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Thursday, May 10, 2012

Facebook Adds ?Good Enough? File Sharing To All Groups. Dropbox Should Worry About Growth

Today Facebook begins rolling out file sharing to all Groups, and while it's got many restrictions, it could be good enough to limit the long-term growth potential of cloud storage / file sharing services like?Dropbox, iCloud, and Google Drive. Music and any copyright files aren't allowed and file size is capped at 25mb, as Mashable first reported. But this is just the first version, and you can be sure Facebook will keep hacking away at it. Last month, the social network started letting users share files within?Groups for Schools, but now we confirmed with Facebook that within a few days all Facebook users should have the option to upload and share files from the Groups post composer.

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Brad Pitt is first male face for iconic Chanel No. 5

By Us Weekly

Ooh, la la! C'est Brad! Brad Pitt's famous mug has landed him a major deal unrelated to blockbuster films -- a spokesmodel deal with Chanel.

Paul Buck / EPA

"Chanel has selected world renowned actor Brad Pitt to be the face of the upcoming advertising campaign for CHANEL No. 5," the brand said in a release.

PHOTOS: Brad's hair evolution

The Chanel deal marks two firsts: it's the 48-year-old actor's debut beauty spokesmodel gig and the brand's first time having a man represent its famously iconic women's scent that launched back in the 1920s.

PHOTOS: Brad's sexiest movie scenes

Pitt follows in the footsteps of Nicole Kidman, who starred in the short film "No. 5 The Film" in 2004 and Audrey Tautou who has held the spot as the scent's visage since 2008.

PHOTOS: Brad and Angelina's love story

No word on how much Pitt is being paid for the deal. Meanwhile, his fiancee and mother of his six kids Angelina Jolie was handed a reported $10 million in 2011 for her endorsement deal with another historic and luxe brand, Louis Vuitton.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Did gassy dinosaurs cause global warming?

A new study found that giant plant-eating dinosaurs could have produced giant quantities of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

Dinosaurs' gassy guts may have contributed to global warming tens of millions of years ago, according to a new study that finds a group of plant-eating dinosaurs could have produced about as much methane as all of today's natural and man-made sources of the greenhouse gas.

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British researchers reported in Tuesday's edition of the journal Current Biology that the methane emissions from sauropods far outstripped those of today's cattle, goats and other cud-chewing mammals.

Sauropods were a diverse bunch of plant-eating dinosaurs, known for their small heads and giant bodies with long necks and tails. An average-sized sauropod _ such as Apatosaurus louisae, once popularly known as brontosaurus _ could weigh 44,000 pounds, making it several times bigger than an elephant.

Like many modern herbivores, scientists think, sauropods probably hosted a diverse community of microbes in their guts to help break down and digest their food, producing methane in the process. In cattle and other ruminants, that gas is released in the form of burps and flatulence.

Such emissions from modern-day cattle are considered a major source of the greenhouse gas, adding up to roughly 55 million to 110 million tons per year. Though carbon dioxide is more abundant in the atmosphere, methane is more than 20 times as effective at trapping heat, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The problem of cattle emissions prompted ecologist David Wilkinson of Liverpool John Moores University in England to consider the climate-changing effects of sauropods.

He and two other researchers used a formula from a study last year that linked body mass to methane emissions from guinea pigs and rabbits. The relationship is straightforward: The more body mass there is, the more methane is produced.

For their investigation, Wilkinson and his colleagues had to make some assumptions _ for example, that the ratio of body size to gas produced is the same for small and extremely large animals. "That's a slightly dodgy thing to do," Wilkinson acknowledged, "but in this case there's not any other option."

The researchers also used published population estimates from the late Jurassic (about 161 to 145 million years ago) to gauge how many sauropods had been roaming the Earth back then.

Altogether, the team concluded, sauropods were likely producing on the order of 572 million tons of methane per year _ more than five times as much methane as modern-day cattle and other ruminants. Today, worldwide emissions from animals and from such human activities as burning natural gas and collecting trash in landfills is estimated to produce 550 million to 660 million tons of methane per year, the researchers said.

Wilkinson said he expected to find that the dinosaurs were perhaps only a little more productive than today's animals. The results, he said, "surprised me."

It would take more study of the ancient climate to find out whether, and how, sauropods warmed Earth's atmosphere during the Mesozoic era, said Marcus Clauss, a digestive physiologist at the University of Zurich who helped develop the formula for determining methane emissions from body mass.

