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I believe if we reduce the time between intention and action, it causes a major change in what you can do, period, Starner explain. When you actually get it down to two seconds, its a different way of thinking, and thats powerful. And so I believe, and this is what a lot of people believe in academia right now, that these on-body devices are really the next revolution in computing.

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Starner himself is a pioneer in the realm of wearable computing and once developed his own computerized headset that was powered by a seven-pound motorcycle battery he lugged around in a backpack. He first showedexecutives Larry Page and Sergey Brin his own computer headset prototype more than a decade ago and in 2010, they hired him to work on Project Glass.

In other words, Starner has a lot of experience wearing computerized headsets and hes used to suffering the slings and arrows that many in the tech press have lobbed at him and his fellow Glassholes over the years. When asked by Technology Review why Glass was superior to smartphones, he said that it enables you to take more immediate pictures of events as they happen by eliminating all the time you spend fumbling around with your smartphone.

[Smartphones]dont quite have the functionality, Starner said. How do you take the picture of your babys first steps?It takes 20 seconds to get that picture. Then its already happened, its already passed. The same thing with a wristwatch. You dont really have a good way of taking a good picture with a wristwatch from a first-person perspective. I think the heads-up display is a better interface for most things you want to do.

This article was

By Tim Kenneally

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - A "Voice" coach's penchant for calling it as he sees it has once again generated controversy.

A mere week after Adam Levine grabbed headlines by blurting out "I hate this country" on the NBC singing competition, Blake Shelton has found himself in a no-doubt unwanted spotlight, after going off on a music critic via Twitter.

Shelton hurled industrial-size portions of vitriol at Houston Chronicle music critic Joey Guerra on Tuesday night, after Guerra wrote about contestant Holly Tucker's departure in less-than-kind words.

In a series of venomous tweets, Shelton called Guerra a spineless coward.

Just kidding; Shelton was much harsher, characterizing Guerra as a "chicken shit" who lacks the "balls" to criticize Tucker - a member of Shelton's team - to Shelton's face.

"OH. Holly Tucker is gone. It took much too long," Guerra wrote in his recap of Tuesday night's episode. "But finally. Back to Baylor University in Waco for you, madam."

That was enough to make Shelton engage in a flurry of what would no doubt be called "fightin' words" in Shelton's neck of the woods.

"It's people like you @joeyguerra that make me sick... Holly is not only a talented singer but a great person that's simply chasing a dream," Shelton wrote.

And then he got nasty.

"How about you @joeyguerra grow some balls and come tell me to my face how terrible some of these kids are face to face..?" Shelton asked of the critic. "You won't. Ever."

And, "You @joeyguerra are a chicken shit. I can't stand a person that makes a point to write hurtful things about kids just trying their best."

And lest Guerra forget just what variety of farmhouse excrement that Shelton believes him to be, the country singer reiterated, "How much do y'all wanna bet he'd NEVER criticize my team OR me like that face to face.... Chicken shit."

Shelton later apologized to his three-million Twitter followers - but notably, not to Guerra - in a tweet explaining that he's "passionate" about nurturing young talent.

"I'm sorry for going off y'all...," Shelton wrote. "But I am passionate about encouraging young people to follow their dreams.. We GOOD people don't need hate."

Except, apparently, when it comes to hating poison-penned music critics.

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Free Speech: Like so many online platforms (ahem, Reddit), Facebook's previous policy allowed its users to bend free speech into an excuse for sexism. The social network doesn't explicitly ban "offensive" or "controversial" content because that would violate its users rights, in a way. "We work hard to remove hate speech quickly, however there are instances of offensive content, including distasteful humor, that are not hate speech according to our definition," explains Facebook's company message, in the form of a Facebook Note. But this is the same Internet that resulted in a photo of Rihanna's bloodied face with the caption "Chris Brown's Greatest Hits" — and a picture of a man holding a rag over a woman's mouth that read: "Does this smell like chloroform to you?"

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Facebook now realizes — unlike, say, the leaders of 4chan, or Reddit, which was also— that free speech only goes so far. "That being said, we realize that our defense of freedom of expression should never be interpreted as license to bully, harass, abuse or threaten violence," continues the company note, posted last night by Facebook Global Policy VP Marne Levine.

