Yahoo Japan Gives Store Discounts For Searches

Taking a cue from Bing Rewards, at which searchers in the U.S. earn points they redeem for product and services, FamilyMart launched a program Tuesday allowing consumers to receive discounts for
consumers searching on Yahoo Japan. When customers enter the keywords "FamilyMart" or related terms into Yahoo Search, they receive a code along with their results. The customer enters the code into
an in-store terminal to receive a printed coupon for 10% to 20% off products up to a certain quantity, reports the Japanese news organization Nikkei

The coupons take 30 yen off each of 14 specific FamilyMart products. The discounts aim to attract more consumers in the FamilyMart stores and more searches on the engine.

Source: http://feeds.mediapost.com/~r/online-media-daily/~3/aIpGU040uN4/yahoo-japan-gives-store-discounts-for-searches.html

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Popular mobile photography app VSCO Cam coming to Android

Camera and photography apps are a dime a dozen on the iPhone, but apart from a few big names such as Instagram and Hipstamatic, they are much less common on Android. VSCO Cam, one of the hottest new photography apps for iOS, is bucking that trend, however, as it has announced plans to bring its app over to Android and has simultaneously launched private beta testing for the app.

VSCO Cam's appeal lies in its simple, stylish, and modern interface, which gives users easy access to focus and exposure settings without getting in the way of actually taking a picture. VSCO also leverages the company's extensive experience in building filters for Adobe's Lightroom desktop app, providing users with many filters to choose from after they take their pics. VSCO Cam also offers a lot of options for tweaking your photos after the fact, all in a simple-to-use gesture-based layout, and it has built-in sharing to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other services.

VSCO isn't saying exactly when the app will be available for Android, but it is allowing interested parties to sign up for early access to the private beta now. Requirements for the beta include having a Samsung Galaxy S3, Galaxy S4, or HTC One, and the app will likely be initially limited to higher-end devices when it launches publicly. VSCO says that it will expand availability to more Android 4.0+ devices after its release.

We've been let down by many apps coming from iOS to Android in the past ? performance and usability always seem to take a hit in the Android versions ? so hopefully VSCO's requirements of higher-end devices will helpfully alleviate any potential performance issues. Those that meet the requirements can apply for access to the beta now.

Source: http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/30/4571044/popular-mobile-photography-app-vsco-cam-coming-to-android

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Hiring: Looking for tech & business bloggers ? Oakland Local

Hey there, Oakland Local reader:
We?re hiring two part-time East Bay based tech and business writers. You should have 1-10 years experience writing for the web, but most importantly, you should be a talented, fast, and accurate writer and have a strong interest in technology, green tech, web and business and a passionate interest in Oakland and the East Bay.

Responsibilities include:
? Writing blog posts about current news. Be fast, interesting and through.
? Meeting with tech companies and leaders. Yep, profiles, features, news reports. Face to face, even.
? Reporting from the field. Hackathons, meetings, events

You need to be skilled as a tech writer, meaning you?re comfortable talking about using tech. You will have an accessible conversational tone in your work, and a talent for feature writing and reporting as well as a strong interest in data and digital inclusion issues. If you?re witty and not snarky?extra bonus points but we hate mean and stupid jokes. Extra extra for some hard news and some lifestyle reporting experience.

We also want you to: generate story ideas like a maniac, spot stories early that aren?t the same old same old and be a nice person we?ll like working with. If you can?t take critical feedback and use it to better yourself and the site, do not apply. Be reliable also. You will get paid on time and we?ll help you become a better writer with a great portfolio.

HOW TO APPLY
Submit a resume in plain text emails, with a cover letter above it and 5 ideas for stories related to East Bay and Oakland tech and business. You will be judged on timeliness, so don?t post old news please.
We also want to see links to 5-8 published stories (can be on your blog or other sites) that support your interest in this role. BIG bonus points for being brilliant, making us laugh, and being diverse/authentic in your writing. Minus points for recycling the same old same old like we don?t read it too.

Send to jobs@oaklandlocal.com with Biz/Tech writer in the subject line. Don?t apply without following these directions.

?

Source: http://oaklandlocal.com/2013/07/hiring-looking-for-tech-business-bloggers/

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YES. NEXT QUESTION? Does President Obama consider Republicans a greater threat than the Muslim Bro?

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He should - cause as far he's concerned, I am. From his perspective, if they get their wishes it just kills a few peasants, I dream of toppling his regime and putting him and his cronies in prison. 38 minutes ago ? ? id="loggedin"> id="notloggedin"> Like (0) Like (0) Sign In or Register

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Before, there either was or seemed to be an existential threat from militant expansionist and virulently anti- Great Satan jihadis.

Now, a few years and wars later, there either is or seems to be a constitutional threat from our own google-facebook-government at every level:

Eye scans of grade-schoolers, student rfid tags, bundling of coercive and intrusive Obamacare and IRS registration information, the new CFPB's tracking of all financial transactions, domestic drones, phone and car location tracking, facial and body recognition capable cams in stores and on streets, high resolution satellite pix, TSA body/ luggage/ car/ truck and bus searches, the Federal push to mandate black boxes in all cars, and so much more, in addition to the vacuuming up and storage of all electronic transmissions.