Wilkinson's team was not the first to suspect that Earth's ancient behemoths were responsible for some climate change: A 2010 study in the journal Nature Geoscience found that atmospheric methane levels dropped in the Americas once native megafauna such as mammoths and giant ground sloths went extinct _ around the same time that humans arrived on the continents.

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Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Exclusive: DMX To Drop The Weigh In EP On May 15

X's EP will feature Snoop Dogg, Lil Wayne and serves as a teaser for his next LP, Undisputed.
By Rob Markman

DMX
Photo: Jerod Harris/ WireImage

DMX is still fighting to prove that he's a champion in hip-hop. But like any formidable fighter, before the Dog steps back into ring for his comeback LP, he has to warm up. MTV News has learned exclusively that X will do just that in the form of a free EP called The Weigh-In.

While fans will have to wait until June 26 for the Undisputed album, his 10-track EP is scheduled to drop on May 15 X . Fredwreck, Rich Kidd and Dame Grease will produce on The Weigh-In, while Snoop Dogg and Tyrese will appear as featured guests. Lil Wayne is scheduled to appear on an unspecified interlude.

It's been six years since the multiplatinum rap star dropped his last album, Year of the Dog ... Again. Propelled by the Swizz Beatz-produced "We in Here" and the gospel-drenched "Lord Give Me a Sign," Year of the Dog ... Again debuted at the #2 spot on the Billboard albums chart, proving that DMX could still be a bankable rap artist.

In recent years, though, it seems that X has been making headlines for everything but his music, with mounting legal trouble and numerous stints in and out of jail keeping him away from the studio. When DMX debuted back in May 1998 with his first LP, It's Dark and Hell is Hot, he was an immovable force. His second album, Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood, was released only months later in December of 1998 and cemented his rap legacy. X continued to release albums, but he would also collect a slew of charges over the years.

Last July, the Dog was released from an Arizona state jail after serving eight months of a one-year sentence for probation violations. DMX is currently a star in VH1's new reality series "Couples Therapy."

What's your favorite DMX song of all time? Let us know in the comments!

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Yahoo CEO faces calls for ouster after inaccuracy

In this Nov. 24, 2010 photo, then PayPal president Scott Thompson, who in January 2012 was named CEO of Yahoo Inc., poses for photos at PayPal's offices in San Jose, Calif. Yahoo shareholder and New York hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb questioned Thompson's qualifications and integrity after exposing a misrepresentation about the executive?s education. The fabrication confirmed by Yahoo Inc. on Thursday, May 3, 2012 gives Loeb more artillery as he tries to topple a board of directors favored by Thompson. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

FILE - In this Nov. 15, 2010 file photo, then PayPal president Scott Thompson, who in January 2012 was named CEO of Yahoo Inc., speaks at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. Yahoo shareholder and New York hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb questioned Thompson's qualifications and integrity after exposing a misrepresentation about the executive?s education. The fabrication confirmed by Yahoo Inc. on Thursday, May 3, 2012 gives Loeb more artillery as he tries to topple a board of directors favored by Thompson. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Scott Thompson's reign as Yahoo's CEO is in jeopardy after just four months on the job because he allowed an inaccuracy about his academic credentials to recur for years.

A major Yahoo shareholder who exposed the fabrication is now leading the charge to oust Thompson for unethical conduct. In a letter Friday, activist hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb demanded that the board of the struggling Internet company fire Thompson by noon EDT Monday or face possible legal action.

"CEO's have been terminated for less at other companies," wrote Loeb, who controls a 5.8 percent stake in Yahoo through his hedge fund, Third Point LLC.

Yahoo reiterated Friday that "the board is reviewing this matter and, upon completion of its review, will make an appropriate disclosure to shareholders."

Thompson's troubles revolve around an exaggeration about his education at Stonehill College, a small Catholic school near Boston where he was graduated in 1979.

Since announcing Thompson's hiring in January, Yahoo had included two bachelor's degrees ? one for accounting and the other for computer science ? on the executive's biography. The dual degrees appeared on Yahoo's own website and in an April 27 legal document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

After being confronted Thursday by Loeb, Yahoo confirmed that Thompson received only an accounting degree from Stonehill. Yahoo has since removed all references to Thompson's education from his bio on its website. The company hadn't amended its SEC filing with the inaccuracy as of late Friday.

It's unclear whether the inaccuracy about the computer science originated with Thompson or someone else at Yahoo.