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Technology: Even with Facebook's generous leeway for "offensive" or "controversial" posts, that stuff shouldn't really have gotten through the system. Some of the sexist postings could have fallen under the "hate" speech umbrella, which has a notably vague definition, according to Facebook. "There is no universally accepted definition of hate speech," reads the note. But: "As a platform we define the term to mean direct and serious attacks on any protected category of people based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability or disease." By that definition, Facebook rape groups should have been axed in the first place.

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But Facebook's backend wasn't catching the creeps, the company admitted: "In recent days, it has become clear that our systems to identify and remove hate speech have failed to work as effectively as we would like, particularly around issues of gender-based hate. In other cases, content that should be removed has not been or has been evaluated using outdated criteria." In other words, Facebook's technology wasn't working the way it should have. 

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Accountability: The social network suggests that the creators of these hate-filled and violent postings didn't face enough accountability for their actions. So, much like Facebook's already strict real-name policy, for murkier content that might fall on the free speech side of things, the social network will add in requirements for posters of these "humorous" rape jokes. Such as: "A few months ago we began testing a new requirement that the creator of any content containing cruel and insensitive humor include his or her authentic identity for the content to remain on Facebook." 

Even though the new policy doesn't ban rape jokes, per se,  have taken the company release as a good sign. They do say acceptance is the first step. 

The latest unlikely hero is Chris Dickerson, who hit a three-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning to carry the Orioles past the Detroit Tigers 7-5 Friday night.

Detroit closer Jose Valverde (0-1) entered in the ninth with a 5-3 lead after starter Max Scherzer retired the final 16 batters he faced.

Nick Markakis led off with a homer on a 0-2 pitch before Adam Jones singled and took third on a single by Chris Davis. Valverde (0-1) then retired Matt Wieters and J.J. Hardy on popups before Dickerson hit a 2-1 pitch into the bleachers in right-center, much to the delight of the sellout crowd of 46,249.

Dickerson was making his first start since May 23 following a bout with a sore wrist. Batting eighth in the lineup, he was 0 for 3 with two strikeouts before connecting.

"It's an amazing feeling, just to contribute in such a big situation," Dickerson said. "This team just claws back every single time. I'm just so happy I could cap it off for them."

He never before hit a game-ending home run at any level.

"I knew right away," Dickerson said. "It was awesome. That's the type of feeling you just want to bottle up and take home forever. First walk-off at any level. Just an incredible feeling, an incredible moment."

Jones, Davis and Manny Machado have provided many big hits for the Orioles this season, but guys such as Nate McLouth, Steve Pearce and Dickerson have done their part, too.

"That says a lot about our ballclub, up and down the lineup," Markakis said. "Anybody can hurt you. I think that's a positive thing we've got going for us right now."

Manager Buck Showalter said, "It's not like one guy's got to carry the load."

Darren O'Day (3-0) got the final out in the ninth for the Orioles, who have won eight of 11.

Miguel Cabrera and Avisail Garcia both homered and drove in two runs for the Tigers, who have lost four straight.

This one hurt more than most.

"We obviously let one get away," manager Jim Leyland said. "Scherzer got us where we wanted to be and then we just didn't close it out. Scherzer was spent and that was going to be his last inning. His pitch count was getting up there pretty good. It was no brainer to bring in Valverde."

After yielding a third-inning home run to Jones, Scherzer didn't allow another runner to reach and was poised to become the first Detroit pitcher to start a season 8-0 since Jeremy Bonderman in 2007.

The right-hander struck out 10 and walked two, but he threw a season-high 119 pitches before being replaced by Valverde, who came to the mound with a 0.75 ERA.

He walked off with his first loss and a 3.55 ERA.

"I miss a couple of pitches," Valverde said. "They have some good hitters. Tomorrow is going to be a new day. I had a tough day. There's nothing I can do. I feel bad for Max because he threw a good game."

Orioles starter Miguel Gonzalez allowed a season-high five earned runs over six innings and allowed both Detroit homers.

The Tigers went up 2-0 in the first inning when Andy Dirks singled and Cabrera hit his 16th homer of the season. He's the first Detroit player to hit 12 homers in May since Willie Horton in 1968.

Baltimore got a run back in the second, getting singles from Jones and Davis before Wieters delivered a sacrifice fly. In the third, Markakis walked before Jones connected to give the Orioles a brief 3-2 lead.

