Mercyvill

When Martin Luther King exclaimed that he had a dream, he probably didn’t expect support to come from the direction of a billionaire Silicon Valley CEO. But that is what we see today as Salesforce.com and its CEO Marc Benioff take a stand against a new piece of legislation in Indiana. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act essentially legalizes discrimination and gives the ability for businesses to choose who they provide goods and services too. Hate Jews? In Indiana, you don’t have to serve them. Feel uncomfortable about homosexuality? Indiana is the place for you, where you can bury your head and pretend it doesn’t exist.

China’s online retail sales grew 49.7% to RMB 2.79 trillion last year, prompting Ma Jiantang, head of the National Bureau of Statistics, to comment: “This is where our hope lies.” It was by far the most high-profile signal that China’s leaders, perhaps helped along by the successful IPO of Alibaba and many other Internet companies, recognize the potential of China’s 780 million online users. It is a sign that they embrace the benefits of the Internet which is expected to create 46 million new jobs in China by 2025, according to a July 2014 report by New York-based McKinsey & Co. Ma’s comments are in line with Premier Li Keqiang’s introduction, at the 12th National People’s Congress in 2013, of a new Internet+ (Internet Plus) policy for the country. The goal: to “integrate mobile Internet, cloud computing, big data and the Internet of Things with modern manufacturing to encourage the healthy development o...

  A man walks in front of posters of candidates of Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan's People's Democratic Party in Kano. (Reuters) ABUJA, Nigeria — On Saturday, Africa’s most populous and oil-rich country will go to the polls. The election looks to be the tightest in the 16 years since military rule ended in Nigeria – and it appears likely that the contest between President Goodluck Jonathan and former military dictator Muhammadu Buhari could devolve into violence.

. Nigerian soldiers patrol close to a former camp of Islamist extremist group Boko Haram near Maiduguri . Abuja (AFP) - Nigeria's military on Friday announced that troops had retaken the town of Gwoza from Boko Haram, from which the group declared their caliphate last year. Defence spokesman Chris Olukolade told a news conference in the capital, Abuja, that the recapture came after "concerted and well-coordinated land and air operations". "A lot o...

  Eric Evenchick knows what it’s like to be at the mercy of modes of transport. That might be why the former Tesla intern is so keen to hack his way to gaining greater control over the vehicles he travels in. When we speak over encrypted call app RedPhone, he’s stuck in Hong Kong airport waiting for a delayed flight to Singapore, where he’ll announce the open sourcing of the CANard tool during the BlackHat Asia conference. His code will make it cheaper and easier than ever before for tinkerers to get to the innards of their connected cars to determine if there are any useful tweaks they can make, or any worrisome security vulnerabilities that more malicious hackers could exploit. Evenchick is hopeful CANard, based on the widely-used and much-loved Python language, will have a greater impact on the car industry in general. It should allow security researchers of all ilks to easily probe cars for weaknesses, which, Evenchick hopes, will get them to...

Dr Jonathan. 5:46pm                                                                                                                                                      Being Text Of The Press Conference Addressed By The National Publicity Secretary Of...

   1. Arrive early Don’t even think about arriving late or cutting it close. Audiences will lose patience quickly if you waste valuable time at the beginning of the presentation fiddling around. If you are delivering the presentation in a new environment for your audience, arrive even earlier. Get comfortable and familiar with the space. It will help minimize distractions if you can easily answer commonly asked questions, like where the bathrooms and power outlets are.

Nasir El-Rufai All Progressives Congress governorship candidate in Kaduna State, Nasir  el - Rufai , has alleged that the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Kenneth  Minimah, has sworn to use soldiers and the equipment of the army to manipulate the Saturday’s presidential elections in the favour of President Goodluck Jonathan. El-Rufai, who shared a statement on his official Facebook and Twitter pages in the early hours of Thursday, said he was  “deeply worried by reports that the leaders of the security sector have jettisoned every appearance of impartiality for Saturday’s presidential election.” In the nine-paragraph statement entitled, “Open letter to all Nigerians: It’s time to stand up for Nigeria,” the former Minister of the FCT  said some army generals and security chiefs had vowed to protect Jonathan from defeat.

The outside of the New York Stock Exchange is seen in New York May 13, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday, with losses accelerating after short-term technical indicators failed and after a gauge of industrial orders that unexpectedly fell last month. Losses on the S & P 500 accelerated around mid-session after the benchmark dropped below a support level near 2,085. An index of biotechnology shares .NBI dropped sharply and is on track to close below its 14-day average for the first time since Feb. 11. "The S&P was trying to hold just below 2,090 but failed; maybe it's not much more than technical levels traders are playing with right now," said Jim Paulsen, chief investment officer at Wells Capital Management in Minneapolis.