To protect whom from whom, we'd like to know (and Orwell knew.)

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And here's another right winger, Andrew McCarthy: talking about the NSA and 4th amendment and how it's NOT a program that spies on all Americans:

"Telephone record information (e.g., the numbers dialed and duration of calls) is not and has never been protected by the Fourth Amendment. The Supreme Court held as much in its 1979 Smith v. Maryland decision. Understand: the phone record information at issue here is very different from the content of telephone conversations. Because the latter involve higher privacy expectations, they are heavily regulated under not only the Fourth Amendment but both Title III of the federal penal code and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Under these laws, the government is not permitted to access communications content absent court authorization based on probable cause either that a crime has been committed or that the surveillance target is an agent of a foreign power (such as a terrorist organization or a hostile government).

?By gathering massive amounts of telephone traffic information, the government is able to establish phone call patterns, which is vital for mapping terrorist organizations. Without this, you cannot have preventive, intelligence-based counterterrorism ? i.e., counterterrorism whose goals are to identify terror cells before they strike and to stop atrocities from happening. To be sure, Congress could deny the government this kind of information by statute. If lawmakers did that, however, we would be in a September 10 counterterrorism paradigm ? i.e., rather than prioritize prevention, we would be contenting ourselves to investigate and prosecute only after attacks have occurred and Americans have been killed."

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/350331/phone-record-gathering-story-blown-out-proportion-andrew-c-mccarthy

For the Rand Paul's of the world, it doesn't matter if the Supremes already ruled that this type of info gathering isn't a violation. But for republicans who aren't quite as prone to hyperbole, and dont want to fall in lockstep with the same liberal wackos who were making the same exact argument when Bush was in charge, be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Yes Obama is untrustworthy, and yes he has targeted tea partiers. And yes, more oversight might be needed to allay some fears of this program. But lets not throw away a valuable program to deal with a legitmate threat because of the hyperbole of the Glenn Greenwalds and Ran Pauls of the world.
After all, Obama will only be in office for three more years. Yet, if the war on terror will continue we will continue to need to monitor their communications.

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"Is not life the most important of civil liberties? These intelligence programs are trashed without any curiosity as to whether they?ve prevented any attacks and saved any lives. The hostile responses are largely knee-jerk and lack any kind of context. The arguments are abstract and descend into fear-mongering. While I?m all for philosophical debates, how about a little more reality when it comes to fighting and winning this war?a real war against a horrific enemy."
-Mark Levin (no left winger, for sure) talking about the knee jerk reaction of the left towards Bushs's spying. It was 1984 all over again, it was Bush implementing a police state. We needed to have V For Vendetta put out as a movie by the left to decry the Anti Bushism police state that the state in that movie was a stand in for, where all the populace became Guy Fawkes and overthrew the govt because it was that evil.
And now the libertarians are doing the exact same thing.
It was obnoxious when the left was doing it, what makes you think the libertarians are any less obnoxious? 2 hours ago ? ? id="loggedin"> id="notloggedin"> Like (0) Like (0) Sign In or Register

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Do tea partiers or Republicans consider Obama a greater threat than the Muslim Brotherhood, or Al Qaeda?
Might explain the attempt to defund the NSA and the constant suggestion that the NSA is spying on all Americans.
Many of these folks were noticeably silent when Bush started the NSA surveillance program. And were even pissed that the Times leaked it.
Suddenly though the right is with Glenn Greenwald? WTF?
Suddenly Edward Snowden is MLK and Thoreau?
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The only people Obama likes to kill, or have killed, or just let be killed are America people. 2 hours ago ? ? id="loggedin"> id="notloggedin"> Like (0) Like (0) Sign In or Register

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A silly question. If Obama considered Republicans a threat in the least, his security wouldn't have been so brazen about excluding these students from a campus-wide event.

Also, he's been pretty open about his affinity for Muslim brotherhoods and nations of Islam.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/instapundit/podcast/~3/QOef6qZtox4/

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Science of Its Time: When Clean Was a New Concept in the Operating Room

[unable to retrieve full-text content]The words ?surgery? and ?sterile? were not always bedfellows. A short history of advances in the hospital.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/30/science/when-clean-was-a-new-concept-in-the-operating-room.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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CBS Sports Wire: Stanford senior Andy Brown's career ends due to fourth ACL tear

By Matt Norlander | College Basketball Writer

July 25, 2013 12:09 PM ET

Stanford forward Andy Brown has suffered another knee injury. (USATSI)

Talk about a player with miserable luck. It was announced Wednesday night that Andy Brown will miss the entirety of the 2013-14 Stanford season because of an ACL tear in his right knee.

Brown suffered the tear during a team workout on Tuesday morning. Brown has tore his ACL four times in his basketball career, three of which have come since 2009, when he arrived at Stanford. This is the first ACL tear to his right knee.

