raised originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 May 2012 18:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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