Leaders invoke parliamentary tactic to allow members to vote for plan of choice while ensuring passage of one budget as Senate prepares its own version The House speaker, John Boehner thinks the parliamentary tactic being employed to ensure passage of a budget resolution is ‘a great way to do it’. Photograph: Yuri Gripas/Reuters After a rocky start to the new Congress, Republican leaders in the House of Representatives will face their next big test on Wednesday as the chamber prepares to vote on two competing budgets. In a move to appease both fiscal conservatives and defense hawks in the party, GOP leaders have decided to invoke a parliamentary tactic that would ensure a budget resolution is adopted while still allowing members to vote for the plan of their choice. Whichever proposal gets the most votes will be considered the House GOP’s budget for the fiscal year 2016.

Ebonyi State Governor, Martin Elechi Governor Martins Elechi of Ebonyi State on Wednesday said those sponsoring the plot to remove him from office have not reneged. Elechi stated this while addressing youths who paid him a solidarity visit at the State Government House. The governor told the youth that the political crisis in the state began after the Peoples Democratic Party primaries last November, which he said was faulty leading to the divisions in the party and emergence of unknown party – Labour Party. He alleged that those who burnt the state House of Assembly did so to cover their illicit deeds, “and then turned round to point accusing fingers to others.”

Many entrepreneurs are considered control freaks, and frankly I’m not surprised. When you’re running a business, exercising some control can provide a sense of stability during otherwise chaotic times. But the cold, hard truth is that luck often matters just as much as execution. In fact, a few strokes of luck can sometimes make up for shortcomings in talent and experience. This was definitely the case with my first business: a Texas Hold ‘Em poker odds calculator that I built and sold successfully from my dorm room. Only now do I appreciate how unlikely it was for this business to achieve any degree of success. I had no visionary insights or raw entrepreneurial talent. The truth is, all I had was elbow grease and great timing. Here’s how it happened. Part Of Something Bigger In 2004, as a Sophomore at Princeton, I couldn’t turn on ESPN without seeing replays of the 2003 World Series of Poker, an event at which relative unknown Chris M...

Former Niger Delta militant, Reuben Wilson, Popularly known as ‘General Pastor,’ has said former militants did not at a anytime endorse the candidate for All Progressives Congress,  Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.  His current position ran contrary to stance of ex-militants under the aegis of Coalition of Association of Ex-Agitators who endorsed the said candidate recently. Wilson, who is the President, Leadership, Peace and Cultural Development Initiative, stated that those who posed under the guise of ex-militants to endorse Buhari were not ex-militants.  He contended that no true Niger Deltan person would engage in such act of endorsing Buhari in the place of President Goodluck Jonathan, a son of the soil.

It’s a little hard to take Kirt McMaster seriously at first. He tends to run on his own schedule, and when he shows up 20 minutes late for a meeting on a recent weekday, there’s not so much as a mention of his tardiness, let alone an apology. In black jeans, a black hoodie that looks a half-size too small, brown Birkenstock sandals and a pair of fat black rings–one on his left thumb, one on his right pinkie–the 46-year-old looks more like a techno beach bum than an entrepreneur. He works out of a squat, gray, converted plumbing-supply store in Palo Alto, Calif. that doesn’t call attention to the fact that his startup, Cyanogen, is housed inside.

It finally happened. As I went to install my Bloodborne review copy on PS4 this weekend, I got a message. “This action cannot be completed, you need 5.72 GB of free space to install this file.” After less than a year and a half of ownership, my PS4 was already full. The Xbox One hit that mark a few weeks ago when I installed Evolve, and now it was official. It’s time to start deleting. Sixteen games and fifteen months, that’s how long it took to fill up my PS4. That’s including tiny games like 500 MB of Resogun, and also behemoths like 50 GB of Wolfenstein: The New Order. It’s not as if first generation consoles weren’t going to fill up at some point, we all know they will, but in this new age, it’s happening more quickly than ever, and the solutions are awkward for early adopters of these new systems.

Somewhere along the way, I picked up the notion that when someone announces their candidacy for the Office of President of the United States, they are announcing their intent and desire to be the president of all Americans, irrespective of race, religion or other considerations. As a result of this tradition—and while recognizing that such an announcement does, in the reality of our times, serve as the launching point for the grueling primary gauntlet most candidates will be forced to endure—the moment of tossing one’s hat into the ring has, without exception so far as I can tell, traditionally taken place on ‘neutral’ territory designed to convey commitment to the civic interest rather than religious belief.