"Everyone associated with our program is saddened by Andy's latest injury,? Stanford coach Johnny Dawkins said. ?Nobody has worked harder to get back into playing shape, having already experienced three tears and waiting two full years before putting on a uniform. What makes this even more disappointing is Andy had already passed the initial test of getting back on the court. He was a highly-productive player for our team last year and we were fully counting on him to be a key contributor again this season. More importantly, his presence and leadership will be extremely difficult to replace. Andy is a fighter, he will bounce back and has the full support of the Stanford basketball family.?

Brown averaged 6.2 points and 2.8 rebounds last season in 20 starts. This injury means Brown's career in basketball, or at least at Stanford, is over. He said in a statement: "I just want to thank all of my teammates and coaches during the past four years who have always been there to support and encourage me. I never would have been able to battle back through these injuries without their help. Even though this is a difficult way to end my career, I feel grateful to have been able to wear a Stanford uniform and contribute to such a great program and university."

Brown tore his left ACL on the first day of practice in his freshman year. He missed the 2010-2011 season after ripping up his left ACL in August 2010 during a team workout.

---

Eye on College Basketball is managed by our esteemed college hoops troubadours: Matt Norlander, Jeff Borzello and Gary Parrish. Follow Eye on College Basketball on Twitter.

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Source: http://www.bbstate.com/news/708117

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Trade union threatens to shut Scotland's only oil refinery over staff suspension

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EXCLUSIVE By Paul Hutcheon

Stephen Deans was suspended at the Ineos facility at Grangemouth amid claims he was involved in a bid to manipulate the contest to select a Westminster candidate in the town.

However, the company reversed its decision after Unite promised to "shut your factory down" by launching a strike.

Labour has been dogged for months by the row over Unite's alleged activities in the battle to select a party candidate for the Falkirk seat.

Unite, Labour's biggest donor, recruited around 100 new members to the party in an attempt to help its favoured candidate, Karie Murphy, get the nomination.

A Labour investigation prompted leader Ed Miliband to criticise Unite and resulted in Murphy and Deans being suspended by the party.

Deans was both the chairman of the Falkirk West constituency party and chairman of Unite in Scotland during the controversy. His day job is at Ineos where, according to an internal Unite document, many of the new recruits were signed up.

"Last, but very much not least, is the exemplary Falkirk ... Using similar methods to Garston and Paisley, but at a much more intense level, led by the potential candidate, and very much supported by the local activist base, especially at Ineos we have recruited well over 100 Unite members to the party in a constituency with less than 200 members."

At the union's executive committee meeting last week, Unite's convener at the Ineos plant, Mark Lyon, said Deans had also been suspended by the company.

On a webcast on the union's website, he hit out at the "lies" told in the media about the Falkirk fiasco, adding: "Stevie had been suspended from work. It was an opportunistic attack, to try and attack him.

"Every action that Stevie Deans and every other member of our branch has taken has been within rule, within company procedures. It's been in all respects legal ...

"The General Secretary has been involved in discussions and we're dead grateful for that. Pat Rafferty [Unite's Scottish secretary] has been involved in discussions with the company as well."

Lyon claimed that the employer reinstated Deans following a meeting of hundreds of workers last week: "The message was clear: you can either reinstate Stevie, and let's get back to some sort of sanity and normal business, or we'll shut your factory down and there will be strike action taken."

He added: "Stevie started back at work this morning."

Lyon was sitting next to Unite general secretary Len McCluskey when he made the speech.

The Grangemouth facility is of major industrial importance. A strike in 2008 over pensions led to panic buying of petrol across the country.

The industrial action also resulted in BP closing the Forties pipeline system, which is responsible for delivering almost a third of Britain's North Sea oil production.

Two Unite sources confirmed Deans worked for Ineos.

A union insider said Ineos had been unhappy at the company's name being mentioned in connection with the Falkirk debacle.

Lyon's remarks were followed by a speech by McCluskey, who said: "I want to express my support for Stevie Deans and Karie Murphy. Our union will stand by them."

He described Labour's report into Falkirk as a "shoddy farce" and a "disgrace".

Police Scotland last week confirmed its officers would not be investigating the Falkirk debacle.

However, the Information Commissioner is believed to be looking into aspects of the row.

Scottish Conservative MSP Alex Johnstone said: "It just shows that no matter how damaging this has been for the Labour party, neither they nor Unite seem able to bring this matter to a reasonable conclusion.

"In the 1970s this country was brought to its knees by exactly this kind of petty squabbling, and I can't believe lessons from the past have just not been learned."

An SNP spokesperson said: "This shows how completely out of control the Labour Party situation in Falkirk is. We have been calling on Johann Lamont for weeks now to get a grip ? but Scottish Labour say London is in charge.

"This row should have been sorted ages ago ? without resorting to wasting police time ? but the person who is supposed to be in charge of the Labour Party in Scotland appears completely helpless."

A Unite spokeswoman declined to comment.

Neither Deans nor an Ineos spokesman returned the Sunday Herald's call.

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Source: http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/political-news/trade-union-threatens-to-shut-scotlands-only-oil-refinery-over-staff-suspension.21710944

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