E-Sports to drug test
After Friesen’s admittance that he had taken Adderall, the Electronic Sports League (ESL) will now begin drug-testing its competitors. However, other big E-Sports companies will not necessarily be affected. Friesen and his team will also not be punished because there is no way for officials to be sure that they had indeed been taking Adderall. ESL:
We can’t punish someone if we are not 100 percent sure he is guilty. And as we have no way to test it anymore (we’re four months after the event), we won’t take action in this specific case.
To offer breakfast all day nationwide
After testing all-day breakfast in select cities, McDonald’s operators have been told to prepare for a nationwide extension of all-day breakfast in October, according to a company memo.
Launches extra Gold Coast flights
Qantas announces extra flights to the Gold Coast from late October. The fares are discounted fares and can be purchased online from today. Melbourne to Gold Coast tickets start at $99 one way. Domestic CEO, David:
We will introduce a daily Boeing 737 service between Melbourne and the Gold Coast starting on October 25
Launches The Sentry
Clooney and Prendergast launche The Sentry, an initiative to find and bring justice to those that profit from conflicts in Africa by exposing how conflict is financed and profits laundered, with a website encouraging people to anonymously submit leaks and tips.
Real leverage for peace and human rights will come when the people who benefit from war will pay a price for the damage they cause
YC Fellowship launch
Altman announces the launch of YC Fellowship, a program aimed at prep-seed ventures that have not received any prior funding. The eight-week program will give out advice to participating startups and $12,000 in grants — although regular venture investments could become the standard in the future. Companies will not have to move to the Bay Area. Applications open July 27. Altman writes in a blog post:
Ten years ago, Paul Graham said there could be ten times as many startups if more people realized they could try. Thanks to the work he, Jessica, Trevor and Robert helped do, that’s become true. We think there is still room for another ten-fold increase in the number of (good) startups. But even now, a lot of good founders never get started because they can’t scrape together a relatively small sum of money at the idea stage. So we’re going to try a new experiment, which we’re calling the YC Fellowship. This is targeted at teams that are very, very early…Although this is an experiment, if it seems promising we’ll iterate quickly just like any good startup. Our goal at YC is to enable as much innovation as we can. Someday if it works, we’d love to fund 1,000 companies per year like this.
Tests online stores
Facebook is testing a feature that allows some small and medium businesses to sell products through their pages. Users can browse products on the company Facebook profile pages and either buy directly from their facebook page or be redirected to the company’s website. The feature is being tried in both mobile and desktop sites.
Ads targeted to bank balance patent
Apple files a patent an opt-in service that targets ads on Apple Pay through the iPhone, based on how much money a user has in their bank accounts. Advertisers will be able to choose parameters for the ads, so that a user’s profile can be matched up to the most appropriate ad. The profile could include, along with available credit, “age, sex and income level(s), target telephone type, etc.” From Filing:
An advantage of such targeted advertising is that only advertisements for goods and services which particular users can afford, are delivered to these users.
Updates Koran
Assad orders the release of a revised version of the Koran in order to correct distortion and misleading lessons, announcing the changes on television with the Minister of religious endowments (Awqaf), and members of the Ministry’s Permanent Committee for the Holy Koran Affairs. The new version will contain simplified letters standardised by official accredited standards set by Koranic scholars.
We truly need such acts at this critical stage of distortion and misleading,
Ludicrous Speed upgrade
Musk announces “Ludicrous Speed,” a $10,000 upgrade for the P85D Model S. The upgrade improves 0-60 time by 10 percent, to 2.8 seconds, with a quarter-mile sprint dropping to 10.9 seconds. The top speed increases to 155 miles per hour, 20 percent faster than on a standard P85D. The Model X will also have Ludicrous Speed as an option, but because that vehicle is 10 percent heavier than the S it will be slower.
Chinese test mind-powered car
Nakai University in China reveal a car that is controlled by the users brain activity — an electroencephalo-graph car. Drivers use a headset to monitor brain activity that direct the vehicle. Head of Research:
We connect our equipment with CAN (Controller Area Network) of the car for communication, which is a breakthrough because in the past the human brain signal can only control stuffs in visual environment or a simple thing like a wheelchair…Now we can do it on an entire car, and we are the first in China.