A two-out RBI single by Garcia tied it in the fourth, and Detroit went up 4-3 in the fifth when Dirks and Cabrera singled ahead of a run-scoring grounder by Victor Martinez.

Garcia hit his second homer of the season for a 5-3 lead in the sixth.

NOTES: Cabrera went 2 for 5 with a walk and took over the AL lead in hits with 81. He began the game tied with Machado, who was held hitless. ... Orioles RHP Pedro Strop, who's been on the DL since May 25 with a lower back strain, is slated to throw a simulated game Saturday. ... Justin Verlander takes the mound for Detroit on Saturday. The Orioles will start Jason Hammel, who's 7-2 overall but 1-2 with a 6.38 ERA at home.

However, many of those purchases involved properties that were subject to foreclosures or short sales, indicating the housing market is far from recovered.

The survey by San Diego-based DataQuick also showed the median sales price in the region fell nearly 3 percent last month from December to $326,000 less than half the peak price of $665,000 reached in 2007 but up from the low of $290,000 recorded in 2009.

A total of 5,479 new and existing homes were sold in the nine-county area, according to DataQuick. The figure was down nearly 27 percent from December but marked a 10.3-percent improvement over January 2011.

The December-to-January drop was normal for the season, while the January-to-January jump showed real improvement, DataQuick said.

The year-over-year increase in January marked the seventh annual jump in a row,the firm said.

Home sales were buoyed by "lower prices, ultra-low mortgage rates, a modestly improved economy and a record level of investor purchases," DataQuick said in a statement.

The lower median price in January was "a reflection of how skewed the market has become toward distressed, lower-cost properties," DataQuick President John Walsh said in the statement. "The higher-end sales have slowed in recent months as many struggle to qualify for loans and others just sit tight."

Distressed property sales the combination of foreclosure and short sales made up more than half of all sales of existing homes. Absentee buyers, who mostly are investors, bought more than a quarter of all homes sold, DataQuick reported

(Reuters) - A Lebanese immigrant in Chicago on Thursday was sentenced to 23 years in federal prison for plotting an attack and planting what he thought was a bomb near the city's Wrigley Field baseball park.

Sami Samir Hassoun, 25, pleaded guilty last year to charges of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and an explosive device after he placed what he thought was a homemade bomb in a garbage can in the north-side neighborhood during a busy Saturday night, according to court records.

He told an FBI informant and undercover agents he wanted to expose the city's inadequate security measures and embarrass then-Chicago Mayor Richard Daley into resigning, the criminal complaint against him said. It gave no further details as to motive.

In a series of planning meetings secretly tape-recorded by the FBI, Hassoun suggested various attacks including unleashing a virus on the city, poisoning its water supply, bombing the landmark Willis Tower skyscraper, attacking police officers or assassinating the mayor.

On September 18, 2010, undercover agents gave him a fake bomb in a backpack and told him that it was capable of wiping out half a city block, court documents said.

"The thought of what might have happened if it was real is horrific," said U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman, who presided over the sentencing, in a statement released by the U.S. Attorney's office.

Hassoun then drove to Wrigleyville, the neighborhood surrounding Wrigley Field, the home of the Chicago Cubs. The area is known for its bars and restaurants and is densely populated, with blocks of apartment buildings.

He dropped the backpack into a trash can, before being arrested by law enforcement agents, according to the complaint.

Gettleman ordered Hassoun placed on five years of supervised release following his prison term and said he will be subject to deportation when he is released, according to the statement.

The sentencing comes six weeks after Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and his 19-year-old brother Dzhokhar allegedly set off two pressure-cooker bombs at the Boston Marathon finish line, killing three people and injuring 264.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is being held at a prison hospital west of Boston awaiting trial on charges that carry the possibility of the death penalty. His brother was killed during a shootout with police.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Lisa Shumaker)

Political leaders and civil groups have protested the naming of a cyclone after King Mahasen, who ruled Sri Lanka in the 4th century. At least 18 deaths related to Cyclone Mahasen were reported in Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka before it weakened by May 16. Bangladesh alone evacuated 1 million people from coastal areas.

S.H. Kariyawasam, director general of the meteorology department, said Tuesday that he apologizes "if any insult was caused to King Mahasen or the country's proud history."

Mahasen built 16 large reservoirs, including the massive Minneriya tank, and two irrigation canals that even today are part of the irrigation system in the north-central region. After his demise, people started venerating him as "God of Minneriya."