But Thompson's bio with dual degrees periodically cropped up before he joined Yahoo. He was listed with a computer degree on a website touting his appearance at the Web 2.0 technology conference in 2010 while he was running eBay Inc.'s PayPal payment service. The computer science degree also has appeared in Thompson's bio in connection with his 2008 appointment to a Silicon Valley startup, Zuora.

EBay listed only Thompson's accounting degree in its SEC filings while he was working at PayPal.

Even if Thompson didn't personally write his biography, he almost certainly reviewed the information at some point and should be held accountable for the distortion, said Charles Elson, director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware.

Elson believes Yahoo's board needs to dump Thompson or "it will face questions about its own effectiveness."

Yahoo blamed an "inadvertent error." After that excuse was ridiculed on the Internet, Yahoo issued another statement late Thursday about the board's intent to look into what happened. The company, which is based in Sunnyvale, Calif., didn't give a deadline.

The uproar over Thompson's qualifications and integrity is the latest tempest at beleaguered Yahoo, which has been reeling since it turned down an opportunity to sell itself to Microsoft Corp. for $33 per share four years ago.

The company has been losing ground to rivals Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. ever since, causing its revenue to steadily fall and leaving its stock price below $20 since September 2008, a few months after Microsoft's final offer. Yahoo's shares fell 25 cents to close at $15.15 Friday.

Thompson, Yahoo's fourth full-time CEO in the past five years, had just started to revamp the company, but he probably won't be around much longer, predicted Kirk Hanson, executive director for the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University in Silicon Valley.

"The board really is boxed into a corner," Hanson said. "If this individual is prone to exaggeration or excessive claims, they have to be worried it might happen again down the road.

"They also have to ask themselves, 'Can this leader serve as a moral example or moral leader for our company?' Behavior rolls downhill. If the CEO exaggerates a little, then others in the organization will exaggerate a lot."

Although he was well-respected at PayPal, Thompson isn't getting much support in Silicon Valley.

Thompson alienated much of the technology industry in March when he decided to sue Facebook for alleged infringement on some of Yahoo's Internet patents. The lawsuit has been skewered in Silicon Valley as a cheap shot at Facebook Inc. as it prepared to complete an initial public offering of stock that is aiming to raise as much as $13.6 billion for the company and its current shareholders. Yahoo critics also viewed the lawsuit as the desperate act of a company that has run out of good ideas.

In his Friday letter, Loeb argued that Thompson has to be dumped to avoid "irreparable damage to Yahoo's culture." He argued that Yahoo's own code of ethics justifies firing Thompson "for cause," a move that probably would prevent him for qualifying for a severance package. Yahoo's code states that information filed with the SEC "must be full, fair, accurate, timely and understandable."

If Yahoo fires Thompson, it will be the company's second ouster of a CEO in less than a year. The company fired Thompson's predecessor, Carol Bartz in September after concluding her turnaround strategy wasn't working.

Thompson so far has been focused on cutting costs. Just last month, Thompson laid off 2,000 Yahoo employees, or 14 percent of the workforce, in the company's biggest payroll purge in history. He has also promised to close or sell about 50 Yahoo services that haven't been attracting enough online traffic or generating enough revenue.

Loeb is trying to oust Thompson as he seeks four seats on Yahoo's board of directors ? one for himself and three for his allies. Yahoo instead added three other directors in late March. Thompson told Loeb he wasn't qualified to be on the company's board.

The search for new directors was overseen by Patti Hart, whom Loeb is also attacking as an ethics liability. Loeb is upset that Hart's bio claimed she held a bachelor's degree in marketing and economics from Illinois State University. On Thursday, Yahoo clarified that Hart graduated from the college with a bachelor's degree in business administration with specialties in marketing and economics.

Loeb ended his letter by pressing Yahoo to appoint him and his three preferred candidates to avoid a showdown at the company's annual meeting later this year. Yahoo hasn't scheduled the meeting yet.

"The company can ill afford to continue this misguided fight with its largest outside shareholder while it has so many other fires to put out," Loeb wrote. "There has been enough damage already."

Associated Press

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Saturday, May 5, 2012

12 Awesome Designs from the Guy Who Invented the Jambox [Design]

Click here to read 12 Awesome Designs from the Guy Who Invented the Jambox

From the looks of it, Swiss-born Yves Behar may have beaten Apple at its own minimalist design game. Our friends at Oobject have assembled 12 of his best creations. More »