If I were to play a word association game with you ‘TouchWiz’ would probably lead to a response of ‘Bloatware!’. Well not anymore… Following a fascinating leak on the XDA Developers Forum , it appears Samsung has not only followed through on its promise to cut down on bloatware (as confirmed in early reviews ) but taken it to a whole new extreme. Poster Jeshter2000 revealed to the Forum that the apps which do come pre-installed on the Galaxy S6 Edge (and logically, by extension the Galaxy S6) can nearly all be removed. Remarkably this includes core Google GOOGL +2.5% apps such as Gmail, Google+, YouTube and even the Play Store as well as Samsung’s own S Voice and S Health software and Microsoft MSFT +0.63% ’s bundled offerings: OneNote, OneDrive and Skype. Galaxy S6 Edge app removal options – image credit XDA Developers Forum What does remain are basics like the phone dialler, calendar, web browser, vanilla emai...

Sometimes being smart about your money doesn't require you to be hands on. In fact, creating a financial checklist to maximize your savings might even allow you to be more hands off , freeing up time to focus on the things that matter most to you. Simplify your financial records 1. Consolidate financial accounts The most precious resource in the world is your time, and a smart way to retrieve some spare minutes (and hours) is to consolidate and streamline accounts wherever possible. Take 401(k) accounts, for example—more than a third of affluent Americans have at least one left behind with previous employers. By combining your assets into fewer accounts, you may be able to reduce fees and money management headaches. Best of all, it will be easier to take a holistic view of your financial position. Prior to combining assets in your accounts, it is important that you understand potential benefits as well as limitations of all your available options including, ...

TheUnited States Nuclear Regulatory Commission thinks America should spend a lot of money and effort to change the safest radiological program in the world just so we can be the same as Europe. As if conformity in this area is important or that their safety record is better than ours. Which it isn’t.     NRC has proposed a rulemaking ( ANPR ) to change the existing U.S. radiation protection regulations to align with those of the International Commission on Radiological Protection ( ICRP ). The most important change would be to drop our present worker radiation limits from 5 rem/year to 2 rem/year (50 mSv/year to 20 mSv/year). This is an unnecessary and expensive change that would not lead to better safety or lower exposures. The industry’s safety record is already as good as it can get ( Nuclear Naval workers ).

Nokia DT-903 Qi Wireless Charger (image: Ewan Spence) I’ve spent the last ten days in Austin attending the various strands of  SXSW . I’ve been doing so for the last eleven years, and one issue that has become clear over the last few years, and acutely aware of this year, is just how ill-served consumers are over a critical part of smartphone design. Modern batteries are too small. When I first started at SXSW , my smartphone allowed me to stay connected throughout a whole day, and a whole evening, without me having to make any special considerations.

“It was keeping me up all hours. Then it refused to eat. I think it has something wrong in its brain. I tried to find it another home, but things are rough in Camden, people are poor, so I just listed it on Ebay. Camden, New Jersey – Within minutes of listing her baby for sale on Ebay, Jenny Bath’s listing was deleted for violating Ebay’s Terms of Service. “I adopted the baby from this Afro-American family here in Camden. I thought it was a cute chubby little thing. I like cute chubby of black babies and the price was right. I know Afro-Americans don’t have a lot of money. Not that I’m rich neither, but richer than they is and I felt like I could provide a more better home environment.” Ms. Bath claims that after she adopted the baby she could not get it to stop crying and being fussy. “It was keeping me up all hours. The baby refused to eat. I think it has something wrong in its brain...

Goodbye, range anxiety! Tesla is rolling out a software update for its line of Model S electric vehicles (EVs) that automatically routes a car through Tesla's networks of supercharging stations in the United States and elsewhere. Model S drivers will soon be able to use the new "Range Assurance" and "Trip Planner" features added to the EV's navigation options with Tesla's Model S Software Update 6.2 to "[s]imply select a destination and Navigation will now automatically route through the appropriate superchargers if charging is needed" for a trip. The new software is currently being tested in open beta by some Model S owners and will be pushed out to all cars in about ten days, Tesla co-founder and CEO Elon Musk said in announcing th...

The Pentagon said the threat was unverified and would be investigated The US military has called for "vigilance" after an online threat was allegedly made by Islamic State (IS) to about 100 of its personnel. A list of names and addresses was posted on a website linked to the group alongside a call for them to be killed. The Pentagon said the threat was unverified and would be investigated. The IS-linked group said it obtained the information by hacking servers and databases, but US officials said most of the data was in the public domain.