Groups such as the National Council for the Protection of Historical Irrigation Cultural Heritage, Buddhist monks and political leaders have said it was an insult to name a cyclone after Mahasen. The council even threatened to take legal action if the meteorlogy department fails to conduct a proper inquiry.

The department decided to drop the name Mahasen from the cyclone May 13 and requested that other countries follow suit, but the name continued to be used across the region.

In a letter addressed to the council Tuesday, Kariyawasam said Mahasen was among 23 names submitted by Sri Lanka in 2003 to the Panel on Tropical Cyclones for the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea, which is responsible for naming tropical storms in the region. Eight other Asian countries also submitted names.

He wrote that the names "were merely proposed as Sri Lankan names and their selection did not have any basis, explanation or intention."

The president of the council, Buddhist monk Kamburugamuwe Vajira, accepted the apology but said Sri Lankans were greatly saddened by the use of the king's name.

Darnell, 51, the network's president of alternative entertainment, oversaw some of Fox's most popular shows - including talent contest "The X Factor," animated series "Family Guy" and reality cooking shows "Hell's Kitchen" and "Kitchen Nightmares."

"I'm extremely grateful that Fox has offered me a new long term contract (and anyone who knows me won't believe I'm saying this), but I've decided it's time for a change," Darnell said in a statement.

Prime time ratings at News Corp-owned Fox slumped 16.7 percent this year, according to Nielsen data provided by Horizon Media and based on viewing the day the show airs.

The network also lost its eight-year grip atop the 18-to-49 age group most coveted by advertisers, falling behind CBS, according to Nielsen data released this week.

Fox's ratings were brought down largely by a shrinking audience for "American Idol." The show's finale set a record-low ratings of 14.2 million viewers last week.

It was the first time in its 12-season history that the audience for the "Idol" finale failed to top 20 million and the network is in the midst of overhauling program's judging panel.

Darnell, who joined the network in 1994 as director of specials, will officially leave Fox at the end of June.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey. Editing by Andre Grenon)

A surviving attacker took a group of soldiers hostage Thursday, and authorities were attempting to negotiate their release.

The timing of the attacks, which occurred at the same moment more than 160 kilometers (100 miles) apart, and the fact that the bombers were able to penetrate both a well-guarded military installation and a sensitive, foreign-operated uranium mine, highlight the growing reach and sophistication of the Islamic extremists based in neighboring Mali.

Both attacks were claimed by a spinoff of al-Qaida, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, or MUJAO, which earlier vowed to avenge the four-month-old French-led military intervention which ousted them from Mali's north.

The attack in Arlit was also claimed by Moktar Belmoktar, the extremist who led the attack on a natural gas plant in Ain Amenas in Algeria in January, according to a communique posted on jihadist forums.

Of the two attacks, the higher death toll was in the desert city of Agadez, located almost 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) northeast of the capital, where the attackers punched their explosive-laden car past the defenses at a military garrison and detonated inside the base, killing 20 soldiers and injuring 16 others, said Niger's Minister of Defense Mahamadou Karidjo at a press conference in Niamey. Three suicide bombers died, but a fourth escaped and grabbed a group of military cadets, said Interior Minister Abdou Labo.

Draped in an explosive belt, the attacker was threatening to blow himself up along with his hostages, said Labo, who could not confirm how many cadets were being held. Almost 12 hours later, the military was still negotiating with the suicide bomber for their release.

At the same time the Agadez attack occurred, a different group of suicide bombers slipped past a truck entering a uranium mine in Arlit operated by French nuclear giant Areva. Once inside the campus, the car exploded, injuring 14 employees of the French company, one of whom died later, according to a statement by the French corporation and witnesses. Two suicide bombers were also killed, said Niger's ministry of defense.

"We saw a car enter the factory and immediately it exploded," said Agoumou Idi, a worker inside the factory who was reached by telephone. "The terrorists, probably from MUJAO, took advantage of the fact that the entrance gate was open in order to let in a truck carrying the next shift of workers. They used that opening to enter the heart of our factory and explode their vehicle."

In January when France scrambled war planes over Mali and sent in thousands of ground troops to try to take back the country's al-Qaida-held north, the extremists vowed to hit back not just at French interests, but also at the African governments that helped them.