Rattle The Lock announcement
Gilmour announces Rattle The Lock, his fourth solo album, to be released on September 18. The album’s title track and first single, will be unveiled July 17th, the same day the album will be available for preorder at Gilmour’s official site. The 10-track LP features lyrics by Samson, and contributions and co-production by Manzanera. Samson’s lyrics are inspired by Book II of John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Gilmour:
Rattle That Lock was inspired musically by the sound that’s played on French railway stations before they make an announcement. It’s a four-note jingle. Every time I heard it it made me want to start dancing. I held my iPhone up near the speaker and waited for the next announcement. Took a sample for that and that’s what I’ve used on this track.
Announces four Desire smartphones
HTC announces it will release four new HTC Desire smartphones in the U.S. The Desire 626 utilizes a Qualcomm Snapdragon 210, a Cortex-A7 quad-core SoC running at 1.1 GHz with Adreno 304 GPU. The phone also utilizes a 720p display, 16 GB internal storage, 1.5 GB RAM, and a 2,000 mAh battery. The price has not been released yet, but it is not excpected it to be more than $250. To keep this low price, HTC cut camera quality, with the rear one offering only 8MP.
Valued at $250 billion
Facebook is valued at over $250 billion just three years after its IPO, the fastest company to reach that benchmark in Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. It is now the ninth largest company in the S&P 500.
Audi race car drives itself
Audi presents a red RS7 that drives itself around Sonoma Raceway. Robby, as the test-car is called, uses radar, lasers and cameras to drive around the track. Audi and other automakers ultimately are banking on consumers being more interested in cars that can take over some, but not all, of the tasks of driving.
We want to produce a car that gives people the freedom to decide whether to drive yourself or have the car do it while you think of something else. These changes (to cars) won’t just arrive one day, it’ll be a step-by-step adding of functionality…The idea is to increasingly give customers less stress, and more situations in which they can relax in their car.
Flag removed from Capitol
South Carolina removes the Confederate flag from the state Capitol grounds in Columbia. A crowd shouts “U.S.A.” as the color guard removes the flag and folds it, and hands it to the curator of the Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum, where it will be stored. Some of the few thousand attendees are dressed in Confederate uniforms and carry Confederate flags to show their support for the flag.
South Carolina taking down the confederate flag – a signal of good will and healing, and a meaningful step towards a better future.
— President Obama (@POTUS44) July 10, 2015
Rexulti approved
FDA approves H. Lundbeck A/S and Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co Ltd’s anti-psychotic drug Rexulti for the treatment of schizophrenia. The approval follows the results of seven clinical trials, three of which examines its effects on schizophrenia and four of which examines its effects on major depressive disorder (MDD).
Twitter removes epileptic videos
Twitter removes “#DiscoverMusic campaign” Vine videos that use bright flashing effects that cause epileptic seizures in viewers. Epilepsy Action:
For a huge corporation like Twitter to take that risk was irresponsible.
‘Prime Day’ celebrates 20 years
To celebrate 20 years since its website opened, on July 15, Amazon will have a massive sale involving one of its most successful businesses — Amazon Prime. Prime Day, will feature thousands of deals for Amazon Prime members — more deals than on popular shopping day Black Friday. Deals will be introduced throughout the day beginning at midnight, sometimes as often as every 10 minutes. Prime Day will also feature a photo contest to pair with Prime Photo, a relatively new photo-storage service. Customers can submit photos of how Prime saves them time for the chance to win a $10,000 gift card. Amazon also commissioned artists across the world to showcase #PrimeLiving. The Company may make Prime Day into an annual evnt.
Ends Trump relationship
Serta end its licensing agreement, saying it will will stop manufacturing and selling Trump Home-branded mattresses, due to remarks he made in June 16 speech.
Serta values diversity and does not agree with nor endorse the recent statements made by Mr. Trump. Serta is in the process of unwinding our relationship.
Episcopalians allow gay marriage
The Episcopalian church gives its blessing to allow same-sex couples to marry in the church. Same sex weddings will be allowed after November 1st, however, in a compromise with conservatives, clergy can refuse to perform same-sex services and bishops can prohibit the ceremonies in their diocese. The denomination’s landmark vote, at the Episcopal General Convention in Salt Lake City, came 12 years after the church elected its first openly gay bishop. Priests in many dioceses have already been allowed to perform civil same-sex weddings with a modified prayer service. Church spokesperson:
We have learned to not only care for, but care about one other. That mutual care was present in the conversations we had. Some people disagreed, some people disagreed deeply, but we prayed and we listened and we came up with compromises that we believe make room and leave no one behind.