The bomb blasts on Thursday are the most damaging attacks by the Mali-based jihadists to date. They succeeded in hitting both an important French asset and the military of Niger, which sent 650 troops to Mali to help France combat the Islamists.

Hitting Arlit is especially symbolic. Niger produces up to 40 percent of France's uranium imports a considerable amount as the European country derives 80 percent of its energy from nuclear power, according to an analysis released Thursday by global intelligence unit, Stratfor.

French President Francois Hollande told reporters during a visit to Germany that he will take every measure to protect French assets. "We will also protect our interests, because Arlit is an interest of a large French company: Areva. May everyone understand it well that we will not let anything happen, and will support the Nigeriens' efforts to halt this hostage-taking and destroy the group behind these attacks."

Up until Thursday's twin attacks, some security analysts had doubted the strength of groups like MUJAO, which has carried out repeated suicide attacks in Mali since January with varying degrees of success. Several of the kamikaze operations killed only the bomber.

Residents in the two towns remarked on how closely coordinated the attacks appear to have been, taking place just moments apart at 5:30 a.m., a time when many in this majority-Muslim nation are laying their carpets toward Mecca in the first of the day's five prayers.

Alhousseiny Moussa, a resident of Agadez, was walking to the mosque to pray when he heard the boom. "I heard the explosion and immediately after, I heard a volley of gunfire. The area where it happened was inside the military camp, and it's now been roped off so we cannot go in," he said.

Al-Qaida's affiliate in Africa and groups allied with it seized the northern half of Mali in April of last year. They pushed into the major towns, setting up their own administration and alarming western nations who saw it as precursor to a new Afghanistan. In fact, for nearly a decade before that, they had already made themselves at home in Mali, using its remote and lawless northern reaches to train fighters and to hold the European hostages they kidnapped including many from Niger.

In 2008, they grabbed two Canadians on the outskirts of Niger's capital, including United Nations special envoy Robert Fowler, who was held for 130 days before a ransom was negotiated. Two years later, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb infiltrated Arlit, grabbing seven employees of Areva and one of its contractors, SATOM.

Four of them all French nationals are still being held by the terror cell more than two years later. The group has repeatedly threatened to execute them in retaliation for the French-led intervention in Mali

Late Thursday, SITE Intelligence released a partial transcript of a communique signed by Moktar Belmoktar, claiming to have taken part in the attack on Arlit alongside MUJAO. The attack is the first by Belmoktar's brigade, which calls itself "Those Who Sign In Blood," since the catastrophic assault on a BP-operated gas plant in Algeria in January. The jihadists penetrated the plant, taking hundreds of workers hostage. In the four-day standoff that ensued, 37 foreign hostages, including American, British, Irish, Norwegian and Japanese nationals, were killed.

___

Callimachi contributed to this report from Dakar, Senegal. Associated Press writers Angela Charlton, Jamey Keaten and Sarah DiLorenzo contributed to this report from Paris.

The 33-year-old Sydney Swans player, who is of Indigenous Australian heritage, was called an "ape" by the 13-year-old spectator at Friday's AFL game against Collingwood at the MCG in Melbourne.

Goodes told a news conference he was "gutted" by the remark but added that the girl, who was escorted out of the stadium following the incident, had called him to apologise.

Victorian premier Denis Napthine said he was disgusted by the incident which he termed as "totally unacceptable".

"I am going to be contacting the AFL and asking if they would like to work with the Victorian education department to see if we can institute improved programmes across our schools to make sure all young Victorians understand that this sort of abuse based on racism, culture, is totally and utterlyunacceptable in modern society," Napthine told reporters.

Goodes admitted he was too distraught to celebrate his team's 47-point win over Collingwood but refused to hold the girl responsible.

"I'm pretty gutted to be honest," he told reporters.

"You come to the boundary line to hear a 13-year-old girl call me an ape... it was shattering.

"It's not her fault, she's 13, still so innocent. I don't want to put any blame on her. Unfortunately it's what she hears and the environment that she's grown up in that has made her think that it's OK to call people names.

"Unfortunately, it cut me deep and affected me so much that I couldn't even be on the ground last night to celebrate a victory and to celebrate the Indigenous round," Goode, who has won the AFL's prestigious Brownlow Medal for fairness on two occasions, added. (Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; Editing by John O'Brien)